Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra
(Photo: Greg Helgeson/Minnesota Orchestra)
The Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have announced a Sibelius Festival in January 2022. Concerts will take place at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis.
The Sibelius Festival forms the centrepiece of the orchestra’s 2021–22 season; it features all seven of the Finnish composer’s symphonies, plus the original version of the Fifth, over three weeks, and celebrates the recording cycle that was completed by Vänskä and the orchestra in 2014, one recording of which received the Orchestra’s first Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Soprano Helena Juntunen and violinist Elina Vähälä are the featured guests during the three-week festival. Vähälä will perform the rarely heard original version of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and, at a separate concert, the standard final version of the concerto. In addition, Minnesota Orchestra violist Sam Bergman hosts a special programme that explores the history behind the multiple versions of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony.
This season marks the end of Osmo Vänskä’s tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra after 19 years as music director. Beyond 2022, Vänskä and the orchestra will maintain their musical relationship, with Vänskä returning for ongoing concert engagements.
Programmes and dates:
Friday 31 December 2021, 8.30 pm
Saturday 1 January 2022, 2 pm
Symphony No. 7
Höstkväll*
Hertig Magnus*
Luonnotar*
Symphony No. 2
*Helena Juntunen, soprano
Friday 7 January 2022, 8 pm
Saturday 8 January 2022, 8 pm
Symphony No. 6
Violin Concerto (original version)*
Symphony No. 1
*Elina Vähälä, violin
Thursday 13 January 2022, 11 am
Friday 14 January 2022, 8 pm
Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 3
Violin Concerto (final version)*
*Elina Vähälä, violin
Saturday 15 January 2022, 8 pm
Sunday 16 January 2022, 2 pm
Symphony No. 5 (final version and extended excerpts from original version)
Sam Bergman, host
Ticket packages can be reserved from 26 July 2021 onwards. Tickets for individual concerts will be on sale from 7 September.
Click here to visit the orchestra’s website with further information and booking options.
More about the orchestra’s 2021–22 season: click here.
Source: Minnesota Orchestra website