Review: Osmo Vänskä returns to play with Minnesota Orchestra. So does his theatrical oomph.

Osmo’s back.

When conductor Osmo Vänskä left his post as Minnesota Orchestra music director in June of 2022 after 19 years, he made clear that he was headed into something like retirement, as he was also leaving his other job with South Korea’s Seoul Philharmonic. But he did hold onto one title: conductor laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra, allowing him periodic reunions with his old band.

For those with fond memories of his hyperactive podium presence and imaginative interpretations, this weekend marks your lone opportunity of the 2024-25 season to experience that. Thursday’s midday concert at Orchestra Hall served as a welcome reminder that Vänskä is indeed a tremendously enjoyable conductor to watch in action. And the Minnesota Orchestra still plays exceptionally well when he’s wielding the baton, as each piece was both thoroughly thought out and placed emotional expression at the forefront.

It was all music of 1945 and later, the oldest work being Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. But more memorable was the centerpiece, English composer William Walton’s 1957 Cello Concerto, which featured the orchestra’s longtime principal cellist, Anthony Ross, as soloist. It proved an engrossing showcase for both Ross and the orchestra.

The concert began with a work that one can trace to Vänskä’s tenure in Seoul. He’s become an international advocate for South Korean composer Donghoon Shin’s four-movement tone poem “Upon His Ghostly Solitude,” having conducted its premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last year and its European premiere with a German orchestra last year. And it fits well with Vänskä’s propensity for pieces that allow the orchestra to create varied sound worlds.

The work was at its most involving during an “Interlude” that gradually built from virtual silence to something intensely urgent. And it became clear that Vänskä and Shin share a mutual love of Gustav Mahler, for a fractured waltz and an absurdist march both echoed that composer’s taste for sending conventional forms slightly sideways.

Yet the interpretation that intrigued me the most was that of the Walton Cello Concerto. Never have I heard its opening theme sound so much like a question to which the soloist and orchestra seem to be seeking an answer throughout the work. It defies customary concerto structure by bookending a single fast movement with a pair of slow ones, and the first movement was full of mystery and unease.

Ross was most impressive in a high-energy central movement, his agile fingers and bowing arm deftly shifting moods from anxious uncertainty to high melodic phrases, sweetly sung. He was a master of such segues throughout the work, never more memorably than during a somber but impassioned conclusion that reflected upon the opening question once again and answered it with phrases full of affection and tenderness.

And there was plenty of the old Vänskä theatricality and emotional oomph to be found in Prokofiev’s Fifth. While often erupting forcefully, it was most impactful when at its quietest, as when the cellos laid a whispering foundation for a first-movement theme or summoned up a reflective mood on a sumptuous Adagio. The conductor looked every bit the dancing Vänskä of old, on a propulsive and playful second movement.

All in all, consider it a very successful reunion.

With: Conductor Osmo Vänskä and cellist Anthony Ross.

What: Works by Donghoon Shin, William Walton and Sergei Prokofiev.

When: 8 p.m. Fri., 7 p.m. Sat.

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $31-$106, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org.

Classical music writer Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.