{"id":5752,"date":"2019-12-01T21:38:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T21:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=5752"},"modified":"2019-12-04T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T21:39:07","slug":"review-james-conlons-cso-return-is-gratifying-in-wagner-tchaikovsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-james-conlons-cso-return-is-gratifying-in-wagner-tchaikovsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: James Conlon\u2019s CSO return is gratifying in Wagner, Tchaikovsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Cincinnati Business Courier<\/a><\/p>\n

By Janelle Gelfand<\/p>\n

Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomed back an old friend to Music Hall. James Conlon, music director laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, returned to lead a rewarding program that included Tchaikovsky\u2019s rarely played Symphony No. 1, \u201cWinter Daydreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conlon, who is presently the music director of the L.A. Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, Italy, headed the May Festival for an unprecedented 37 years. Returning to the Queen City is always emotional, he told the audience on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel deeply attached to Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and of course, the May Festival,\u201d he said. \u201cI made my debut here 41 years ago. It\u2019s played a major role in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was evident from his warmly expressive interpretations that he knows the orchestra inside and out. And despite the recently revamped acoustics of Springer Auditorium, he knew exactly how to achieve a refined balance and rich sonorities in the orchestra in Saturday\u2019s concert.<\/p>\n

The lush, glowing sound he summoned was striking in Wagner\u2019s Prelude to \u201cDie Meisternger von N\u00fcrnberg,\u201d which opened the evening, a work that figured in the CSO\u2019s first season nearly 125 years ago, in January 1895. The noble themes of Wagner\u2019s opera — based on a guild of Mastersingers in old Nuremberg, Germany \u2013 unfolded majestically. As he led without a score, Conlon\u2019s tempos were spacious and unhurried, and the opera\u2019s humorous moments came alive in the winds.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Conlon concluded the program with Tchaikovsky\u2019s Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, subtitled \u201cWinter Daydreams\u201d by the composer. A work of Tchaikovsky\u2019s youth (age 26), it looks ahead with musical gestures that have become familiar to listeners through his later symphonies and ballets.<\/p>\n

The first movement, evocatively entitled \u201cReveries of a Winter Journey,\u201d is distinctly his own, with a kind of Russian melancholy to its opening theme in flute and bassoon. Conlon illuminated every detail in the score and kept textures transparent in this atmospheric work, which sometimes seemed more tone poem than symphony. The musicians responded with colorful, precise playing.<\/p>\n

The second movement, \u201cLand of Desolation, Land of Mists,\u201d offers some of Tchaikovsky\u2019s most magical, folk-like melodies. Conlon\u2019s view was tender as he guided these nostalgic themes, starting in oboe, graduating to violas, and glowing magnificently when the horns took a turn.<\/p>\n

The scherzo had all the lightness of Mendelssohn, which the conductor led crisply. At its center was a charming waltz, led with just enough sweep. Conlon cultivated a dark color in the strings in the finale\u2019s somber introduction, which was infused with Russian soul. A terrific passage for the brass announced this movement\u2019s main theme. Conlon\u2019s leadership was energized, and he steadily built to its triumphant coda.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Cincinnati Business Courier By Janelle Gelfand Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomed back an old friend to Music Hall. James Conlon, music director laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, returned to lead a rewarding program that included Tchaikovsky\u2019s rarely played Symphony No. 1, \u201cWinter Daydreams.\u201d Conlon, who is presently the music … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3613,4401,3686,3612,3926,3855],"class_list":["post-5752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conductor","tag-james-conlon","tag-orchestra","tag-review","tag-tchaikovsky","tag-wagner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5753,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752\/revisions\/5753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}