As part of its annual tradition, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra presents five out of the six “Brandenburg” Concertos written by Johann Sebastian Bach. While not composed as Christmas music, the festive spirit of the works aligns perfectly with the season, making them a beloved secular treat.

The concertos also reveal the magnetism and intimacy of the chamber form. With unusual combinations of instruments — often highlighting players who don’t typically get the spotlight — the music allows individual musicians to shine within small, agile ensembles.

The Friday performance began with the “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1, featuring three oboes, two horns and a violin soloist. With its merry spirit and dance-like energy, the work’s warm sound derives from the resonant horns, while the oboes add a delicate timbre. Eunae Koh delivered an impressive, assertive statement on violin, her lines weaving through the texture with clarity.

The second movement opens with the startling beauty of an oboe solo, soon taken up by the violin. In the third, a horn ascends so high it nearly mimics the softness of a flute. By the fourth, the various sections trade phrases like members of a lively assembly, each contributing its own voice to the spirited conversation.

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra performing at the Ordway in 2024. The Orchestra is performing Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos at the same venue through Dec. 14, 2025. (Claire Loes/The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra).

The orchestra then moved to the Sixth Concerto, the only work in the set that omits violins entirely. With two violas at the center, the piece settles into a warm, dusky sound. During the second movement, a mellow tone emerges, lines unfolding with a quiet glow that feels inward and unhurried. Then in the third movement, a familiar melody jumps brightly in and out of the texture before slipping into double time, creating a swirling sense of motion that lifts the concerto’s darker palette into something unexpectedly buoyant.

After intermission came the Fifth Concerto, where the harpsichord takes command. Jeffrey Grossman played with ceaseless motion, shifting gears effortlessly and attacking Bach’s intricate passages with assertive vigor. The harpsichord’s extended cadenza at the end of the first movement feels almost unhinged in its exuberance, evoking the frenetic energy of a video game soundtrack.

The program then moved to the Third Concerto, a piece so popular with student orchestras that its opening bars are practically a rite of passage. But in the hands of the SPCO, the work’s structure came into sharper relief. Though it technically lacks designated soloists, the writing turns nearly every musician into one, each line racing through quick motion and tight interplay. The ensemble’s articulation was crisp, giving the music a buoyant, athletic edge, a pulse that reflects the mathematical precision underlying all the concertos.

Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos are pure geometry — an exercise in balance and weight, in the adornment of each line, and in the beauty of musical mathematics. Their invigorating pulse can feel almost physiological, quickening the heartbeat as one pattern unlocks another.

Finally, the performance concluded with the Fourth Concerto, featuring principal violin Kyu-Young Kim alongside flutists Julia Bogorad-Kogan and Alicia McQuerrey. Kim played with a light, quicksilver touch, spinning out fast notes with a dancer’s poise, while the two flutes echoed and entwined around him, brightening the texture with airy brilliance. The concerto’s interplay — nimble, conversational, and joyous — made for an uplifting finale.

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

What: Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos

When: 7 p.m. Saturday,  2 p.m. Sunday

Where: The Ordway, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Tickets: thespco.org

Capsule: A secular holiday tradition relishing in the chamber form.

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Last summer at the start of free agency, Wild owner Craig Leipold floated the idea that, for the team’s fans, it could be Christmas in July.

On Friday night, general manager Bill Guerin reminded fans that Christmas comes in December.

With the Wild battling Colorado and Dallas for supremacy in the Central Division, Guerin pulled off perhaps the biggest in-season move in the franchise’s 25-year history, bringing superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes to Minnesota for at least this season and next.

Guerin sent young defenseman Zeev Buium, center Marco Rossi, forward Liam Ohgren — all of them former first-rounders — and a first-round selection in the 2026 NHL draft to the Vancouver Canucks for Hughes, who is widely considered one of the top two or three blueliners in the NHL.

Hughes, 26, is a two-time All-Star and won the Norris Trophy — given to the NHL’s best defenseman — following the 2023-24 season.

Mel Pearson, who recruited Hughes to Michigan and coached him for two seasons there, including a trip to the Frozen Four in St. Paul in 2018, said the Wild won the trade.

“He’s just a great, great pickup for Minnesota,” Pearson said. “I know they gave up quite a bit to get him but there are only so many Norris Trophy-type defensemen in the NHL.”

Hughes has scored 16 and 17 goals the past two seasons, but he’s been limited to two goals, 21 assists in 26 games this season. During his Norris-winning campaign, he had 17 goals and 75 assists for 92 points.

Guerin, the general manager for Team USA at the upcoming Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, had made it clear that Hughes would be on the team in February in Italy. Hughes is working on a six-year contract that pays him $7.8 million per season through the end of the 2026-27 campaign.

Quinn’s brothers, Jack and Luke, both play for the New Jersey Devils currently. The Wild could offer Quinn an extension starting on July 1, 2026.

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Wild survive slugfest in Seattle

It’s hard to believe it’s already been 15 years since the Metrodome infamously caved in after a blizzard that brought nearly a foot and a half of snow to the Twin Cities.

It created a logistical nightmare for the Vikings, as they had to postpone their scheduled home game against the New York Giants and move it to Ford Field in Detroit. Then, they hosted their final home game against the Chicago Bears at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus.

