Minnesota Orchestra Assistant Concertmaster Rui Du performs The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, credited jointly to two composers—Chen Gang (b. 1935) and He Zhanhao (b. 1933). Cast in one long movement and subdivided into seven sections, the concerto is a musical representation of the Chinese l...

The Korean folk song Arirang, an expression of nostalgia in the face of separation, is popular throughout the divided peninsula, serving as an unofficial national anthem. It is heard at this concert in a version written in the 1970s by North Korean composer Choi Sunghwan that was notably perform...

For In the Dark Night by Chinese composer Wu Hua (1943-2020), the Minnesota Orchestra welcomed jing hu master Mr. Zhengang Xie and yue qin master Ms. Mei Hu, a husband-and-wife team who are the parents of the Orchestra’s Principal Bassoon Fei Xie. Wu’s composition, heard here in an orchestration ...

Contemporary Singaporean composer Kelly Tang (b. 1961), who writes in genres ranging from classical and jazz to symphonic and popular music, composed the colorful Sketches of Singapore in 2008 on a commission from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

An encore performance of Welcome Spring by Yanpei Zhang (arr. Guang Han) featuring Zhengang Xie and Mei Hu

One of the best-known and beloved of Sibelius' symphonies, the Second is a work both eloquent and powerful.

The Humoresques (five of which are performed in this concert) are miniatures and Sibelius accompanies the violin with a very small orchestra. The composer was pleased with the works, saying he had found "an excellent format" for what he wanted to say in his music.

Sibelius' final symphony, the Seventh, consists of a single movement--not as if several several movements were stitched together, but as if movements unfold in alternation, or even simultaneously, with themes and motifs mingling together seamlessly.

Pianist Orion Weiss, Music Director Osmo Vänskä, and the Minnesota Orchestra perform the first movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto in the first performance with a live audience at Orchestra Hall in over 15 months.

This intimate concerto, written when Chopin was just 19, relegates the orc...

Lily of the West movement from Reinaldo Moya's Minnesota Suite for Chamber Orchestra

Recorded at Orchestra Hall for the 2021 virtual Symphony Ball, released on June 5, 2021.

The slow fourth movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, sometimes performed separately from the symphony as a lament, conveys the essence of Mahler’s heartache and of his melodic style, with an orchestra reduced to strings and sensitively scored harp.

From a Minnesota Orchestra performance recorded...

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Four Novelletten is scored for string orchestra, plus a small percussion “section” of tambourine and triangle adding extra color. Although the British composer lived only to age 37, his music found great success in his lifetime, particularly his Song of Hiawatha cantatas...