Tag: Memorial Hall

Jamie Barton’s program

janellegelfandLeave a comment

She’s been called “A once-in-a-generation voice.” Once you hear her sing, you will never forget the extraordinary Jamie Barton.

The renowned, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano is returning to Cincinnati, 3 p.m. Oct. 25 in Memorial Hall with a concert for Matinee Musicale.

When Barton made her Cincinnati recital debut in 2018 with pianist Kathleen Kelly, her program illuminated the voices of women composers. Barton and Kelly will continue that thread in her return, including Six Lieder by Clara Schumann, “Love after 1950” by Libby Larsen, French art song, opera favorites and contemporary works. This could be my favorite: “In the Beginning” from “Cat Songs” by Jake Heggie.

A lot has happened for Barton since that 2018 visit. She’s now a Grammy winner, with the 2026 Grammy for Best Opera Recording for Intelligence, and her career has taken her to the Met, Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms and major stages around the world.

Indeed, Barton is now a superstar. Here’s what I wrote for the Cincinnati Enquirer when she made her role debut as Azucena in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” for Cincinnati Opera. It gives you some idea of the extraordinary power of her voice:

“At the opera’s center is the Gypsy, Azucena, who has seen her own mother burned at the stake. Thursday was Barton’s first outing in this role, and it seems ideal for her out-sized, rich mezzo-soprano, with its arresting color in the lower range. She cast a spell as she wove her tale in “Stride la vampa,” describing her mother’s demise at the stake. Her Third Act scene with the Count was chilling, as she communicated heart-rending emotion as well as palpable terror for the fate she was facing.”

Off the stage, she’s outspoken about body positivity, women’s issues and LGBTQ+ rights. Her own Instagram bio pretty much says it all: “Proudly queer opera singer into drag queens, bluegrass, social justice, equality, and cats.”  Take a look at my last interview with her, on this blog! 

For more information and Barton’s complete program, click here.

You don’t want to miss this. The performance is at 3 p.m. October 25 at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. Tickets are $24-$54. https://matineemusicalecincinnati.org/Jamie-barton-mezzo-soprano-2026/

 

 

 

 

 

Bizet’s tunes steal the show in Cincinnati Opera’s updated ‘Carmen’

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Carmen (J’Nai Bridges) joins Escamillo (Ryan McKinny) in his celebration. Photos by Philip Groshong for Cincinnati Opera

Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” is possibly the most popular opera ever written. Besides its dramatic story, you are left humming its gorgeous, unforgettable tunes days later. Cincinnati Opera has mounted productions of “Carmen” since it’s second season,1921, in Cincinnati Zoo Pavilion.

On July 25 in Music Hall, I saw the 179th performance of “Carmen,” opening night of the final opera of its mainstage season, with a fine cast and an engagingly updated co-production. Although the performance was sometimes uneven, there were many standout moments. For me, the highlight was Bizet’s musical score, given a spirited reading by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the opera pit under the baton of Spanish conductor Ramón Tebar.

Tebar led the orchestra briskly through the Prelude’s bright opening themes. When the music arrived at the “Fate” theme, the lights dimmed theatrically (Thomas C. Hase). The curtain rose on 1950s Havana, where the cigarette girls had to be unlocked from cage-like doors in order to take their factory break, perhaps a nod to Havana just before Fidel Castro came to power. The set designs by Gary McCann, who also designed the wonderful midcentury costumes, were charmingly evocative of old Havana. The heat was almost palpable in the saturated red lighting that simmered in the background against a painterly blue sky. The smuggler’s mountaintop hideout was a gloomy, abandoned warehouse with looming windows and a large doorway, through which the smugglers loaded their loot.

The title character, Carmen, performed by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, is a free-spirited femme fatale who seduces Don José and then dumps him for the toreador, Escamillo. In 2021, Bridges provided a glimpse of her gifts in an abridged “Carmen” with Cincinnati Opera. It was performed outdoors at Summit Park in Blue Ash, amplified and with Covid protocols in place.

A desperate Don José (Matthew White) confronts Carmen (J’Nai Bridges).

In this production, originally staged by Paul Curran and locally directed by Anderson Nunnelly, Carmen was more defiant than flirty or sensual. Bridges’ rich mezzo-soprano was pleasing in the upper register, although her lower phrases did not project well in the “Habanera.” Her Carmen had an edge – the director brought the factory spat vividly outdoors, as Carmen slapped a woman and yanked her hair. It was clear that men were putty in her hands as she tore off her apron down to a red dress for her sizzling “Seguidilla.”Read More »

Israeli Chamber Project’s harrowing trip to Cincinnati

janellegelfand1 Comment
The Israeli Chamber Project with violinist Antje Weithaas played Chamber Music Cincinnati this week.

Imagine being a touring musician while your country is at war. Clarinetist Tibi Cziger and his wife cellist Michal Korman were in a safe room with their three children in Tel Aviv when their home was hit and damaged by a bomb from Iran. The couple, members of the Israeli Chamber Project, were on the brink of their North American tour. They quickly decided that Korman would stay home with their traumatized children, while Cziger would travel to the U.S.

