The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is often touted as an ensemble that can play anything under the sun. But Friday morning's performance featured selections by composers inspired by everything above the sun.

        From Samuel Barber's work about Medea, a sorceress descended from the Sun god, to Gustav Holst's The Planets, the CSO tackled the cosmos with the capabilities of a world-class orchestra.

        Barber composed the concert opener, Medea's Meditation and Dance of the Vengeance, Opus 23A, as a ballet score for choreographer Martha Graham.

        Under the direction of conductor John Morris Russell, the orchestra was balanced and alert. A cohesive orchestra is imperative because the composition features many short passages devoted to one or a few sections of the orchestra. The measure-long passages are like dialogue and emulate the dancer's movements.

        The dialogue becomes less lyrical and more angular as the tempo quickens, until a slam in the percussion section brings the piece to an end. Not your typical happy-ending show opener.

        Guest violinist Elmar Oliveria performed another of Barber's works, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 14. Both the “Allegro” and “Andante” — simple, elegant and lyrical — were rendered beautifully. Mr. Oliveria barely moves when he plays and the effect is calming. He evoked a both a sense of control that comes with being a virtuoso as well as a oneness with the orchestra.

        A series of triplets and the sixteenth notes dominate the third movement, “Presto in moto perpetuo.” Here, Mr. Oliveria performed with vigor and tenacity. It was the most down-to-earth moment in the show — audience members rose to their feet before his bow left the strings.

        War reaps tragedy, but in such emotive times, it also has the ability to reap enormous artistic successes. The music of Holst and Barber used war as inspiration.

        Several parts of Holst's tour de force, The Planets, were composed after the onset of World War I. And although “Mars, the Bringer of War,” is in fact a march — it is a lopsided march, composed in 5/4 time.

        The CSO charged through the ominous opening, the brass and percussion sections delivered driven work, and held back for “Venus: the Bringer of Peace,” without surrendering entirely to ethereal music, allowing for the undercurrent of tension to be felt.

        The show closed with “Neptune, the Mystic,” which featured the Women of the May Festival Chorus, directed by Robert Porco.Because the chorus was out of view of the audience, the sounds of the women' voices seemed underwater. They slowly became audible, gradually grew louder, then softer, until they simply disappeared.

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