“The past month has been a good one for music of Antonín Dvořák at Orchestra Hall,” writes Lawrence A. Johnson in Friday’s (12/10) Chicago Classical Review. “In November Jakub Hrůša led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in an exhilarating performance of the Czech composer’s infrequently heard Symphony No. 6. And Thursday night Hilary Hahn returned to Chicago as solo protagonist in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto … the first fruit of Hahn’s appointment as the orchestra’s debut artist-in-residence…. Hahn … brings not just sterling technical gleam but individuality and communicative expression to every performance…. Most striking was the way in which she conveyed the fantasia quality of Dvořák’s music…. Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the evening’s conductor, [drew] fiery and spirited playing from the orchestra…. The evening led off with the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Haillí-Serenata [inspired by Frank’s] trip to Cajamarca, Peru, where the Incas were defeated by the Spanish army. There she saw cantadiores mestizos accompanying themselves on guitars while praying to their ancestors…. Scored solely for strings, Frank’s … score communicates a certain hypnotic aura in its spiritual melancholy. Orozco-Estrada led a dynamically alert performance … that made a worthy case.” Also on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
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