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This year has made me even more excited about the future of classical music, thanks to the many imaginative breakthroughs and thanks to the fact that we have so many wonderful veteran players still sharing their immense musical wisdom.
Here are the most memorable classical performances of 2023.
1. Abel Serraco and the São Paulo Chamber Orchestra, April 20 and October 13: The South African cellist is a liberating force, transforming the classical concert experience through improvisation, choral singing, a beautiful fusion of influences and a soul-stirring performance style. We are lucky to have him as an artistic partner with SPCO.
2. Minnesota Symphony Orchestra premieres Carlos Simon’s “brea(d)th” May 19: Commissioning composer Simon and lyricist/spoken word artist Mark Barmuti-Joseph to create a powerful work that includes listening to and helping heal the people of the city where George Floyd was murdered, the Orchestra Transcends made a verbal commitment to the cause of equality.
3. Minnesota Opera’s “Across the Moon” November 4th: José “Pepe” Martinez’s deeply moving wandering opera successfully merges two emotionally charged art forms, and its story of immigration and family division is disarmingly prescient.
4. Beatrice Larner’s Schubert Club Recital, April 16: The 30-year-old is one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, delivering extremely smooth and flawless interpretations of JS Bach, Claude Debussy and Beethoven’s formidable “Hammer Keyboard” sonatas.
5. Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin’s at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, June 27: One of the world’s greatest violinists pushed Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 into the red zone, then joined the London Chamber Orchestra for a rendition of Robert Schumann’s stormy “Second Violin Concerto.” Symphony” was interpreted passionately and intensely.
6. Richard Goode’s Chopin Society Recital, November 12: The 80-year-old pianist is full of insights that seem to take you directly into the hearts, minds and spirits of the composers, and here he plays two works by Mozart and Beethoven that deal with the inhabitation of sound, namely ” Diabelli Variations”.
7. Gabriella Montero and Minnesota Symphony OrchestraFebruary 3: Montero’s “Latin” piano concerto is by turns uplifting, haunting, sad and exciting. Her gripping performances with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and orchestra made a strong case that she might be classical music’s next great composer/pianist.
8. Minnesota Opera’s “Daughters of the Legion” February 4th: If the COVID-19 pandemic has left you craving comedy, this hilarious, heartfelt and beautifully sung opera by Gaetano Donizetti is the ideal prescription. It was the most fun I’ve had at an opera in years.
9. Gábor Takács-Nagy and SPCO, June 9: The orchestra seemed willing to pause its move toward conductor-less concerts if the charismatic and insightful Hungarian conductor held the baton. He brought interpretive imagination to Debussy, Edvard Grieg and, most surprisingly, to the best version of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony that I have ever heard .
10.Goodbye, Emerson String Quartet, February 12: What an honor it was to hear in such an intimate venue as St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ the final concerts of the legendary musical partners who brought heart to Haydn, fire to Dvořák, and Shostak to Kovich felt his spine tingle.
Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Please contact him at wordhub@yahoo.com.
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