Allegretto Grazioso

Crystal chandelier, Music Hall, Cincinnati

August in Cincinnati means vacation for members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and looking back at how it all went during the 2008-2009 season.
   Rather well, it seems.
   The CSO reports an increase in attendance for the second year in a row.  This includes a six percent jump in average attendance at CSO concerts at Music Hall, a significant figure, considering the supposed slackening of interest in classical music today.* 
   Looking across the spectrum of CSO programming, i.e. CSO and Cincinnati Pops concerts at Music Hall, CSO Chamber Players concerts, New Year's Eve, Lollipop Family Concerts and Pops concerts at Riverbend, there was an overall rise in attendance of three percent.
   Fueling this was a 23 percent increase in single ticket sales, a two percent increase in seats sold by subscription and a sell out at the final concert of the Pops Riverbend season led by Erich Kunzel August 1.  (Figures were not released, though the pavilion at Riverbend holds about 6,000 people and there were more seated on the lawn.)
   The five most popular CSO concerts at Music Hall were (based on average attendance for each two or three-concert program):

•    Sept. 12, 13. Andre Watts, piano. Paavo Järvi, conductor. "Festival Coronation March" by Tchaikovsky.  Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninoff.

•    Nov. 20-22. Julia Fischer, violin. Järvi. Dvorak Violin Concerto. "The Planets" by Gustav Holst.

•    April 24-26. Midori, violin. Järvi.  "Les Offrandes oubliees" by Olivier Messiaen. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Saint-Saens, "Organ" Symphony.

•    March 27-28. James Gaffigan, conductor. Colin Currie, percussion. Beethoven, Symphony No. 5. Jennifer Higdon, Percussion Concerto. "...and symphonies of deepening light...expanding...ever cavernous" by Jeffrey Mumford (world premiere).

•    Jan. 30-31. Sir Roger Norrington, conductor. Elizabeth Freimuth, French horn. All-Mozart: Symphonies No. 33 and 36, "Masonic Funeral Music" and Horn Concerto No. 4.

   Järvi will open the 2009-2010 CSO season Sept. 17 at Music Hall with a one-night-only performance by superstar pianist Lang Lang in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2.
   Also on the program are "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland and three works by Bernstein, Divertimento for Orchestra, Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story" and Overture to "Candide."
   Tickets for the special, non-subscription concert begin at $25 and are available beginning Aug. 12 at (513) 381-3300, online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org and at the CSO box office at Music Hall, 1241 Elm St.,  Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* Actual numbers were not provided.  Attendance at CSO Music Hall concerts averaged 1,540 in 2006-2007, according to figures released by the CSO at that time.  Music Hall, the largest concert hall in the U.S., has 3,516 seats.