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…

@cincinnatiopera continued its 103rd season with a riotous performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Perhaps the most popular of Rossini’s operas, it is full of tuneful Melodie’s that have become engrained in popular culture in the 200+ years since its first performance in 1816.The…

chambermuscincy closed out 2023 with a return appearance by pianist Michelle Cann (@michelleacann) for a program built around an overarching theme of storytelling In music, highlighting in particular the works of composers such as Joel Thompson and William Grant Still (his 1933 suite A Deserted Plantation).Opening with a winsome, rewarding…

@uc_ccm and @ccm_choralstudies rang in the Christmas season with its annual Feast of Carols concert, with performances drawn from ensembles across the campus of the University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Youth Choir in a breezy 90 minutes of music, all under the guidance of director of choral studies Joe…

The Jazz at Memo series at Memorial Hall (@memorialhallotr) continued to ring in the Christmas season with a fun and varied program by Queen City Cabaret (@qcccincy) of songs honoring the life and career of Rosemary Clooney. Focusing primarily on the Christmas albums Clooney recorded, principal artists Sarah Folsom (@sarahafolsom)…

@memorialhallotr continued its Jazz at the Memo concert series with a fun and invigorating performance by the Phil DeGreg Trio focusing on the music Vince Guaraldi wrote for the TV special a Charlie Brown Christmas, with an assortment of other Christmas tunes to complete the program. DeGreg’s piano style was…

@cincymuseum opened its much-loved Music in the Museum organ recital series for the first time in nearly a decade with a vibrant, scintillating and thrilling program by Canadian recitalist Isabelle Demers, professor of organ at McGill University (@mcgillu) in Montréal, Quebec. Her selections displayed a wide range of styles, drawing…

@uc_ccm opened its fall semester of choral performances with a truly spectacular and spellbinding reading of one of the hallmarks of all sacred music, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. First performed on Good Friday in 1727, it sets the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Luke much…

Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble, under the direction of Howard Helvey with pianist Brad Caldwell, presented its annual Mary Slade Rust Martin and Louis Henry Martin Memorial Program, a varied mix of choral and organ selections with an emphasis on contemporary composers, including some of Helvey’s own compositions as well as Alice…

@uc_ccm Philharmonia continued its newest concert season with a program titled Virtuosity Redux, focusing on some of the most popular orchestral showpieces to emerge from the 19th and 20th centuries. Opening with Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal (written as he was completing his studies at the Curtis…