Tag: Louis Langree

My top performances in Cincinnati in 2024

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Cristian Macelaru conducting Shostakovich/Photo provided by CSO

Besides great performances in Cincinnati, 2024 was a year of anniversaries, historic firsts, farewells and new beginnings. In some instances, there was news-making connected with these performances. In chronological order:

1) Last February, when he led a thrilling and revelatory performance of Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 11 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, we didn’t yet know that Cristian Macelaru would be announced as the 14th CSO music director. The conductor riveted listeners in Music Hall when he led Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905.” He moved little as he led Shostakovich’s vast symphonic canvas, but the sheer visceral impact of this performance lingered long afterward. The orchestra’s musicians were impressed. For Macelaru, the feeling was mutual, he said in April, when his appointment was announced. Macelaru returns for his only performances with the CSO this season in February. And in other CSO leadership news, the CSO announced that President and CEO Jonathan Martin will retire Feb. 16.  Robert McGrath, the CSO’s chief operating officer, will then step in as acting president and CEO.Read More »

Louis Langrée withdraws from another concert

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Louis Langrée  is shown with soloist Inon Barnatan, the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a 2020 performance of Beethoven’s Akademie 1808 concert in Music Hall/AJ Waltz, photo

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has just announced that music director Louis Langrée has withdrawn from CSO subscription and special programs on May 3 & 4 due to an injury.

CSO Associate Conductor Samuel Lee, recent winner of the 2024 Malko Competition, will conduct the May 3 & 4 CSO subscription concert, Beethoven Symphony No. 7 & Dessner Premieres, which includes the U.S. premiere of Bryce Dessner’s Piano Concerto with Alice Sara Ott.

CSO Assistant Conductor Daniel Wiley will conduct the May 3 CSO special program, WIRES, featuring Bryce Dessner and his Concerto for Two Pianos with internationally acclaimed piano duo and sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque. You may recall that Wiley stepped in on about a day’s notice to lead concerts last weekend. Here is the review.

Langrée is concluding his 11-year tenure this month. He is to lead his final concerts as CSO music director on May 10-11 in Music Hall.

We wish him a very speedy recovery!

Learn more about Samuel Lee here.

Learn more about Daniel Wiley here.

French strike impacts CSO concerts this weekend

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Maurice Cohn to step in at CSO this weekend. Photo by Ken Yanagisawa

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is reporting that strikes that have been occurring in France over the last few days have caused “logistical complications” that will not allow music director Louis Langrée to be in Cincinnati this weekend to conduct concerts.

Langrée was originally scheduled to conduct performances of a program that includes Also sprach Zarathustra on October 21-23.

Maurice Cohn will step in to conduct all performances of the program this weekend.

The Wall Street Journal reports that thousands took to the streets today to protest rising energy bills and inflation. The journal reports  that striking teachers, railway and health workers staged marches in dozens of cities across France, joining refinery workers who are already on strike.

Louis Langree with soloist Inon Barnatan, the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, AJ Waltz, photo

Travel has been “basically halted. He is just stuck there,” said the CSO’s VP of communications Felecia Tchen Kanney. In addition, Langrée is “in essence, an official in France,” as the director of the Opéra Comique. He was appointed by the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.

Because of the fluid situation, the orchestra had to make a quick decision to find a replacement, she added.

Cohn is a two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Maurice Cohn currently serves as Assistant Conductor for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor with the Chicago-based contemporary ensemble Zafa Collective and is also the Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Music Festival for the 2022 season.

Pianist Hélène Grimaud is still scheduled to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto.

Concerts are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday in Music Hall. Tickets: 513-381-3300, cincinnatisymphony.org.

 

My November picks in classical music

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CSO on opening night/photo provided by Hannah Kenney

Since the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra officially opened its subscription season this weekend (here’s the review), I decided to look at the arts calendar to see what musical performances I want to get on my November calendar.

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of our performing arts are ramping up. My November calendar looks almost normal, which in Cincinnati means that you can be out every night of the week. So here are some of my picks.

Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m. – At CCM, renowned Russian pianist and pedagogue Boris Berman performs a guest recital performance in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall. Admission: FREE.

Note: Find all CCM events and the calendar here.

Nov. 7, 4 p.m. — Linton Music Series “Pure Bach,” featuring violinist Jennifer Koh performing the solo violin works of Bach. First Unitarian Church. For tickets and program, click here.

Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. – Ariel Quartet, CCM String-Quartet-in-Residence, continues its concert series with Lera Auerbach’s “Frozen Dreams,” which premiered in 2020, and Béla Bartók’s penultimate quartet, String Quartet No. 5.  Robert J. Werner Recital Hall
Tickets: Prices start at $29.50.

Daniil Trifonov in recital

Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov performs a recital at Music Hall, presented by the CSO. His program includes music by Karol Szymanowski, Debussy, Prokofiev and Brahms.

Note: For all CSO events and concerts, click here.

Nov. 11, 8 p.m. —Stephen Hough recital at Xavier. Hough is a longtime visitor to the Xavier Piano Series, and is something of a Renaissance man. This month, he graces the cover of BBC Music magazine. His program includes Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 and Hough’s own “Partitia.” It’s in Xavier’s Gallagher Center Theater on the XU campus. For tickets and info about the entire Xavier Music Series, click here.Read More »

Post-Covid Fall season in full swing

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Pianist Daniil Trifonov takes bows at last weekend’s MusicNOW Festival at the CSO

After 18 months of virtual and a few outdoor performances, Cincinnati is back to live, in-person performances. Most arts organizations are requiring masking and proof of vaccine or testing to enter theaters. (Here are the rules.) So far, people are flocking back, and the ones I’ve met are happy to be back.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has been performing mini-festivals of new music over the last two weekends.

Here are links to my impressions of the CSO/MusicNOW Festival, founded by Bryce Dessner (who unfortunately was not in town), and an avant-garde program led by creative director Matthias Pintscher.

MusicNOW with Bonny Light Horseman and Daniil Trifonov

Trifonov and Louis Langree/Mark Lyons photo

MusicNOW with So percussion and Daniil Trifonov

Contemporary Colors, hailing the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial.

All were late additions to the calendar, as the CSO won’t launch its subscription season until Oct. 29-30. Watch for a preview about their season later this month in the Business Courier.

The Cincinnati Pops has some “extras,” this fall, as well. John Morris Russell will lead an American program commemorating voting rights for women with singer/songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, Oct. 19 in Music Hall. Info here: cincinnatisymphony.org/pops.

Yesterday, the Cincinnati Jazz Hall of Fame presented an induction ceremony for its sixth class of inductees, at Mount St. Joseph University. Read more here about that organization and how V. Kay Casey came to found it.

Cincinnati Jazz Hall of Fame sponsors a program for young jazz musicians, who play “Jazz at Dusk” around town — seen here at Caffe Vivace in Walnut HIlls

Also this weekend, the 108th season of Matinee Musicale opened in Memorial Hall. I’ll be writing more about that soon… as well as some of my thoughts about the innovative programs of Chamber Music Cincinnati coming up soon.

 

The year in review in the arts

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The CSO’s first digital experiment last spring in Music Hall was music for four musicians.

What a year! If you’re a musician or a music fan, you probably remember the last live concert you attended or performed before Covid-19 shut down the country in March. Mine was on March 10: My granddaughter’s middle school orchestra concert.

Looking back, I realized that my annual “best of the year” in performances could only apply to the 10 weeks before we were locked down. So I wrote my Year in Review column for the Business Courier in two parts, as BC — Before Covid — and after.

Soprano Angel Blue wowed in Barber in a CSO livestream.

There were some unforgettable shows during both periods. In the second half — a season of screens — I am still enthralled by the Sept. 26 CSO digital program streamed from Music Hall, conducted by Louis Langrée. Gorgeous-voiced soprano Angel Blue gave an emotional performance of Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” a piece rarely heard. And what a treat it was to hear Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” as originally scored for 13 instruments.

And in a rare live performance by Cincinnati Ballet outdoors at Sawyer Point, I loved a new work for four dancers, choreographed (and danced) to Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat (fourth movement) by soloist David

Cincinnati Ballet danced at Sawyer Point

Morse. It was thrilling to see the exuberance and strength, the lifts and turns of the entire company. The program was enhanced by performances by a CSO quartet and Cincinnati Opera singers Victoria Okafor and Maria Miller.

You can read that column here (it’s free).

Earlier this year, local critic and retired opera singer Rafael de Acha asked people in the arts to answer the question, “What have you been during during the pandemic?” for his blog, rafaelmusicnotes.com.

