Concert:Nova

How do you hear music? Can you see it?  These questions were explored at a provocative concert Monday evening at Cincinnati's Lois and Richard B. Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center. "(Un)seen)," presented by members of Concert:Nova with participation by neuro-scientist Christopher Brubaker, gave listeners a chance to hear music in the dark.  Five works were performed in the CAC's "black box" Performance Space, with the musicians screened out of sight, and a lecture by Brubaker on music and the brain. 
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Tatiana Berman-Järvi

"New Beginnings," the chamber music series at Northern Kentucky University featuring distinguished-artist-in-residence Sergei Polusmiak and guests, welcomed violinist Tatiana Berman-Järvi Friday night in Greaves Concert Hall.  Russian-born Berman-Jarvi displayed her distinctive artistry in a generous program including the Debussy and Franck Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Messiaen's Theme and Variations and Tchaikovsky 's "Meditation," Op. 42, No. 1, while Polusmiak treated his listeners to a powerful performance of Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor.
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Elizabeth Freimuth

British conductor and period performance guru Sir Roger Norrington shared his knowledge, artistry -- and not incidentally, his showmanship -- in an all-Mozart concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Friday morning at Music Hall.  Sharing the spotlight in Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat Major was CSO principal French hornist Elizabeth Freimuth in an impressive CSO solo debut.
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Radu Lupu

Bruckner, Webern and Beethoven made a welcome mix for the audience at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's Jan. 23 concert at Music Hall.  CSO music director Paavo Järvi was on the podium for the CSO premiere of the new William Carragan edition of Bruckner's Second Symphony.  Piano superstar Radu Lupu glorified Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and many in the audience were amazed to find Webern's "Langsamer Satz" to be an "old-fashioned" (i.e. tonal) love song.
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Conductor Paavo Järvi is recording the complete symphonies of Beethoven with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (three CDs have been released so far in Europe and the U.S., with two more to come).  He won a Grammy for Sibelius Cantatas with the Estonian National Orchestra, the Estonian National Male Choir and Ellerhein Girls' Choir (Best Choral Performance, 2004).  He is exploring Bruckner with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, as attested by this fine new surround-sound release of the Symphony No. 7 (RCA Red Seal).
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Dennis Matsuev

It was a concert filled with surprises Jan. 16 at Music Hall in Cincinnati as Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony performed "rare" Tchaikovsky, "uncommon" Mahler and brand new Tüür.  Guest artist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2, not heard in Cincinnati since 1979 with Shura Cherkassky, was Russian pianist Dennis Matsuev.  Also heard was the U.S. premiere of "The Path and the Traces" (2005) by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in a performance that was far from ordinary.
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L to R front: Frances and Howard Karp, back: Dr. Christopher Karp, Katrin Talbot (wife of Parry Karp), Parry Karp

Where can you go and enrich your soul while healing your body and furthering scientific research?  The annual Chamber Music Benefit Concert supporting immunology research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the U.C. College of Medicine, which took place Jan. 12 in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall at the U.C. College-Conservatory of Music.  Performing music by Beethoven, Chopin and Karol Szymanowski were members of the musical (and medical) Karp family -- cellist Parry Karp, violinist/pianist/M.D. Christopher Karp, pianists Howard and Frances Karp -- and clarinetist/M.D. David Stern, who is also dean of the U.C. College of Medicine.
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Tenor Marc Schreiner

Soprano Elizabeth Andrews Roberts

Baritone Stephen Gaertner

The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, led by music director James R. Cassidy, traveled through wintry weather to Singletary Center at the University of Kentucky in Lexington Jan. 11 for a thrilling repeat performance of Verdi's "Rigoletto."  The premiere was at Northern Kentucky University's Greaves Hall Jan. 9.  It was the third collaboration in six years between the KSO and the University of Kentucky Opera Theater directed by Everett McCorvey. Giving the performance a powerful punch was a cast of fine young singing actors, headed by tenor Marc Schreiner (Duke of Mantua), soprano Elizabeth Andrews Roberts (Gilda) and baritone Stephen Gaertner (Rigoletto).

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Stewart Goodyear

A three-month concentration on music by Bartok opened the new year for Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Jan. 9 and 10 at Music Hall.  Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear was guest artist in a sterling performance of Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1, not heard on CSO concerts in over a quarter-century.  Järvi rounded out the program with Haydn's Symphony No. 82, the "Bear," an apt if unintended choice for a "bear" economy, and Schumann's "Spring" Symphony.
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