Conductor Laureate Osmo Vänskä returns to the Minnesota Orchestra. (Masaaki Kuwajima / Minnesota Orchestra)

Osmo Vänskä returns to Orchestra Hall this week for a richly emotional program of work centered around grief and the existential threats facing our humanity. Minnesota Orchestra’s beloved conductor laureate demonstrates his talent and connection with the orchestra musicians in the gorgeous concert.

While several works in the program delve into darker themes, the concert begins on a playful note with Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to “The Barber of Seville.” Vänskä uses a delicate touch with the popular work, almost dancing along with the musicians. Watching Vänskä is a reminder that while conductors drive the musicality of the orchestra, they also act as a guide for the audience. Vänskä focuses his attention acutely to the specificity of different moments, and to the orchestra sections and even individual musicians that play key roles in the music. It’s a thrill to watch both him and them.

Guest double bass player Nina Bernat joins a smaller group of just string musicians for the second piece, Concerto No. 2 in B minor for Bass and String Orchestra, the first of two concertos she performs.

Petite in stature, Bernat looks to be hugging her instrument as she wraps her arms around it, especially when she’s reaching to the edge of the fingerboard. Her fingers stretch with precision as she moves through the music with grace and beautiful tone. On Thursday morning, Bernat received standing ovations for both her performance of the Bottesini and Eduard Tubin’s Concerto for Bass and Orchestra, performed with the full orchestra. The latter work featured Bernat performing impressive double stops and ghostly harmonics.

The performance marks the U.S. premiere of Anders Hillborg’s 2019 piece, “Through Lost Landscapes,” which the Minnesota Orchestra co-commissioned. You can almost hear the glaciers melting in the ominous slides throughout the work. You can also hear the calls of suffering birds, whales and other animals at the precipice of destruction in the apocalyptic music. There’s even a rattlesnake sound made by a vibraslap instrument.

Double bassist Nina Bernat joins the Minnesota Orchestra for two concertos. (Masaaki Kuwajima / Minnesota Orchestra)

Hillborg’s music creates a cacophonous sound at times, and there’s even a bit of jazzy motifs in the music. Even with all the doom and gloom, Hillborg sneaks in hopeful sounds as well. Perhaps it’s the sound of healing.

The orchestra concludes the program with Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Orchestra, which the Minnesota Orchestra commissioned along with the St. Louis Symphony and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. The work premiered at the St. Louis Symphony in January of this year.

Inspired by Amanda Gorman’s poem, “Hymn for the Hurting,” about the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, the work’s first movement bears the same title as Gorman’s poem. At times cinematic, the work shifts in tone and style throughout the six movements. In one part, chimes evoke imagery of angels. At another, dissonant sounds express the feeling of a world upside down. An aching piano solo performed by Susan Billmeyer halfway through the Concerto stirs intense emotional empathy, and Puts’ final movement, “Ecco La Marcia? (Caccia No. 2),” opens the floodgates of intense sadness. It’s a tremendous piece that speaks to the crisis of violence in the world, performed sublimely by the Minnesota Orchestra.

If you go

What:  Søndergård Conducts Alpine Symphony
When: 8 p.m. Fri., 7 p.m. Sat.
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.
Tickets: $51-$106
Capsule: The Minnesota Orchestra delivers two U.S. premieres of co-commissioned music that speaks to our times, led by conductor laureate Osmo Vänskä, with performances by guest bassist Nina Bernat.

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