Assonanza

World Premiere, CSO Commission

• Born: January 29, 1971 in Marl, Germany
• Work Composed: 2020–21
• Premiere: These performances are the work’s world premiere.
• Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), oboe (incl. English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, tuba, bass drum, 4 bongo drums, chimes, crotales, glockenspiel, 4 gongs, 3 guiro, log drum, marimba, sandpaper blocks, side drum, spring coil, 3 suspended cymbals, 3 tam-tams, tubular chimes, vibraphone, waterphone, harp, celeste, piano, strings
• Duration: approx. 20 minutes

Assonanza is Pintscher’s third violin concerto, but this work was written under a wholly different circumstance than the other two. Immersed in the initial Covid lockdown, Pintscher and longtime collaborator Leila Josefowicz were both seeking artistic expression and a way to connect. Initially what emerged was Josefowicz asking Pintscher for a solo violin piece to play during a virtual concert. Pintscher’s new piece, titled La Linea Evocativa: A Drawing for Violin Solo, would be played alongside J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in a November 2020 livestreamed solo concert. La Linea Evocativa, containing moments of pause and space, became a natural framework for the Assonanza violin concerto.

Unlike concertos of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Assonanza places the soloist and orchestra within the same musical perspective, where the orchestra does not accompany the soloist, but they work together to develop musical ideas within a common sonic space. Assonanza, Italian for “assonance,” typically refers to the repetition of a similar vowel sound in literature or poetry. In this concerto, the soloist is the main thread of motivic and thematic generation, and the resonance chamber of the orchestra repeats and varies these ideas. But the reverse can also be heard, where the orchestra generates new ideas that the soloist incorporates within her line. This sharing of ideas creates an environment in which the orchestra and soloist listen to each other, but for what purpose? The two characters have a longing and a desire to become one, and two-thirds of the way through the concerto, the closest thing to oneness can be heard. But this is not a bombastic, overtly emotional moment of triumph. Instead, it is a quiet and fleeting moment of intimate beauty shared between soloist and strings. 

—Tyler M. Secor

 

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45

• Born: April 1, 1873, Oneg, Novgorod district of Russia
• Died: March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, California
• Work composed: Two-piano version completed August 10, 1940; orchestrated between September 22 and October 19, 1940.
• Premiere: January 3, 1941, Philadelphia, Eugene Ormandy (to whom the work is dedicated) conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
• Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bells, chimes, crash cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone, harp, piano, strings
• CSO notable performances: First Performance: November 1964, Ronald Ondrejka conducting. Most recent: April 2018, James Gaffigan conducting.
• Duration: 35 minutes

As is well known, music underwent a revolution during the first years of the 20th century. Composers such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Ives and Webern invented new sounds, new rhythms and new compositional procedures. The revolution perpetrated by these men gathered momentum, and before long many composers were exploring the new sonic landscape—atonality, unresolved dissonances, irregular rhythms, open forms, etc.

Not every composer joined the revolution, however. Sergei Rachmaninoff was only one year older than Ives and Schoenberg, yet his music seems generations removed from theirs. He found the music of Debussy insincere and that of Stravinsky cerebral. Rachmaninoff remained a true conservative. He never went beyond the mild metric shifts, jagged rhythms and chromatic harmonies of the Symphonic Dances.

Rachmaninoff’s career as a composer was not easy. He was rejected by his fellow composers, most of whom had eagerly embraced the new possibilities opened up by the 20th-century revolution. He also felt isolated from other composers because, as a superb pianist specializing in the romantic literature, he belonged more to a performer’s world. Furthermore, he was a sensitive person who often went into fits of despondency when his music failed to make a favorable impression. He found it difficult to compose. Rachmaninoff wrote only five major works from 1917, when he left his native Russia to live in the United States, until his death in 1943. He had created the bulk of his work while he was still able to remain aloof in his homeland. After the October Revolution sent him traveling internationally, he must have realized how distanced he was from contemporary composers. He took refuge in his brilliant career as a pianist, but he continued to compose occasionally.

