(dramatic orchestral music) - Minnesota Orchestra, together with YourClassical MPR and Twin Cities PBS, is live with performances, interviews and more.

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This is Minnesota Orchestra.

(audience applauds) Happy holidays, everyone.

From Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, I'm your host, Sarah Hicks, and what a pleasure it is to welcome you to another incredible live broadcast with the Minnesota Orchestra with guest conductor Thomas Soøndergård and pianist Ingrid Fliter.

The orchestra is tuning up as we look forward to a marvelous program.

Music of Mozart and Strauss coming up later tonight, but we begin our evening with an early work written when the composer was just 23, and a piece that launched his career.

Full of shifting moods from powerful to lushly passionate, and with a distinct nod to romanticism, here is Coleridge-Taylor's "Ballade for Orchestra".

(audience applauds) ("Ballade for Orchestra") (audience applauds) - That was a piece you may be hearing for the first time tonight.

A ballade for orchestra by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, an Afro-English composer who came to the United States on several occasions, even appearing at the White House when Teddy Roosevelt was president.

Thomas Soøndergård led members of the Minnesota Orchestra in a live broadcast on YourClassical MPR and Twin Cities PBS.

Tonight's concert is also being streamed on the orchestra's website, so wherever you're finding us, we are happy to have you.

I'm Melissa Ousley in the radio booth and Sarah Hicks is backstage tonight.

Hello, Sarah.

- Hey, Melissa, how are ya?

- I'm pretty good, thank you.

- Good.

- I have really enjoyed hearing the orchestra play music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

He died in 1912 but it wasn't until recently that the Minnesota Orchestra started to play his music.

- Absolutely true and I think it's a great thing because audiences now will be as delighted by his music as they were back in Coleridge-Taylor's day, when he was a composer actually of quite a bit of renown.

In fact, he'd already begun to make a name for himself when he was 21 and at 23 he got his big break with the ballade we just heard.

Because his teacher and mentor, Edward Elgar, passed up a commission for himself and asked that the opportunity be extended to Coleridge-Taylor who Elgar wrote, quote, "was far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men."

And I really love the way Elgar stepped aside to give people a chance to hear Coleridge-Taylor's music.

It was such a supportive and generous thing for him to do.

- Oh, yeah, it was, and I was thinking about that in connection to Mozart, the composer of the next piece, because I don't know that he had a pivotal figure like Elgar as his cheerleader, but his person would've been his dad, Leopold Mozart, who sometimes gets characterized as overbearing and kind of arrogant and constantly promoting his son, but I don't know.

I think if you dig a little deeper, you find someone who cared a lot about his son and was sort of frustrated that people didn't realize he was a genius.

What do you think about that?

- Well, I think it was a complicated relationship, just as any father-son relationship would be, but it was really due to Leopold's early support that Wolfgang was able to flourish and I think that we wouldn't have the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that we know if it hadn't been for his father's efforts and I can actually say the same for myself.

It was because of my father's encouragement that in my teens I began to pursue conducting.

- Well, that is very good because there were few, if any role models for you, I bet, as a conductor.

- Not so many.

(Melissa chuckles) - Sarah, thank you so much for your time tonight.

- Thanks, Melissa.

Mozart wrote a dozen piano concertos in the period between 1782 and 1786.

An extraordinary output by any account, made the more extraordinary in that he also composed, are you ready for this?

Nine piano sonatas, six operas, four symphonies, three horn concertos and countless vocal and chamber pieces.

One of the many ways in which his exquisite "Piano Concerto No.

23" distinguishes itself is in its unusual instrumentation.

He replaces the brightly-toned oboes for the darker colors of the clarinet.

In addition, the omission of both trumpets and timpani gives the entire work a more intimate feeling, akin to chamber music rather than to a larger orchestral soundscape.

Other novelties are found in this concerto.

In the first movement, rather than the expected two contrasting themes, Mozart instead gives us two gently lyrical themes.

The second movement, his only work in the shadowy key of F-sharp minor, features a rich chromaticism and a poetic expressiveness notable even for Mozart.

