Left to right: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo; Music Director Louis Langrée; Principal Viola Christian Colberg; Pianist Michael Chertock; and Principal Cello Ilya Finkelshteyn, who performed Mahler’s Piano Quartet at Music Hall in a streamed concert on May 16, 2020. Photo by Paul Pietrowski
“On July 27, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their fall seasons were being ‘re-imagined,’ ” writes Anne Arenstein in Wednesday’s (8/19) CityBeat (Cincinnati). “The CSO will now offer four concerts beginning on Sept. 26 and the Pops will present three concerts … all livestreamed from Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium. All seven concerts will be free…. The musicians returned to work the week of Aug. 10, participating in acoustic sound checks.… The number of musicians is limited to 30 to 40 at a time. [President Jonathan] Martin says, … ‘We’re playing around with different configurations and what will sound best.’ Those configurations will determine concert programs…. Martin … credits CSO artistic director Louis Langrée for his acute sensitivity to a wide range of audiences. ‘You’ll see disparate programs much different from what we’d originally planned … more forward-leaning, representing composers of color,’ he says…. The full, new schedule will be announced at the end of August…. When the CSO streamed a performance of Mahler’s Piano Quartet and the world premiere of an oboe fanfare by CSO creative partner Matthias Pintscher, the technical crew outnumbered the performers. The performances were powerful and poignant.”
