This is always a busy time of year for Cincinnati’s classical music organizations. I’ve heard some extraordinary concerts between covering the concerts of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (you can find CSO, May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and other reviews here).
Here are a few of my impressions of some other shows, including the debut of a new piano quartet, a stunning piano duo recital and a world premiere at concert:nova:
Linton Chamber Music series, April 24: Besides the piano trio literature, piano quartets are among my favorite genres. So I couldn’t wait to hear the debut of a new ensemble at the Linton Music Series, the Espressivo! Piano Quartet.
Its anchors are the indefatigable Jaime Laredo (violin) and Sharon Robinson (cello), who also serve as co-artistic directors. Rounding out the quartet are pianist Anna Polonsky and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, both superb artists.
In the wake the death of the esteemed pianist Joseph Kalichstein, who died in March 2022 at age 76, Laredo and Robinson did not want to revisit the piano trio literature that they shared for decades with their extraordinary pianist, “Yossi.” I’m so glad that they have decided to explore the quartets. The “Encore” concert I heard at Congregation Beth Adam was deeply rewarding.Read More »
Menahem Pressler: “Many people would now would take it easy, have a home in Florida – I don’t need any of those things. I need my Schubert, I need my Beethoven, I need my Brahms, I need my Bach. I need those to be sustained.” Photo provided by Indiana University
Menahem Pressler, the distinguished pianist and founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, died today, May 6, in London. He was 99.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced the death of the distinguished professor of music in piano and Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music. He joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in 1955 and received the Indiana University Medal in 2013.
“Mr. Pressler was a brilliant pianist, an extraordinary teacher, and gentle soul who has left an indelible mark on generations of pianists around the globe,” IU Jacobs School of Music dean Abra Bush said in a statement. “He believed that his ‘performance informed his practice, and his practice informed his performance,’ and he loved nothing more than practicing! His loss is an enormous loss for us all, but his presence will continue to be felt through his students, past and present, for decades to come.”
Since the trio’s debut at the Berkshire Music Festival in 1955, there were multiple constellations of players over nearly 55 years. But Mr. Pressler remained the anchor, and its heart and soul. After the Beaux Arts Trio’s final, emotional performance in 2008 (with violinist Daniel Hope, cellist Antonio Meneses), Mr. Pressler continued to captivate audiences throughout the world, performing solo and chamber music recitals to great critical acclaim while maintaining a dedicated teaching career.
Mr. Pressler performed many times in Cincinnati over his remarkable 70-plus-year career. In 1962, the original Beaux Arts Trio with violinist Daniel Guilet and cellist Bernard Greenhouse, performed for Matinee Musicale, the first of five performances for that organization alone.Read More »
Anthony McGill performing “Principal Brothers” No. 3 by James Lee III
The Linton Music Series presented two inspiring concerts this month in memory of founding artistic director Dick Waller. I want to share some terrific photos taken by Tina Gutierrez for Linton, along with a few thoughts about the programs.
Yesterday, Linton welcomed back an old friend, clarinetist Anthony McGill. The principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic started his career as a 21-year-old associate clarinetist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. McGill spoke a bit about Dick Waller, former CSO principal clarinetist, who “showed him the ropes” and shared many dinners with him.
McGill opened the program with a wonderful work by his friend, James Lee III, “Principal Brothers” No. 3. Each of Lee’s “Principal Brothers” series is dedicated to a symphony music who is Black and a principal player. No. 1 is a flute solo for Anthony’s brother, Demarre McGill, principal flute of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra; No. 2 is for Titus Underwood, principal oboe of the Nashville Symphony; and No. 4 is for Bryan Young, principal bassoon of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Lee’s three-movement piece for Anthony McGill was a ideal vehicle for the clarinetist’s beauty of line and expressive phrasing.
The remainder of the program consisted of two of the great clarinet quintets in music: Mozart’s Quintet in A Major, K. 581, and Brahms Quintet in B Minor. McGill was joined by Linton co-artistic directors Jaime Laredo, violinist, and Sharon Robinson, cellist, as well as violinist James Thompson and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt.
Dick Waller with Peter Wiley at a 40th anniversary concert of the Linton Music Series
Cincinnati has lost a musician who contributed much to the cultural life of our city. Richard “Dick” Waller passed away yesterday. His daughter, Margy Waller, said that he died while listening to a recording of Dvorak’s “Romance” in F Minor. It was days after celebrating his 93rd birthday with cake and Graeter’s Ice Cream.