The Symphonic Dances was written first in a version for two pianos, under the title Fantastic Dances. Rachmaninoff often played this version privately with his neighbor, Vladimir Horowitz. The composer tried to interest Michel Fokine, who had successfully choreographed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, in making a ballet out of the piece. Nothing came of this project, however. Rachmaninoff completed the orchestration in the fall of 1940. Although he was an experienced orchestrator, he did not hesitate to seek advice. He wrote to Harry Glantz, trumpet player with the New York Philharmonic, about the feasibility of one passage. He sought the advice of Broadway orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett on the use of the saxophone. He asked the distinguished violinist Fritz Kreisler to edit the string parts.

The first movement is characterized by driving rhythms, except in the lyrical middle section, which features a Russian-style melody for the alto saxophone. Toward the end there is a quotation from the composer’s First Symphony, which was all but unknown in 1940. After its unfavorably received premiere in 1897, it had disappeared, not to be rediscovered until two years after the composer’s death.

The second movement is a slow, halting waltz with shifting meters. The waltz replaces Rachmaninoff’s typically sentimental slow movement.

The finale’s syncopated rhythms are vaguely reminiscent of jazz. In this movement Rachmaninoff frequently quotes the chant Dies irae, sometimes disguised. Rachmaninoff had previously used this song of death in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Third Symphony.

The preoccupation with death implied by the Dies irae quotation is also suggested by the original movement titles, which the composer later withdrew: three stages of life are represented symbolically by “Noon,” “Twilight,” and “Midnight.” Significantly, Rachmaninoff omitted dawn—birth—and emphasized old age and death. After he finished the Dances he said, “It must have been my last spark.” And so it was. Although three years remained to his life, he never again composed.

—Jonathan D. Kramer

Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain, the world’s leading contemporary music ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez. In addition to a robust concert season in Paris, he tours extensively with the orchestra throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 2020/21, Pintscher also began a three-season appointment as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s new Creative Partner. This season Pintscher together with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra collaborate in three concerts in observance of Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial. Known equally as one of today’s foremost composers, Pintscher’s works are frequently commissioned and performed by major international orchestras.

Matthias Pintscher opens his 21/22 season as the “Theme Composer” of Suntory Hall’s 2021 festival, including the world premiere of his work neharot which he will conduct with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (co-commissioned with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande), an intensive week of performances with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, as well as chamber concerts. In addition, he and Ensemble Intercontemporain will give concerts in Yokohama and Moscow. In January 2022, his violin concerto written for Leila Josefowicz, Assonanza (for violin and chamber orchestra), will be premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony under Pintscher’s baton. Pintscher will make debuts in 21/22 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Lahti Symphony, and Musikkollegium Winterthur. He returns to the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romance, Barcelona Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Holland Festival, Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Boulez Ensemble. In recent seasons, Pintscher has begun to conduct staged operas, and in 21/22 will return to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin to lead Lohengrin, for which he gave the production’s premiere the prior season.

Recent highlights include his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s opera Orlando, debuts with the Montreal and Baltimore symphony orchestras, and conducting the premiere of his new work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, performed by Georg Nigl and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at the Musica Viva festival in February 2020.

Pintscher has held many titled positions, most recently as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Association for nine seasons. In 2018/19, he served as the Season Creative Chair for the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. An enthusiastic supporter of and mentor to students and young musicians, Pintscher was Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra from 2016-2018 and has worked with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Matthias Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös in his early twenties, during which time composing soon took a more prominent role in his life. He rapidly gained critical acclaim in both areas of activity and continues to compose in addition to his conducting career. A prolific composer, Pintscher's music is championed by some of today's finest performing artists, orchestras, and conductors. His works have been performed by such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among many others. He is published exclusively by Bärenreiter, and recordings of his works can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter. Matthias Pintscher has been on the composition faculty of the Juilliard School since 2014.