And the third movement brings rondo of great vitality that is very Mozartian, braiding together a profusion of melodies.

We're still warming up and getting our stage ready back here.

It's actually going to be a much smaller orchestra than we saw, of course, in the Coleridge-Taylor, but even further reduced, our conductor Thomas Soøndergård asked that some of the string players be removed so that it's an even smaller ensemble.

As I said, it really is a feeling of chamber music in this concerto and that is further aided by the smaller orchestra.

Our guest artist, pianist Ingrid Fliter, is getting ready and will take the stage for a performance of Mozart's "Piano Concerto No.

23".

The stage change is done, and we wait for the orchestra to start tuning.

Again, a smaller orchestra and we actually will see an enormous orchestra after the intermission.

As I mentioned, in the Strauss, eight horns, two harps, a whole battery of percussion.

So, a great contrast in the sound of the orchestra.

A challenge for the musicians and also a huge challenge for the conductor as well to conduct so many different styles.

The Coleridge-Taylor, the Mozart and of course the Strauss.

The orchestra is now tuning.

Ingrid Fliter will take the stage for a performance of Mozart's "Piano Concerto No.

23".

Thomas Soøndergård conducting the Minnesota Orchestra.

(orchestra warms up) (audience applauds) ("Piano Concerto No.

23: Allegro") ("Piano Concerto No.

23: Adagio") ("Piano Concerto No.

23: Allegro Assai") (audience cheers and applauds) A wonderful performance of Mozart's superb "Piano Concerto No.

23".

Pianist Ingrid Fliter and the Minnesota Orchestra, led by guest conductor Thomas Soøndergård, taking us to our intermission in tonight's program.

So now, as our in-person audience stretches their legs, we have some wonderful things in store for you, our broadcast audience.

We'll bring you two videos.

The first, a deep dive into the ins and outs of tuning instruments, and the second, a behind-the-scenes look into the sonic bedrock of the orchestral sound, our bass section.

Our "Meet Us On The Mezz" segment this evening will feature Minnesota Orchestra's principal horn, Michael Gast, who will spend a few minutes answering your questions posed on social media over the last week.

Before that, I will be joined in a moment by tonight's guest artist Ingrid Fliter who has just finished that incredible performance of the Mozart concerto.

Again, it's very interesting to have three such contrasting pieces in an evening's program.

Really, the skill of the musicians, as well as the conductor to create those different sonic worlds.

Ingrid Fliter is a great interpreter of Chopin who makes piano miniatures and they each create little sound worlds and I really appreciate that she brings that sensibility to Mozart as well, truly creating a sound world for each of these movements.

Wild applause for Ingrid Fliter for a wonderful performance.

Bravos echoing in the hall.

It's joyful to know that the audience enjoys these performances, feeds off of the energy coming off of the stage and that energy is important coming back to us on stage as well.

Knowing that audiences are out there, in person, on broadcast, enjoying these performances is very important.

But now we are joined by our guest artist, pianist Ingrid Fliter, who is walking up after that incredible performance of the Mozart concerto.

And this incredible jacket that I love.

Speaking to Thomas Soøndergård and Ingrid is coming, in a moment.

Hi, Ingrid, I'm good.

I just noticed this wonderful jacket with the zippers.

I love it.

- Oh, you liked it?

- Yes.

- I love how you are dressed.

- We both have good fashion sense, I would say.

So, Ingrid, I've always been drawn to this particular Mozart concerto, especially the second movement, and I'm wondering, what do you find most gratifying about this work and Mozart in general?

- Well, this concerto really touches my heart so deeply.

The second movement is a miracle.

You touch heaven with your hands.

And the feeling that I had tonight, that you bring together all the world, all the public that is listening, and we are all together creating this at the moment.

So Mozart without opera is not Mozart and this concerto especially gives me the opportunity to explore all the characters, the lyrical side.

All the journey that you go through in an opera, you go through in this concerto.

So, it's a privilege and a celebration for me.

- Truly and I love that you say that.

The audience is involved in this beautiful moment as well and really a crucial component.