That primetime matchup between the Vikings and Bears on Monday Night Football the following week ended up being the the last time Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre ever put on the pads. A nasty hit from Bears defensive end Corey Wooten resulted in Favre’s head hitting the frozen playing surface. It left him unconscious for a few seconds and he never suited up again.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that no player on the current roster was actually on the Vikings when the Metrodome collapsed on Dec. 12, 2010. The only player even remotely close was veteran safety Harrison Smith, the longest tenured player, who was selected by the Vikings in the 2012 draft.

The only native Minnesotans on the current roster are fullback C.J. Ham and linebacker Blake Cashman. At the time of the Metrodome collapse exactly 15 years ago, Ham was a student at Duluth Denfeld High School, while Cashman hadn’t yet reached Eden Prairie High School.

“I remember sitting in the kitchen at my dad’s house and it being on the front page of the newspaper,” Cashman said. “We were talking about it and, of course, it led to some discussions about how the Vikings needed a new place anyways.”

A few years later, the Vikings hosted their final home game at the Metrodome, beating the Lions to make sure they went out in style. Not long after that, ground broke on U.S. Bank Stadium and the Vikings hosted their first home game there on Sept. 18, 2016.

Asked if he could imagine what it would be like if U.S. Bank Stadium collapsed, Ham shook his head and laughed at the thought of it.

“No I couldn’t,” Ham said. “Just being in the middle of the year and having it crumble would be catastrophic.”

Luckily for the Vikings, that should never been an issue at U.S. Bank Stadium, regardless of how many feet of snow future blizzards bring to the Twin Cities.

Not that Metrodome collapsing into itself could ever take away its charm.

“I spent a lot of time at the Metrodome growing up,” Cashman said with a smile. “I have a lot of good memories there.”

Briefly

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By JOSH FUNK

New York is the eighth state found to routinely issue commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants that are valid long after they are no longer legally authorized to be in the country, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday, and he threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds unless the system is fixed and any flawed licenses are revoked.

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New York was the fourth state run by a Democratic governor called out publicly by Duffy in his effort to make sure truck and bus drivers are qualified to either haul passengers or 80,000 pounds of cargo down the highway. He previously questioned similar practices in California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

But letters have gone out to other states as well without fanfare, or comments from Duffy, including Republican-run Texas and South Dakota.

In addition to finding licenses that remained valid longer than they should have, these federal audits have also discovered instances where the states may not have even checked a driver’s immigration status before issuing a license. Investigators check a small sample of licenses in each state.

Duffy launched the review this summer, but it became more prominent after a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people in August. The rules on these licenses the Transportation Department is enforcing have been in place for years.

The AP discovered letters online Friday that were sent to Texas, South Dakota, Colorado, and Washington in October.

Most of the states that have been the focus of the investigation so far have defended their practices and said they were following the federal rules. But Duffy has said the high percentage of problems in some states, combined with the defensive responses from officials, suggests a systematic problem, and he insisted Friday this effort is about safety — not politics.

“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake — it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership,” Duffy said about New York on Friday.

Investigators also found that nearly half of the 123 licenses reviewed in Texas were flawed. Some of the other states involved small numbers, but most of the problems were similar. Since Duffy pressed the issue in California, the state has revoked some 21,000 commercial driver’s licenses that were issued improperly.

The Transportation Department has threatened to withhold federal highway funding from these states — including $182 million in Texas and $160 million in California — if they don’t reform their licensing programs and invalidate any flawed licenses.

So far, no state has lost money because they complied or because they have more time to respond. But as part of a separate review, California lost $40 million for failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers that the Trump administration began enforcing this summer.

States defend their licensing practices

New York State Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson Walter McClure said the state is following all the federal rules.

“Secretary Duffy is lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents. Here is the truth: Commercial Drivers Licenses are regulated by the Federal Government, and New York State DMV has, and will continue to, comply with federal rules,” McClure said in a statement.

Duffy has previously threatened to pull federal funding from New York if the state did not abandon its plan to charge drivers a congestion pricing fee in New York City and if crime on the subway system was not addressed. The Transportation Department also put $18 billion of funding on hold for two major infrastructure projects in New York, including a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, because of concerns about whether the spending was based on diversity, equity and inclusion principles.

A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that “public safety is the Governor’s top priority, and we must ensure that truckers can navigate Texas roadways safely and efficiently. To support this mission, Governor Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to strictly enforce English language proficiency requirements and to stop issuing intrastate commercial driver’s licenses to drivers who do not meet those standards.”

Most of the other states have said they are working to address the concerns the Transportation Department raised.

Previous efforts to restrict immigrant truck drivers

Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but these non-domiciled licenses only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. The Transportation Department also proposed new restrictions that would severely limit which noncitizens could get a license, but a court put the new rules on hold.

Trucking trade groups have praised the effort to get unqualified drivers and drivers who can’t speak English off the road along with the Transportation Department’s actions last week to go after questionable commercial driver’s license schools. But immigrant advocacy groups have raised concerns these actions have led to harassment of immigrant drivers and prompted some of them to abandon the profession.

“For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto our highways, putting professional truckers and the motoring public at risk,” said Todd Spencer, who is president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Associated Press writers Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, and Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, New Jersey, all contributed to this report.