Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

mayfestivalcincy closed out its 150th anniversary season with what was arguably the finest performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand to grace the stage of @musichallcincy in years. Under the passionate and incredibly high-spirited leadership of music director laureate James Conlon (stepping in for an indisposed Juano Mena, in what was to have been his final concert as principal conductor), @cincysymphony, the May Festival Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cincinnati Youth Choir and Cincinnati Boychoir (@cincyboychoir) and an octet of world-class international soloists came together to perform a work celebrating the power, spirit and joy of collaborative music making which the May Festival has continuously shown since 1873.
Composed in the summer of 1908 and first performed in Munich the following year, Mahler’s 8th Symphony sets two principal texts: the Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the final scene from Goethe’s Faust. Calling for huge orchestral and vocal forces, the mighty CSO made the most of the wall of sound which Mahler demanded of them from the first chord on solo organ (a resourceful if not entirely vibrant sounding electronic instrument, as was the case here).
Special highlights among the vocal solos included sopranos Sarah Wegener and Camila Tilling (@camilla_tilling) and mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey (@kate_mezzo), with voices which were at once creamy, flighty and strong (the latter in Lindsey’s solo turns as Mulier Samaritana. The finest solos of the evening came from tenor Barry Banks (singing the role of Doctor Marianus in Part II), with a voice possessing the panache of Edward Elgar’s Gerontius and the heft of a Wagnerian heldentenor. Appearances from the Cincinnati Youth Choir and Cincinnati Boychoir were warm and joyful, even if they were marred by discrepancies in tempo between them and the orchestra.
Praise for the orchestra must go principally to the strings and percussion players and their ability to tackle Mahler’s technical demands with precision and aplomb. James Conlon’s conducting combined an animated and powerful technique with the passion of Leonard Bernstein. Bravi tutti to all for a marvelous 2023 May Festival.