Monday, September 11, 2000
10 CSO concerts not to be missed
By Janelle Gelfand The Cincinnati Enquirer
So you haven't been to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a few years — or ever — but you'd like to try it. This season, there are reasons to sit up and sample a few concerts. With 37-year-old Paavo Jarvi scheduled to take the baton in 2001, the 106-year-old orchestra is showing signs of getting hip.
This year, Mr. Jarvi, James Conlon and Robert Spano spell the hippest lineup of guest conductors in the past decade. Who are they? They're some of a new brand of talented, young — and American — maestros.
But how do you pick from 22 concerts in the nine-month season which starts Friday? And how do you know whether you'll like Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie?
Here's some help: My personal pick (in chronological order) of the top 10 concerts not to miss this year at the CSO — and why.
1) Paavo Jarvi: For a taste of things to come, Paavo Jarvi conducts the CSO for the first time as music director designate (Oct. 5-7). He'll lead Berlioz's famous showpiece, Symphonie fantastique, and the “Love Scene” from Romeo and Juliette (both to be recorded for Telarc). Young violinist Yoon Kwon is the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish.
Ticket holders are invited to meet the new maestro in receptions after each concert.
2) Amadeus: That haunting music you heard in the 1984 movie about Mozart included excerpts from Mozart's magnificent Requiem. The May Festival Chorus will make a guest appearance in Mozart's Requiem and J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 191, conducted by chorus director Robert Porco (Oct. 13-14). (Incidentally, it's the 250th anniversary of Bach's death.)
The excellent cast includes soprano Janice Chandler, mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson; tenor Stanford Olsen (a University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music grad) and bass-baritone Nathan Berg.
3) Overdue debut: James Conlon, music director of the May Festival since 1979 and principal conductor of the Paris Opera, will make his CSO subscription debut Oct. 27-28 in Alexander Zemlinsky's Lyrische Symphonie (Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs) and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. He is a champion of Zemlinsky, a post-romantic composer whose luxuriant textures and large forces recall Mahler.
He'll be joined by American soprano Christine Brewer and Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard. (Mr. Hagegard starred in the 1973 Ingmar Bergman film, Mozart's The Magic Flute.)
Mr. Conlon has been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning and National Public Radio. The New York native is rumored to be a candidate for music director of several major orchestras.
This season, Mr. Conlon will guest conduct two of the “Big Five” orchestras that are seeking maestros: the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Nov. 24-25, 28); and the New York Philharmonic (May 10-12). He'll also visit The Cleveland Orchestra (Nov. 2-4); National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C., Nov. 16-18); and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Dec. 1-3).
4) Heavenly mix: An interesting program, an up-and-coming conductor and a harp could add up to something good. Twentysomething Viennese conductor Christian Arming (last seen in the pit of Cincinnati Opera's The Turn of the Screw) will take on Brahms Symphony No. 3. And CSO harpist Gillian Benet Sella will take center stage in two impressionistic pieces: Debussy's Danses Sacree et profane and Ravel's Introduction and Allegro (Nov. 3-4).
5) Irish flutist: James Galway puts his superstar talent to work in Mozart's Flute Concerto in D Major, and Jesus Lopez-Cobos conducts Shostakovich's popular Symphony No. 5 (Nov. 16-18).
6) Schindler's List: He's played the Grammy Awards. His music video on The Weather Channel brought Vivaldi's Four Seasons into 58 million homes. Violinist Gil Shaham, one of the world's top young violinists, performs Dvorak's Violin Concerto and Three Pieces from the movie, Schindler's List (March 23-24).
The program, conducted by Mr. Lopez-Cobos, includes a new piece by CCM professor Joel Hoffman for the 125th anniversary of Hebrew Union College.
7) Robert Spano: He's the maestro of the cutting edge Brooklyn Philharmonic, and his other podium is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In his CSO debut, Mr. Spano teams with Bronx-born pianist Terrence Wilson for a sure-fire program of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Tchaikovsky's Fourth (March 29-31).
8) Diminutive dynamo: Japanese conductor Junichi Hirokami, a charismatic conductor, returns to lead Brahms Symphony No. 1, April 6-7. A five-member percussion group, Nexus, will make its debut in “Take Me Flows What You Call Time” by Toru Takemitsu (1930-96), a composer who blends East and West traditions.
9) Turangalila symphonie: Music by French composer Olivier Messiaen has exotic, Eastern rhythms and modes (scales), actual bird songs (that Messiaen collected in the wild), and a mysticism that is attributed to his Catholic faith. This vast orchestral canvas will have its first Cincinnati performance May 4-5, under the direction of Mr. Lopez-Cobos. Horacio Gutierrez performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major.
10) Violinist who rocks: It's her first visit back since she rocked Music Hall and Carnegie Hall with the CSO in 1998. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg defies categorization; she's a musical risk-taker who plays with fire and grit. What will she do with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (May 10-12)? Mr. Lopez-Cobos conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 5, his final performance as music director.
Five more to keep in mind:
• Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich continued the great American symphonic tradition with her Symphony No. 1, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel will perform the world premiere of Ms. Zwilich's Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra with the CSO, Sept. 22-23.
• Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel celebrates 35 years with the CSO with a world premiere and three local youth choruses (Dec. 1-2).
• Yefim Bronfman, one of the world's great pianists, pairs with guest conductor Michael Christie in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Jan. 5-6).
• Distinguished singers Florence Quivar, Simon Estes, Jon Villars and Alessandra Marc join the May Festival Chorus in Verdi's Messa da Requiem, conducted by Mr. Lopez-Cobos. (Jan. 12-13).
• High school German teacher Jon Nakamatsu came out of nowhere to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997. He performs Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1. CSO associate conductor John Morris Russell leads Schumann's Symphony No. 4 and Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (March 1-3).
The CSO sells Classic Choice coupons (packages of six or 10) redeemable for concerts of your choice. $120-$250. 381-3300.
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