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Berman, Kholodova Create Stirring Narrative

    Posted: Apr 18, 2015 - 2:08:00 PM in: reviews_2015
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Tatiana Berman
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Elena Kholodova
The 2015 Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts continued April 16 at Woodward Theater in Over-the-Rhine with a musical program that was also a personal narrative by violinist/Constella managing artistic director Tatiana Berman. Performing with her was collaborative pianist Elena Kholodova.

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Music Hall Welcomes Bounty of Works

    Posted: Mar 21, 2015 - 12:49:49 AM in: reviews_2015
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra dedicated its concert March 20 at Music Hall to former creative director Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, who died in June, 2014. Led by guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, the program included works by Rossini, Beethoven, Joaquín Turina and Ottorino Respighi. Turina's Theme and Variations for Harp and String Orchestra was performed in the version prepared by Frühbeck, who was originally to have conducted this concert. Soloist in the Beethoven Concerto was Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, with CSO principal harpist Gillian Benet Sella taking the spotlight in the Turina.
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MusicNOW, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Score Again

    Posted: Mar 17, 2015 - 2:28:16 PM in: reviews_2015
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Louis Langrée leading the CSO at MusicNOW 2015 at Music Hall
Cincinnati's MusicNOW Festival and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by music director Louis
Langrée  presented the world premiere of Daniel Bjarnason's "Collider" and works by Bryce Dessner, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, David Lang and Edgar Varèse March 14 at Music Hall. It was the second night of the second annual collaboration between MusicNOW and the CSO.
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MusicNOW, Cincinnati Symphony Partner for 2nd Year

    Posted: Mar 16, 2015 - 12:33:44 PM in: reviews_2015
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MusicNOW art installation in Music Hall by Karl Jensen
Cincinnati's MusicNOW Festival, now ten years old, has found a natural partner in Louis
Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The second annual collaboration between the two (which comprises two concerts this year), opened March 13 at Music Hall with both a world premiere, Caroline Shaw's violin concerto "Lo," with the composer as soloist, and several CSO premieres, including songs by guests artists The National.
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Järvi, Buniatishvili, CSO Put It All Together

    Posted: Mar 2, 2015 - 2:02:15 PM in: reviews_2015
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Paavo Järvi and Khatia Buniatishvili
Georgia-born pianist Khatia Buniatishvili joined music director laureate Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in an energetic performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 Feb. 27 at Music Hall. It was her CSO debut. Also on the program was the CSO premiere of Carl Nielsen's technicolor "Alladin" Suite and the Symphony No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
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Chang Leads CSO in Sonic Splendor

    Posted: Feb 7, 2015 - 4:39:17 PM in: reviews_2015
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Han-Na Chang
Guest conductor Han-Na Chang led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a concert filled with sonic splendor Feb. 6 at Music Hall, including Mussorgsky/Ravel's "Pictures at an Exhibition," the kind of work the 3,400-seat, acoustically welcoming hall was built for.

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Pops "Animals" a Delightful Bestiary

    Posted: Feb 4, 2015 - 12:13:22 PM in: reviews_2015, commentary
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The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra's 93rd release is a tribute to the animal kingdom featuring conductor John Morris Russell's new arrangement of Saint-Saëns' iconic "Carnival of the Animals." Also heard are animal-themed works by Percy Grainger, Leonard Bernstein, Anatoli Liadov, Modest Mussorgsky, Ottorino Respighi, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Edward Elgar, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland. Giving it added appeal -- for young and old -- are actual animals sounds interspersed throughout.

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Cincinnati Pops Salutes Stephen Foster Splendidly

    Posted: Jan 26, 2015 - 11:59:57 AM in: reviews_2015
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Stephen Collins Foster
American songwriter Stephen Collins Foster had a special tie with Cincinnati, having spent two years here as a bookkeeper at his brother's steamboat shipping company during the 1800s. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, led by conductor John Morris Russell, paid tribute to Foster's legacy Jan. 25 at Music Hall, with an array of roots musicians, including Rosanne Cash, The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars, Over the Rhine and vocalists/instrumentalists Dom Flemons, Joe Henry and Aoife O'Donovan. The
concert, a deeply felt and engaging one, was recorded live for an upcoming CD.
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Cellist Finkelshteyn Shines, "Carmina Burana" Delivers

    Posted: Jan 18, 2015 - 2:06:41 PM in: reviews_2015
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Ilya Finkelshteyn
The Schumann Cello Concerto and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" may make for an odd pairing, but they added up to a superlative performance by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra January 17 at Music Hall. CSO principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn owned the first half in the Schumann Concerto. CSO music director Louis Langrée led the CSO, the May Festival Chorus, the  Cincinnati Children's Choir and a trio of fine soloists in Orff's blockbuster in the second.

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CSO 2015-16 Season Rich in Artistry, Innovation

    Posted: Jan 16, 2015 - 2:56:26 PM in: reviews_2015
 
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Louis Langrée.
The 2015-2016 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra season, its third with Music Director Louis
Langrée, has just about everything: world premieres, great classics, distinguished guests and an invitation to perform on the "Great Performers" Series at New York's Lincoln Center.
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CSO New Year's Opener Reflective of the Human Spirit

    Posted: Jan 10, 2015 - 3:18:40 PM in: reviews_2014, reviews_2015
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Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
The first concert of the New Year by Louis
Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was deeply reflective of the human spirit, with a reading of Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament and his Second Symphony. Guest artist was Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3.
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