Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@voxveritatischoir presented its first official solo concert with a program built around themes of mental health and social justice. While the concert itself contained an unusually small amount of repertoire, the amount of pure talent on the stage of Heart of Northside more than made up for it.The program opened…

@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.…

@uc_ccm opened its 2024-25 MainStage opera season with a hilarious production of an otherwise little-known work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, La Finta giardiniera. First performed in Munich in 1775, the opera explores themes of misdirected love, disguises and mistaken identity, all told in a very comic way.CcM’s new production sets…

@cincinnatifusionensemble presented its fall 2024 Martin Memorial Program with an eclectic mix of contemporary choral works headlined by a guest conducting appearance by the legendary Mack Wilberg, director of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.With a program drawing primarily from the catalogs of Helvey and Wilberg, it was definitely one…

@vaecinci opened its 2024-25 season with a fabulous program titled The Wounded Heart: Songs of Passion and Love, which featured two world premiere works mixed with works spanning the Renaissance to the 21st century, all under the direction of guest conductor Benedict Sheehan.Opening with luscious performances of two short madrigals…

@ccm’s Philharmonia continued its 2024-25 season with a unique program of new and rarely-heard orchestral works under the title Power Dressing. Opening with a sensuous reading of the Prelude from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, among the most performed operas in today’s repertoire, graduate student conductor Sandra Cepero Alvarez led the U.S.…

@cincysymphony opened its 2024-25 season in grand style with an equally grand program featuring 19th and 20th-century orchestral showstoppers (even if it was somewhat tempered by competing crowds for tonight’s FC Cincinnati match). Guest conductor Dalia Stasevska (@daliastasevskaofficial), making her third appearance in Cincinnati, opened with a truly exhilarating reading…

@uc_ccm opened its 2024-25 Choral and Orchestral Series with a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” that must be considered the finest ever given by a collegiate orchestra on this side of the Atlantic. Assembling 250 student musicians to play a work of such intensity and scale would…

@cincinnatiopera concluded its 2024 summer season with a fantastic world premiere staging of Liverpool Oratorio, with music by a figure best known as a member of the Beatles making his first foray into the classical realm, Paul McCartney. In collaboration with the American composer and conductor Carl Davis (who handled…