Hamiltonians have good reason to be proud of their star pianist, Bryan Wallick. The 22-year-old made his Cincinnati recital debut on May 3 in the Scottish Rite Auditorium, downtown, concluding the 90th anniversary season of Matinee Musicale.

        Clearly a young man on the way up, Mr. Wallick showed that he has the technique, sensitivity and poise for a concert career.

        Favoring the big, romantic repertoire, Mr. Wallick showed off his brilliant technique in Liszt's Funerailles, Scriabin's Sonata No. 5 and etudes by Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Scriabin.

        He projected sweeping sonorities and moving sensitivity in Funerailles, which included impressive left-hand octave passages. In the Scriabin Sonata, he balanced keyboard-spanning virtuosities with the work's more introspective moments beautifully. He ended with a flourish and jumped out of his seat.

        After a brilliant set of etudes, Mr. Wallick treated the audience to Rachmaninoff's Prelude in D and a Toccata by English composer York Bowen, a breathtaking crowd-pleaser.

        But he's not all flash: he opened with Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Major and Haydn's Sonata in C Major.

        Mr. Wallick, who studies with Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School in New York, will receive his master's degree this month. Next year, he's off to the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, where he has a full scholarship.

        In the meantime, Mr. Wallick is winning prizes. He'll compete in the Vianna da Mota International Piano Competition in Portugal this summer. He was inducted into the Hamilton High School Fine Arts Hall of Fame earlier this year.

        The Amernet at NKU: The Amernet String Quartet is settling into its new home at Northern Kentucky University, as the university's first Corbett String Quartet in Residence.

        After adjusting to personnel changes, this quartet is beginning to soar again. On May 8, the ensemble — violinists Erez Ofer and Marcia Littley de Arias; violist Yoram Youngerman and cellist Javier Arias — performed a polished and inspiring program of Haydn, Shostakovich and Grieg in NKU's Greaves Hall.

        The Amernet's warmth, homogeneity and unity of expression grows more convincing each time I hear them.

        The players gave a first-rate performance of Haydn's Quartet Op. 20 No. 4, projecting the sturm und drang (storm and stress) of the first movement, and bringing out imaginative character in the second movement's variations.

        Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8 (1960) is full of musical quotes from the composer's previous pieces. First violinist Mr. Ofer, who seems to be driving this group to new heights, was a superb leader throughout its five movements.

        They captured the work's desolate quality with seamless lines; the second movement, a macabre dance, featured spectacular, hair-raising playing.

        The group was most at home, though, in Grieg's Quartet in G minor, where they played with unspoken unity and sheer virtuosity. A high point came in the Romanze, played with affection. The finale was a blend of Nordic mystery and sunniness.

        Beethoven in Cleveland: I'd drive 250 miles to hear pianist Emanuel Ax perform Beethoven with Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra, and last weekend, I did.

        Maestro Dohnanyi is in his penultimate season with the orchestra he has led since 1984, one of the most distinguished teamings anywhere in recent history. May 3-16, he conducted a Beethoven Festival that included a survey of all five Beethoven Piano Concertos with Mr. Ax — a monumental feat — and chamber music with the Emerson String Quartet.

        The entire series, including eight concerts in the 2,100-seat Severance Hall, was sold out.

        The first thing that strikes you upon hearing the Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall is its superior ensemble and balance. Nowhere was the unity of the strings so evident as in the opening Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, the last work Beethoven wrote, originally for string quartet. Mr. Dohnanyi's reading was both noble and tender, and he elicited memorable pianissimos from his players.

        Mr. Ax completed his Beethoven cycle with Concertos Nos. 3 and 5, Emperor. The Third was a sunny and detailed collaboration, in which the orchestra and soloist were perfectly matched in mood, color and precision. The best part was watching the amiable communication between maestro and pianist; everyone onstage was smiling.

        Mr. Ax's touch was powerful, yet his sound could melt into the lightness of clouds. He summoned a symphony of color in his first movement cadenza: it was both aristocratic and poetic. The finale sparkled with originality, yet Beethovenian drive was never far beneath the surface.

        After intermission, they tackled the Emperor. The orchestral introduction was masterful: the horns melded seamlessly into the texture. Mr. Ax played with weight and imagination, careful to take a back seat when the winds had the theme, as if they were playing chamber music.

        The slow movement, with its beautiful chorale theme, was played straight from the heart. The finale balanced brilliance with thoughtfulness; Mr. Ax made sense of the unusual coda, with its slowing timpani beats before the final surge.

        Mr. Dohnanyi conducts his final season as music director next year, before Franz Welser-Most, takes the baton.

        Tickets and information: (216) 231-1111 or clevelandorchestra.com.

        On the Road with Paavo: CSO music director-designate Paavo Jarvi is “in demand” as an interpreter of Shostakovich, the Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote after Mr. Jarvi's appearances with the Munich Philharmonic last month.

        “He shapes the music and its message with great intensity....” the critic wrote about Mr. Jarvi's Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 in the Philharmonie am Gasteig, April 19-21.

        “The Munich Philharmonic is like a prima donna: sometimes they play only loud, routinely and far from perfect; the next time they are world class. It depends on the conductor,” the Abendzeitung wrote. “Paavo Jarvi, appearing here for the second time, made them give us their incomparable best.”

        You can keep up with Mr. Jarvi's summer touring (including concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia) by checking his Web site: paavojarvi.com.

        A Symphonic Farewell: Despite the recent unrest in Over-the-Rhine, the CSO is celebrating record attendance for the final concerts of outgoing music director Jesus Lopez-Cobos. Almost 8,000 people came to Music Hall to bid him farewell, May 10-12. Among the honors heaped on him Saturday night, he received a memory book filled with wishes from concertgoers.

        Trustee Daniel Hoffheimer announced a “Jesus Lopez-Cobos Musical Excellence Fund,” an endowment funded with $1 million to “further the tradition of excellence exemplified by Maestro's leadership of the CSO.”

        A Feast of Early Music: Early music aficionados may want to make the drive to Bloomington, Ind., for the Bloomington Early Music Festival today through May 28.

        The offerings include a performance of staged Monteverdi madrigals and instrumental interludes, conceived and directed by English lutenist Nigel North and A. Scott Parry (8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday in the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium).

        A recital by soprano Moira Smiley (1 p.m. Saturday in Ford Hall) will feature music by 17th-century composers Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda.

        There is lots more, including Baroque and Renaissance dance, lectures and concerts. Tickets: (812) 331-1263 or go to the Web site at: blemf.org.

        Contact Janelle Gelfand at 768-8382; fax: 768-8330; e-mail:jgelfand@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.com keyword: Gelfand.

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