- An amazing singing quality.

- It does.

- Horowitz used to say that you have to play Mozart like Chopin and Chopin like Mozart, yes.

- What a great, great line.

- There's a lot of truth in that.

- Truth in that, absolutely.

Thank you so much for joining me, Ingrid.

- It was a pleasure to be here.

Thank you very much.

- As a pianist, Ingrid relies on a piano tuner to tune her instrument, but that's not the case with just about every other instrument out there.

Let's take a look at the complicated art of tuning from individual instruments to the entire orchestra in our first video.

(audience cheers) - Part of the formality at a concert is the entrance of the concertmaster and I'm representing the whole orchestra.

I ask the oboist to play an A and then we all match that pitch.

So whatever pitch she gives, it could be a little bit sharper, it could be a little flatter, That's what we really listen for and we try to match the exact same pitch with our instruments.

- What the audience sees as a tuning process is really only one small part of it, and we play the A, the oboe plays the A, and the orchestra tunes to that A, but then during the entire concert, we're constantly adjusting to each other.

- My instruments can change pitch, and I constantly do that throughout a performance, even if the piece only asks for two pitches, which is a lot of the classical era, I'm constantly adjusting.

- Tuning your strings is one thing.

You have to have strings that are in tune with each other.

With a violin, it's perfect fifths.

And that gives you a better chance of playing in tune, but you have to keep in mind that our fingers are going on these strings, we don't have frets, and so, so much of it is done with our automatic pilot, we're used to where our fingers go, and you can't always hear yourself as an individual.

If I want to make it flatter, I start just putting the bow on the string continuously and I change the pitch with this peg.

(violin oscillates in pitch) And once that's in tune, I then play it with the next string at the same time.

Not quite in tune.

(peaceful orchestral music) - When composers started to hear that the oboes were beautiful in sound and that they could carry, they started writing their own lines for it and it was also around this time that the oboe was the one that started to tune the orchestra, and so the oboe was a more stable instrument, with regards to sound.

Okay, so this is an example of a tuner, and there are several different types of tuners.

This one is an electronic needle, and the needle moves to the middle, and when I play an A, an "A" should come up here.

So it automatically tells me what note it is, and then I try to get the needle to be right in the middle and when the needle's in the middle, it tells me that my A is in tune.

(tuner hums) (laughs) That's an A.

The oboe is never perfectly in tune.

The oboe can play sharp, it can play flat, and we have the ability... (oboe oscillates in pitch) So it's easily shifting in certain ways and that was just with a straight amount of air and just moving my lips and moving the reed in and out of my mouth.

(timpani hits) - I've set pitches for each piece.

There can be multiple pitches needed for each of these four separate timpano.

I'll be tuning, while playing.

So for instance, we do a bunch of rolls.

Rolls are a bunch of notes to represent a hum, a lot of quick notes to represent a sort of hum.

So we can start.

(drum roll) And then if I hear it's not quite in tune.

I'll use a tuning fork in the orchestra, if I'm playing on calf skin, which is often, just to check, with this, if the orchestra's going up or down in intonation.

It's very subtle.

You get a pure pitch and you put it up really close to your ear, and you can really intensely hear the pitch, as purely as possible.

- String instruments are made of wood and as we all know, wood contracts, it expands, and so because we rely on that for our pitch, we're relying on this wooden box, the weather does really affect the intonation of the instrument.

Sometimes you'll see us going like this, and so we're really listening to ourselves.

So sometimes we do that when we don't have time to make a sound with our bow and change the pitch.

So within a concert, if you see someone going like this, or like this, they realize their string's a little out of tune.

The good thing is that you have 15 other violinists in my section and so it always sounds quite in tune.

- [Erich] But once you hear it's out, you try to make that subtle, but quick adjustment so that no one notices.

You have to have this really incredible control and cool while you do these very minute changes in intonation.

- [Julie] We're always striving for perfection.

So it's really a process that happens immediately and throughout the entire concert.

- And now you know how a timpani is tuned.

A little bit of inside knowledge for you.

