Langrée, Grimaud, CSO Say "Happy New Year"

Music director Louis Langrée and the CSO put a bright new stamp on 2014 Friday night at Music Hall.

There was Beethoven, his Symphony No. 8, given a rollicking performance by Langrée and the CSO.

There was Brahms, the Piano Concerto No. 1, masterfully performed by the brilliant French pianist Hélène Grimaud.

There was an introduction to the CSO’s 2014-15 season, given by Langrée in remarks to the crowd following intermission. (Think Lang Lang, and if you subscribe to 10 concerts, admission to his gala in September is free.) 

There were even cake, candles and a birthday party for Langrée (who turns 53 today) in the Music Hall foyer after the concert. 

But most of all, there was great music.

The Beethoven Symphony opened the concert with spirit to burn. The Allegro Vivace con brio, opening in a resolute F Major, was filled with rambunctious humor. The famous metronome-inspired second movement, with its constant “ticking” rhythm, was genial and precise, while the Minuet took on a warm romantic glow with the entrance of the French horns in the Trio section.

The Allegro Vivace finale began with a soft, faraway rustle before breaking  into a sudden fortissimo shout that gave frank notice of Beethoven’s intention to unleash his sense of humor. In short, there couldn’t have been a better way to say “Happy New Year, Cincinnati.”

Brahms” First Piano Concerto -- almost twice as long as the Beethoven -- made up the second half of the program.  The lengthy exposition, an impassioned statement by the young Brahms (in his early 20s when he wrote it), made a dramatic prelude to Grimaud’s peerless pianism in the Maestoso opening movement. (It was a treat for this writer to sit just above her in the left front balcony where I could watch her hands move powerfully over the keys.)

The Adagio second movement, a tender contrast to the tumult of the first, built to a peak of expression before the soft, whispered conclusion. Grimaud led forthrightly and energetically into the Allegro finale, a gypsy rondo with a supercharged Coda (conclusion) that brought the audience to their feet in a hail of bravas. (Alas, there was no encore, but it surely would have been an anticlimax.) 

The concert began with a deeply felt tribute to Catherine Lange-Jensen, former associate principal second violinist and a member of the CSO for 29 years, who succumbed to cancer in December at the age of 55. With a spotlight on her vacant chair and a long moment of silence at the end, Langrée and the CSO strings performed the Air from J. S. Bach’s Suite for Orchestra in D Major. This weekend’s CSO concerts are dedicated to her memory. 

Repeat is at 8 p.m. tonight at Music Hall. Tickets begin at $12. Call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org