Cincinnati Symphony 2009-2010: Beethoven, Berlioz and "Carmina Burana"
The Cincinnati Symphony’s 2009-2010 season opens
Sept.
25-27 at Music Hall with "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" by Richard
Strauss, the U.S. premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür's Symphony No. 7,
"Pietas," Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with guest artist Alina
Pogotskina in her CSO debut and Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" from
"Prince Igor" with the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus.
This program might serve as a microcosm of the CSO season as a whole: a mix of the well known and loved, set off by touches of spice, with some memorable program configurations.
In all, 42 composers are represented on the 22 season programs. Music director Paavo Järvi will conduct 29 of the 52 concerts, with ten guest conductors leading the balance. Guest artists range from debutantes to familiar visitors.
Not surprisingly, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky head the list of composers, with five works each on the season programs.
Hector Berlioz (surprise) comes in second with four, including the viola concerto “Harold in Italy” with Dutch violist Isabelle van Kuelen and the song cycle “Les nuits d’ete” with soprano Measha Brueggergosman. After Berlioz come Brahms, Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius, with three works each, and Bartok, Copland, Elgar and Messiaen with two.
(Counting the CSO's pre-season gala, a mostly "Made in America" program with music by Bernstein and Copland Sept. 17, Bernstein ties Berlioz.)
There are some formidable warhorses on the lineup: Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” Respighi’s “Pines of Rome,” the Second Symphonies by Rachmaninoff and Sibelius and Shostakovich’s Fifth; also a top-40 list of concertos, including Piano Concertos by Tchaikovsky (No. 1), Rachmaninoff (Nos. 2 and 3), Grieg and Liszt (No. 1) and the Sibelius Violin Concerto.
Dark horses include Tüür's "Pietas" (a joint commission with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra), a Sphinx Consortium commission by Roberto
Sierra and works by Olivier Messiaen, Hans Rott and Guillaume Connesson. Among the CSO premieres is, surprisingly enough, Haydn's Symphony No. 90 in C Major.
Taking the prize for innovation is guest conductor Kristjan Järvi (Paavo’s younger brother) who will lead an entire program of premieres Oct. 2 and 3. All are all from South of the Border: Alberto Ginastera’s Four Dances from “Estancia,” Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandoneon (the Argentine accordion) and Silvestre Revueltas’ “La Noche de los Mayas” (“Night of the Mayans”).
The CSO reclaims
the holiday season with Handel’s “Messiah” led by baroque expert Nicholas
McGegan in December, and Järvi dips into Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen” with orchestral
selections from the four-opera cycle in May. Jarvi will conduct Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in January
On the guest list are pianists Radu Lupu, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Alexander Toradze, violinists Janine Jansen and cellist Truls Mørk, as well as newcomers Pogostkina, violin, and Alice Sara Ott, piano. Violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Lauma Skride will perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in May. Performing Piazzolla’s Bandoneon Concerto will be Dutch bandoneonist Carel Kraayenhof.
Guest conductors
include the popular William Eddins, who will perform and conduct Gershwin’s
Piano Concerto In F, Stephane Deneve, John Nelson, Pinchas Steinberg (a CSO
alumnus) and making their CSO debuts, Norwegian up-and-comer Ariid Remmereit
and John Storgards from Finland. The CSO's talented former assistant conductor, Tito Muñoz, returns to guest conduct in December.
There are some delightful program mixes. How about “Musical Seduction” in November with the Overture to Mozart’s “Abduction from the Seraglio” and Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “Scheherazade?” and “Roman Holiday” in April with “Pines of Rome,” Berlioz’ “Roman Carnival” Overture and “Harold in Italy?”
(P.S.: look who is not represented on the 08-09 season: Mahler, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Schubert and Stravinsky.)
New this season is
a revised Sunday matinee format.
Entitled “Pathways” it encompasses four concerts with shortened programs
-- about an hour of music, plus a post-concert onstage discussion by Järvi,
CSO musicians and guests. Ticket prices
are 25% less than the other series concerts, too.
The first "Pathways" concert is Sept. 27 and includes Tüür’s Symphony No. 7 and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, followed by a discussion with Järvi and Tüür moderated by Mark Perzel of WGUC, FM 90.9.
Ticket prices in general show no increases. In fact, the lowest ticket price, $10 for “extreme” seats (front row orchestra and side galleries), has been reduced from $12 last season.
Despite the
recessionary climate, the CSO will tour this year, with a seven-concert
visit to
Japan in October (paid for in advance) and a return visit to
Carnegie Hall in February (the CSO's first since 2007). The Feb. 15
Carnegie Hall concert will include Ravel's Five Nursery Songs from
"Mother Goose," Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Lupu, Fuga
Ricercarer in C Minor from "The Musical Offering" by J.S. Bach
orchestrated by Webern and the Concerto for Orchestra by Witold
Lutoslawski.
Recordings are
another story. The orchestra announced
last spring that further recording activity would be discontinued. Coincident
with this (but not the cause) was the announcement
that the orchestra’s long-time label, Telarc, acquired by Concord
Records in
2005, had ceased production. Efforts are underway to find a new model
for recording. "Our recording days are not over," said the CSO's
Christopher Pinelo.
The CSO has taken a number of austerity measures to cope with the severe drop in its endowment funds after the stock market plunge in 2008. The musicians ratified a new four-year contract in January including an 11 percent cut in salaries through 2011, elimination of the players’ electronic media guarantee and a health care plan with lower premiums. Administrative expenses were reduced 18 percent over the 2008 fiscal year through layoffs and across-the-board cuts in salaries and benefits. Artistic costs were adjusted downward and included “substantial financial contributions to the CSO” by Järvi, CSO officials said.
The orchestra ended the 2008-09 season on an upbeat note, announcing in August that it had experienced an increase in attendance of three percent, the second increase in a row. Significantly, this included a six percent jump in average attendance at CSO classical concerts at Music Hall. Fueling the increase was a 23-percent increase in single ticket sales and a two-percent increase in seats sold by subscription.
The 2009-10 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra season at Music Hall.
Alina Pogostkina
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Kristjan Järvi
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William Eddins
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Sayaka Shoji
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Stephane Deneve
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Ingrid Fliter
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Tito Muňoz
(photo by Ixi Chen)
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Nicholas McGegan
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Denis Matsuev
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Maesha Brueggergosman
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Alice Sara Ott
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Imogen Cooper
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Pinchas Steinberg
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Radu Lupu
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Janine Jansen
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Jean-Yves Thibaudet
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Stefan Jackiw
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Truls Mørk
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Gabriela Montero
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Mark Wigglesworth
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Isabelle van Keulen
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Baibe Skride
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Alexander Toradze
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* U.S. premiere
** CSO premiere
Concerts are at 8 p.m. at Music Hall, except Oct. 16, Jan. 8, Jan. 29, March 19, March 26, April 9 and April 23, which are at 11 a.m.; Oct. 15, Dec. 17, Feb. 4, March 25 and May 6, which are at 7:30 p.m.; and Sept. 27, Dec. 20. Jan. 10, March 14 and April 25, which are at 3 p.m.
Subscriptions are available in packages of 4, 5. 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 19 and 22, beginning at $40 for a four-concert series and $220 for a series of 22. Vouchers good for any six or ten concerts (best available seats) begin at $195 and $320. Single tickets begin at $10. Call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org.