And more inside knowledge coming to you, but live.

As you can see, I'm here on the Bud Grossman Mezzanine level of our lobby for tonight's episode of "Meet Us On The Mezz" and I'm so delighted to be joined by principal horn, Mike Gast.

Welcome, Mike.

- Hello, Sarah, good evening.

- Thanks for being here.

So, Mike, we've been soliciting our viewers to submit some of their burning questions on social media over the last week and we've got some good ones.

So are you ready?

- Oh, wow, yes.

Please, let's have 'em.

- All right, here we go.

Several social media fans wonder, which pieces are really fulfilling to play, and then the opposite, which ones are a great struggle?

- Ah, well, like the Strauss we're playing tonight, and Mahler, and I'd say a lot of motion pictures right now are very exciting to play, lots of good horn stuff.

When you hear the horns playing, you know something's gonna happen.

- (laughs) Exactly.

- And on the flip side, every now and then, we run into a piece that's needlessly taxing, or difficult, or mostly technically almost impossible to play.

It's kind of a discouraging thing to run into.

It doesn't happen very often, but it does.

- It does and you're not gonna mention the pieces that- - No, no names.

- Of course not, no names.

A snarky cat lady, what a name, on Instagram says, "I've noticed in some concerts that a player might use two different French horns, what's the benefit?"

- Well, with the two horns, you get a wider dynamic range, and a lot of different colors.

It's kind of like having the whole set of the crayon set.

You've got every color between those two horns, for whatever musical application you want to have.

- Like the 64-color box, not the 16.

And finally, Lala Nork, also on Instagram asks, "What makes an awesome horn player?

Capital A."

- Awesome horn player?

Well, that horn player would play with a lot of pizazz, have a lot of colors, a lot of variety of sound, and play with a lot of intent and desire.

- Mm, intent and desire.

Sort of good advice for life in general, having that intent.

- Indeed.

- So, okay, before I let you go, I know you have a huge piece of play, a speed round of questions, you ready?

Mountains or ocean?

- Ocean!

- Oh, okay.

Strauss or Mahler?

- Mahler.

- Oh, really!

Okay, good to know.

- You got me.

- Favorite Halloween costume.

- Oh, my.

You stumped me there.

I've got so many.

- You've got many.

- Yeah.

Probably being a cowgirl.

- Being a cowgirl.

He throws great Halloween parties.

Here's one, Geyer or Kruspe wrap?

- Kruspe.

- Oh!

(laughs) That's a horn-geek question.

Bow tie or no tie?

- Bow tie.

- Ah, interesting.

Gin or vodka martini?

(chuckles) - Gin martini.

(Sarah gasps) - Oh, my- - Hendrick's, of course.

- Hendrick's gin, all right.

I'm a vodka girl, but that's okay.

I know you have a big piece to play, so thanks so much for joining me, it was really fun to chat.

- Thank you for having me.

Enjoy the show.

- While the horn section may frequently take center stage, the focus of our next video is a section of the orchestra that's not often heard on its own, but is quite literally the foundation of the orchestral sound.

Let's visit with members of our bass section.

(car door slams) - It might surprise people to know that you can fit a bass in any vehicle, but I was also thinking, (chuckles) you know, a question that almost every bass player is asked, hundreds of times in their life.

People often ask you if you wish you played the flute and I would say I don't know a single bass player who wishes they played the flute.

One of my best friend's mother, who was encouraging me to play the bass, I remember her saying, "It would be so cool if you played the bass 'cause there aren't very many female bass players."

To me, it was more like, "Oh, that's a neat instrument" and I like different kinds of music, and that's what appealed to me.

I think one reason there are more women playing bass now is partly just seeing that other women are successful doing that and that encourages young women to think, oh, I can do that, too.

- I've been in the orchestra a long time now and I have never felt this comfortable and happy coming to work and working with this group of people.

We are all really trying to play together.

We really want to sound like we are completely unified in the quality of our sound, in the attacks and how loud we play, and we have a good rapport amongst all of us.

- The bass section consists of eight bass players.

