St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's 2023-24 season will include many outstanding guest musicians

While most orchestras put their leaders front and center, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra operates on more of a cooperative model. The orchestra's musicians choose which collaborators to invite and what music to perform. In fact, you can often catch an entire concert curated by a particular member of the orchestra.

On Tuesday, the SPCO announced its 2023-24 season, and it says a lot about the fruits of teamwork and listening. For example, the orchestra heard from audiences that they'd like evening concerts to start earlier, so things will usually get going at 7 p.m. Similarly, folks said they like the intermission-less "Express" concerts of 75 minutes or so. Hence, there are several.

And the SPCO will continue to perform at venues in all corners of the metro. Here are the concerts that look especially appealing.

September: The most thrilling baroque performances the SPCO's offered in several years have come with artistic partner Richard Egarr as curator, conductor, harpsichordist and very engaging host. He'll offer some baroque (by Antonio Vivaldi) on a program that also goes back to the Renaissance and forward to Beethoven with his Second Symphony (Sept. 15-17).

October: Speaking of artistic partners, cellist Abel Selaocoe will return with another example of his programming imagination and charismatic performing style (Oct. 13-14). And one of the world's great clarinetists, Anthony McGill, will solo on two clarinet concertos, one by Joseph Bologne, the other the most popular one ever written, Mozart's (Oct. 20-22).

November: Here's a fine combo. Conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane will team up with his son, composer and pianist Gabriel Kahane, for a program that features a piano concerto by Kahane the younger and a performance of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with Kahane the elder at the keys (Nov. 24-26).

December: In addition to concerts that include Arcangelo Corelli's "Christmas" Concerto (Nov. 30-Dec. 2), the SPCO will return to its annual traditions of J.S. Bach's "Brandenburg" concertos (Dec. 7-9) and George Frideric Handel's "Messiah," this year featuring Dmitry Sinkovsky as both conductor and countertenor soloist (Dec. 14-17).

February: Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova is a rising star in the classical world who will solo on Beethoven's lone Violin Concerto (Feb. 9-11) before Rob Kapilow closes his artistic partner tenure by taking apart and explaining Joseph Haydn's farewell to the symphony, his 104th (Feb. 16-17). And Egarr returns to play three Handel organ concertos (Feb. 23-25).

March: Not only will Selaocoe perform his own Cello Concerto (March 8-12), but he'll also curate and lead an intriguing, eclectic program called "Where Is Home?" (March 14-17).

April 2024: Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and the SPCO hit it off so well at Colorado's Bravo Vail Music Festival last summer that they'll reunite for chamber music by Francis Poulenc and Ernest Chausson on a program that also will feature the premiere of a piece by Chris Rogerson (April 5-7).

May 2024: While Egarr conducting Franz Schubert's magnificent Ninth Symphony should be wonderful (May 10-12), by all means, seize the opportunity to experience one of America's piano masters, Richard Goode, performing two Mozart piano concertos (May 24-25).

June 2024: For the second consecutive season, the SPCO will close the season in the company of conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, who will lead them in Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony (June 7-9).