Let It Snow

   There was a snowman in Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine Sunday afternoon. Across the street, inside Memorial Hall, an intrepid band of music lovers (less than 200, I would guesstimate) braved the weather to enjoy a well-crafted program by Mischa Santora and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.
   It was a cozy affair, with commentary by Santora, hot tea and coffee at intermission and an opportunity to browse the photos and listening kiosk in the newly opened Classical Music Hall of Fame on the second floor.
   The program, “Changing Tides, Changing Times,” had a double meaning. Haydn’s Symphonies No. 7 and 8, “Le Midi” (“Noon”) and “Le Soir” (“Evening”), refer to the times of day. They, plus works by J.S. Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, illustrated “changing tides” in music, from the baroque to the classic period.
   “Le Midi” and “Le Soir” (also “Le Matin,” not heard on this concert) are notable for their use of solo instruments, a carryover from the baroque concerto grosso. Concertmistress Anna Reider, principal second violinist Cheryl Benedict, principal cellist Patrick Binford and double bassist Deborah Taylor provided the string solos. Their warm, stylish playing, along with the CCO winds and horns, conjured a room in the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt (Austria near the Hungarian border), where the music was first heard in 1761.
   Lighting up “Le Midi” were Reider and Binford’s extended duet in the Adagio and principal flutist Rebecca Andres’ nimble exchanges in the finale. Binford and bassoonist Hugh Michie crafted a burnished blend for the “Le Soir” Andante, while Taylor’s agile solos charmed in the Menuetto.
   Santora provided an enlightening introduction to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. (Count ‘em, he said, three groups of three musicians each and a three-note opening motif.). Continuous and exhilarating, it was a kind of baroque hoedown, given added punch by Memorial Hall’s live acoustics.
   C.P.E. Bach, more famous than his father in the 18th-century, served as the bridge between the two periods with his use of contrast and emotive content. Santora chose his Symphony in D Major, H.663, to illustrate. Genes and genius combine in the opening bars, a kind of rhythmic untangling where unison violins strive against contrasting rhythms until they finally even out and come together.
   After a yearning Largo, the music sped to a Presto conclusion that made up in spirit what it lacked in ensemble precision.
   Santora, 34, now in his seventh season with the CCO, has paid his dues as an up-and-comer, having served five years as innovative music director of the New York Youth Symphony and (currently) as associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. The sky seems the limit for the tall, lanky Hungarian, whose expressed goals include making the CCO the best it can be. He returns with more Haydn and Bach Feb. 18 at Memorial Hall.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post Jan. 22, 2007)