A HIP performance, impressions of Jeremy Denk and other musings

I had great intentions to go to many more holiday concerts this month before I was laid flat by the Virus that hit Cincinnati. So, here are a few impressions from December:

Pianist Jeremy Denk visited Chamber Music Cincinnati early in the month for a full recital. An overflow crowd crammed into Werner Recital Hall — it’s too bad it wasn’t in the much larger Corbett Auditorium.

Jeremy Denk enthralled a capacity crowd at Chamber Music Cincinnati this month.
Jeremy Denk enthralled a capacity crowd at Chamber Music Cincinnati this month.

Denk recently won the MacArthur Genius fellowship, and small wonder. To give an example of his genius, his performance came fresh off of a Carnegie Hall performance of Steven Stucky’s comic opera, “The Classical Style: An Opera (of Sorts),” for which Denk wrote the libretto. He is Musical America’s 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year. You can read more of why he’s a Renaissance man here.

His Cincinnati program was both genius and a bit curious.Read More »