Thursday morning may have marked the opening of the Minnesota Orchestra’s four weeks of Summer at Orchestra Hall programming, but it’s safe to say that the orchestra’s musicians will look back upon the summer of 2025 as a sad one. After losing cellist Arek Tesarczyk to a lengthy illness in May, violist Kenneth Freed died unexpectedly at the end of June, taking from the orchestra’s ranks not only an excellent musician but one of its most beloved personalities.
Dedicating this weekend’s concerts to Freed took on extra poignance when guest conductor Kensho Watanabe revealed in a curtain speech that Freed had been a mentor of his during the summer camps of his youth. Freed guided him both as a violinist and a conductor, the latter being a role that Freed sometimes filled with the Minnesota Orchestra and for 12 years as music director of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.
Then Watanabe and the orchestra performed a concert that served as an ideal tribute to their fallen comrade. After a Carl Maria von Weber overture full of mystery and tension, Cecilia Belcher stepped out of her customary role as one important element in the orchestra’s lush and lovely string sound — a description that also suited Freed — and soloed on some of the prettiest music that Beethoven ever wrote, his two Romances for violin and orchestra.
But the most stirring tribute of all was a deeply involving interpretation of a Johannes Brahms symphony. Watanabe and the orchestra brought forth all the beauty of Brahms’ Second Symphony, which — in a rarity for a Summer at Orchestra Hall program — will be repeated both Friday and Saturday nights.
While the orchestra’s summer concerts usually are one-offs that get a lot less rehearsal time than those during the season, the orchestra heard from many subscribers that they’d love to work a summer concert into their ticket package. So, the orchestra decided to launch summer by performing this program three times, and audiences clearly showed their commitment to the idea, for empty seats were few at Thursday’s midday affair.
Watanabe and the orchestra immediately immersed the audience in the pastoral atmosphere of Weber’s Overture to “Der Freischütz” and summoned up all of its emotionally evocative operatic elements.
Speaking of opera, Beethoven’s Romances for violin have a sonic signature akin to the kind of soprano arias you’d find in one of Mozart’s operas. And they sang out splendidly from Belcher’s violin, sailing above the sound of a smaller classical-era orchestra. The Romance No. 2 was lyrical and lovely, while No. 1 was given great depth, Belcher using its double-stops to lend a hint more melancholy to the melody, as if one of the two notes were a sad shadow of the other. She also brought forth the folky feel of the trio section, conjuring visions of a circle dance around a forest campfire.
And Brahms’ Second Symphony was suffused with sumptuous beauty, Watanabe emphasizing tenderness at every turn, save for the finale’s energetic explosions. He added to the aura of a country idyll by moving like a gently flowing river or a willow slightly stirred by a breeze. And the orchestra responded with an expertly executed performance, completing a concert that was the most inspiring Minnesota Orchestra summer opener in many years.
