(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 30, 2001)

Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 is a carousel ride, a visit to the funhouse and a gob of cotton candy, all rolled into one.

Pianist Terrence Wilson, 25, left none of that out in his performance with the Cincinnati Symphony Thursday night at Music Hall, which swept the crowd to its feet at its head-banging conclusion.

Joining Wilson in the well-deserved applause was guest conductor Robert Spano in his overdue CSO debut.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 29, 2001)

López-Cobos and the CSO go all mushy on their newest disc from Telarc - mushy-romantic, that is.

How else to treat Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, which has inspired pulsing movie themes, from ''Gone With the Wind'' on, not to mention pop songs (''Never Gonna' Fall in Love Again'')?   - [Read more]

A smile can be a dangerous thing.

(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 24, 2001)

It was for Jewish folk musician Mordecai Gebirtig, shot by a Nazi guard as he was being herded onto a train for Auschwitz. The provocation? Gebirtig smiled and couldn't stop.

Composer Joel Hoffman has captured this moment in "The Smile," a tone poem commissioned by Hebrew Union College in honor of its 125th anniversary. Based on materials Hoffman has written for an upcoming opera about Gebirtig, the work received its world premiere by Jesús López-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony Friday morning at Music Hall.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Feb. 21, 2001)

In addition to giving it overall appeal, Cincinnati Symphony music director designate Paavo Järvi utilized two "guiding principles" in planning the CSO's 2001-2002 season, his first with the orchestra: young composers and young artists.
  - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Feb. 5, 2001)

MADRID. Midway through their European tour with music director Jesús Lopez-Cobos, members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have sampled Spanish treats, branched out in art appreciation and enjoyed a warm reception in three concerts.

Now it's on to Germany for three more performances, then a stop in Poland before heading home Sunday.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 31, 2001)

Rain followed the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to Spain for the first leg of its European tour this week. Bilbao, where the orchestra landed after a changeover in Frankfurt Sunday, was cold and rainy, putting a damper on the group's free day Monday. A car bombing Sunday in San Sebastian and demonstrations outside one of the Bilbao tour hotels Tuesday and Wednesday were reminders of continuing unrest by Basque separatists, who seek autonomy from Spain.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 26, 2001)

Coming full circle.

That's how music director Jesús López-Cobos describes the Cincinnati Symphony's upcoming European tour.

The CSO, which leaves Cincinnati Saturday, will visit three countries and eight cities on the two-week tour. Stops include Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid (Spain), Munich, Rosenheim, Mannheim and Berlin (Germany) and Warsaw (Poland).   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 20, 2001)

Cincinnati Symphony music director Jesus Lopez-Cobos got his wish Friday night at Music Hall. No one applauded.

After the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, that is. The hyper-charged march movement typically inspires clapping, but Lopez-Cobos forestalled it - as he genially put it in remarks to the audience - "before it's too late." It made for a wonderful moment, as the rousing Allegro yielded with scarcely a pause to the plangent strings of the finale.

The concert was a preview of the one Lopez-Cobos and the CSO will perform Monday evening in New York's Carnegie Hall and beginning Jan. 29, on a two-week tour of Europe.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 13, 2001)

Cincinnati Symphony music director Jesús López-Cobos let his hands fall slowly at the end of Verdi's "Requiem" Friday at Music Hall.

It was a reverent moment in a reverent performance. Joining Lopez-Cobos and the CSO were the May Festival Chorus, soprano soloist Alessandra Marc, mezzo-soprano Florence Quivar, tenor Marcus Haddock and bass Simon Estes.

Verdi's monumental work seldom appears on CSO subscription concerts, it being more the domain of the May Festival. The rare CSO outing honored the 100th anniversary of the composer's death.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 8, 2001)

Attendance at Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concerts for the first half of the 2000-01 season has grown by 5 percent over this time last year, according to a mid-season CSO sales report. This includes subscriptions, single ticket and group sales.

Figures released by the CSO show double-digit increases in some categories.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 8, 2001)

Who's Keith Lockhart?

No offense to the conductor of the Boston Pops, formerly music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, but his successor at the CCO, Mischa Santora, is filling his shoes just fine.

Sunday afternoon's CCO concert at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine was further evidence that the 29-year-old Santora, in his first season as CCO music director, has nothing to fear from Lockhart's shadow.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Oct. 8, 1992)

From Beethoven to Broadway, Saturday's gala performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's Corbett Auditorium celebrates 125 years of CCM history.

On hand for the event will be a flurry of CCM alumni, who will celebrate their alma mater with a weekend of reunion activities. They'll renew friendships, reminisce about the old Cincinnati Conservatory and the College of Music - CCM's parent schools - and hear CCM's plans for expansion.

At the gala, they'll toast star alumnae such as Metropolitan Opera soprano Barbara Daniels, pianist Anton Nel, musical-theater stars Michele Pawk and Lee Roy Reams and actress Sarah Jessica Parker ("Honeymoon in Vegas"). Tony- winner Faith Prince ("Guys and Dolls") and director Hal Prince will join in via videotape.

Performing the Beethoven Ninth will be Gerhard Samuel and the Philharmonia Orchestra, a team about which CCM can be particularly joyous.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Aug. 1, 1992)

It was viva von Stade at Friday night's Cincinnati Symphony concert at Riverbend.

Frederica von Stade, that is. And that was no chilly diva singing bare- shouldered on one of the coldest nights of the summer. The famed mezzo- soprano with the creamy voice warmed the crowd with her sunny smile and her nimble, affecting singing.

Dubbed "Viva Italia," the program celebrated the vocal legacy of Gioacchino Rossini. One of today's great Rossini mezzos, Ms. von Stade joined Jesús López-Cobos and the CSO in three of his arias.   - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post July 27, 1992)

Thunderstorms darkened the sky at Saturday night's Cincinnati Symphony concert at Riverbend, but they could not dim the crowd's enthusiasm for violinist Itzhak Perlman.

In fact, many in the pavilion were unaware of a downpour minutes into the concert - and lawn patrons were able to dash under the roof.

In the Brahms Concerto, Perlman demonstrated again his awesome mastery: enormous power put at the service of art. The variety of attack he achieves with his bow and the ease with which he negotiates the fingerboard create a richness of expression unexcelled among today's violinists. Simply put, the violin sings in his hands.
  - [Read more]

(first published in The Cincinnati Post July 23, 1992)

He plays Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

He also crosses over into Brubeck, Joplin and P.D.Q. Bach.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post July 23, 1992)

But whatever violinist Itzhak Perlman plays, "it's got to work," he said, in a telephone interview from New York.

"Just to say, let's have some famous Broadway composer write you a violin piece, if it doesn't work, I don't care how attractive it looks on paper."

There'll be no such tricks up Perlman's sleeve when he performs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Saturday night at Riverbend. He'll be playing the Brahms Violin Concerto, one of the hardy perennials of the violin repertoire.   - [Read more]