Beethoven Rocks Young and Old at Music Hall

Posted: Jan 30, 2010 - 5:22:36 AM in: reviews_2010

John Nelson

Want to impress a younger crowd? Older, too, for that matter. Try Beethoven. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by guest conductor John Nelson did just that Jan. 29 at Music Hall on a matinee concert attended by the entire student body of Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts. The youngsters mingled with the many retirees and older people who routinely attend CSO matinees for a program including Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with guest artist Imogen Cooper and his rhythmically charged Seventh Symphony.
- [Read more]

Holocaust Memorial Concert Highlights Reconciliation

Posted: Jan 28, 2010 - 10:47:50 PM in: reviews_2010

Poster image for "A Musical Legacy: Three Works from Three Centuries and Two Continents," Plum Street Temple, Cincinnati, January 27, 2010

United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed each year on January 27, anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz in 1945. Cincinnati, a city with historic German and Jewish roots and sister city of Munich, Germany, held a special remembrance January 27 at Plum Street Temple in the form of a concert by musicians of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The program highlighted reconciliation, with premieres of works by Jewish composers Hermann Levi and Walter Braunfels, led by conductor Martin Wettges, a non-Jewish German and former CCM student, who unearthed them in his native country.
- [Read more]

Bruckner Eight Wins Over Music Hall Audience

Posted: Jan 23, 2010 - 3:42:53 AM in: reviews_2010

Paavo Järvi (photo by Mark Lyons)

"Heavenly length" has been used to describe the music of Franz Schubert. However, Anton Bruckner qualifies as well or better, with nine long symphonies deeply rooted in his devout Roman Catholic faith. Longest (75 minutes) and greatest of them is the Symphony No. 8 performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by Paavo Järvi January 22 and 23 at Music Hall. Opening the program was the CSO debut of pianist Alice Sara Ott in Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.
- [Read more]

NKU's "New Beginnings" Taps Emotions

Posted: Jan 19, 2010 - 6:27:14 PM in: reviews_2010

Sergei Polusmiak

Pianist Sergei Polusmiak, distinguished artist-in-residence, at Northern Kentucky University, heads a chamber music series each year with guest artists from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and elsewhere. The first concert of the 2009-10 "New Beginnings" series Jan. 17 in Greaves Concert Hall featured Polusmiak with violinist Tatiana Berman and cellist Ilya Finkelstehyn in a program of Debussy, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, including an emotionally charged performance of Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor.
- [Read more]

Cincinnati Symphony at the Cathedral Good as Gold

Posted: Jan 18, 2010 - 12:13:56 PM in: reviews_2010

Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk

The "Great Music in a Great Space" series at Cincinnati's St. Peter in Chains Cathedral is a jewel of the city, with distinguished guest choirs and ensembles. The series honored retiring Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk January 17 with a concert by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by music director Paavo Jarvi. The "all Bach" concert featured a 20th-century work inspired by the baroque master, Estonian composer Arvo Part's "Wenn Bach bienen gezüchtet hätte . . ." ("If Bach had kept bees"), a natural for Estonian-born Järvi.
- [Read more]

A "Carmina Burana" Long to be Remembered

Posted: Jan 16, 2010 - 5:42:24 AM in: reviews_2010

Paavo Järvi

Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" is one of the most popular works in the repertoire. It was no surprise, then, that Music Hall in Cincinnati was nearly full for its opening performance January 15 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus. Led by CSO music director Paavo Järvi, it was also one of the best in memory, with soloists Laura Claycomb (soprano), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor) and Stephen Powell (baritone). Making the concert even more special was the complete "Les nuits d'ete" by Berlioz performed by soprano Measha Brueggergosman and the CSO premiere of Olivier Messiaen's "Un Sourire."
- [Read more]

Eighth blackbird Returns to CCM

Posted: Jan 13, 2010 - 6:40:53 PM in: reviews_2010

eighth blackbird

The contemporary music sextet eighth blackbird has found the sky to be the limit since first testing their wings in 1996 at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Graduates as well of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, with Artist Diplomas in chamber music, the Grammy-winning ensemble returned to CCM January 12 for Chamber Music Cincinnati with a program including works by Steve Reich, Thomas Ades, Stephen Hartke, Missy Mazzoli and George Perle. Joining them in the Cincinnati premiere of the all-live version of Reich's 2007 Double Sextet were members of the CCM Chamber Players.
- [Read more]

Fire and Ice Usher in 2010 for Järvi and the CSO

Posted: Jan 8, 2010 - 11:51:55 PM in: reviews_2010

Denis Matsuev

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra first concert of 2010 was a kind of "fire and ice" affair, with a snow on the ground and Rachmaninoff in the hall, especially his Piano Concerto No. 3 as performed by guest artist Denis Matsuev. Music director Paavo Järvi led the CSO in a well-balanced and beautifully played program that also included the CSO premiere of Olivier Messiaen's "Les tombeau resplendissant" and Mozart's Symphony No. 38 ("Prague").
- [Read more]