John Morris Russell, conductor
Mandy Gaines, vocalist
Darius de Haas, vocalist

Program:

HENRY MANCINI: Strings on Fire
SAM COOKE: (What A) Wonderful World
GEORGE GERSHWIN: But Not For Me
MAMIE SMITH: That Thing Called Love
QUINCY JONES: Soul Bossa Nova
EDEN AHBEZ: Nature Boy
BILLY STRAYHORN & JOHN LATOUCHE: Day Dream
PERRY ("MULE") BRADFORD: I Ain't Gonna Play Second Fiddle
MARY LOU WILLIAMS: Selections from Zodiac Suite
RAY CHARLES: Hallelujah, I Love Her
IRVING GORDON: Unforgettable
BERNICE PETKERE: Close Your Eyes
SAM COOKE: A Change Is Gonna Come

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A Liquid Music production, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and presented by The Great Northern, Walker Art Center and CSO

Members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
William Brittelle, creation, composition, text, performance
Isaac Gale, filmmaker, editor, photography
Kate Nordstrum, creative producer
Patrick Marschke, project management, text editing, sound mixing

Performances & Additional Composition:

Holland Andrews, vocals
Rafiq Bhatia, guitar, production
Ian Chang, percussion, production
Erika Dohi, synth, harpsichord, production
Chris Fishman, keys, production
Jackson A. Hill, bass, production
Will Johnson, vocals, visuals, void
Channy Leaneagh, vocals, narration, movement
Immanuel Wilkins, sax

Constellation Chor, voice, movement:
— Marisa Michelson
— Kalli Siamidou
— Luisa Muhr
— Jen Anaya

Roomful of Teeth, vocals
— Caroline Shaw, soprano
— Virginia Warken Kelsey, alto
— Thann Scoggin, baritone
— Cameron Beauchamp, bass

Andrew Garman, narration
Robert. J. Frakes, narration

Using the symbology of our shared past to look forward into an uncertain future of climate change, machine sentience, and the ever-expanding cyber universe, this extraordinary collective debuts the first material generated through the Meta Simulacrum, an interdisciplinary, alternate-reality digital platform designed by composer/producer William Brittelle. This uniquely collaborative project draws from modern classical, jazz, neo-soul, vaporwave, and experimental rock worlds with recontextualized elements of ’80s sound, with each collaborator contributing core content. This retro-futuristic musical landscape is supercharged by the visionary work of filmmaker Isaac Gale and editor/computer coder Patrick Marschke. The Meta Simulacrum Vol. 1 serves as an elegy for a lost future, and a de facto embrace of the strange, surreal times ahead.

Louis Langrée, conductor

Christopher Pell, clarinet

Robert Sullivan, trumpet

Christopher Olka, tuba

View the program details.

INSIGHTS
from Music Director Louis Langrée

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a long-standing tradition of working with living composers to bring their work to life. This weekend’s concerts feature four American composers, each of whom has a special connection with the CSO. We are also featuring our own Orchestra musicians as soloists.

We commissioned composer Gabriella Smith as part of our 125th Anniversary season, giving the world premiere of  in September 2019 on a concert conducted by Eun Sun Kim. We open this weekend with Smith’s Carrot Revolution, a piece she originally composed for string quartet but has now adapted for string ensemble.

We had also commissioned Christopher Cerrone for our 125th season. The pandemic kept us from the premiere last spring, but we are pleased to finally present his concerto grosso for trumpet, tuba and orchestra, A Body, Moving.

The name Aaron Copland is synonymous with American music, and the CSO’s connection with him is very strong. The Orchestra gave the world premieres of two of his most famous works: Fanfare for the Common Man and A Lincoln Portrait. Copland also conducted the Orchestra several times, including a concert in April 1976 featuring his own Clarinet Concerto, with then-Principal Clarinet Richard Waller as soloist. We are thrilled to honor Copland’s CSO legacy by performing the concerto this weekend with our current Principal Clarinet, Christopher Pell, as soloist.

Edward (“Duke”) Ellington and his Trio played alongside the Orchestra in April 1966, and shortly thereafter he collaborated with Erich Kunzel to commercially record and release three pieces with orchestra: New World A-Comin’, Harlem, and The Golden Broom and the Green Apple. This weekend we will present Ellington’s Night Creature, originally written for full jazz orchestra and full symphonic orchestra.

LOUIS LANGRÉE has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013. His two most recent CSO recordings, Transatlantic and Concertos for Orchestra, were Grammy-nominated for Best Orchestral Performance, and several of his other recordings have received awards, including Gramophone, Diapason d’Or and International Classical Music awards. He is also Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and is invited as a guest conductor by the most prestigious orchestras and opera houses, including the Berlin, Vienna, London, Tokyo and New York Philharmonic orchestras and the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bavarian State Opera. Louis Langrée is a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Honorary Member of the Confrérie Saint-Étienne d’Alsace, an Alsatian wine-makers’ brotherhood dating back to the 14th century.

Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
Sean Panikkar, tenor

GUSTAV MAHLER (arr. Cortese): Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth")

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Matthias Pintscher occupies a unique place in the musical world, as a multi-talented composer, conductor, curator, and music director. We are thrilled to welcome back Matthias in his new role as our Creative Partner, conducting this heartbreaking and overwhelmingly beautiful synthesis of a symphony and a song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde.

—Louis Langrée, CSO Music Director

View Matthias' Insights

View Das Lied translation.

