Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued its fall slate of concerts as part of its 2024-25 season with a return appearance by the legendary conductor Marek Janowski to perform to masterpieces of the late 18th and late 19th century.
The orchestra opened with a vibrant, scintillatingly elegant reading of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 39. The first of three symphonies he composed in quick succession in 1788 (along with Nos. 40 and 41), it is full of tuneful melodies and subtle harmonic touches, yet is surprisingly among the least played of Mozart’s late works. Janowski was invigorating and strong in his conducting, without being overly dramatic. The same could also be said for Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in the second half of the program.
Composed over a period of nine years between 1887 and 1896, it was Bruckner’s last purely symphonic work, left incomplete at his death in October of that year. Janowski and the CSO brought this masterpiece of a musical canvas to life, aided by the use of 8 horns, 4 Wagner tubas and 3 of each wind instrument. While many of Bruckner’s works evoke what’s been called a “cathedral of sound”, there were moments in this symphony where that sound world wasn’t quite given the proper space to fully develop. This felt particularly evident in the first and third movements, with slow, gradual crescendos that felt oddly rushed in tempo but still maintaining a sense of grandeur. The second movement scherzo was perhaps the most inventive of the three, with pounding, driving timpani and effervescent strings, trombones and horns. The other big upside to this performance was that Janowski conducted this score in a way that made it feel more compact than many other conductors who have programmed it, where 25 minutes of music can fly by just as quickly as a Beethoven violin or cello sonata.
All in all, a wonderful way to spend a fall evening at Music Hall and the perfect musical balm to cleanse the soul after what has been an emotional week for the United States and the world.