So began an odyssey just to get here. Cziger, who is founder and artistic director of the Israeli Chamber Project, and flutist Guy Eshed, principal flutist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, flew from Tel Aviv to Athens to Zurich to Chicago. (The others were coming from New York, Georgia and Germany.) From Chicago, the musicians were unable to get a flight to Cincinnati. The group, based in Israel and New York, had already been forced to make changes with some substitute players for their first two tour performances due to their travel woes. They decided to drive.

The fact that they arrived on time for their Chamber Music Cincinnati performance on March 24 in Memorial Hall was nothing short of a miracle. Their performance was not only a feat of superb artistry and virtuosity, but also of grit, determination and even courage. The audience stood for lengthy ovations at its conclusion.

For the tour, the ensemble joined with the distinguished violinist Antje Weithaas, now a professor at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Musik, and named “Instrumentalist of the Year” at Germany’s 2025 Opus Klassic. Besides Cziger and Eshed, the ensemble was rounded out by violinist Itamar Zorman (winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition); violist Guy Ben-Ziony (currently visiting professor at the Robert Schumann University of Music and Media in Düsseldorf); and pianist Assaff Weisman, a graduate of The Juilliard School where he now teaches. Cellist James Kim admirably stepped in at the last minute to play for Michal Korman for the whole tour. He is on the faculty of University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music and cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio.

They opened with Bernard Hermann’s “Souvenir de Voyage” for clarinet and string quartet. The first movement’s theme, a haunting tune set against lush strings, was ideal for the rich timbre of Cziger’s clarinet. Clarinet and violin traded themes much of the time, and their phrases were were tinged with nostalgia in the slow movement, Berceuse. The evocative finale was inspired by J.M. W. Turner’s Venetian watercolors, and began in the two violins, almost like a Kreisler miniature. Hermann, of course, is revered for his film scores, and these souvenirs were like small cinematic gems, and a wonderful discovery.Read More »

Megan Moore impresses in recital, including new work by Jake Heggie

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore with pianist Francesco Barfoed; photo by Gayna Bassin

Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore brought a substantial, varied program to Matinee Musicale on Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall. It was her professional recital debut in the Queen City, although the singer, a native of West Chester and a Lakota West and Miami University grad, sang on Cincinnati Music Hall’s stage at age 14 with the May Festival Youth Chorus under the baton of James Conlon. “I thought I was a rock star,” she said, praising the foundation in the arts that she had received here. Now she enjoys an international career, which includes singing Rosina in “The Barber of Seville” with Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and her company and role debut this season as Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” at New Orleans Opera.

Her exellent piano collaborator was Danish-born Francesco Barfoed, whom she met when both were at Juilliard. Their program included the second performance of a new song cycle by Jake Heggie, which, she told me later, he tailored to her voice. They gave its world premiere in April at the Morgan Library in New York, presented by the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers.

This was Moore’s first recital since having a baby via C-section seven weeks ago, which was an astonishing feat considering the control needed and the artistry she displayed. A large contingent of friends and family (and baby, too) were on hand, including former high school and college teachers.Read More »

Claire Huangci performs piano showstoppers to open Matinée Musicale

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Claire Huangci wowed in transcriptions and rarities/ photo by Gayna Bassin

The fall season is here, and on Sept. 7, I took in one of the first offerings of the classical music season. American pianist Claire Huangci stepped in on about a week’s notice to perform a recital for Matinée Musicale of virtuoso piano transcriptions by Czerny, Ravel, Earl Wild and Gershwin, and rarely heard pieces by Khachaturian and Florence Price in Memorial Hall.

Although her program seemed to be mostly all that glittered, it was a treat to hear some rarely heard works, such as Price’s Fantasie Negre No. 2 in G Minor, and familiar works in less-played arrangements — such as Rhapsody in Blue for piano solo only. And best of all, she spoke about each piece from the stage, which earned points from the audience.

She told listeners that Cincinnati has a special meaning to her, because in 1999 she participated in the (now defunct) World Piano Competition here. Since performing for Matinée twice before, in 2015 and 2017, she has developed a very busy international career. She is the winner of numerous competitions, and her technical prowess was on display in this program.

The pianist opened with Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata. I enjoyed her singing tone and wonderful way of conjuring atmosphere. Czerny’s Fantasie Brillante sur “Le Nozze di Figaro” was an enchanting journey on tunes from the opera through brilliant technical feats. She summoned orchestral sonorities in Khachaturian’s Adagio of Spartacus, a score heard in movies. And Ravel’s “La Valse” (in the composer’s piano solo version) was a mesmerizing tour de force, with impeccable voicing amidst cascades of filigree, performed with arms and hair flying.

The second half of this substantial program similarly involved spectacular feats, starting with Florence Price’s Fantasie Negre No. 2 in G Minor (she wrote 4 of them). There were four Virtuoso Etudes on some of Gershwin’s most irresistible tunes, including “I’ve Got Rhythm,” arranged by Earl Wild. Huangci finished with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, playing both the piano and orchestra parts. She took it at an extremely fast tempo, and I wondered how she had any energy left at all after what seemed to be an endurance test of a concert.

