One of the best concerts of the season will be heard in May. In the program’s first part, the innovative conductor Osmo Vänskä will need a gymful of body motion to conduct Kalevi Aho’s Minea, which has been mesmerizing audiences since it premiered two years ago. After that, Hilary Hahn, the lady with the best tone in the business, will conquer Sergei Prokofiev’s spiky Violin Concerto No. 1, whose second movement sounds like “scrape city” in lesser hands. Be sure to listen for the ingenious instrumental effects, and enjoy the “too Romantic” sounds that critics badmouthed at its 1923 premiere.
Minea’s name is a truncation and letter-drop of Minneapolis, the home of the symphony Vänskä directs, which commissioned the music. Both Vänskä and composer Aho hail from Finland, another place known for its severe winters, but this piece is wayabove zero in temperature. It’s more like a summer Sahara dust storm of a concerto for orchestra, full of oboe arabesques and relentless drumbeats — an 18-minute crescendo and accelerando. It’s not to be missed: You can see a preview with the Lahti Symphony or listen to a podcast of the music on the Internet.
And the frosting? Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony. Hear what the mid-20th century’s greatest symphonist came up with not long after he achieved worldwide fame with his Fifth. The work is unusual, and intriguingly problematic.