I thank him for that, because it made me look back at how I had the opportunity to document the impact of the pandemic on our arts community in the pages of the Business Courier. Here is some of that column:Read More »

Impressions of the CSO’s “Live from Music Hall”

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Louis Langrée leads the CSO and violinist Augustin Hadelich in a rarely heard violin concerto for “Live from Music Hall.”

Question: How is recording a concert for livestream different from a regular recording session or an orchestra rehearsal?

“It’s a very strange, weird experience,” said CSO maestro Louis Langrée, during a recording session at Music Hall last week. “Because, when it’s a recording, you record bits, and you might do a run-through and make patches on what didn’t work. There is all this editing. We can’t do that. So we run it twice, and if there are places, or some movement where either I need to do it again, or the film director needs to do it again, we run it a third time.”

You may have noticed that the orchestra is facing the acoustical shell, with backs to the hall — not only to hear each other better but because the visuals looking out into the hall are pretty on film. The musicians are widely spaced, with Plexiglas between the winds. Playing without an audience is odd for the musicians and maestro.Read More »

Local classical music focuses on music by African American composers

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Anthony McGill performing at the Linton Music Series recently/ photo by Tina Gutierrez

 

Something good has come out of all the turmoil this summer. Arts organizations are programming music and even entire seasons devoted to the music of African American composers. It is music long neglected in our country. From the King of Ragtime Scott Joplin, whose “Maple Leaf Rag” appears on the Pops’ digital program on Oct. 3, to Florence Price, whose elegant symphonies, concertos and piano pieces are enjoying a revival, it is wonderful music that deserves study by scholars and performances by our major institutions. And now, that is happening at the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, the Cincinnati Song Initiative and others.

The Cincinnati Symphony and Pops are programming a free “digital season,” seven livestreamed concerts recorded in Music Hall, kicking off at 8 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 26.Read More »

New York radio WQXR to air CSO’s Beethoven Akademie 1808 concert this month

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Maesstro Louis Langrée, with soloist Inon Barnatan, the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Akademie 1808 concert in Music Hall/AJ Waltz, photos

“Mostly Mozart Festival on WQXR,” a week-long radio festival on New York’s classical radio station, will be capped on Aug. 16 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Akademie 1808 concert performed last season in Music Hall and conducted by music director Louis Langrée.

On Monday, WQXR and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts announced a partnership to broadcast archival performances from the annual Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as interviews, discussions and “pop-up” performances daily from Aug. 10 to Aug. 16.  New Yorkers can listen at 105.9-FM, or anyone may stream it online at wqxr.org. On opening day, a series of pop-up outdoor performances across all five New York City boroughs will stream live on WQXR’s Facebook page.

Due to Covid-19, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, which is led by Langrée, was canceled for the first time since its founding in 1966.

The festival will close on Aug. 16 with the CSO’s recreation of Beethoven’s legendary Akademie 1808, the most important concert of the composer’s lifetime (Aug 16, 5 pm ET). Langrée had intended to lead the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in this extravagant program — four hours of some of the greatest music Beethoven ever wrote. Instead, the festival will feature the performance recorded in Music Hall on March 1, 2020 with Langrée conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and featuring the May Festival Chorus prepared by Director of Choruses Robert Porco.
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CSO, Pops cancel fall season; live-streamed shows planned

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An image I captured during the CSO’s livestream from Music Hall in May.

It’s no surprise. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced today that its fall season concerts for the CSO and Pops are canceled through Jan. 3 2021 due to Covid-19. Click here to read the story.

Louis Langrée

The orchestra joins a growing number of major North American orchestras that are canceling all or part of their 2020-21 seasons amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus.

The Indianapolis Symphony was the latest to cancel its entire season on July 24. Here’s a link to the news.

The Nashville Symphony also has announced it will not play in 2020-21. It will furlough its musicians, staff and even its music director, Giancarlo Guerrero. Press release here.

Toronto announced that it will not have its usual season, but will present scaled-down ensembles, even in its home in Roy Thomson Hall..

Those who have announced they will cancel their fall seasons only (for now) include The New Jersey Symphony, which is led by music director Xian Zhang, who earned her doctorate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The San Francisco Symphony, with its season canceled through Dec. 31, was to have welcomed its new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen this fall.

Other major orchestras canceling fall seasons include the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, Chicago Symphony (through Dec. 23) and the Baltimore Symphony, optimistically to the end of November.