John Morris Russell, conductor
Michael Chertock, piano
Julie Spangler, piano
Poetry performed by A.J. Baldwin
Poetry written by Erica Reid
Illustrations by Katie Baker

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Carnival of the Animals

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Louis Langrée, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, piano

GEORGE WALKER: Folksongs for Orchestra
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Concerto No. 2 in F Major for Piano and Orchestra
ZOLTÁN KODÁLY: Galántai táncok (Dances of Galánta)

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INSIGHTS
from Music Director Louis Langrée 

Tonight’s concert will be a celebration with joyful, energetic, dance-like music and a beloved piano concerto from the repertoire. We begin with a fusion of the African-American Spiritual tradition and the symphonic tradition, George Walker’s Folksongs for Orchestra. Walker’s setting allows for the ethos of the lyrics to be dramatically conveyed through orchestral colors and the passing of fragmented melodic material from instrument to instrument.

Next, we welcome back the fantastic pianist Kirill Gerstein to play Dmitri Shostakovich’s exuberant and tender second piano concerto. The work was a birthday present to his 19-year-old son, Maxim, who premiered it at his piano grad-uation from the Moscow Conservatory in May 1957. Dmitri included a few musical jokes in the third movement by quoting the notorious Czerny finger exercises—a good way to ensure his son practiced. Maxim went on to have a career as a conductor, and guest conducted the CSO twice, both times choosing programs that paid homage to his father. In 1983 he conducted the Symphony No. 10, and in 1984 he conducted the Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar, at the May Festival.

Lastly you will hear Zoltán Kodály’s exhila-rating Galántai táncok (“Dances of Galánta”), a highly expressive and virtuosic orchestral gem. Kodály uses gypsy melodies to craft five elaborate Hungarian dances, each more frenzied than the last—until the piece ends in stomping, roaring, and irresistible energy!

John Morris Russell, conductor
Jessica Hendy, vocalist
Melvin Tunstall III, vocalist
Veronica Stern, vocalist

JOHN KANDER & FRED EBB: Cabaret from Cabaret
FRANK WILDHORN: This is the Moment from Jekyll & Hyde
CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHONBERG & ALAIN BOUBLIL: I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables
BOB CREW & BOB GAUDIO: Can't Take My Eyes Off You from Jersey Boys
ANDREW LOYD WEBBER: Memory from Cats
LEONARD BERNSTEIN & STEPHEN SONDHEIM: Somewhere from West Side Story
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
MITCH LEIGH & JOE DARION: Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ: Defying Gravity from Wicked
LUTHER VANDROSS: A Brand New Day from The Wiz

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If It Sounds Good, It Is Good
from Pops Conductor John Morris Russell

Musical theatre is about empathy—the panoply of emotions expressed through the full gamut of American musical styles brings us together as Americans like few other share experiences. Our opening concert—the first concert of the new year and the first in-person presentation in Music Hall for nearly 10 months—celebrates Broadway with a message of HOPE. Songs from inspirational shows like Man of La Mancha, West Side Story, Les Misérables and Carousel capture the dreams, fears and passions we ALL experience in our own lives, with melodies and lyrics that transport us into the heart and soul of characters who are part of our collective mythology. A song like “Defying Gravity” or “I Dreamed a Dream” is transformative and, in the voice of a brilliant artist, has the power to bring us light in the darkest times.

The old adage “the show must go on!” could not be more apropos. Our audience will be appropriately “socially distanced,” as will our Orchestra, but we will make the most of our peculiar situation by employing smaller numbers similar to those that might be squeezed into a Broadway “pit.” The sound might not be as lush as our full Pops Orchestra, but our lean-and-mean ensemble bristles with a sonic energy highlighted by the brilliance of individual musicians.

The centerpiece of the program is Bernstein’s “Three Dance Episodes” from On the Town, with orchestrations that mimic the original pit orchestra—it’s like a cross between a jazz band and a small orchestra. These dances were extracted from the Broadway show to create a concert suite that represents some of Bernstein’s greatest work. They’re jazzy, evocative, playful, soulful and fun! The Orchestra is also featured in a medley from Chicago that imitates the sound of the Roaring Twenties with a ragtime-jazz inspired score. It smokes!

We have three singers joining us, all of whom are associated with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). One of our Pops traditions—beginning long before my days as Associate Conductor of the CSO—is to give some of the rising stars within CCM’s Musical Theatre program their first professional engagement. “Home for the Holidays” at the Taft Theatre (for those who remember!) opened the door to many BIG careers, and concerts over my last ten years as conductor of the Pops have sparkled with both returning alums and the newest talent from CCM.

Jessica Hendy returns to the Pops for the first time since her debut more than a decade ago and is as familiar a face on Cincinnati stages as she is in New York. She has appeared in numerous Broadway and touring productions—her biggest gig has been the role of Grizabella in the Broadway revival of CATS. And yes, folks, she’ll be singing “Memory” like nobody else—she owns it. Jessica’s latest project is the creation of a one-woman autobiographical musical, With Beckett, which is poised to become a new sensation. Broadway veteran and CCM alum Melvin Tunstall III also joins us; in addition to his performing credits, he enjoys a robust career as a playwright and song writer. Veronica Stern makes her professional debut with the Pops this weekend—as a current student at CCM, she has experienced real challenges this year, so our concerts together are so very special for all of us.

Our program ends with a trio of songs that could have been written for us all at THIS moment in time: “The Impossible Dream,” a paean to perseverance; “Defying Gravity,” an anthem of overcoming adversity; and “A Brand New Day,” a song of hope. At a time when the world seems to be spinning off its axis, music gives us the courage and strength to move forward, rebuild, renew, and work together for something so much bigger than ourselves.

Cheers,