Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with a program showcasing works by Slavic composers, some based on folklore and/or fairytales, including a U.S. premiere performance.
Under guest conductor Oksana Lyniv, music director of the Teatro Communale di Bologna, the orchestra opened with an intriguing performance of said premiere, Five Interrupted Lullabies by Ukrainian composer Evgeni Orkin. Written to commemorate the events of March 2, 2024, when five infants were killed as the result of a rocket attack in Odessa, Ukraine, it drew much of its musical inspiration from Second Viennese School composers like Anton Webern in its spare orchestral textures and late works by Mahler in evoking the haunting desolation the attack wrought on the city.
Korean-American violinist Esther Yoo made a welcome return to @musichallcincy to perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. While much more intimate and supple than his second concerto, the work did give Yoo plenty of opportunities to show off her keen virtuosic flair. This was particularly prominent in the first and second movements, even if the balance and communication between soloist and conductor did feel slightly off-kilter. Violinist Yoo encored with a rarely-heard duet, joined by CSO concertmaster Stefani Matsuo in the second movement of Prokofiev’s Opus 56 Sonata for Two Violins.
Vltava (The Moldau) is perhaps Bedřich Smetana’s most-performed orchestral work, one of six symphonic poems from the larger cycle Má Vlast. The orchestra turned in a fine, delicately balanced performance to open the second half, with Maestra Lyniv bringing a surprisingly subdued yet nuanced interpretation. Moving from popular to relatively obscure, the CSO closed with Antonín Dvořák’s tone poem The Golden Spinning Wheel.
One of four tone poems based on literary ballads by Karol Jaromir Erben, this work had, until this evening, been performed only one previous time in Cincinnati in October 1957. It was brought back wonderfully in the newly revitalized Music Hall. However, there were moments where tempos felt faster than expected or communication between conductor and the musicians felt out of sync. An enjoyable evening nonetheless