View Artist Website

Leila Josefowicz’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programs and enthusiasm for performing new works. In recognition of her outstanding achievement and excellence in music, she won the 2018 Avery Fisher Prize and was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, joining prominent scientists, writers and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.

A favorite of living composers, Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey and Esa-Pekka Salonen, all written specially for her. This season, Josefowicz gives the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Assonanza for Violin and Chamber Orchestra with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and then in Europe with Musikkollegium Wintertur, both under the baton of the composer. Other recent premieres include John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 (Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra) in 2015 with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, and Luca Francesconi’s Duende—The Dark Notes in 2014 with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki. Josefowicz enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concerti, including his violin concerto, together over 30 times. 

Following summer performances in the U.S. at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Grand Teton Music Festival, Josefowicz’s season begins with a return to the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, working with their incoming Music Director Nicholas Collon. Josefowicz will work again with regular collaborators Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and NAC Orchestra Ottawa, as well as return to Europe for engagements with Oslo Philharmonic, Dresdner Philharmonie, Concertgebouworkest and Budapest Festival Orchestra, working with Hannu Lintu, Dalia Stasevska, John Storgårds, Susanna Mälkki and Esa-Pekka Salonen. 

Highlights of Josefowicz’s recent seasons include working with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, where she worked with conductors at the highest level, including Susanna Mälkki, Matthias Pintscher and John Adams.

Josefowicz has participated in several important projects during the pandemic, including the MetLiveArts Spring 2021 series where she premiered a new work, La Linea Evocativa, by Matthias Pintscher written especially for her and performed alongside Bach’s Partita No. 2, staged among masterpieces by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko; as well as a collaboration with Violin Channel during their Virtual Concert Series, performing works of Mahler and Sibelius as well as Reflection by Oliver Knussen and the Sonata of Bernd Alois Zimmermann with John Novacek.

Alongside Novacek, with whom she has enjoyed a close collaboration since 1985, Josefowicz has performed recitals at world-renowned venues such as New York’s Zankel Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as in Reykjavik, Chicago, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. This season Josefowicz gives solo performances at Wigmore Hall and The Phillips Collection in Washington DC.

Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics, and was featured on Touch Press’s acclaimed iPad app, “The Orchestra.” Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. She has previously received nominations for Grammy Awards for her recordings of Scheherazade.2 with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

View Artist Website

LOUIS LANGRÉE, CSO Music Director
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, Pops Conductor
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Matthias Pintscher, CSO Creative Partner

Damon Gupton, Pops Principal Guest Conductor

François López-Ferrer, CSO Associate Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Associate Conductor

Wilbur Lin, Pops Assistant Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Assistant Conductor

FIRST VIOLINS

Stefani Matsuo
Concertmaster
—Anna Sinton Taft Chair

Charles Morey
Acting Associate Concertmaster
—Tom & Dee Stegman Chair

Philip Marten
First Assistant Concertmaster
—James M. Ewell Chair++

Eric Bates
Second Assistant Concertmaster
—Serge Shababian Chair

Kathryn Woolley
—Nicholas Tsimaras–Peter G. Courlas Chair++

Anna Reider
—Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair

Mauricio Aguiar§

Minyoung Baik

James Braid
—Marc Bohlke Chair given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke

Michelle Edgar Dugan

Rebecca Kruger Fryxell
Clifford J. Goosmann and Andrea M. Wilson Chair

Gerald Itzkoff
—Jean Ten Have Chair

Lois Reid Johnson
—Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair++

Sylvia Mitchell
—Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair

Luo-Jia Wu

SECOND VIOLINS

Gabriel Pegis
Principal
—Al Levinson Chair

Yang Liu*
—Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair

Scott Mozlin**
—Henry Meyer Chair

Kun Dong

Cheryl Benedict

Evin Blomberg§

Rachel Charbel
—Ida Ringling North Chair

Elizabeth Furuta†

Chika Kinderman

Hyesun Park

Paul Patterson
—Charles Gausmann Chair++

Stacey Woolley
—Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair++

VIOLAS

Christian Colberg
Principal
—Louise D. & Louis Nippert Chair

Paul Frankenfeld*
—Grace M. Allen Chair

Julian Wilkison**

Rebecca Barnes§

Christopher Fischer

Stephen Fryxell
—Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair

Caterina Longhi

Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera

Joanne Wojtowicz

CELLOS

Ilya Finkelshteyn
Principal
—Irene & John J. Emery Chair

Daniel Culnan*
—Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Norman Johns**
—Karl & Roberta Schlachter Family Chair

