The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced yesterday the death of renowned pianist André Watts on July 12. The artist was 77. Mr. Watts, a frequent guest artist in Cincinnati, was distinguished professor of piano and the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at the university. He joined the faculty there in 2004.
Mr. Watts was a brilliant statesman of the art form and a piano superstar, celebrated across the globe as a musical genius. At age 16 in 1962, Mr. Watts won a competition to play in Leonard Bernstein’s televised “Young People’s Concerts” series with the New York Philharmonic. A year later, he stepped in to play for Glenn Gould with the New York Philharmonic, launching a performance career that would span more than 60 years.
“André was first and foremost a gentleman who had a profound understanding of the human experience,” said Eugene Pridonoff, emeritus professor of piano at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. “His humility was genuine and he never let his fame define him. This was reflected in his music making that was always in service to the music and never about him. He will be greatly missed!”
Mr. Watts was beloved by Cincinnati audiences. He appeared in 17 subscription weekends with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, beginning in March of 1970, when he performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor. He also appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1977, performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 under the baton of Leonard Bernstein.Read More »
Amanda Castro as Anita and the company of West Side Story, Lyric Opera of Chicago. Photo Todd Rosenberg
On one day in Chicago recently, I saw two “opera” productions that were at opposite ends of the spectrum. The first was really musical theater — “West Side Story” — mounted by Lyric Opera of Chicago. A couple of hours later, I was in the intimate Jarvis Opera Hall to see a historically informed, ravishing production of Johann Adolph Hasse’s “Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra” (really a serenade mounted as opera) at Haymarket Opera Company. Here are a few thoughts about each:
West Side Story — Cincinnati Opera has experimented with presenting musicals in the past, but after a few tries, let it go. In Chicago, Lyric Opera has made a full commitment to Broadway in the opera world. That was a topic of discussion for a panel moderated by Chicago critic Wynne Delacoma at the annual meeting of MCANA (see below). The participants were Lyric Opera’s director of artistic programs Cory Lippiello and James Lowe, the conductor for West Side Story. The company also presented the U.S. premiere of director Barrie Kosky’s production of Fiddler on the Roof in September.
Part of the appeal for opera companies is that musical theater brings in a whole new audience. For Fiddler, 50% of the audience was new to Lyric Opera, said Lippiello, who was unclear about how many returned to see an opera. The other appeal is that the last time Lyric Opera presented West Side Story, it took in $10 million at the box office. Although officials don’t think they’ll meet that number this year, as everyone is still emerging from Covid, that kind of money can be likened to the annual Nutcracker at the ballet. It helps pay for the rest of the season.Read More »
Muti and Palumbo taking bows following a superb performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
A couple of weeks ago, I was able to visit Chicago for the annual meeting of the Music Critics Association of North America. It’s always eye-opening to revisit a city with exceptional arts. On this occasion, we visited Orchestra Hall for the final — and deeply moving — program led by Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. We also went to Haymarket Opera Company at DePaul University for a rare mounting of Johann Hesse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra. And on the lighter side, there was Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story at Lyric Opera of Chicago. All of that in two days, as well as our own panel discussions … Below are some of my random impressions.
Muti and Missa Solemnis –It’s interesting that with his distinguished career, Muti, 81, had not felt “ready” to conduct the Missa Solemnis until recently. (His only other performance was with the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg in 2021.) “I felt not worthy even to touch the score,” he said in an interview with program annotator Phillip Huscher. He quoted Carlos Kleiber, who said, “There is some music that is better if it stays on the paper.”
Whether because of Muti’s solemn view of this work, or because it was his final set of concerts, Muti’s reading was deeply reverent, even meditative at times. I was instantly struck by the warmth and stunning ensemble of the strings in the opening Kyrie. The sound of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, prepared by the Met’s Donald Palumbo, was hushed but full. The four excellent soloists (Erin Morley, Alisa Kolosova, Giovanni Sala and Kyle Ketelsen) phrased seamlessly in a flowing legato. The Gloria was an exuberant contrast, with short attack in orchestra and chorus and an electrifying fugue. The clarity in the acoustical space of Orchestra Hall was stunning — I could hear every word. Powerful outbursts had a kind of controlled brilliance. Muti moved little as he conducted, and the music breathed from beginning to end. (I invite you to read the full review by my MCANA colleague Arthur Kaptainis on Classical Voice North America.)
I was thinking during the performance of the many connections between Cincinnati and Chicago. There was, of course, Theodore Thomas, who founded the Cincinnati May Festival in 1873 and was founding director of the College of Music (later CCM) before becoming the founding music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1891. Fritz Reiner was CSO music director before going to Chicago. The current principal cellist, John Sharp, was formerly principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony. (I’m sure that some of you will think of other connections.)
