Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued the its 2023-24 season with electrifying performances of two late-romantic German masterworks paired with a bouncy and fun piano concerto by Mozart. Under the direction of guest conductor Sir Mark Elder, outgoing music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England, the CSO opened with the overture to Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, full of soulful melodies that have become engrained in popular culture partially thanks to Chuck Jones’ 1957 cartoon “What’s Opera Doc?”
Piano soloist Pavel Kolesnikov (@kolesnikovpianist) joined the orchestra for Mozart’s Concerto No. 17. Dating from 1784, it ranks as one of the more intimate and joyful concertos from this part of his career. Kolesnikov’s playing was pristine, elegant, wonderfully shaped and full of freedom. The latter was the case in the cadenzas which closed out the second and third movements. Looking forward to a potential return to Cincinnati for Kolesnikov, as he ranks among the fastest rising stars in the piano world.
Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben is one of the supreme achievements of late Romantic orchestral music, and the CSO’s reading of this work was perhaps one of the finest performances of Strauss in Cincinnati in recent memory. From its opening sweep of melody in the cellos and low brass, the orchestra took tonight’s audience on a musical journey.
While classified as a tone poem, Ein Heldenleben should also be considered an opera without words, as certain sections of the orchestra take on various characters or function as plot points in the overall story. These included clarinets in flutes in the role of the hero’s detractors, two tubas as his adversaries and solo violin as the hero’s wife. Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo shone brightest in the latter role, in solo moments full of virtuosity and transcendence.
Praise must also go to the percussion section and brass sections for tackling passages which were full of blazing fire and passion, particularly in the section evoking the hero in battle.
Maestro Elder’’s leadership was surprisingly relaxed and elegant for a work of such drama, which was certainly appreciated by the audience in Music Hall.