Bruce Hodges visits Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Hall on 14 January 2026 for the performance of Dvořák, Skoryk, Akimenko and Mendelssohn
Among many moments worth noting in this evening starring Yo-Yo Ma, the lasting takeaway was the stirring encore (‘Melody’ by the Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk) for the soloist and the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In its wake came 30 seconds of silence, with Ma’s eyes closed, his bow poised in the air, and conductor Dalia Stasevska motionless, arms at her sides. The audience met the moment in a way that rarely happens.
Of course, all hell broke loose afterwards, as it also did when Ma reached the end of the Dvořák Cello Concerto, which he must have aced hundreds of times over his career. These days, he hardly looks at his instrument.
On this occasion he often turned left, to gaze and smile at his cello colleagues in the ensemble, or in the final movement, to glance to the right for the exquisite duet with violinist Juliette Kang. Stasevska, entering and exiting the stage with arms around the soloist each time, was clearly in awe of the superstar.
But Ma was not the only newsworthy sequence: to open came the Nocturne (1910) by Ukrainian-born composer Fyodor Akimenko (1876–1945) in its first Philadelphia Orchestra performance.
For strings alone, it feels like a breath slowly inhaled, and as it is exhaled, scarcely four minutes later, it’s over. Though the Mendelssohn ‘Italian’ Symphony that closed the evening was sprightly, with a feverish finale, the tenderly unfolding Akimenko made the more lasting impression.
Bruce Hodges
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