BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Joy was the theme on opening night of the Cincinnati May Festival's 125th anniversary season Friday night in Music Hall.
There was joy that this festival has endured and is still the pride of the city. Joy that it has retained its 125-year-old traditions. And finally, came the joy of Beethoven's great Choral Symphony No. 9, starring the dedicated May Festival Chorus, augmented by alumni to a force of 230-strong.
The festive program, led by music director James Conlon, included two works performed on the very first May Festival season of 1873, as well as the world premiere of a new work commissioned for the anniversary, PraiseMaker, by American composer Alvin Singleton.
Shouts of joy erupted from the near-capacity of crowd of 3,155 at the conclusion of Beethoven's Ninth, in which Mr. Conlon led forcefully, with a touch of demonic Beethovenian drive. A quartet of excellent soloists joined the May Festival Chorus (Robert Porco, director): Soprano Bridgett Hooks (substituting for an indisposed Jennifer Ringo); mezzo-soprano Robynne Redmon; tenor Stanford Olsen; and bass-baritone John Cheek.
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra seemed slow to respond to Mr. Conlon's direction at first, with weighty strings and horns lagging behind the beat in the first movement. (Some of the problem may be that the acoustical towers have been lined up on the side.) But the scherzo was full of character in the winds (kudos also go to timpanist Eugene Espino). In the Adagio, Mr. Conlon drew warmth and expressive phrasing from the strings. Above all stood his fine tempos and sense of direction, while conveying color and mystery in moments such as the "Turkish March."
The choral finale was thrillingly performed, with the chorus adding thrust and power, and the well-balanced soloists soaring through the texture. Making his festival debut, Mr. Olsen, a regular at the Metropolitan Opera and a University of Cincinnati graduate, displayed superb diction and a clarion tenor.
The chorus articulated Schiller's famed "Ode to Joy" text expertly and navigated Beethoven's choral fugues with polish. In the first half, Mr. Singleton took two bows for his PraiseMaker, composed for full orchestra and chorus to a text by Susan Kouguell. It was comprised of blocks of sound, such as glimmering bells and vibraphone over murmuring strings, hushed vocal chorales, and fleeting moments of dissonance punctuating the text.
Some moments were quite lovely, such as a recurring choral refrain given traditional harmonic treatment.
The program opened with an ebullient reading of Haydn's "The Heavens are Telling" from The Creation.
