http://www.musicforallseasonscincinnati.com/

Music for All Seasons Cincinnati, PO Box 45372, Cincinnati, OH (2024)

01/18/2024

As of the latest account by the League of American Orchestras there are approximately twelve hundred symphony orchestras in the United States, of which only about 120 (10%) have a year-round performing schedule that permits them to offer full time gainful employment to their musicians and administrative staff. The remainder (a little over 1,000) make do with modest yearly operating expenses well under two million, often even much less....

As of the latest account by the League of American Orchestras there are approximately twelve hundred symphony orchestras in the United States, of which only about 120 (10%) have a year-round perfor…

01/05/2024

In a 2019 Canary Classics release, Pianist Orli Shaham joins the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by David Robertson in a pair of performances of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos.17 and 24. She then continued her Mozartian quest by recording all eighteen of Mozart’s piano sonatas at the historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA. In 2020 Canary Classics released the first volume of the series which included three works in B flat major: Piano Sonata No....

In a 2019 Canary Classics release, Pianist Orli Shaham joins the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by David Robertson in a pair of performances of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos.17 and 24. She then c…

01/02/2024

In response to the new CARMEN at the MET, which, if truth be told, I have neither seen not plan to see, here’s a few salient points in my 11-1-14 review of the then new 2014 MET CARMEN. The point of this reposting is to share my views about updated stagings of operas, which can be stated in one straight to the point French language sentence: “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”, or in plain English: “The more you change it, the more it’s the same thing.”...

In response to the new CARMEN at the MET, which, if truth be told, I have neither seen not plan to see, here’s a few salient points in my 11-1-14 review of the then new 2014 MET CARMEN. The point o…

12/29/2023

CHANDOS is releasing in February of 2024 A Room of Her Own, an album of post-Romantic music by French women composers Lili Boulanger, Cecile Chaminade, Germaine Tailleferre, and Ethel Smyth, composed between 1880 and 1918 featuring the Neave Trio. “We are excited to record these trios by Ethel Smyth, Chaminade, Tailleferre, and Lili Boulanger because of the distinctive voices these composers bring to the chamber music repertoire,” says the Neave Trio....

CHANDOS is releasing in February of 2024 A Room of Her Own, an album of post-Romantic music by French women composers Lili Boulanger, Cecile Chaminade, Germaine Tailleferre, and Ethel Smyth, compos…

12/27/2023

In his autobiography the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) describes the music he discovered on a trip he made to Upper Silesia as filled with “barbarous beauty”, using the adjective barbarous to mean untamed. Rare for a composer of the Baroque era, Telemann anticipated by more than a couple of centuries the incursions ingo the folk music of their homelands by Brahms, Grieg, Borodin, and, later, Béla Bartók and Benjamin Britten....

In his autobiography the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) describes the music he discovered on a trip he made to Upper Silesia as filled with “barbarous beauty”, using the adjecti…

12/27/2023

Naxos – with its assortment of ancillary labels – is upfront and center this first month of 2024 with several releases recorded in Europe and Brazil which focus on off-the-beaten-path repertoire. With this BIS-2657-disc - one of two issued by Naxos in January - violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann explores several 20th century works for violin and orchestra: …...

Naxos – with its assortment of ancillary labels – is upfront and center this first month of 2024 with several releases recorded in Europe and Brazil which focus on off-the-beaten-path repertoire. W…

12/12/2023

It is always inspiring to read about the creativity of so many dear people who sing or play instruments or act or make any kind of visual art or write, some of them established artists, some early-career creators all whose work I continue to admire. They enrich our lives. There’s those to whom thanks are also due, the ones without whom there would be cash-poor arts or no arts and thanks to whom the creative pursuits of the few can be shared by the many....

It is always inspiring to read about the creativity of so many dear people who sing or play instruments or act or make any kind of visual art or write, some of them established artists, some early-…

11/28/2023

The monumental success of Nabucco erased all memories of the debacle created by Un giorno di regno. The year was 1843 and the 29-year-old Verdi was already getting offers from all the important Italian theatres and from major houses abroad. I Lombardi alla prima crociata premiered at La Scala, and the Milanese opera fans went wild. Two years later, in 1845 retitled…...

