Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony opened its February slate of concerts with exhilarating performances of a pair of 20th-century masterpieces by Witold Lutosławski and Dimitri Shostakovich. Under the direction of Romanian guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru (@cristian.macelaru), the orchestra was first joined by guest cellist Kian Soltani (@kian.soltani_cellist) for Lurosławski’s Cello Concerto, who provided an insightful explanation of both the unusual structure of the piece as well as an overarching musical story it depicts of engaging in a kind of battle against the orchestra.
Written for the Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich in 1970, the concerto unfolds over four continuous sections, beginning and ending with solo cello alone, engaging in a demanding journey through the emotional spectrum of its timbres, interrupted by atonal and unmetered interjections from brass, percussion and strings through the second and third movements. Musically, it seemed fitting for a horror movie soundtrack (ex. The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby), but it also showed how writing for a solo instrument could be taken to new depths of creativity. Soltani encored with one of his own compositions, a dramatic Persian Fire Dance.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, written in 1957, is one of the pinnacles of Russian symphonic writing to emerge from the late 1950s. Subtitled ‘The Year 1905’ and inspired by the events of January 22, 1905, when demonstrators were overpowered by Czarist guards at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
The symphony ran the full emotional gamut, from a haunting opening for strings in the first and third movement to the blaring sounds of full orchestra in the second and fourth movements.
Măcelaru’s conducting throughout was both elegant and possessed fiery passion when called for. A prominent example of the latter came in the second and fourth movements’ bracing percussion and wind figurations evoking the horrors of the Russian Revolution. I certainly hope Shostakovich’s symphonies are played more often in Cincinnati, as they are most definitely high-profile events worth seeking out.