The CSB/SJU Fine Arts Series presents the Minnesota Orchestra at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29, in Escher Auditorium, College of Saint Benedict.
The Minnesota Orchestra returns to CSB for a concert led by British Conductor Mark Wigglesworth. Longtime Principal Oboe Basil Reeve plays his final concerto solo before retiring from the orchestra at the close of the current season. The concert features Michael Berkeley’s Oboe Concerto, a deeply expressive work for soloist and string orchestra, and a full performance of Ravel’s ballet Daphnis and Chloe, a masterpiece of musical impressionism.
A Britten-influenced oboe concerto and an impressionistic ballet
Berkeley’s Oboe Concerto is deeply expressive music, ranging in tone from hauntingly lyrical to agitated to serene, with two long, slow movements flanking a brief, menacing Scherzo. In the finale, Berkeley memorializes his godfather, composer Benjamin Britten,
with a quote from the War Requiem.
Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe reveals Classical myth as seen through the lens of French impressionism. Daphnis and Chloe dance to opulent music, spurning all rivals, but pirates attack suddenly and carry off Chloe. The god Pan responds to the entreaties of onlookers and, with a flash of the supernatural, he drives off the enemy. The reunited lovers thank him, and the entire crowd takes part in a joyful concluding dance.
Tickets to the Minnesota Orchestra are $30, Senior $27 and Student/Youth $10. For tickets, call the Benedicta Arts Center Box Office at (320) 363-5777, or order online at www.csbsju.edu/
fine-arts.
Mark Wigglesworth, conductor
Wigglesworth is in demand as a guest conductor of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, from London and Berlin to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. He is also a renowned opera conductor. He enjoys a close relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra, having led concerts at Orchestra Hall in 11 of the past 17 seasons.
Highlights of Wigglesworth’s 2011-12 season include engagements with the Sydney Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, as well as performances of Don Giovanni with Opera Australia and Cos” fan tutte with the Bavarian State Opera.
Wigglesworth recently finished recording the complete Shostakovich symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic for BIS.
Basil Reeve, oboe
Reeve has performed most of the major oboe repertoire during his tenure in Minnesota, from concertos by Telemann and J.S. Bach to those of Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Henze; in 2009, he premiered the Christopher Rouse Oboe Concerto.
He has performed as soloist at numerous festivals, including the Spoleto (Italy) Music Festival, Festival of Mexico City, International Festival-Institute at Round Top and Monadnock Music Festival, where his solos have included the premiere of James Bolle’s Oboe Concerto.
A dedicated chamber musician, Reeve has performed in nearly every Orchestra Sommerfest and winter season chamber series during his tenure. For 37 years, he served as co-artistic director and oboist of the Musical Offering chamber ensemble. Reeve studied at Juilliard with Lois Wann; before joining the Orchestra in 1971, he was principal oboe of the New York City Opera and Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Related activity
Attend a Concert Preview with Associate Conductor Courtney Lewis from the Minnesota Orchestra beginning at 1:15 p.m. Sunday, April 29, in the Music Rehearsal Hall, Benedicta Arts Center, CSB.
This performance is sponsored, in part, by the Mildred E. McGonagle Estate and the St. Cloud Hospital. The CSB/SJU Fine Arts Series is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from a vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008.
The Minnesota Orchestra returns to the CSB
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