Mida oli, 3/04/08

“It might as well be spring,” as the Oscar-winning pop song goes, with all the newness popping up all over town this weekend:
   The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has three things up its sleeve, the CSO debut of Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji (Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto), the U.S. premiere of German composer Jörg Widmann’s “Antiphon” and the first CSO performance of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3 since its CSO premiere in 1934. Concerts are 11 a.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall and will be led by CSO music director Paavo Järvi.
   Shoji, 24, was just 16 when she won the Paganini Violin Competition, the first Japanese and the youngest person to do so.  Her career has been expanding rapidly ever since.

CD Cover art, Sayaka Shoji

She made her U.S. debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2003.
   Commissioned and premiered by Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra (the world premiere was Feb. 27 in Frankfurt), Widmann’s “Antiphon” was inspired, he said, by the “principles and sound structures” of baroque composer Giovanni Gabrieli.

Jörg Widmann

Fanfare rhythms, a slow pulse and a melodic cell that moves antiphonally among his instrumental groupings constitute the musical material.  Järvi describes Widmann, 34, as “concerned about the singing aspect of music,” as opposed to the “colors, percussion and velocity” favored by many of today’s younger composers.
   In his three-movement Third Symphony, premiered in 1907, Sibelius made a break from his Tchaikovsky-influenced, earlier ones.  Just 30 minutes long, it shows the composer seeking a more concentrated, motivically-oriented style.  The music is so engaging, however, that it seems quite surprising that this week’s performance is only the second in the CSO’s 113-year history.
   Tickets are $12-$79.25, $10 for students, half-price for seniors Saturday only.  Get them online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org, at the CSO box office at Music Hall, or by calling (513) 381-3300.
   The newest chamber ensemble in town has a name to match, “concert:nova.”  Drawn from the CSO and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the 15-member group is dedicated to renewing the concert experience through multi-media presentation and performance in non-traditional and found venues such as bars, coffee shops, galleries and museums. Their inaugural concert (with visual projections) was Oct. 12 at the Coffee Emporium on Central Parkway.   Concert:nova joins with The Know Theatre in a complete, fully-staged performance of Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat” (“The Soldier’s Tale”) at 9:30 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Sunday at The Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St. in Over-the-Rhine (between Central Parkway, Vine, Walnut and E.12th St.).

Flyer image for concert:nova/Know Theatre production of Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat"

   The production, conceived by Julianna Bloodgood and Michael Burnham, gives the devilish tale a twist quite in tune with the contemporary world (think PTSD).  In the original, a soldier returning from war sells his violin, i.e. his soul, to the Devil in exchange for a book guaranteeing economic prosperity.
   Bloodgood is the Princess, with Anthony Darnell as the Soldier and Burnham as the Devil (Burnham is professor of drama at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music).  Tito Munoz, assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, will conduct (Cincinnati audiences will remember Munoz as assistant conductor of the CSO last season).

Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor Tito Munoz

Usually heard as a concert suite, “The Soldier’s Tale” is among Stravinsky’s most popular works, with dance rhythms, ragtime and some fancy fiddling.  The seven-piece instrumental ensemble utilizes only high and low instruments, one of each from each instrumental choir.  Concert:nova performers include clarinetist Ixi Chen, bassoonist Jennifer Monroe, trumpeter Brian Buerkle, trombonist Cristian Ganicenco, violinist Tatiana Berman, double bassist Owen Lee and percussionist Patrick Schleker.
   Tickets are $12, $9 for students, at the door.  Reservations (suggested) may be made by calling (513) 300-KNOW.  Parking ($2 after 5 p.m.) is available across the street from the theater in the Kroger/Gateway Garage (enter from E. 12th St.).  For further information, visit www.concertnova.com, call (513) 321-5073, or contact concert:nova by e-mail at concertnova@mac.com.
   “Peter and the Wolf” in new clothing is the subject of the CSO’s second “Lollipops” Family Concert of the season at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Music Hall.   The CSO, led by assistant conductor Eric Dudley, is collaborating with Madcap Puppet Theater on a new adaptation of the Prokofiev favorite about a boy who, with the help of three animal friends, captures a hungry wolf, much to the surprise of his grumpy grandpa.

