HAVANA — The Teatro Nacional, a 2,056-seat theater on the Plaza de la Revolución, was sold out. Two dozen photographers and videographers swarmed the aisles. The Minnesota Orchestra’s concert here Friday night was greeted not only as a rare chance to hear an orchestra from overseas, but as a symbol of the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba.

The concert, the first by a large United States orchestra here in more than 15 years, was greeted with several standing ovations — and huge cheers when the Minnesotans teamed up with the Cuban pianist Frank Fernández and two local choirs to perform Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy.”

“They played beautifully — they send you to the clouds,” Graciela Fonseca, 73, said after it ended, adding that she viewed the concert as a sign of friendship between the two nations.

It was not your typical concert at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Tickets here cost around 50 cents, with students paying only half that — part of an effort to make cultural events accessible in a country where salaries are low, said Rafael Vega, the director of the theater, which also presents ballet, concerts, plays and comedy. The concert sold out quickly.