The monumental success of Nabucco erased all memories of the debacle created by Un giorno di regno. The year was 1843 and the 29-year-old Verdi was already getting offers from all the important Ita…

11/26/2023

From the opening bold burst of brass brightly heralding the rise of a new day in the American plains we find ourselves in the welcoming sonic comfort of Copland Land Listening to the Tender Land Suite played expressively by the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, led by the indispensable Jo Ann Valletta in a Naxos CD from its American Classics…...

From the opening bold burst of brass brightly heralding the rise of a new day in the American plains we find ourselves in the welcoming sonic comfort of Copland Land Listening to the Tender Land Su…

11/17/2023

Denver, Long Beach, Virginia, and Milwaukee have been fortunate to have Juilliard-educated JoAnn Falletta as their resident conductor. Throughout a four decades career the New York-born, Italian American, award-winning Maestra has guested all over the map as a symphony conductor. Thoroughly at home in a varied repertory, in addition to leading her Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra since the season 1999-2000 JoAnn Falletta holds closest to her heart the works of the under-estimated women composers who despite the sexist societies of their time valiantly forged ahead carving out careers against all odds....

Denver, Long Beach, Virginia, and Milwaukee have been fortunate to have Juilliard-educated JoAnn Falletta as their resident conductor. Throughout a four decades career the New York-born, Italian Am…

11/13/2023

2023 was altogether a fruitful year for the arts, nationally, and locally here in Cincinnati, despite the disappearance of the Bearcat Piano Festival and the Immaculata Concerts. There was also restlessness in the leadership of the Cincinnati City Ballet, which appointed an artistic director that lasted less than expected on the job, leaving the position open as of this writing....

2023 was altogether a fruitful year for the arts, nationally, and locally here in Cincinnati, despite the disappearance of the Bearcat Piano Festival and the Immaculata Concerts. There was also res…

11/13/2023

A little over a year ago the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in conjunction with Naxos agreed to film Wagner’s nearly five-hour long opera DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NUERNBERG during two live performances. The double CD, annotated by Sergio Morabito, features a thirty-member cast of Wagnerians led by bass-baritone Johan Reuter as the cobbler and poet Hans Sachs. Surrounding him, tenor…...

A little over a year ago the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in conjunction with Naxos agreed to film Wagner’s nearly five-hour long opera DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NUERNBERG durin…

11/12/2023

Playing a CD of the music of Bernard Hermann recently released by alto, immediately reminds one of what a resourceful and gifted conductor and composer he was. Classically trained and from the age of twenty a fast-rising figure in the world of music for the radio, Hermann qu**ky ascended to the position of head of music at CBS. Once he moved to Hollywood, Herrmann became the go-to composer for thrillers and dramas....

Playing a CD of the music of Bernard Hermann recently released by alto, immediately reminds one of what a resourceful and gifted conductor and composer he was. Classically trained and from the age …

11/11/2023

CHANDOS has just released a lovely recording of Maurice Ravel’s DAPHNIS ET CHLOE, with John Wilson cohesively leading the indispensable Sinfonia of London. An important part of the performance is the superb Sinfonia of London chorus led by Simon Halsey, while in the orchestra, flute soloist Adam Walker stands out. The accompanying program notes of Roger Nichols go a long way to clarify many details about the troubled creation of Ravel’s ballet: a tripartite joint project of the Russian impresario Diaghilev, the choreographer Fokine, and Ravel, made colorful by the oversized egos of the work’s creators....

CHANDOS has just released a lovely recording of Maurice Ravel’s DAPHNIS ET CHLOE, with John Wilson cohesively leading the indispensable Sinfonia of London. An important part of the performance is t…

11/10/2023

When Sir Edmund Hillary was asked why he decided to climb Mt. Everest his plain reply came fast: “Because it’s there.” I suppose a similar question could have been asked of the management of the Teatro Donizetti of Bergamo when it decided to take on Gaetano Donizetti’s French-language opera La Favorite, a tricky work that has traditionally been sung once a first tier cast that could handle the work’s requirements could be assembled....

