Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra "About the Town" This Season
The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra -- going on 40 years old
this year -- is Cincinnati’s gourmet alternative.
Check out the CCO’s new season brochure (peppered with culinary metaphors).
On the menu for 2012-2013 are all-Beethoven program featuring his Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano; Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” staged by Madcap Productions Puppet Theater; the world premiere of a new saxophone concerto by Cincinnati composer Frank Proto; a collaboration with the Vocal Arts Ensemble (an annual event); and a “Your Choice” concert, to include a piece pre-selected by audience vote.
Dubbed “About the Town,” the CSO season will happen all over town, as well, with concerts downtown, uptown, on the East Side and West Side and in Northern Kentucky.
Five of the six concerts will be conducted by CCO music director
Mischa Santora. The CCO/VAE event, May 5
at Covenant First Presbyterian Church downtown, will be led by Donald Nally in
his farewell appearance as VAE music director before leaving Cincinnati to become director of choral organizations at Northwestern University.
The season will be liberally spiced with Queen City flavors, with Cincinnati artists, composers and works associated with the city reflecting its rich musical heritage.
Soloists for the opening concert Oct. 28 at the School for Creative and Performing Arts will be violinist Alexander Kerr, cellist Eric Kim and pianist Orion Weiss in the Beethoven Concerto. Kerr is former concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Kim is former CSO principal cellist. (Both now serve on the faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.) The concert, to be presented in conjunction with the Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts, will close with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4.
“Sonic Seasonings,” Dec. 2 at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Westwood, will include selections from the Baroque era to the 20th-century, with CCO principal oboist Christopher Philpotts in Tomaso Albinoni’s Concerto No. 2 for Oboe and Strings (1716) and Samuel Barber’s Canzonetta for Oboe and Strings (1978). The concert will be presented free of charge as a gift to the city (premium seating is reserved for season subscribers).
“Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Dec. 21-23 at Xavier University’s Gallagher Center Theater, has all kinds of Cincinnati connections. The conductor who led the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the televised premiere of the opera in 1951and later at New York City Opera was Thomas Schippers, music director of the CSO from 1970-75. Early performances of “Amahl” featured boy soprano James Sammarco -- now Cincinnati orthopedist Dr. James Sammarco – in the title role. And it was CSO music director emeritus Jesus Lopez-Cobos (1986-2001) who led the Philharmonia Orchestra in the classic 1978 film production of "Amahl," featuring famed soprano Teresa Stratas.
The cast for “Amahl” will be announced in early October. A concert version of the opera (without puppets) will be presented Dec. 23 at Anderson Center in Anderson Township.
Entitled "Queen City Composers and Conductors," the March 3 concert at SCPA will feature the world premiere of Cincinnati composer Frank Proto’s new saxophone concerto (a CCO commission), to be performed by Cincinnati jazz artist Rick van Matre. Speaking of gourmet, the concert will serve up works by Eugène Ysaÿe and Leopold Stokowski, as well, with Ysaÿe’s “Exil!” (“Exile”) Op, 25 for violins and violas and “Reverie for Strings” by Stokowski. Stravinsky himself, whose neo-classic “Danses concertantes” will share the program, guest-conducted the CSO several times.
The CCO/VAE collaboration, May 5 at Covenant First Presbyterian Church downtown, will observe the centennial of British composer Benjamin Britten with his "Cantata Misericordium," the story of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of St. Luke. (Interestingly, conductor Nally sang this as a member of the VAE at the Cincinnati May Festival in 1989.) Rounding out the program will be Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” and Psalm 42, “Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks,” by Mendelssohn.
Attendees at CCO concerts may vote among several works suggested by CCO members to top off the season June 2 at the SCPA (or vote online). Also on that program will be Schubert’s Symphony No. 6, “Miniature of a Soul’s Journey” by Markus Stockhausen (son of Karlheinz Stockhausen but more accessible in style) and Variations on “The Carnival of Venice,” a virtuoso work by Jean-Baptiste Arban, that will feature CCO principal trumpeter Ashley Hall.
“CCO to Go!” comprises non-subscription performances by the CCO. This season’s offerings include the Dec. 23 concert performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at Anderson Center and a repeat of the CCO/VAE concert May 5, also at Anderson Center. In another special collaboration, Santora and the CCO will perform a concert version of Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” Jan. 26-Feb. 3 at The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington.
Subscriptions for the CCO season (five concerts, plus premium seating for the free Dec. 2 concert) are $75, $25 for children (under 18). Call (513) 723-1182 ext. 102, or visit www.ccocincinnati.org. Single tickets are also available by phone or online.
The 2012-2013 Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra Season
Alexander Kerr (courtesy of Indiana University)
|
Eric Kim (courtesy of Indiana University)
|
Orion Weiss
|
“Ludwig van!” Oct. 28 – 2 p.m. School for Creative and Performing Arts (Corbett Theater). Beethoven, Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 56. Beethoven, Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60. Alexander Kerr, violin. Eric Kim, cello. Orion Weiss, piano. Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Mischa Santora, conductor. Presented in conjunction with the Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts.
“Sonic Seasonings.” Dec. 2 – St. Catherine of Siena Church,
Westwood. Handel, Concerto Grosso, Op.
3, No. 4. Arvo Pärt, “Cantus in Memoriam
Benjamin Britten.” Tomaso Albinoni,
Concerto No. 2 for Oboe and Strings.
Sibelius, “Valse Triste.” Barber,
Canzonetta for Oboe and Strings. Grieg, Two Elegiac Melodies. Zoltan Kodály, Hungarian Rondo. Christopher Philpotts, oboe. CCO.
Santora. Admission free (premium seating for CCO subscribers).
“Amahl and the Night
Visitors” by Gian Carlo Menotti. Dec. 21 – 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22 – 2 and 7:30
p.m. Dec. 23 – 2 p.m. Gallagher Center Theater, Xavier University. Cast to be announced. Presented
in collaboration with Madcap Productions Puppet Theater. CCO. Santora.
Queen City
Conductors/Composers. March 3 – 2
p.m. SCPA (Corbett Theater). Eugene Ysaÿe, “Exil!” Stravinsky, “Danses concertantes.” Leopold Stokowski, “Reverie for Strings.” Frank
Proto, Concerto for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra (CCO commission and world premiere).
Rick van Matre, saxophone.
CCO. Santora.
Vocal A
rts Ensemble
|
Ashley Hall
|
“CCO to Go” (non-subscription
concerts)
“Amahl and the Night
Visitors” (concert version). Dec. 23 – 7:30 p.m. Anderson Center, Anderson Township. CCO. Santora. Tickets at (513) 723-1182 ext. 102
or visit www.ccocincinnati.org.
Lerner and Loewe, “Camelot”
(concert version). Jan. 24-Feb. 3
(times vary). Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts
Center, Covington. CCO. Santora. Presented in conjunction with The Carnegie
Visual and Performing Arts Center. Tickets
at (859) 957-1940, or visit www.thecarnegie.com.
CCO and VAE: “At the Waterbrook
. . .” May 5 – 7:30 p.m. Anderson Center.
Britten, Cantata Misericordium. Mendelssohn, Psalm 42. Handel, Dixit Dominus. Vocal Arts Ensemble.
CCO. Donald Nally, conductor. Tickets at
(513) 559-0000, or online at www.vaecinci.org