And the Chicago Symphony’s current president Jeff Alexander was formerly with the Cincinnati Symphony. Alexander praised Muti’s 13-year tenure and he and the board chair announced that he will be “Music Director Emeritus for Life.” To the audience’s delight, Muti spoke engagingly about his time in Chicago, displaying quite a sense of humor.
It will be interesting to follow Chicago’s music director search, even as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is also searching.
Thoughts on the operatic productions I saw in Chicago to follow…
Due to inclement weather, the KSO’s “Boogie Nights” concert has moved from Devou Park to Greaves Concert Hall on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. Free parking in Lots I and D. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Free, general seating with wheelchair accessible area. Food and drinks are not allowed in the concert hall.
Time travel with the KSO’s Boogie Band and vocalists to the era of bell-bottoms, Afros, platform shoes, and the music of Donna Summer, KC & the Sunshine Band, ABBA, The Village People, The Bee-Gees and many more. You will be dancing.
In recent years, Cincinnati Opera has kicked off its season with a free concert in Washington Park, OTR
Passing on this notice regarding tonight’s outdoor opera concert in Washington Park:
Due to the ongoing threat of inclement weather, and out of concern for the safety of our audience, artists, crew members, and staff, the outdoor Opera in the Park concert scheduled for Sunday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. has been canceled.
The CSO Brass Institute performance will go on as scheduled at 6:00 p.m. but will take place indoors at First Lutheran Church located adjacent to Washington Park at 1208 Race Street.
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 »
Baritone Elliot Madore performing at Memorial Hall on Sunday/ Photos provided by Gayna Bassin
When soprano Valerie Eickhoff canceled her debut with Matinée Musicale on about three days notice last week due to illness, it was sheer luck that another singer was available to step in. And conveniently, he lives in Cincinnati. Baritone Elliot Madore wowed the audience on Sunday evening in Memorial Hall with a wide-ranging program that opened with the Liederkreis Op. 39 by Schumann and ended with Rogers and Hammerstein’s “My Boy Bill.”
Madore is a star who is busy singing in opera houses around the world while he is also teaching the stars of the future at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His collaborative pianist was CCM professor Donna Loewy, who had never played with him before. Madore joined the faculty in August of 2021, and we learned later that this was his Cincinnati recital debut.Read More »
I hope you have been able to attend some of the great concerts, plays, dance and musicals in our city this month. Coming up on Friday, pianist Emanuel “Manny” Ax is donating his time and talent to perform a benefit piano concert for the Ben Carlson-Berne Scholarship, 7:30 p.m. Friday March 24 in Corbett Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.
Here’s an interesting phone interview that WGUC’s Elaine Diehl had with Ax about the concert. He has been performing in Cincinnati since 1976 or ’77, he says. He speaks about the support that he received as a young musician, and life on the road, post-Covid.
He’s also continuing his “Beethoven for Three” recordings with Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavakos, he tells Elaine. I’m enjoying the second in their series, which has Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale” Symphony No. 6 — arranged for piano trio by Shai Wosner. It’s a wonderful discovery. Take a listen here.
His program on Friday will be piano music by Schubert and Liszt.
He’s being called “Liszt reincarnated.” In 2019, pianist Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, where he also won the Grand Prix, which has only been awarded three times before in the competition’s history. He was 22.
This month, Kantorow will make his Cincinnati debut in recital for Matinée Musicale, 3 p.m. Sunday Feb. 19 in Memorial Hall.
Kantorow made his debut at age 16, and since then has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras and festivals.
His program includes Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major; several Schubert lieder arranged by Liszt; and Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy.”
He recently told BBC Music magazine that Brahms was the first composer he connected to. Brahms, he said, “has a lot of dignity in how he shows his emotions, but there are moments where he lets go.”
And speaking of Brahms, here’s his performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, which won the Grand Prix of the Tchaikovsky Competition:
Kantorow records on the BIS label. His most recent recording of solo works by Brahms received the 2022 Diapason d’Or. His two previous recordings (Saint-Saëns concerti 3-5 and solo works by Brahms, Bartok and Liszt) each received both the Diapason d’Or and Choc Classica of the Year (for Classica magazine) in 2019 and 2020 respectively. The solo disc was Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice, his performance described as “a further remarkable example of his virtuosity and artistry, showing both skill and sensitivity throughout.”
Purchase tickets online on the Memorial Hall website or call the Box Office at 513-977-8838.
The Memorial Hall Box Office is open Tuesday – Friday 1 PM – 6 PM.
