
September 24-25, 2022
Mahler's Resurrection Symphony
GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, Resurrection
Tickets on sale now! Browse subscription packages.
CSO PROOF: SURREALIST EL TROPICAL
Wed Mar 29, 2023 | 8:00 pm
Thu Mar 30, 2023 | 8:00 pm
Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre
Rosie Herrera, choreographer
Clyde Scott, video and production designer
Luke Kritzeck, lighting and production designer
Choreographer Rosie Herrera wants you to imagine that, after a night of gleefully overindulging in absinthe cocktails, filmmaker Federico Fellini stumbles down an alley in old Havana. A door cracks open and music washes over him like a sticky sunrise in September. He steps inside into a primordial soup of neon and sound and tropical heat. A wild undercurrent pulses through the room, whispering that anything (and everything) might happen.
These CSO Proof performances are supported by The Haile Foundation, Irwin & Melinda Simon, and the American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, a program of the League of American Orchestras made possible by funding from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.
SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO. 5
Fri Apr 7, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Sat Apr 8, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Louis Langrée, conductor
Stephen Hough, piano
If there is any symphony that operates like a “double agent,” it is Shostakovich's Fifth. Having found himself targeted by Stalin, Shostakovich composed himself out of a dangerous situation−with immensely gripping results. Stephen Hough returns for Rachmaninoff and Louis Langrée begins the program with another work by Rachmaninoff — his brief yet beautiful, Vocalise.
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Vocalise
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5
CLASSICAL ROOTS
Fri Apr 14, 2023 | 7:30 pm
John Morris Russell, conductor
Donald Lawrence, featured guest artist
Classical Roots Community Choir
Love and community ring throughout Music Hall when the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Classical Roots Community Choir celebrate a much-beloved Queen City tradition. JMR leads a program that’s guaranteed to inspire—an evening of powerful performances that will fill your heart with joy and bring you to your feet!
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
Sat Apr 15, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Sun Apr 16, 2023 | 2:00 pm
Ramón Tebar, conductor
Steven Banks, saxophone
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is an epic musical stroll through an eclectic gallery of paintings, from a drawing of unhatched dancing chickens to an image of towering city gates. Originally for piano, Ravel’s version for orchestra adds a bursting palette of instrumental color. Saxophonist Steven Banks, who “has the potential to be one of the transformational musicians of the 21st century,” plays a new concerto by GRAMMY-winning pianist and composer Billy Childs.
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Russian Easter Overture
BILLY CHILDS: Saxophone Concerto [CSO Co-Commission]
MODEST MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
Schumann's Quartet & Schubert's Octet
Fri Apr 21, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Schumann and Schubert, titans and virtuosos of chamber music, are at the pinnacle of their writing in this program. Schumann called his string quartet a “beautiful and even abstrusely woven conversation among four people” while Schubert’s Octet explores a deeply rich and melodic tale that ends in a rhythmic dance of joviality.
ROBERT SCHUMANN:
String Quartet No. 3 in A Major
FRANZ SCHUBERT:
Octet
MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 7
Fri Apr 21, 2023 | 11:00 am
Sat Apr 22, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Matthias Pintscher, conductor
If Mahler’s symphonies are like worlds, the Seventh is like the universe in a single night. Patterned in gigantic symmetry, the opening and closing movements are packed with enormous sounds, each like symphonies in themselves. The interior music is lighter by contrast, pivoting at the center with a ghostly dance. CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher returns to conduct the huge orchestral forces needed for Mahler’s dusk-to-dawn universe, from clanging cowbells to titanic brass.
Sponsored by Peter Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren.
GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 7
SAINT-SAËNS ORGAN SYMPHONY
Fri May 5, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Sat May 6, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Sun May 7, 2023 | 2:00 pm
Louis Langrée, conductor
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
Louis Langrée and the CSO explore works that have sounds all their own. Berlioz's music from an unfinished opera adds voices in extreme ranges. Through darkest doubt and brightest love, the music expresses Saint-Saëns' entire being and his skill as an organist with moments that pull out all the stops. Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, “an arresting artist who…creates unique aural landscapes” (LA Times), debuts with Ravel's Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra.
Friday & Saturday
HECTOR BERLIOZ: Overture to Les francs-juges ("The Judges of the Secret Court")
MAURICE RAVEL: Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No. 3, Organ
Sunday
HECTOR BERLIOZ:Overture to Les francs-juges("The Judges of the Secret Court")
HECTOR BERLIOZ: "Marche des Gardes" from Les francs-juges ("The Judges of the Secret Court")
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Danse macabre
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No. 3, Organ
Quartet for the End of Time
Fri May 12, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Inspired by the Book of Revelations, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written while the composer was in a prisoner-of-war camp during the early days of World War II. Composed based on the instruments available to him at the time, each movement of the piece relates to the apocalyptic literature and the quartet’s fury unfolds alongside hauntingly beautiful patches of ethereal wonder. Opening the program is Bozza's complex and virtuosic duet for bassoons and Brahms' Horn Trio, his only dedicated chamber work for the horn.
EUGÈNE BOZZA:
Duettino pour deux bassons
JOHANNES BRAHMS:
Horn Trio
OLIVIER MESSIAEN:
Quartet for the End of Time
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Fri May 12, 2023 | 11:00 am
Sat May 13, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Louis Langrée, conductor
Courtney Bryan, piano and composer
Louis Langrée and the CSO end the 22/23 season with jazz-infused musical visions. New Orleans native Courtney Bryan, “a pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times), premieres her new concerto. Milhaud's opening music evokes African folk mythology while Duke Ellington, who was both a prolific composer and famed jazz pianist, summons musical images of night creatures. Gershwin closes the program by dropping you into the sights and sounds of Parisian streets.
The CSO is grateful to Kari and Jonathan Ullman for their support of the Courtney Bryan Co-Commission.
DARIUS MILHAUD: La création du monde ("The Creation of the World")
COURTNEY BRYAN: Piano Concerto [World Premiere, (orchestral version), CSO Co-Commission]
DUKE ELLINGTON: Night Creature
GEORGE GERSHWIN: An American in Paris (ed. Clague)
GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, Resurrection
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6, Pathetique
CHRISTOPHER ROUSE: Symphony No. 6
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto
RICHARD STRAUSS: Also sprach Zarathustra ("Thus Spake Zarathustra")
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
CHARLES IVES: The Unanswered Question
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 6
MISSY MAZZOLI: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
JEAN SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto
BÉLA BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
EDWARD ELGAR: Enigma Variations
CAROLINE SHAW: The Observatory [CSO Co-Commission]
GEORGE GERSHWIN: Rhapsody No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra
GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets
ETHEL SMYTH: On the Cliffs of Cornwall
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: Violin Concerto
JEAN SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2