Top 10 classical music events in the Twin Cities in 2024

How grateful I am to live in a place that has so much marvelous classical music. In 2023, the most inspiring performances overflowed with imagination, left me awestruck with the artists’ virtuosity and eloquently expressed the genius of such composers as J.S. Bach and Beethoven.

Here are the most memorable classical performances of 2024.

1. Moor Mother’s “The Great Bailout,” Sept. 14. In one of the most powerful artistic experiences I’ve had this century, the audaciously courageous composer and poet Camae Ayewa and seven musicians confronted the legacy of slavery at the Walker Art Center with a work that kept me frozen in amazement when intermission arrived, then thrilled by its unbounded exuberance during the concert’s second half.

2. Daniil Trifonov’s Chopin Society recital, March 24. Trifonov made the case that he’s elbowed his way into the pantheon of the great Russian piano virtuosos of the past century that includes Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz. His is a rare combination of artistic vision and work ethic, best demonstrated on an astounding version of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata.

3. Richard Egarr and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos, Dec. 13. In a year when the SPCO musicians were embroiled in a bitter contract negotiation, since resolved, they nevertheless had the best musical year in decades. Egarr manned the harpsichord for the most electrifying Bach I’ve experienced in a long time.

4. Leonidas Kavakos’ Schubert Club recital, Nov. 13. If Egarr and the SPCO brought us Bach of a rock and roll spirit, this brilliant Greek violinist took us into the composer’s most intimate ruminations, performing all six of his solo sonatas and partitas over the course of two breathtakingly intense concerts.

5. Abel Selaocoe and the SPCO, Oct. 18. The South African cellist’s boundary-breaking collaborations with the SPCO just keep getting better, as demonstrated by this joyful, genre-jumping combination of baroque and contemporary music, spiced with singing and seemingly spontaneous jamming.

6. Víkingur Ólafsson’s Schubert Club recital, Jan. 31. What a great year for local audiences to gain a fresh appreciation for the genius of Bach, starting with this Icelandic pianist’s captivating interpretation of the composer’s “Goldberg Variations,” a fascinating musical odyssey that underlined why he’s regarded as the consummate Bach pianist of our era.

7. Gábor Takács-Nagy and the SPCO, June 7. What great news to hear that this Hungarian conductor is becoming an SPCO artistic partner, for what he coaxes from the musicians has proven awe-inspiring on every visit. In this case, he helped make Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony an exhilarating journey from darkness into light.

8. Minnesota Opera’s “Trouble in Tahiti” and “Service Provider,” March 9. My favorite night at the opera this year came in the intimate setting of Minnesota Opera’s Luminary Arts Center. There, the company expertly combined Leonard Bernstein’s 1952 take on the emptiness hiding inside the freshly minted “American dream” myth with Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos’ spoof of social media obsessions.

9. Lakes Area Music Festival opens with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, July 28. National buzz is growing for this festival in Brainerd and surrounding northern Minnesota communities, and this concert showed why, as conductor Christian Reif marshaled the forces of the festival’s orchestra, three choirs and four excellent vocal soloists to unleash some thrilling Beethoven.

10. The Minnesota Orchestra’s “An American in Paris,” Aug. 9. The best of several local presentations of film music came on closing weekend of a Paris-themed “Summer at Orchestra Hall.” Conductor Sarah Hicks and the orchestra deftly captured George Gershwin’s sweet spot between classical and jazz while Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron danced above them.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.