“I’m grateful. And told him many times over the past few days that he has an incredible legacy of music, art, and community, and a beautiful family,” she said. “He showed us how to see the miracles, to be thankful and optimistic, and always to see the best in everything and everyone. That’s a high bar—and he inspires us to aim for it.”
Waller, former principal clarinetist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was the founder of the Linton Music Series. From its start in 1978, his mantra was “music making among friends.” It began with a small chamber music concert of “friends” in the historic church, First Unitarian Church on Linton Street in Avondale, and continued to grow. The gem of a sanctuary, with stained glass windows, turned out to have wonderful acoustics.
That first concert evolved into a second. Then Mr. Waller had an epiphany. World-renowned soloists appeared each week with the Cincinnati Symphony, where he worked. Why not ask the orchestra’s then-general manager, Judith Arron, whether the artists could stay in town for an extra day to play chamber music? Arron agreed.
His first artists in the new arrangement were concert pianist Andre-Michel Schub and Peter Wiley, then principal cellist of the CSO.
“In the old days, there was a pay phone at Music Hall and during intermission, I’d run to the pay phone to make calls about Linton,” he told me a few years ago.
It was a formula that continues with the CSO to this day. Mr. Waller paid his soloists little — but was a wonderful host and they loved coming to Cincinnati. There are legendary stories of dinners at the Maisonette, followed by poker games.
Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Mr. Waller grew up in Long Beach, CA, and attended the Marlboro Music Festival and the Juilliard School. However, his Juilliard education was cut short when his brother joined the armed forces and Mr. Waller had to return home to California to run his brother’s business. In the 1950s, the clarinetist became concertmaster of the United States Navy Band, a stint he said he undertook in order to avoid the draft.
During that time, a job opening was posted for the clarinet section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and he decided to apply. Then-music director Max Rudolf hired him on the spot. He served as co-principal clarinet starting in 1960. From 1961 until his retirement in 1994, he was the orchestra’s principal clarinetist.
During his later years, Mr. Waller took up painting, and had a gallery downtown.
Many of you will have stories to tell. Here’s mine: When I was classical music critic for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Mr. Waller would do anything to get an article in the newspaper about his beloved Linton Series. He called me frequently. I told him that I needed to discuss it with my editor. But he beat me to it. He called my editor and serenaded her on his clarinet over the phone. I believe he got that story…
Mr. Waller’s family and Linton Music Series leaders are planning a celebration of his contributions and community to take place next year.
I’ve just gotten word that tomorrow night’s concert, Saturday at CCM, “Cho-Liang Lin returns to Cincinnati,” with the violinist and various other artists, is canceled due to Covid. As soon as I get an update, I’ll post it here.
Do you love piano music? Awadagin Pratt’s “Art of the PIano” Festival continues tonight with a recital by Conrad Tao at 7 p.m. in Werner Recital Hall at CCM. He is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation.
His program is a combination of new music and classics:Read More »
Alan Rafferty, a cellist in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and CCM professor, is artistic director of a new, three-week festival, Ascent International Chamber Music Festival in Cincinnati. Alan tells me that 70 students have been at the festival, which is based at CCM, coming from all over the U.S.
In addition, there’s a concert series that continues this week, with three more concerts scheduled. The “headliners” include the renowned violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the Miró Quartet.
Performances are in Werner Recital Hall at CCM, which has excellent acoustics.
Visit ascentmusic.org to read more. The concerts are ticketed — visit Event Brite to secure your tickets.
A photo from the trio’s 40th anniversary: Sharon Robinson, cello, and Jaime Laredo, violin and Joseph Kalichstein, piano
Cincinnati’s Linton Chamber Music Series lost an important friend last week. Pianist Joseph Kalichstein died on Thursday, March 31 of pancreatic cancer. He was 76. Known to all affectionately as Yossi, he was revered by Cincinnati audiences, who had the joy of hearing him annually perform with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.
His colleagues of more than 45 years, Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson, are the series’ co-artistic directors.
Mr. Kalichstein was to have performed on Sunday with the trio. But when he became too ill to perform, the excellent pianist Ran Dank, a CCM faculty member who studied with him at Juilliard, stepped in on a week’s notice. The program was dedicated to his memory.
