Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra at Ordway (November 30, 2025)
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra featured violinist Kyu-Young Kim playing Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto in a strong finish to the Thanksgiving weekend.
- Aaron Copland: Three Latin-American Sketches (11 min)
- Estribillo
- Paisaje Mexicano
- Danza de Jalisco
- Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2 (12 min)
- Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 (26 min)
- Allegro moderato
- Andante assai
- Allegro, ben marcato
🎵 Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 with Richard Egarr & Roderick Williams
Oct 31–Nov 2 | Saint Paul
🎵 Eunice Kim Plays Saint-Saëns’ Third Violin Concerto
Nov 7–9 | Saint Paul & Minneapolis
🎵 Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite
Nov 21–22 | Eden Prairie & Saint Paul
🎵 Kyu-Young Kim Plays Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto
Nov 28–30 | Saint Paul
🎟️ Tickets start at just $16 for adults. Kids and students of all ages get free tickets to SPCO concerts. #linkinbio
With icy conditions, I wasn’t excited about heading out on the slippery roads. But in a pleasant twist of fate, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra had partnered with Metro Transit to offer free rides for the weekend’s concert series. This is something I have seen more often recently with different sporting and arts events, and it’s a really great idea. A train ride later, I was in downtown Saint Paul which was hopping on a Sunday afternoon. There was the 45th Annual Hmong New Year taking place at the St. Paul RiverCentre, which had 30,000 guests in 2024. Next door at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, the Music Theater looked very busy with a production of The Notebook, and I finally made my way over to the Concert Hall to see the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with violinist Kyu-Young Kim being the featured player for Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto.
The first half of the program started with American composer Aaron Copland’s Three Latin American Sketches. Written over a long period with two in 1959 and the third not until 1971, they pull from traditional Latin American folk music. That latter creation, Estribillo, was one of Copland’s final compositions and the SPCO jumped into the heavily syncopated rhythm, with a bright brass solo right near the front and close. The second movement had a quiet and beautiful opening and was just a wonderful piece of music. The complete control by the players to stay in that quieter register and not rush along made the close particularly delightful. The third movement, Danza de Jalisco, was back to the faster, brighter sound and had pianist Casey Rafn clapping at several points, making a very vaquero-like atmosphere.
A slight change over in performers led to the other piece in the first act, Danzón No. 2, perhaps the best known work of Mexican composer Arturo Márquez. The piece, written in the 1990’s, has become a wildly popular one in classical music circles, and the opening strains and hypnotic rhythms made it easy to see why. Violins and violas got a great section that led into a latin dance-esque section that was a lot of fun. Rafn’s piano work was pretty integral and seemed to be the instrument marking the transitions within the different sections of the piece. A big swell in the music had most members on their feet before slowly sitting back down in a neat visual moment. Brass led the speedy and powerful final section that could easily have been the basis of a latin pop hit.
After a very lengthy intermission (a delay seemingly caused by a minor medical issue in the balcony), it was time for the Second Violin Concerto, by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Written in 1935, just a year before his famous Peter and the Wolf, this was his final commission prior to his moving back to Russia. The concerto started with Kyu-Young Kim starting solo with the theme right away. It quickly moved to the backing strings and Kim was off to the races with some complex and quick work. With the expected darker minor chords occasionally coming in, the early movement was still mostly defined by the bright and rapid work with Kim excellently working off the rest of the chamber orchestra.
The bassoons got a fun moment riffing through a good backing section. A slightly dissonant section included some plucked notes from all of the strings as the first movement ended. By comparison, the second movement was much more serene and musically simpler. Kim stayed busy on lead, but much of the rest of the orchestra was on some pretty straightforward music for the section, although it started to build towards the end of the section. The complexity returned in the third movement, with double basses getting some early highlights. This section also had Kim’s lead violin contrasting nicely with the remainder of the orchestra’s violins. Kim got a small break, but he was back with some of the longest and sustained runs of the entire piece. This led to a quick increase in tempo and the final frenzied flourish to the finale. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra got a strong ovation from the crowd, who then headed back out to the much colder outdoor conditions.
