Young Euro Classic 2023: Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Oksana Lyniv

After the highly emotional performance last year, this year’s festival appearance by the young Ukrainian musicians is certainly one to look forward to: their subsequent concert programme in 2022 included 30 concerts in many European countries! The orchestra is led by the internationally sought-after conductor Oksana Lyniv. The Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine presents two contemporary compositions: the brand new orchestral work The Way by the young composer Bohdana Frolyak and Odessa Rhapsody for Two Violins and Symphony Orchestra by the Ukrainian-born composer Evgeni Orkin, the latter a German premiere. The evening begins with a flute highlight: Malcolm Arnold’s brief but impressive Flute Concerto. The final piece offers symphonic contrast: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose dramatic development from the darkness of C minor to the light of C Major also offers a musical sign of hope in these dispiriting times of war.