Sometime, I’d like to hear this pianist play Beethoven again. For an encore, she treated with a charming tune from the film “Amélie,” released in 2001.

Coming up, Matinée presents Cincinnati native Megan Moore, a lyric coloratura mezzo-soprano, in a wide-ranging program that you can see here. The collaborative pianist is Francesco Barfoed. It’s at 3 p.m. Oct. 12 in Memorial Hall. Ticket info: matineemusicalecincinnati.org/recitals

 

 

 

Concert Review: Love letter to the Viola

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Photos by Gayna Bassin

It’s unusual to hear an entire program of music written for the viola. The recital on Sept. 15 in Memorial Hall by violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and pianist Adam Golka was a rare treat.

They opened the Matinee Musicale concert season with an inventive program that included music by two women composers, born 100 years apart. Pajaro-van de Stadt called it “a love letter to the viola.”

Brahms’ Sonata Op. 120, No. 2 in E-flat Major was the perfect introduction to this duo. (The work was originally written for clarinet and piano.) I was instantly struck by the rich, compelling tone of Pajaro-van de Stadt’s instrument. The warmth was palpable in her phrasing, and she took her time to allow the music to breathe in this wonderful, autumnal work.Read More »

Jewish Music Festival: Ariel Quartet soars in Auerbach and Golijov

janellegelfandLeave a comment
The Ariel Quartet with clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky on Tuesday at the Skirball Museum in Clifton.

Maybe you’ve seen brief mentions of the Jewish Music Festival, with musical performances, lectures and sometimes art exhibitions taking place throughout the area. The festival is brand new, and organized by Aik Khai Pung, associate professor at CCM, where he is music director of the CCM Concert Orchestra. I noticed in an online listing that the Ariel String Quartet was playing last night at Hebrew Union College, and by luck, I was able to go.

The concert, which was co-presented by concert:nova and the Cincinnati Cultural Exchange, was held in Mayerson Auditorium in the Skirball Museum on the HUC campus. Curator Abby Schwartz provided commentary about the art by Jewish artists that surrounded us, and the paintings’ relationships to the music.

The musical artists for this program were sensational. The Ariel Quartet, quartet-in-residence at CCM, opened with Lera Auerbach’s “Frozen Dreams” and “Cetera Desunt” for string quartet. Both works were a revelation. “Frozen Dreams” was haunting and deeply personal. Auerbach’s music is simply astonishing; it is both searing and lyrical. In “Cetera Desunt” Auerbach took her cue from Shostakovich, and the listener could detect the repeating motive signifying Shostakovich’s signature. The superb performers — violinists Alexandra Kazovsky and Gershon Gerchikov, Jan Grüning, viola, and Amit-Even-Tov, cello — soared through this treacherous score with exciting precision and passion. In the frenzied passages, they dug into their strings with bows flying. I plan to try to hear more of Auerbach’s music.

Vinnitsky was serenaded with “happy birthday” after the performance.

They joined with clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky for Osvaldo Golijov’s “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.” It is named for a blind, mystical rabbi who lived centuries ago, but is also a tribute to Golijov’s great-grandfather. This piece blends liturgical prayers in its outer movements with raucous Klezmer music. There could not have been a better champion for both styles than Vinnitsky, who wailed and almost danced in his seat as he performed Golijov’s riveting music, using three different clarinets.

Read the program notes for this program here.

Vinnitsky joined CCM’s clarinet faculty about two years ago. He and the Ariel Quartet will perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet on March 26 at CCM, 7:30 p.m. in Werner Recital Hall. It’s not-to-be missed!

The Jewish Foundation is sponsor of the inaugural festival, a total of nine concerts and events. Other participants have included the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, composer Anna Vinnitsky, saxophonist Rick VanMatre and others.

Several more events are coming up: Read More »

Cello/piano duo makes radiant Cincinnati debut

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Julian Schwarz and Marika Bournaki. photo by Gayna Bassin

The married duo of cellist Julian Schwarz and pianist Marika Bournaki performed an excellent program for Matinee Musicale on Sunday, Oct. 29 in Memorial Hall. Schwarz is now one of my favorite cellists. He communicated with a big, warm tone and a romantic vibrato in Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, a work originally scored for French horn. He smiled as he played the phrases of Brahms’ Sonata No. 1 in E Minor — and notably, he performed his entire program from memory. (Schwarz performs on  Neapolitan cello by Gennaro Gagliano of 1743.)

But mainly, it was a joy to hear both of these virtuoso performers. Bournaki has previously appeared on the Xavier Piano Series, and is also a stunning collaborator. There was seamless communication between the two.Read More »

CCM professor makes unexpected Cincinnati recital debut

janellegelfandLeave a comment
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 »

Recommended: Tchaikovsky winner to play for Matinée Musicale

janellegelfandLeave a comment
Alexandre Kantorow; photo by Sasha Gusov

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.