Madcap wolf and artistic director John Lewandowski who is holding a French horn, the instrument that represents the wolf in Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" (art from Madcap Puppet Theater)

Madcap artistic director John Lewandowski has recast the characters as inner-city residents (the wolf, for instance, extorts money to protect the neighborhood).  Pre-concert activities begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Music Hall lobby.
   Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for children, available at www.cincinnatisymphony.org, the Music Hall box office and (513) 381-3300.
   Northern Kentucky University’s “New Beginnings” chamber music series, featuring pianist Sergei Polusmiak and guest artists from the CSO, presents its second concert of the season at 3 p.m. Sunday in Greaves Concert Hall at NKU.

Sergei Polusmiak

Ukrainian born Polusmiak,  Tom and Christine Neyer Family Professor of Music at NKU, welcomes Elizabeth Freimuth, principal French hornist of the CSO, and CSO clarinetist/bass clarinetist Ronald Aufmann in a program featuring Carl Reinecke’s Trio for Clarinet, Horn and Piano.
   Polusmiak will join Aufmann in Arthur Benjamin’s “Le Tombeau de Ravel”: Valse-Caprices for Clarinet and Piano and Leo Weiner’s Hungarian Dance.  With Freimuth, he will perform Verne Reynolds’ Partita for Horn and Piano.
   Admission is $10, $7 for students, at the door.
   There are vintage programs this weekend, too, by the CSO Chamber Players and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.
   The Chamber Players -- the CSO’s own chamber music series featuring members of the orchestra -- perform at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall (next door to Music Hall).
   On the program are Beethoven’s Trio in C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3 (violin, viola and cello); Johan Halvorsen’s Passacaglia on a Theme of Handel (violin and cello, originally for violin and viola), Saint-Saens’ “Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs” (flute, oboe, clarinet and piano) and Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, No. 17, K.334 for two horns and strings.
   Admission is $25-$35, $10 for students, at www.cincinnatisymphony.org, the Music Hall box office and (513) 381-3300. 
   The Chamber Orchestra opens its “Baroque Series,” second of three pairs of themed concerts this season, at 2 p.m. Sunday in Memorial Hall.  CCO music director Mischa Santora will conduct.

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra music director Mischa Santora

The program includes Handel’s Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 6; Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 1, Op. 24, No. 1; Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso Op. 7, No. 1; and Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1.
   Tickets are $15-$25, children 18 and under free.  Call (513) 723-1182.
   News from Cincinnati (and beyond):
   The CSO has appointed Ken Lam as assistant conductor effective in August.  Lam, a native of Hong Kong, is a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he is a student of Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar.

newly appointed Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Ken Lam

He brings legal insights to the job of leading an orchestra, having spent 10 years in London and Hong Kong as a lawyer specializing in asset finance (will the financial managers at the CSO be consulting him?).  He has been principal conductor of the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the Hong Kong Voices chamber choir.  He has also studied at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Festival in Colorado. He succeeds Tito Munoz.
   CSO board member John Palmer will head the search committee to seek a new CSO president.  The post became open in January, when CSO president Steven Monder, 62, announced that he will retire in June after 37 years with the orchestra.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra president Steven Monder

During Monder’s tenure, the CSO created the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with Erich Kunzel as conductor; began the orchestra’s 29-year collaboration with Telarc International resulting in over 100 CSO and Pops recordings and sales of nearly 10 million; built Riverbend Music Center, its summer home on the Ohio River, and adjacent National City Pavilion opening in June; created Music and Event Management, a wholly owned subsidiary that earns revenue for orchestra by helping produce musical events in Cincinnati; initiated nine national television broadcasts and numerous national and international tours.
   Since 1976, Monder has served as executive director of the Cincinnati Musical Festival Association, producer of the annual May Festival.  He worked with four CSO music directors, Thomas Schippers, Michael Gielen, Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Paavo Järvi.
   Speaking of Lopez-Cobos, CSO music director emeritus since 2001, the Spanish born conductor, now music director of Madrid’s Teatro Real, will conduct a new production of Massenet’s “Thais” starring soprano Renee Fleming at the Metropolitan Opera in New York December 8, 2008 through Jan. 8, 2009.

Jesus Lopez-Cobos

It will be the Met’s first “Thais” since 1978.