The Linton Series dedicated its program to Joseph Kalichstein’s memory. Photo thanks to Noriko Matsui
The concert included piano quartets by Mozart (E-flat Major, K. 493) and Brahms (No. 1 in G Minor), with Nokuthula Ngwenyama elegantly performing on viola. The centerpiece of the program was the world premiere of Ngwenyama’s “Elegy,” a commission of the KLR Trio and the Linton Series.Read More »
Melissa Gelfin De-Poli and Cervilio Miguel Amador dancing The Nutcracker from a previous Cincinnati Ballet season. Photography: Peter Mueller
Thanks to Covid-19, this has been a terrible time for everyone, including workers and performers in the arts, who have been among the hardest hit in the nation. And the new variants have not made their comeback any easier.
Hamilton County has teamed up with ArtsWave to announce that it will award $2 million in nonprofit arts and cultural grants funded through the County’s allocation of American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars.
The grants will be awarded to combat the negative economic impact of Covid-19 on the local arts community and to fuel the region’s economic restart. Links to the applications and funding guidelines are available on the County’s Covid relief site – https://513relief.org/ and https://www.artswave.org/apply.
The Covid-19 relief grants will cover costs incurred due to business disruption, in a two-year period in which performing arts venues and museums lost significant box office and admissions revenue. The grants can also cover costs of mitigation expenses for re-opening and adaptations required for digital programming. Total grant amounts will be based on operating revenue from the prior fiscal year.
ArtsWave will host a virtual information session on Wednesday, February 3, 2022, from 12–1 p.m. answering questions and outlining the eligibility and application process. To join the information session, visit artswave.org/apply and click on “Hamilton County ARP Arts and Culture Grants Information Session.”
View of the CSO performing a livestreamed concert in Nov. 2020
I’ll never forget the fear in the eyes of both performers and audience members in the first few live, indoor performances I saw in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. We were masked, spaced vastly apart and there was no intermission to avoid viral spread. Otherwise, many performances were livestreamed online, with musicians masked and separated by space and screens.
Then in 2021, as vaccines became available and theaters began to reopen to full audiences, there was elation and relief by many who were able to finally attend a show in person.
Every concert, play, ballet or art exhibition I attended in 2021 was deeply moving because it showed the perseverance of artists — indeed of all humanity — during this unprecedented time. I feel that we’ve come a long way.
Now, we are buffeted again by the Omicron variant. Just announced, there are at least two museum “pauses” (Cincinnati Art Museum is closed Jan. 3-12 and the Taft Museum of Art is closed Jan. 3-13).
“Hairspray” is postponed to a later date due to Covid in the cast.
There are also a few postponed performances. At the Aronoff Center, “Hairspray” scheduled to play January 4 – 9, 2022 is being rescheduled due to breakthrough positive Covid cases within the company of “Hairspray.” Ticket holders are encouraged to hold onto their tickets while the engagement is being rescheduled.
At Music Hall, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati is postponing its January 8 and 9 performances of “The Song Among Us” to a later date, to be announced. The release states that the postponement “is prompted by production challenges exacerbated by the recent rise in positive Covid cases across the nation.” Ticket holders may complete this form or call the box office at 513-381-3300 for ticket options, including donations, exchanges, and refunds.
I prefer to see the glass half full. I believe we will get through this, and the arts will persevere.
Singers Michelle DeYoung and Sean Panikkar share bows in Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth” with the CSO. (Photo by Lee Snow)
I wrote a list of some of my favorite performances in 2021 in a column for the Business Courier. My list begins with Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Music Hall last March, and ends with “The Marriage of Figaro” at CCM in November. I’d like to know some of yours, too. (Let me know here, or on Facebook.)
And looking ahead, here is my list of “best bets” in 2022. It’s really just a broad sweep — because there are so many chamber music, vocal concerts, art exhibitions and dance performances that have yet to be announced. I think we have a lot to anticipate.
Verdi’s opulent “Aida” will be presented at Cincinnati Opera in summer 2022. Photo courtesy of Opéra de Montréal, Yves Renaud
Linton Chamber Music series, April 24: Besides the piano trio literature, piano quartets are among my favorite genres. So I couldn’t wait to hear the debut of a new ensemble at the Linton Music Series, the Espressivo! Piano Quartet.
