Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with a pairing of two of the best works by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, under the direction of music director laureate Louis Langrée.
Guest pianist Clayton Stephenson (@claytonstephensonpiano), winner of the 2024 Nina SImone Piano Competition, joined them for a vibrant performance of Brahms’ Op. 83 Piano Concerto No. 2. Written between 1879 and 1881, over 20 years after the first concerto, this work is one which showed off Stephenson’s virtuosic flair and sense of drama and passion to a degree rarely seen among artists who play it. This was particularly evident in the extensive opening movement and the near-Wagnerian scherzo of the second movement. The sense of communication between Stephenson and Langrée was strong and well-balanced, orchestra and soloist never overpowering the other for the most part. There were some small exceptions in the third movement Andante but it turned out quite well by the end. The fourth movement which possessed an inherently playful spirit, yet maintained the intimacy and drama which surrounded the rest of the score to a great degree. Stephenson then delighted the Cincinnati Music Hall audience with two encores: excerpts from Turkish composer Fazil Say’s Summertime Variations based on the eponymous aria from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess (calling to mind Joe Hisaishi’s scores for the films of Hayao Miyazaki and the jazz sensibilities of Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson), and El Puerto, the second movement of Book 1 from Isaac Albéniz’s piano suite Iberia.
Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 was given a fabulous performance to serve as the second half, Langrée’s leadership evoking the intimacy of Beethoven and the Romantic punch of early Brahms. This was most evident in the brass and winds throughout the first and third movements, matched by the luxuriant string writing in the second movement Romanza. It is always a treat to see Maestro Langrée return to Cincinnati, however infrequently that may be, to lead such fine musicians in programs like this.
Bravi tutti!