Gluzman Inhabits Bernstein
Posted: Mar 16, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Leonard Bernstein wrote more than “West Side Story.” Violinist Vadim Gluzman made that abundantly clear with Bernstein’s
1954 Serenade, “after Plato’s ‘Symposium’” Thursday night at Music Hall. It was the second time the Israeli violinist has performed Serenade
with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The first was in 1999, his CSO
debut.
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In Music Russia Rules
Posted: Mar 10, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
"The 20th-century belongs to the Russians," said Paavo Järvi preceding Friday night's Cincinnati Symphony concert at Music Hall. "Look at the real giants, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich." It's hard to argue with him, especially when he goes on to
demonstrate it so convincingly, and so did the evening's guest artist
Yefim Bronfman in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.
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Hearing and Seeing is Believing
Posted: Mar 3, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
If you'd like to have a good time, hurry down to Music Hall tonight and
buy a ticket for the Cincinnati Symphony on the left hand side. Get as close as you can, so you can see and hear pianist Denis
Matsuev in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. You can see the pianist’s
hands on the left side of the hall and watch the interaction between
Matsuev and CSO assistant conductor Eric Dudley, who led Friday’s
matinee.
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Munoz, Chee-Yun Brighten Drab Night
Posted: Feb 26, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Tito Munoz is a young man on his way. The native New
Yorker, who joined Eric Dudley as one of the Cincinnati Symphony's two
assistant conductors last fall, made his CSO subscription debut Saturday night
at Music Hall.
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Gergiev Roars in Cincinnati
Posted: Feb 23, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Valery Gergiev
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Josefowicz Grooves in Adams Concerto
Posted: Feb 17, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Aaron Copland was smiling down on Music Hall last night. Literally, from the Cincinnati Symphony's season banner hanging in the
foyer, and in spirit during Friday night's CSO concert on the same
stage where his famous "Fanfare for the Common Man" was premiered in
1943. The program, led by guest conductor Michael Christie, included Copland's "Fanfare" and his 1946 Symphony No. 3.
Paired with them was the Violin Concerto by John Adams given a brilliant, over-the-top performance by guest artist Leila Josefowicz.
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Paired with them was the Violin Concerto by John Adams given a brilliant, over-the-top performance by guest artist Leila Josefowicz.
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Kreizberg, Fischer Dazzle
Posted: Feb 10, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
There were 69 students from Wyoming Middle School at Friday morning's
Cincinnati Symphony concert at Music Hall. They came to hear violinist
Julia Fischer, 23, make her CSO debut. They were not disappointed. Fischer's performance of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto under guest
conductor Yakov Kreizberg was uncommonly fine. However, it's a shame that the students had to return to class, for the second half of the program, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11, "The Year 1905," was a virtual history lesson.
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Old Salt Kunzel Leads Splashy Show
Posted: Feb 3, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
A splashy show greeted Friday night's Cincinnati Pops audience at Music Hall. There were sea chanteys by the U.S. Navy Sea Chanters, sword fights by
drama students from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory
of Music, a hornpipe by the McGing Irish Dancers and aerialist
Alexander Streltsov dangling artfully from "rigging" over the stage. Most of all, there was music about the sea led by Pops conductor Erich
Kunzel, an old salt himself who regularly navigates the Atlantic in his
44-foot jet cruiser "Pops."
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Tanya, Anya Warm Winter Afternoon
Posted: Jan 29, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Violinist Tatiana Berman and pianist Anna Polusmiak might as well give in. They are a publicist’s dream. It’s not just their names, Tanya and Anya, which are likely to
stick. Nor their twentysomething youth, drop-dead good looks and
similar cultural backgrounds. (Berman is from Russia, Polusmiak from
Ukraine. Russian is their common language.) They simply make beautiful music together.
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Järvi, May Festival Chorus Make Mozart Vivid
Posted: Jan 27, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
How's your Latin? Gloria Deo. The May Festival Chorus'
is fine. The 140-member chorus, splendidly prepared by chorus director
Robert Porco, demonstrated that and much more in Mozart's Mass in C Minor ("The
Great") with Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Friday night at Music
Hall.
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Let It Snow
Posted: Jan 22, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
There was a snowman in Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine Sunday
afternoon. Across the street, inside Memorial Hall, an intrepid band of
music lovers (less than 200, I would guesstimate) braved the weather to
enjoy a well-crafted program by Mischa Santora and the Cincinnati
Chamber Orchestra.
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Hard on the Tear Ducts
Posted: Jan 19, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s fall 2007 Telarc CD conducted by music director Paavo Järvi may need a warning label. Not to beware blowing out your speakers -- although with Tchaikovsky that can be a risk – but for musically induced hyperactivity of the lacrimal glands (uncontrollable weeping).
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R(achmaninoff) is for Romance
Posted: Jan 18, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Go on. Indulge yourself. Paavo Järvi’s 11th CD with the CSO is like a hot fudge sundae with a ginger cookie and a shot of vodka. Paired with Rachmaninoff’s mega-hit Second Symphony is his 1888 Scherzo
(his first work for orchestra, written at age 15), and two dances from
“Aleko,” an 1893 opera about gypsy life from his student days at the
Moscow Conservatory.
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KSO, UK Triumphant Team in Concert "Boheme"
Posted: Jan 15, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
They were all crying as tenor Stuart Neill broke the leaden silence
with his heart-rending "Mimi" Sunday afternoon at Singletary Center in
Lexington.
It was the end of Puccini's "La Boheme," a concert performance by the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and University of Kentucky Opera Theater led by KSO music director James R. Cassidy.
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It was the end of Puccini's "La Boheme," a concert performance by the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and University of Kentucky Opera Theater led by KSO music director James R. Cassidy.
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Järvi Begins New Year on a Somber Note
Posted: Jan 13, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM in: reviews_2007
Lighten up, you might say. The Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra's first concert of the new year Friday night at Music Hall was more
mind-blowing and midwinter than merry, with lots of dark tone colors and food
for thought. Music director Paavo Järvi offered his listeners
a program whose sum equaled more than its parts. Sibelius' Symphony No. 4, Berg's Violin Concerto and
Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" might seem randomly chosen. On closer
inspection, their inter-relationships are extraordinary.
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