In June 2016, Music Hall will shut down to begin a vitally necessary rehab, meaning the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops will perform elsewhere after that. But one more season of music-making on Elm Street lies ahead.
Here are nine Music Hall programs to mark on your entertainment calendar for 2015-16.
Sept. 25-26: The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 120th season with Music Director Louis Langrée conducting a program featuring Russian pianist Yefim Bronfman performing Béla Bartók’s second piano concerto. It’s a powerful, percussive piece that Bartók wrote to perform himself. Its ferocious, percussive nature shocked audiences when it debuted in 1931. The program opens with the overture to Beethoven’s only opera, "Fidelio" (Cincinnati Opera will present the entire work in July 2016), and includes Berlioz’s phantasmagoric "Symphonie Fantastique," which traces a doomed affair that ends with the lover’s execution. If you attended Lumenocity in Washington Park in August you heard “Dream of Witches Sabbath” from this tempestuous work.
Megan Hilty will perform songs from "Rosemary Clooney’s Songbook” with the Cincinnati Pops Nov. 6-8.
Nov. 6-8: John Morris Russell (“JMR” to his fans) and the Cincinnati Pops present Broadway star Megan Hilty performing songs from "Rosemary Clooney’s Songbook." In 2009 she filled in on two days' notice with the Pops for a musical theater program, familiar territory based on her Broadway experience in "Wicked.” You might also remember her from "Smash" on NBC (2012-2013) as a rising star vying for the lead in a musical about Marilyn Monroe. In town for a 2014 Pops concert, she confessed her love for Clooney songs to JMR, which was all it took for him to concoct this program featuring hits by Cincinnati’s favorite girl singer.
Nov. 13-14: For the fourth year, the CSO presents "One City, One Symphony," a community-wide initiative using music designed to bring Cincinnatians together. “Freedom” is this year’s theme with three short pieces based on poems by Maya Angelou: “Equality,” “Elegy” and “Forgive.” Prior to the weekend’s performances, there will be opportunities around town to listen to and discuss Antonin Dvořák’s beloved "New World Symphony," full of the sounds of 19th-century America. This unusual program is an excellent opportunity to seriously tune in to great music.
Jan. 9-10, 2016: JMR presents a tribute to the African-American musical experience, "I’m Every Woman," to kick off 2016. He’ll conduct a program featuring opera singer Measha Bruggergosman, rhythm and blues artist Capathia Jenkins (she did a great Motown concert with the Pops in 2013 at Riverbend) and Tatiana Mayfield, a jazz singer from Texas who goes by “Lady May." JMR compares them to the Three Tenors – “except they’re soul divas.”
Feb. 19-20. Don’t think the CSO only plays music by European composers. In February, Langrée will conduct works by 20th-century American masters, starting with Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question” (1908), a “dialogue” between the orchestra’s strings, a woodwind quartet and a solo trumpet that poses “the eternal question of existence.” Then it’s Samuel Barber’s romantic and rhapsodic Violin Concerto, featuring CSO concertmaster Timothy Lees. Aaron Copland’s ballet "Appalachian Spring" (1944) is the concert’s namesake and anchor, including square-dance melodies and the Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts.” Also on the program is music that Leonard Bernstein composed for the film "On the Waterfront" (1955).
Jason Alexander is the featured guest for "An Evening of Comedy & Song" March 4-6.
March 4-6. Jason Alexander, whom you likely recall as George Costanza for nine seasons on "Seinfeld," is the featured guest for "An Evening of Comedy & Song." It’s a sure bet he and JMR will make you laugh. But Alexander is also a talented singer – winner of a Tony as best leading actor in "Jerome Robbins’ Broadway" in 1989. He also has been artistic director of "Reprise!" a musical theater revival series in Los Angeles, so he knows his way around tunes and shows.
March 18-19. For the third year, the CSO and Langrée will collaborate with the contemporary music festival MusicNOW. No program has been announced yet, but working with festival director Bryce Dessner, the Cincinnati musician best known for his role with the Grammy Award-nominated band The National, you can be sure these concerts will feature a fascinating intersection of classical, rock and indie music.
March 31-April 2. Jesús López-Cobos was the CSO’s 11th music director (1986-2000). He returns to conduct a Music Hall performance for the first time in more than a decade. His performances of Gustav Mahler’s powerful symphonies remain vivid memories for Cincinnati concertgoers. He’ll conduct Mahler’s colossal "Symphony No. 9" (1911), a work he recorded with the CSO in 1996. Contemplating his own death (Mahler was ill and died soon after completing the symphony), the composer filled this massive work with ominous tolling bells, a funeral march and an erratic heartbeat. Chaos is always nearby, rendered by sharp, snarling brass passages and hammered bow strokes on the stringed instruments. It concludes with tranquility and a poignant farewell. López-Cobos’ performance will likely be a season highlight.
April 28, 30. Guest conductor Carlo Montanaro will be on the podium for an evening of melodic classics by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn. Tchaikovsky’s "Capriccio Italien" is first, followed by violinist Sergej Krylov performing the composer’s vivacious Violin Concerto. Then the orchestra offers up Mendelssohn’s "Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream," composed when he was just 17 years old. (It includes the familiar “Wedding March.”) His Symphony No. 4, "Italian," like Tchaikovsky’s capriccio, was inspired by travels in Italy, and this joyous work evokes the nation’s spirit, warmth and vitality. You’ll leave Music Hall humming.
One final tip: For a very different Music Hall experience, consider a program by the CSO Chamber Players (Oct. 18, Dec. 6, Feb. 21 and April 10). These concerts put the audience onstage, close to the players, creating an unusually intimate musical experience. The programs feature new works and masterpieces of chamber music.
Information: www.cincinnatisymphony.org
Tickets: 513-381-3300
