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Food analogies aside (favorite indulgence of critics), that means savory concerts by the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, Catacoustic Consort, concert:nova and the combined piano faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
The CSO led by
guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth leads off at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (April 16 and 17) at
Music Hall with a program featuring CSO concertmaster Timothy Lees and guest
artist/cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Brahms’ Concerto for Violin, Cello and
Orchestra (Double Concerto). Also on the
program are works separated by 200 years, both in their CSO subscription
premiere, Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 in C Major and British composer John Pickard’s
“The Flight of Icarus.”
Commissioned and premiered by the
BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 1991, Pickard’s 20-minute tone poem has become his most popular
work. Scored for large orchestra, it
traces the arc of the Greek hero’s flight from his ascent on his newly made
waxen wings to his fall into the sea from having flown too near the sun.
Brahms’ Double Concerto, his last work for orchestra, is a score of symphonic heft and autumnal beauty. As for Haydn’s 1788 Symphony, watch out for a big surprise in the last movement (i.e. don’t be too quick to applaud).
Tickets for the concert are $10-$95 at the Music Hall box office, (513) 381-3300 and online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org.
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra associate
conductor Steven Reineke will conduct the Pops in a repeat of last weekend’s
salute to the Beatles. “For George and John,” featuring guest artists Jeans ‘N
Classics, at 3 p.m. April 18 at Music Hall.
Tickets are $20-$93 at (513) 381-3300 and online at www.cincinnatipops.org
Note: Conductor
searches.
With the announcement in January by CSO music director Paavo Järvi that he would step down at the end of the 2010-11 season and the passing of Cincinnati Pops conductor Eric Kunzel September 1, the CSO is looking for two new artistic leaders. The orchestra is hosting a series of public forums on these searches preceding CSO and Pops concerts. Admission is free to ticket holders.
The CSO sessions are 7 to 7:45 p.m. April 17 and 30 in Corbett Tower at Music Hall. Ann Santen, chair of the search committee and former general manager of radio station WGUC FM90.9, will serve as moderator. The Pops session (the second of two, with the first held on April 11) is 2 to 2:45 p.m. April 18, also in Corbett Tower, and will be hosted by Pops search committee chair Jack Rouse.
Ideas, comments and questions regarding the conductor searches is invited online as well, at musicdirectorsearch@cincinnatisymphony.org and conductorsearch@cincinnatipops.org
"Ahhhh...Bach." Catacoustic
Consort, Cincinnati’s renowned early music ensemble, performs the Cantata No.
106 by Johann Sebastian Bach at 7:30 p.m. April 17 at Walnut Hills Christian
Church and 3 p.m. April 18 at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Glendale. The cantata, “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste
Zeit” (“God’s time is the best of all times”) dates from 1707 and was written
upon the death of a close relative. Performing will be Annalisa Pappano (bass
viol), James Lambert (bass viol and violone), Colin Brown and Anne Timberlake (recorders),
Micah Fusselmann (bass viol) and Bernard Gordillo (chamber organ).
Singers will be announced.
Admission is $20, $7 for students, at the door or online at www.catacoustic.com. Children under 12 free.
The pasta course, “Pianopalooza,” to be served by the entire piano faculty at CCM, will be served at 7 p.m. April 18 in Corbett Auditorium. An annual fund-raiser for the CCM piano department, the event will be hosted by Jack Atherton of WLWT-TV and features special guest, Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander. Tickets are $15, 10 for non-UC students, at the door. UC students free.
Leave it to concert:nova, Cincinnati’s newest musical sensation, to be a palate pleaser – and in more ways than one. "The Four Seasons," a pair of concerts honoring Earth Day (April 22) will take place at 6 p.m. April 18 at the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State, 3520 Central Parkway, and 7 p.m. April 19 at Via Vite Restaurant, 520 Vine St. downtown. Both will be followed by a dinner inspired by the music. Saturday’s repast by MCI and chef Ed Smain will be at the Summit Restaurant. Chef Cristian Pietoso of Via Vite will present at three-course menu Sunday at the restaurant on Fountain Square.
The concerts have a
seasonal theme with Vivaldi’s “The Four
Seasons,” “The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine” by American composer Aaron Jay
Kernis and “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by Nuevo Tango master Astor
Piazzolla. Narrator in the Kernis will
be a familiar voice, Cincinnati expatriate Naomi Lewin, drive-time announcer
for New York radio station WQXR, former announcer for WGUC.
Calculated to tickle the taste buds, there will be a video presentation at each concert, “From Earth to Table.” Created by Chris Higgenbothom and Jim Myatt, the video will show the post-concert meal in preparation from garden to table by Jean-Robert de Cavel, David Cook, Julie Francis, Meg Galvin, Megan Ketover and John Kinsella.
Soloists in Vivaldi’s popular “Four Seasons” will be violinists Tatiana Berman (“Winter” and “Spring”) and Maureen Nelson (“Summer and Autumn”). Violinists Mauricio Aguiar and Anna Reider will perform the Piazzolla ( “Summer and Winter” and “Spring and Autumn,” respectively).
Kernis’ “Seasons of Futurist Cuisine” pokes fun at the Italian Futurist Movement of the early 20th century, with texts drawn from F.T. Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto” and “The Futurist Cookbook” and hilarious references to Late Romantic music, always-to-be-reviled antithesis of Futurism, as exemplified by Richard Wagner and his followers.
Cost of the event is $50 in advance, $75 at the door, if available, and include concert ticket and dinner. Order at www.concertnova.com
Also this weekend:
Victims of the April 10 Smolensk air crash that killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others will be remembered with a special Requiem Mass at 6 p.m. April 17 in St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown. The public is invited.
Chicago soprano Katherine
Bergmann and pianist Jason Carlson will perform a program of American music,
including works by Copland, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gian Carlo
Menotti and John Carter, at 7 p.m. April 17 at Ascension Lutheran Church, 7333
Pfeiffer Rd. in Montgomery. Free will
donation accepted.
Classical Revolution! For chasers, head to Northside Tavern, 4163 Hamilton Ave. in Northside, between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. April 18-19, for chamber music by the Ohio Brass Quintet, Araya Duo (cellists Jennifer and Arturo Araya), saxophonist Kevin Towner and a passel of woodwinds. Guaranteed to be stimulating. Free.