So it is the smallest string section.

We are a really tight group.

It's important to all of us that we lock into each other's sound and are playing in the same way.

I'm the conduit for the bass section, to the conductor, to the other string principals, and then also to other people in the orchestra.

(muffled chatter from conductor) Dina, quick question.

- Yeah.

- [Kristen] Before 94, four bars.

If the conductor wants to address the bass section, they'll turn to the bass section to ask for something, and of course they're speaking to all of us, but I will be the one who speaks back with the conductor, or ask them to clarify what they mean.

So, I was gonna go over another spot from yesterday in the Brahms.

I would say that it's kind of the first stand's role to be very clear with intention and the way that you're playing and support that idea so that we're one solid unit of sound and rhythm.

In that Mahler.

Yeah.

Every instrument has its physical challenges.

So it could be smaller muscular movement, but to play the bass, it's really quite physically demanding.

It takes a lot of energy and agility.

Obviously, a violin has about this amount of space for all their notes and we have this amount of space and we'll have to move as fast.

- There are physical challenges of simply the strength required to push the strings down.

There's much more tension on bass strings.

They're eight or nine times as thick as the E string of a violin.

So there's a physical element of that.

If you get really lucky, you have a bass that you can keep at home and practice on and you have another bass at the hall so you don't have to cart it back and forth and I feel like that can add 10 years to your playing career.

One of the really outstanding things about being a member of this bass section in the Minnesota Orchestra is access to playing on these four basses.

Michael Leiter was the principal bass of the Montreal Symphony and passed away about 20 years ago, and about five years after his death, these four basses were gifted to the bass section of the orchestra and so we have a Panormo, a Serafin, a Goffriller and a Testore bass.

They are amazing, old, rare Italian instruments.

Ken and Judy Dayton and Doug and Louise Leatherdale made a gift to the orchestra of these four basses.

We are luckily the envy of orchestras all around the world to have this collection to be able to play and produce the kind of sound that these instruments can make.

- So, we're really a versatile instrument within the orchestra with what our function is, but it's generally always to support.

One of my favorite things about playing bass is just playing the low notes.

Or playing soft pizzicatos together where it just rings.

It's like one sound but it's eight people playing.

- [William] We are that engine underneath the hood of the Rolls Royce.

I think that's why bass players generally are some of the happiest musicians you'll find in an orchestra because we never started out wanting to have a career as a soloist playing sonatas for violin and piano.

We know what we're doing and we are making the world go round on the stage.

(dramatic orchestral music) - The bass section will certainly have their work cut out for them in the second half of our concert, as will the entire orchestra.

Richard Strauss, a great proponent of the symphonic tone poem, wrote seven of them before embarking on our next selection.

In the summer of 1898, he set out to write a heroic work in the mold of Beethoven's "Eroica" of which he writes, "It's entitled 'A Hero's Life' and while it has no funeral march, it does have lots of horns.

Horns being quite the thing to express heroism."

You'll hear a wonderful little moment when we have a trio of trumpets backstage during the fourth section of this piece but certainly this is an incredible piece for an incredible orchestra.

Thomas Soøndergård will now take the stage for a performance of Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben, A Hero's Life".

(orchestra warms up) (audience applauds) ("A Hero's Life: The Hero") ("A Hero's Life: The Hero's Adversaries") ("A Hero's Life: The Hero's Companion") ("A Hero's Life: The Hero at Battle") ("A Hero's Life: The Hero's Works Of Peace") ("A Hero's Life: The Hero's Retirement From This World") (audience applauds) (audience applauds) A truly heroic performance of Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben".

The Minnesota Orchestra, led by guest conductor Thomas Soøndergård, bringing us to the end of our broadcast tonight.

Exquisite violin solos by our concertmaster Erin Keefe.

What an extraordinary treat to hear this monumental work.

We're so glad you joined us for this performance, and hope you'll join us for many, many more.

Until then, my friends, stay well, and we look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Goodnight.

(audience cheers and applauds) (audience cheers and applauds) (cheerful orchestral music)