When Sir Edmund Hillary was asked why he decided to climb Mt. Everest his plain reply came fast: “Because it’s there.” I suppose a similar question could have been asked of the management of the Te…

11/10/2023

I’ve been following the work of the impressive guitarist Sean Shibe mostly through his Pentatone recordings, first in Broken Branches, a duo recital with tenor Karim Sulayman, later a solo recital simply titled Guitar, and now this most recent release of music by three South American composers: Heitor Villa-Lobos, Agustin Barrios Mangoré, and Alberto Ginastera. The results of the Pentatone album titled…...

I’ve been following the work of the impressive guitarist Sean Shibe mostly through his Pentatone recordings, first in Broken Branches, a duo recital with tenor Karim Sulayman, later a solo recital …

11/08/2023

To attempt to do a musicological analysis of any of the works of Aaron Copeland in the context of a review of a CD would be a fool’s errand. Instead, I will first share my gratitude to Rosewood Media and secondly share with the reader a memory of mine about the music of the Dean of American composers and of my encounter with him in the mid-1960’s at a concert at International House in New York given in his honor, in which I sang the American Songs made famous first by Peter Pears and later by William Warfield....

To attempt to do a musicological analysis of any of the works of Aaron Copeland in the context of a review of a CD would be a fool’s errand. Instead, I will first share my gratitude to Rosewood Med…

11/06/2023

Αποθέωση (Apotheosis) is an unusual word rooted in the Greek term for something beyond the merely human… something culminating in the divine. Divine is an adjective one could comfortably apply to any note of music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ever wrote, especially the six gems that he wrote during the last four years of his life. Divine is also one of many words of praise one could apply unselfconsciously to the exquisite playing of all six Mozart string quintets by the Alexander String Quartet in the company of violist Paul Yarbrough....

Αποθέωση (Apotheosis) is an unusual word rooted in the Greek term for something beyond the merely human… something culminating in the divine. Divine is an adjective one could comfortably apply to a…

11/06/2023

We recently received two alto releases: one of Respighi’s Violin Concertos, the other of music by Henryk Górecki. Both of those are interesting, remastered recordings from the late 1980’s and 1990’s, which is the specialty of the alto label. Ottorino Respighi is well known for his tone poems The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome and recognized as an indispensable 20th century post-Romantic for them and for his lesser known but immensely charming…...

We recently received two alto releases: one of Respighi’s Violin Concertos, the other of music by Henryk Górecki. Both of those are interesting, remastered recordings from the late 1980’s and 1990’…

10/29/2023

7:30 pm, Saturday, October 28, 2023 Corbett Auditorium College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio CCM Chamber Choir, CCM Chorale, C*C Bel Canto and CCM Philharmonia Joe Miller, conductor James Alexander, stage director Daniel Weeks, Evangelist Kenneth Shaw, Jesus Michael Unger, principal harpsichord Ezra Selzer, principal cello. Maren Hrivnak, soprano Jaeyoon Choi, mezzo- soprano Alex Gushrowski, tenor Emilio Vasquez, bass…...

7:30 pm, Saturday, October 28, 2023 Corbett Auditorium College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio CCM Chamber Choir, CCM Chorale, C*C Bel Canto and CCM Philharmonia J…

10/27/2023

There’s in Blackburn’s treasure trove the bucolic, the restless, the evocative, the haunting. Composer, filmmaker, writer, record producer, and educator Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, England, where he studied music as a Choral Scholar at Clare College (BA, MA). Blackburn later earned his Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Iowa. After graduation he worked at the American Composer’s Forum…...

There’s in Blackburn’s treasure trove the bucolic, the restless, the evocative, the haunting. Composer, filmmaker, writer, record producer, and educator Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, Engl…

10/25/2023

Opera Vision is streaming a very nice production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to mark World Opera Day: IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA Rossini – Garsington Opera - YouTube...

Opera Vision is streaming a very nice production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to mark World Opera Day: IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA Rossini – Garsington Opera – YouTube Il Barbiere di Sivigl…

10/22/2023

NEUMA RECORDS, ever the inexhaustible purveyor of excellently engineered, intelligently annotated cd’s of new music recently sent us remember, a treasurable recording of music by Jeremy Beck. I sat down with the expectation of being aurally challenged by complex music. Much to my surprise, I discovered the works of a mature composer with a penchant for the lyrical and the poetic, who delivers musical creations ranging from the straightforward…...

