Category: Music Hall

Tenor Bryan Hymel to step in for Polenzani in Verdi Requiem

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Tenor Bryan Hymel. Photo by Dario Acosta

The Cincinnati May Festival has announced that the celebrated tenor Matthew Polenzani is ill and unable to perform in Verdi’s Requiem to open the festival this Friday.

Bryan Hymel will replace Polenzani as tenor soloist on May 18. Hymel regularly appears with the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, and La Scala.

He has performed the roles of Don José in Carmen, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and as tenor soloist in the Verdi Requiem. He has been the recipient of the opera world’s most prestigious awards including the Olivier Award, the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award, and the George Thill Prize, and has been the top prize winner in the Lissner, Albanese, Zachary, Gari and Metropolitan Opera National Council competitions.

Rising star Eun Sun Kim will conduct the opening night performance, replacing James Levine.

For information, visit mayfestival.com.

Brahms Concerto shines with Ehnes in CSO season finale

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James Ehnes performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with the CSO. Photo provided

Violinist James Ehnes’ inspired playing in the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend can only be described as masterful. The golden sound that he achieved on his 1715 Stradivarius violin was stunning. In Saturday’s concert, it was equally fascinating to hear Ehnes reveal the Cincinnati connection behind his $8 million instrument.Read More »

CSO’s Baroque gems with Bicket a rare treat

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Countertenor Iestyn Davies joined Harry Bicket and the CSO in a rare Baroque concert at Music Hall. Photo provided by CSO/Kayla Moore

Harry Bicket’s Baroque concert of Handel and Rameau brought a breath of fresh air to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend.

A glance at the program told the story of how rare it was to hear these Baroque gems in Music Hall. Every single piece on the program – even Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11 – was being performed by the orchestra for the first time.

And there was no better partner in this repertoire than the superb British countertenor Iestyn Davies, who made his Cincinnati debut in arias from Handel operas. Davies is one of a new generation of countertenors now making international waves. Read More »

Robert Porco’s contract extended with May Festival

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Director of choruses Robert Porco

The Cincinnati May Festival announced today a two-year contract extension for Robert Porco, Director of Choruses, through the end of the 2020 May Festival.

Porco has served in that role since 1989, preparing the volunteer May Festival Chorus for hundreds of performances for the festival, as well as for concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops.Read More »

A new view of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4

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There were 92 players onstage at Music Hall for Beethoven’s Fourth. Photo provided by CSO/Lee Snow

I was fascinated by the large-scale arrangement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 performed by Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend. It’s regarded as one of Beethoven’s more “classical” symphonies, calling for a smaller complement of players. But for this performance in Music Hall, there were 92 players onstage. (According to the CSO, Langrée was using a new critical edition by Bärenreiter.)

Curious about this arrangement, I spent some time digging through my personal library to no avail. Then, online, I found a doctoral thesis by Mark Christopher Ferraguto of Cornell University that mentioned a performance of the Fourth for a large-scale public concert in 1825. Beethoven arranged it for an estimated 94 musicians for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) concert in a large ballroom of the Imperial Court.

Here’s the review, which you can read free at bizjournals.com, thanks to their new initiative to cover the arts.

What did you think?

Barnatan wows at CSO

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Inon Barnatan in the Barber Piano Concerto with James Gaffigan conduting the CSO. Photo provided by CSO/Lee Snow

Here’s a link to my review of this weekend’s CSO concert on the Business Courier’s new Arts Front page. Remember, everything there is free to read. You don’t need to subscribe!

I thought it was interesting that the orchestra’s configuration was moved back to its original plan, with the violas on the outside, right, facing the first violins, and the cellos and basses also on the right. I still thought there were times when the brass and percussion overpowered the violins.

The Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances were wonderfully played and conducted. The clarity of sound in the new acoustic was quite good from my seat in the balcony. There was something about the string sound that was missing, though — that lush sound that makes it Rachmaninoff. It was resonance — defined as a “quality of sound that is rich, deep and reverberating.” I’m glad the acoustical experts are still tweaking the hall. Let’s hope they will be able to regain more of that full, resonant sound that has made Music Hall so special.

 

Reviews: CSO’s musical comaraderie, and opera at CCM

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Mozart wind band music
Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 was played for the first time in 85 years by the CSO.

Here are my reviews from two of the shows I saw this week, which you can read free on the Business Courier:

CSO demonstrates musical camaraderie in smaller works

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Gianni Schicchi cast — note that there are two casts — (Left to right) Antonio Cruz, Samson McCrady, Michael Hyatt, Chandler Johnson, Lisa Rogali, Tyler Johnson, Amy Joy Stevens, Zane Hill. Photo: Mark Lyons

And at CCM: From tragedy to comedy, CCM double bill is a treasure

‘Classical Roots’ to explore Music Hall’s diverse history

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Classical Roots Community Mass Choir
Photo provided

This year’s “Classical Roots” concert will explore Music Hall’s history as a gathering place for a wide spectrum of Cincinnati’s society.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “Under One Roof,” led by Pops conductor John Morris Russell, will take place at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 in Music Hall. The program will illuminate Music Hall’s history — both as a great concert venue for the orchestra in the main hall and as a community gathering place that hosted many of the greatest jazz, soul, rock and R&B artists of the 20th century in the Greystone Club. Today that space in the South Hall is known as the Music Hall Ballroom.Read More »

Kahane’s surprising encore in CSO appearance is unforgettable

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Jeffrey Kahane delivered a ravishing performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major with the CSO. Provided, CSO

Pianist Jeffrey Kahane wowed in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. But it was his surprising encore that left the evening’s most indelible impression.

He made no announcement. But his somber, reflective improvisation on “America the Beautiful” felt like a memorial to the victims of the horrible events that had unfolded two days earlier in a Florida high school. The tune rested briefly in the minor mode before ending quietly. It was heartfelt and moving, and listeners stood in appreciation.Read More »