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...

Lyrical melodies and a passionate emotion highlight what may be classical music’s most famous incomplete work. Schubert's Symphony in B minor, Unfinished opens softly and glides effortlessly between unexpected harmonies, achieving a haunting, somber beauty.

Conductor Fabien Gabel made his Minnesota Orchestra debut in a concert featuring Stravinsky's theatrical Suite from Pulcinella.

French composer Georges Barboteu had a parallel career as a horn performer, and many of his works feature that instrument, including his 1940 Esquisse (French for Sketch). The flute opens this piece with a miniature cadenza; the harp then provides an underpinning of up-and-down arpeggios above wh...