Matthew Lad§
—Marvin Kolodzik Chair

Susan Marshall-Petersen
—Laura Kimble McLellan Chair++

Hiro Matsuo

Theodore Nelson
—Peter G. Courlas–Nicholas Tsimaras Chair++

Alan Rafferty
—Ruth F. Rosevear Chair

BASSES

Owen Lee
Principal
—Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair++

James Lambert*
—Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Matthew Zory, Jr.**+
—Trish & Rick Bryan Chair

Boris Astafiev§

Ronald Bozicevich
—Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair

Rick Vizachero

HARP

Gillian Benet Sella
Principal
—Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair

FLUTES

Randolph Bowman
Principal
—Charles Frederic Goss Chair

Henrik Heide*†

Haley Bangs
—Jane & David Ellis Chair

PICCOLO

[OPEN]
—Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair

OBOES

Dwight Parry
Principal
—Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair

Lon Bussell*
—Stephen P. McKean Chair

Emily Beare

ENGLISH HORN

Christopher Philpotts
Principal
—Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh Chair+

CLARINETS

Christopher Pell
Principal
—Emma Margaret & Irving D. Goldman Chair

Joseph Morris*
Associate Principal and Eb Clarinet
—Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair++

Ixi Chen
Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in Honor of William A. Friedlander

BASS CLARINET

Ronald Aufmann

BASSOONS

Christopher Sales
Principal
—Emalee Schavel Chair++

Martin Garcia*

Hugh Michie

CONTRABASSOON

Jennifer Monroe

FRENCH HORNS

Elizabeth Freimuth
Principal
—Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair

[OPEN]*
—Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair

Molly Norcross**
Acting Associate Principal
—Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney

Lisa Conway
—Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair

Duane Dugger
—Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair

Charles Bell

TRUMPETS

Robert Sullivan
Principal
—Rawson Chair

Douglas Lindsay*
—Jackie & Roy Sweeney Family Chair

Steven Pride
—Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair++

Christopher Kiradjieff

TROMBONES

Cristian Ganicenco
Principal
—Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair

Joseph Rodriguez**
Second/Assistant Principal Trombone

BASS TROMBONE

Peter Norton

TUBA

Christopher Olka
Principal
—Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair

TIMPANI

Patrick Schleker
Principal
—Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair

Michael Culligan
Acting Associate Principal

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

PERCUSSION

David Fishlock
Principal
—Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair

Michael Culligan*

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

Marc Wolfley+

KEYBOARDS

Michael Chertock
—James P. Thornton Chair

Julie Spangler+
—James P. Thornton Chair

CSO/CCM DIVERSITY FELLOWS

Maalik Glover, violin

Mwakudua waNgure, violin

Tyler McKisson, viola

Javier Otalora, viola

Max Oppeltz-Carroz, cello

Luis Parra, cello

Samantha Powell, cello

Luis Celis Avila, bass

Amy Nickler, bass

LIBRARIANS

Christina Eaton
Principal Librarian
—Lois Klein Jolson Chair

Elizabeth Dunning
Acting Associate Principal Librarian

Adam Paxson
Interim Assistant Librarian

STAGE MANAGERS

Brian P. Schott

Phillip T. Sheridan

Daniel Schultz

Andrew Sheridan

§ Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within the string section.

*  Associate Principal

**  Assistant Principal

† One-year appointment

‡ Leave of absence

+ Cincinnati Pops rhythm section

++ CSO endowment only

~ Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation