Just three days after Labor Day, on Sept. 8, the Classical music fall season goes into high gear as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra begins its 2016-17 series. But there’s much else packed into the season, as the area’s burgeoning Classical music scene offers standard repertory and new takes on traditional forms in large concert halls and intimate spaces.
The CSO’s opening concerts mark the beginning of its one-year residency at the Taft Theatre downtown, and the move has attracted as much ink as the season itself. It has moved while its home, Music Hall, is being renovated. The Taft was built in 1928 and seats 2,500, some 700 fewer than Music Hall’s original configuration. Plans for the move began five years ago, according to CSO president Trey Devey.
“We invested $3 million in the Taft in 2011 and another $500,000 this year,” he wrote in an email. “These improvements include air conditioning, greatly expanded restrooms, new seats, rails, ramps, lighting and box office. They focus on the audience experience and were informed by audience feedback.”
The CSO is taking no chances with the sound. Akustiks, the renowned acoustic-design company engaged for the Music Hall renovation, created an acoustic shell for the Taft.
“This shell for the Taft Theatre is new and specifically designed to enhance the acoustic experience within that auditorium,” Devey says.
The Taft has possible advantages over Music Hall. There are no obstructed sight lines. Performances will be more intimate experiences, thanks to the Taft’s seating capacity. Parking is not an issue — there are plenty of nearby garages and lots and metered spaces. Also, subscribers receive free parking. There are several packages to choose from, including Sunday matinees.
When the season opens on Sept. 8, featured pianist Emanuel Ax will be performing Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor)” and Louis Langrée will conduct Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.
Acclaimed violinists return for classic concertos. Hilary Hahn appears on Sept. 23 and 24 for the “Beethoven Violin Concerto” and on Oct. 7 and 8, Gil Shaham takes on Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto.”
Jennifer Koh, who long has been a proponent of contemporary music, performs Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Violin Concerto” as part of the Northern Lights program on Nov. 18 and 19.
Thanksgiving weekend features an all-American program for One City One Symphony with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who solos on John Williams’ Escapades (music from his score for the film Catch Me If You Can). The program also includes works by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland.
And oh, yes — Yo Yo Ma makes a return appearance on Oct. 28. But it’s already sold out.
The CSO isn’t the only organization changing venues this season. Due to renovation of theaters at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Chamber Music Cincinnati’s performances will take place in the Jarson-Kaplan Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The Emerson String Quartet appears there on Sept. 28 with a program of music by Mozart, Shostakovich and Antonín Dvorak. On Oct. 21, the Brentano String Quartet and pianist Jonathan Biss offer a program of Beethoven’s late works. Ensemble-in-residence at Yale University, the Brentano Quartet will perform Beethoven’s “String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135,” the composer’s final complete work. In addition to being an outstanding proponent of Beethoven’s music for piano, Biss is a noted writer, commentator and teacher. He’ll team up with quartet violinist Mark Steinberg for the “Sonata for Piano and Violin in G Major, Op. 96” and Biss will play “Sonata No. 32 in C Minor for Piano, Op. 111.”
Innovative ensemble concert:nova kicks off its 10th-anniversary season on Oct. 6 and 8. Its Coffee, Food & Music concert celebrates composers who loved their morning cup of joe. Beethoven was a meticulous bean counter, and American composer Virgil Thomson used a sock to brew his coffee. Other composers include Bach, who wrote the comic “Coffee Cantata,” and Mendelssohn. Local baristas will also demonstrate their approaches to a perfect brew.
Opera abounds this fall, from grandiose to intimate to works-in-progress. An ambitious little opera company, Queen City Chamber Opera, presents Act III of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried on Oct. 21 and 23 at the Arts Center at Dunham.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati Chamber Opera has a more intimate offering, Manuel de Falla’s La Vida Breve on Nov. 11 and 13 at Northern Kentucky University’s Greaves Hall. For the full grand opera experience, CCM’s Opera Department will have Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, a retelling of the Cinderella story in a modernist production headed by CCM’s director Robin Guarino and conductor Mark Gibson, Nov. 17-20.
Opera Fusion: New Works, the collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and CCM, has two upcoming opportunities to experience works-in-progress. Performances are at the Oak Room of the Cincinnati Club, on Garfield Place in Downtown. These are considered “public readings,” but the cast will be singing their roles.
Some Light Emerges, a collaboration with Houston Grand Opera, was inspired by the Rothko Chapel in Houston and has music by Laura Kaminsky and a libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed.
Intimate Apparel, Ricky Ian Gordon’s adaptation of a play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage, was co-commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater’s New Works Program.
The “public reading” of Some Light Emerges is on Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free but reservations are required. Tickets become available on Sept. 12 at 513-241-2742 or cincinnatiopera.org. Intimate Apparel is on Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free; tickets become available on Nov. 1.
So whether it’s opera, chamber or orchestral music, there’s a wide range of options this fall. Ticket prices are often very reasonable and some performances include free refreshments. Who could ask for anything more? ©
This article appears in Aug 24-31, 2016.