NEUMA RECORDS, ever the inexhaustible purveyor of excellently engineered, intelligently annotated cd’s of new music recently sent us remember, a treasurable recording of music by Jeremy Beck. I sat…

10/21/2023

La donna del Lago was composed by Gioacchino Rossini, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. Isabella Colbran, the original Elena in La Donna del Lago Despite the opera’s many virtues, the 1819 première was not a success. There followed many performances in Europe and in the Americas....

La donna del Lago was composed by Gioacchino Rossini, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. Isabella Colbran, the original Elena in La …

10/20/2023

A wintery landscape… A man in his underwear crawling in the snow… a dead tree… the man searches for something in the snow…Men carrying automatic weapons enter the scene, searching for someone or something… no sign of the Sacristan… Chained to the dead tree there is an image of a naked male torso… A wonderful, trained dog enters… searching for something in the ground… A man dressed in black enters… Cavaradossi removes a painting of a male torso to reveal a portrait of Floria Tosca on the easel… A woman crosses upstage of the men…Could it be Tosca?...

A wintery landscape… A man in his underwear crawling in the snow… a dead tree… the man searches for something in the snow…Men carrying automatic weapons enter the scene, searching for someone or so…

10/18/2023

“… a precise, energetic, technically unimpeachable performance by the Jasper String Quartet.” This year, the esteemed Jasper String Quartet is releasing this October 27 an impressive recording of two complete string quartets by Canadian composer Vivian Fung for the Sono Luminus label. In addition to the string quartets numbers one and two, the recording includes one movement from Vivian Fung’s String Quartet no....

“… a precise, energetic, technically unimpeachable performance by the Jasper String Quartet.” This year, the esteemed Jasper String Quartet is releasing this October 27 an impressive recording of t…

10/17/2023

The Weiss- Kaplan Trio is made up of Yael Weiss, piano; Mark Kaplan, violin; and Peter Stumpf, cello. The sterling musicians have a CD coming out soon, labeled BEETHOVEN COMPLETE PIANO TRIOS, a title that holds the promise of more note perfect performances coming up, enhanced, as one can hear in this recording, by musical virtues of all kinds: elegance in ex*****on, precise musicianship, and confident of technique....

The Weiss- Kaplan Trio is made up of Yael Weiss, piano; Mark Kaplan, violin; and Peter Stumpf, cello. The sterling musicians have a CD coming out soon, labeled BEETHOVEN COMPLETE PIANO TRIOS, a tit…

10/16/2023

The orchestra and chorus play and sing well under the stylish direction of Raphael Pichon in what turns out to be a rare compact disc of a rarely performed opera given a ludicrous production. The British Raj was the rule of the British Crown in India. It lasted from 1858 to 1947. In his production or the Opéra Comique, stage director Laurent Pelly chooses to set the action of Léo Delibes sometime towards the end of the 19th century....

The orchestra and chorus play and sing well under the stylish direction of Raphael Pichon in what turns out to be a rare compact disc of a rarely performed opera given a ludicrous production. The B…

10/13/2023

"... impeccable musicianship, technical prowess, and impassioned musicality." Collective Wisdom is the first studio album in five years of Sybarite5, showcasing the group’s one-of-a-kind mix of classical, folk, and contemporary styles. In a matter of days Bright Shiny Things will release a new album by the group made up of Curtis Stewart, Jessica Meyer, Jackson Greenberg, Michael Gilbertson, and Pedro Giraudo....

“… impeccable musicianship, technical prowess, and impassioned musicality.” Collective Wisdom is the first studio album in five years of Sybarite5, showcasing the group’s one-of-a…

10/07/2023

Queen City Opera. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera UNDINA. Finneytown, Cincinnati, OH. October 7, 2023. Finneytown Performing Arts Center. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera UNDINA was composed early in 1869 by a 29-year-old musician who would eventually blossom into Russia’s greatest Romantic composer and pen his masterpieces Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. Months later Undina received its first and last performance, because in one of his desultory moments the Russian composer destroyed its score in 1873....

Queen City Opera. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera UNDINA. Finneytown, Cincinnati, OH. October 7, 2023. Finneytown Performing Arts Center. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera UNDINA was composed early…