Two sumptuous works of poetry sourced the music in the first half of the Minnesota Orchestra’s latest concert, while the music itself became the poetry after intermission. In a program conducted by music director Thomas Søndergård and featuring soprano Julia Bullock, the orchestra delivered a ravishing evening of imagery and dynamism.

Starting out with the relatively obscure “Lamia” Symphonic Poem for Orchestra by Dorothy Howell, based on a John Keats poem, the evening moved to Benjamin Britten’s “Les Illuminations,” Opus 19 bringing Arthur Rimbaud’s extravagant symbolist poetry to life. Then the orchestra performed Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Titan.” In its original form, Mahler named the work a Symphonic poem, and the work carried forward that poetic label — ripe with imagery and surprises.

Howell’s “Lamia” was first performed in 1919. The poem inspiring it centers on a serpent who convinces the God Hermes to turn her into a human. In the Minnesota Orchestra’s performance, Howell’s music slithered. The work was full of revelations, from whimsical moments to heroic jaunts, dancing castanets and hallucinatory visions. Following Lamia’s journey from snake to bride to ether, the music was dizzyingly seductive.

Julia Bullock did her own translations for the supertitles of “Les Illuminations,” allowing the audience to follow along on Rimbaud’s outlandish poetry. From mystical cities to Bacchanalian romps, the poetry was vivid and subversive.

“I alone have the key to this savage parade,” Bullock sang numerous times in the song cycle. In the music, Rimbaud’s prose poem lyrics grappled with the artist’s role in making sense of the universe, even at its most surreal.

A Grammy award-winner for her album “Waiting in the Dark,” which she made with her husband, Christian Reif, Bullock demonstrated her majestic voice with the Minnesota Orchestra. Her tone was cozy and enveloping, as she employed use of the space in her body to resonate to the max. Bullock easily handled the moody and dramatic lyrics, and demonstrated her significant range in the work.

After intermission, Søndergård led the orchestra through a formidable presentation of Mahler’s first symphony. The orchestra previously recorded with former director Osmo Vanska in 2019, and before that, were the first orchestra ever to record the First Symphony in 1940, under the direction of Dimitri Mitropoulos.

Brass instruments get some of the showiest moments in the piece, from off-stage playing to dramatic moments where they stood up to play. There was perhaps a stray note here or there coming from the brass section, but their power and showiness made up for it.

The first movement painted a lush pastoral scene, ending in a huge explosion of sound, bursting with speed and momentum. The second movement featured a robust dancing rhythm, similarly wildly flourishing at the end of the movement.

In the third movement, “Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen,” Mahler drew on the children’s tune “Frère Jacques,” which moves around the orchestra as a round. After that, the composer shifted into the sound of an Eastern European folk song. The third movement ended in a hushed whisper, followed by a startling jolt.

Fireworks awaited for the last movement, “Stürmisch bewegt,” as the orchestra shared its tremendous weight and sweeping drama.

Next up

What: Erin Keefe Plays Beethoven

When: 11 a.m. Thursday, March 13, 8 p.m. Friday, March 14

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $36-$110

Capsule: Following a tremendous concert with music director Thomas Søndergård and soprano Julia Bullock, the Minnesota Orchestra next features concertmaster Erin Keefe.

Amy Lindgren

Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the seventh of 12 columns on AI and work, which will appear the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column described AI tools for resumes and cover letters, while previous columns looked at best practices for companies using AI; tips for using ChatGPT; work opportunities with artificial intelligence; AI use in the hiring process; and an overview of artificial intelligence in general. 

Do you ever wish that you could pair up with someone for interview practice, or to give you ideas for answering difficult questions? Maybe you’re anticipating an asynchronous AI video interview in which your completed session will be reviewed by someone later — it would be nice to practice that format before it counts, right?

These are just a few of the ways job candidates are using artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare for interviews. They’re also using AI to help analyze a company’s position in the market, to identify opportunities and challenges a company might be facing, and to learn more about the trends occurring in particular industries.

If you’d like to use AI for your own interview preparation, read on.

Quick review of AI tools related to interviews

This list is short, but it should give you a starting point. While these tools offer enough free features for initial use, you can also pay for upgrades. To access each one, just type the name as given into your browser search bar.

• ChatGPT or Google Gemini –These are general AI tools that can be prompted in numerous ways that relate to interviews. In addition to specific information (“What are current trends for the risk management profession?”), these sites can generate potential interview questions and conduct mock interviews with feedback.

• Google Interview Warmup — This tool asks five basic questions and gives feedback on your responses. It’s simple but sometimes that’s a feature.

• Yoodli — This site operates like a speech coach, helping individuals prepare for interviews, presentations and even awkward conversations. To make best use of the offerings, start with online tutorials.

• HireVue — As a leading vendor to HR departments, HireVue is known for creating the asynchronous, AI-led interviews you might encounter as part of the hiring process. But they offer options for job candidates as well, so it’s worth a look to see what you can learn.

Tips for writing good prompts

When using an AI tool, your success will depend on the request, or “prompt” that you put in. A simple prompt such as “Give me three interview questions” will produce results but they won’t necessarily relate to your field.

Try instead, “You are an interviewer in a medical device company and I am the candidate for a communications job. Ask me three questions including one that is behavioral.” This will take some practice but eventually you will identify the prompts that provide the best practice for you.

What to watch out for

It’s easy to forget that AI tools, whether they’re free or subscription-based, are still AI. By their nature, they will collect and build on anything you share. That’s a warning to keep confidential data and personal information to yourself as you participate in these processes. Just modify your materials and answers to account for AI’s persistent kleptomania and you’ll still gain value without giving away state secrets.

More resources

If you’d like to become more proficient in using artificial intelligence to practice interviewing, try putting “free AI interviewing courses” into your search engine’s browser bar. I did and one of the resources that popped up was for Great Learning. Their web site doesn’t show the free classes easily, but using “Great Learning free courses” in your search engine will yield a list to peruse. This particular site leans to the technical sciences, but there are general courses mixed in, including one for using Google’s Gemini AI tool for interview prep.

As always, this short primer is only a sampling of the AI interviewing tools you might encounter online, and probably an even smaller slice of what will be available just a few months from now. For that reason, my best advice is to not worry about finding the perfect resource at this stage. Just choose something to try and if it works for you, that’s all you need.

Come back next month and we’ll take a look at more AI tools to help candidates build a successful job search process.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

By ANDREW DeMILLO

A history of aerobiology would normally be a book that would have little interest beyond the science community. But in “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breath,” Carl Zimmer transforms the topic into something that reads like a combination of detective and horror stories.

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Zimmer creates a highly relevant and gripping history of the study of the air that spans from Louis Pasteur holding a glass globe on a glacier to scientists racing to fight COVID-19 during the pandemic.

The book shows what a vital role the science of airborne life has played in the fight against COVID, influenza and other diseases. Zimmer also introduces readers to figures little known to the mass public who have played a role in the field’s evolution.

They include William Firth Wells, a pioneer in aerobiology whose work was crucial in understanding how airborne diseases spread, especially during the pandemic.

Zimmer’s book also shows how the work of Wells and other scientists was distorted into something that was used as the basis of biological weapons.

Using the outbreak among a Washington state choir, Zimmer chillingly describes how COVID-19 spread through the air and the frustrating rifts among health officials during the pandemic about addressing to the public that the virus was airborne.

As Zimmer puts it, the pandemic “made the ocean of gases surrounding us visible.” His book is a key guide for understanding that ocean.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews