Subtracting the stuffiness from your classical music experience has been a high priority for the Minnesota Orchestra's summer programming ever since it launched its Viennese Sommerfest in the 1970s. Reclining on rugs, chatting with Beethoven (OK, an actor playing him), beer and sausages on the plaza: The idea has always been that being serious about the music doesn't mean you can't make it fun.
But I don't recall the orchestra ever having a more fun-loving leader for its summer concerts than Jon Kimura Parker. The Canadian pianist is an excellent player who also clearly understands that he's part of the entertainment industry, and that potential audience members have multiple options available to them.
So showmanship and accessibility are a big part of what Parker brings to Summer at Orchestra Hall. But we also get some expert interpretations of the piano repertoire out of the deal. That was certainly the case on opening night Friday, for Parker not only impressively expressed the hyperkinetic spirit of Felix Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto, but summoned up all the heart-tugging romanticism one could desire from the work's central slow movement.
It was the high point of a very enjoyable concert that included a crisply rendered version of Beethoven's chronically underrated Eighth Symphony, led by a conductor who gave Parker a run for his money for pure entertainment value, the high-energy associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony, Lee Mills. He established an impressive rapport with the orchestra, and brought some strong interpretive ideas to not only the Beethoven, but a few Brazilian imports.
One was the concert's curtain raiser, Clarice Assad's "Brazilian Fanfare." While the composer will be spending some time in the Twin Cities as the newest resident of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's "Sandbox" program, this was a work she wrote 17 years ago. While bright, lively and a fine sampler of a handful of Brazilian dance rhythms, it didn't feel particularly substantial.
But the ensuing Mendelssohn concerto did, and the orchestra made it a crisp and compelling example of how Mendelssohn was helping usher in the Romantic era. While Parker's way with the fiery fast passages was quite the adrenaline rush — the finale sounds like the soundtrack to a cinematic chase scene — the Andante showed off the pianist's tender touch and a deliciously delicate approach from Mills and the orchestra.
As if to underline the sense of fun Parker brings to concertizing, he chose for an encore his own arrangement of Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets," which I was pleased to find was a hit with some teens and 20-somethings in my section who clapped and sang along. Nice to know the classics endure.
A considerably newer piece was 2015's "Esboco de Psyché" by Brazilian composer Rodrigo Cicchelli Velloso. It proved a fascinating collage of musical fragments on which the orchestra's flutists shone forth.
I'm pleased to say that Beethoven's Eighth Symphony bore the same kind of crisp and punchy performance the orchestra set to record under Osmo Vänskä. Mills encouraged widely varied dynamics, and proved a very enjoyable conductor to watch, his flamboyant cues a fine fit for this summer festival's theme of "Music in Motion." And for its emphasis upon making the music fun.
Minnesota Orchestra
What: Summer at Orchestra Hall
When: Through Aug. 5
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.
Tickets: Free-$90, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org.
Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.
