Category: pops

My last list … for now … of the best of 2016

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636184558582936207-052816-May-Fest-08-1-.jpgIt seems that the end of a year always results in lists — looking back and looking ahead. And invariably, my list is different from your list. There were so many other great performances that I could have added here — the Polish Festival at CCM, the Ariel Quartet, the great jazz heard every week in our community, and the high-energy shows by John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Pops… not to mention the entire opening season this fall at the CSO, with Emanuel Ax, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, Gil Shaham and Branford Marsalis!

I loved it all. But here’s my column, in case you missed it, for better or worse. At the list’s end, I look back at two of the big stories in the arts that I covered, and look forward to the opening of Music Hall next October.

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Music Hall: Finally, there’s a plan

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Planned configuration of Springer Auditorium/Michael Nyerges/The Enquirer
Music Hall: Planned configuration of Springer Auditorium/Michael Nyerges/The Enquirer

After more than two years of waiting, the group that is renovating Music Hall has finally revealed the plans for the hall. Yes, you’ll get 62 percent more restrooms and lots of new bars in the plan, now at $135 million. But what’s happening to the concert hall, Springer Auditorium? It has long been known for its grandeur as well as its fine acoustics. There will be a vast number of changes to the concert space. They include changing the cubic volume of Springer Auditorium, building new walls of concrete board inside the old walls, re-raking all three floors with new materials (concrete with wood overlay), moving the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra farther out into the hall on a thrust stage, putting the musicians on risers installing new acoustical clouds, reworking the orchestra shell, taking out about 1,000 seats, putting in new seats and changing the configuration of them, which includes getting rid of the center aisle.Read More »

Music Hall hopes and concerns

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Music Hall's Springer Auditorium will look quite different when it reopens after a $130 million renovation. Photo from Enquirer files
Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium will look quite different when it reopens after a $130 million renovation. Photo from Enquirer files

Perhaps you saw the article about Music Hall, — which closes in five months for renovation — informing visitors of what to expect in the coming months. But there was a sidebar that never made print.

The Enquirer asked this question of local concertgoers, Music Hall stakeholders and resident companies via e-mail and on Facebook: “As we move to 2016 and Music Hall closes in June for a massive renovation, what are your thoughts, concerns, and/or hopes about the project?”

Here are some of the responses:

“My main concern, as always, is for the acoustics of Music Hall. As you well know, even the smallest physical change can have a major impact on the acoustics. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best!” – Pat Nott, College HillRead More »

Best of 2015

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Everyone loves lists. Here are just 10 of my favorite concert memories from 2015. As soon as I wrote them, I realized there were many more I had left out, from the superb concert:nova concerts to Xavier Piano Series, the Linton Series, and a wonderful Mahler concert recently by the CCM Philharmonia. 

Best rock fusion: Shrieking fans, long lines snaking to the bars, a crush of people surrounding a band in the lobby – those are things you wouldn’t expect at a concert of the 120-year-old Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra’s second annual collaboration in Music Hall with Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival, founded by Bryce Dessner a decade ago, rocked. The March concerts included the debut of Dessner’s indie-rock band The National with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony – a first for both.

Cincinnati Opera's Turandot
Cincinnati Opera’s Turandot

Best sight gags in an opera: Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” directed by Robin Guarino at CCM in April, had bawdy translations and hilarious sight gags that drew belly laughs. The updated production featured a Mid-Century Modern house with a hot tub, and a couple of swinging Albanian strangers looking like John Lennon and George Harrison had just wandered off the set of the “The Magical Mystery Tour.” It was brilliantly sung by CCM opera students and Mozart’s witty music was buoyant and fleet in the hands of conductor Mark Gibson.Read More »

Follow the Cincinnati Pops on tour

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John Morris Russell rehearsing for Pops Holiday show in Music Hall
John Morris Russell rehearsing for Pops Holiday show in Music Hall

The Cincinnati Pops has a website and a Twitter hashtag so fans can follow the orchestra on its first-ever tour to Florida over the coming week. Get updates from the tour by visiting cincinnatipops.org/florida or follow #PopsOnTour via social media. The site has a map of the tour stops, a blog, videos and information about the artists.

The orchestra’s first performance is this Sunday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. The other dates are the Broward Center for Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 8; the Ocean Reef Cultural Center in Key Largo on Dec. 10; and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota on Dec. 11.

Read more about the tour in this article.

Here’s a link to my review of Friday’s Pops tour preview  program at Music Hall.

And here’s a link to the review of last weekend’s all-Tchaikovsky concert by the CSO in Music Hall.