Jewish Music Festival: Ariel Quartet soars in Auerbach and Golijov

The Ariel Quartet with clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky on Tuesday at the Skirball Museum in Clifton.

Maybe you’ve seen brief mentions of the Jewish Music Festival, with musical performances, lectures and sometimes art exhibitions taking place throughout the area. The festival is brand new, and organized by Aik Khai Pung, associate professor at CCM, where he is music director of the CCM Concert Orchestra. I noticed in an online listing that the Ariel String Quartet was playing last night at Hebrew Union College, and by luck, I was able to go.

The concert, which was co-presented by concert:nova and the Cincinnati Cultural Exchange, was held in Mayerson Auditorium in the Skirball Museum on the HUC campus. Curator Abby Schwartz provided commentary about the art by Jewish artists that surrounded us, and the paintings’ relationships to the music.

The musical artists for this program were sensational. The Ariel Quartet, quartet-in-residence at CCM, opened with Lera Auerbach’s “Frozen Dreams” and “Cetera Desunt” for string quartet. Both works were a revelation. “Frozen Dreams” was haunting and deeply personal. Auerbach’s music is simply astonishing; it is both searing and lyrical. In “Cetera Desunt” Auerbach took her cue from Shostakovich, and the listener could detect the repeating motive signifying Shostakovich’s signature. The superb performers — violinists Alexandra Kazovsky and Gershon Gerchikov, Jan Grüning, viola, and Amit-Even-Tov, cello — soared through this treacherous score with exciting precision and passion. In the frenzied passages, they dug into their strings with bows flying. I plan to try to hear more of Auerbach’s music.

Vinnitsky was serenaded with “happy birthday” after the performance.

They joined with clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky for Osvaldo Golijov’s “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.” It is named for a blind, mystical rabbi who lived centuries ago, but is also a tribute to Golijov’s great-grandfather. This piece blends liturgical prayers in its outer movements with raucous Klezmer music. There could not have been a better champion for both styles than Vinnitsky, who wailed and almost danced in his seat as he performed Golijov’s riveting music, using three different clarinets.

Read the program notes for this program here.

Vinnitsky joined CCM’s clarinet faculty about two years ago. He and the Ariel Quartet will perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet on March 26 at CCM, 7:30 p.m. in Werner Recital Hall. It’s not-to-be missed!

The Jewish Foundation is sponsor of the inaugural festival, a total of nine concerts and events. Other participants have included the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, composer Anna Vinnitsky, saxophonist Rick VanMatre and others.

Several more events are coming up:

Emanuel Ax to perform benefit concert at SCPA

Emanuel Ax
Photo: Lisa Marie Mazzucco

I hope you have been able to attend some of the great concerts, plays, dance and musicals in our city this month. Coming up on Friday, pianist Emanuel “Manny” Ax is donating his time and talent to perform a benefit piano concert for the Ben Carlson-Berne Scholarship, 7:30 p.m. Friday March 24 in Corbett Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.

Here’s an interesting phone interview that WGUC’s Elaine Diehl had with Ax about the concert. He has been performing in Cincinnati since 1976 or ’77, he says. He speaks about the support that he received as a young musician, and life on the road, post-Covid.

He’s also continuing his “Beethoven for Three” recordings with Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavakos, he tells Elaine. I’m enjoying the second in their series, which has Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale” Symphony No. 6 — arranged for piano trio by Shai Wosner. It’s a wonderful discovery. Take a listen here.

His program on Friday will be piano music by Schubert and Liszt.

You can learn more about the Ben Carleson-Berne Scholarship in my column for the Business Courier.

Tickets are available at bcbscholarship.org.

 

Vienna Boys Choir on a virtual Christmas tour

Vienna Boys Choir, photo by Lukas Beck

One of the favorite memories of my music journalism career was visiting the Vienna Boys Choir in their school in the lovely Augarten Palace in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna. At the time, the famed boy choir had some Cincinnati Boychoir members.

The legendary choir is prized worldwide for the pure tone of its young singers, who, pre-pandemic, carried on a busy world tour schedule. They have appeared in Cincinnati multiple times. This holiday season, with 300 concerts canceled for the ensemble, they have created a beautiful online program: “Vienna Boys Choir: Silent Night.”

Their “World Online Tour” can be followed on idagio, where you can register free, and then purchase concerts. This one, which is about an hour long, costs $9.90, and is available until 5:59 p.m. Dec. 31. Click here to book. 

Their selections are lovely — including Es ist ein Ros´entsprungen (Lo, how a rose e’er blooming), Max Reger’s serene lullaby Maria Wiegenlied (Mary’s lullaby) and of course Still Nacht (Silent Night).

Because of stay-at-home orders, the concert is streamed from the palace’s state rooms, which have baroque architectural features, and there are also some outdoor scenes. All four of the tour choirs perform. The sound is exceptional.

The choir’s dramaturg, Dr. Tina Breckwoldt, writes from Vienna: “Our holiday offering is a traditional German/Austrian selection, for that feeling of warmth and gemütlichkeit. The boys are singing around a Christmas tree, decorated with real candles, apples, and gingerbread (some gingerbread choristers as well).”

Don’t miss the snowball fight in the gardens at the end as the credits roll.

Cincinnati Opera, CET to air documentary on opera’s first 100 years

In recent years, Cincinnati Opera has kicked off its season with a free concert in Washington Park, OTR

Cincinnati Opera and CET have announced plans for “Cincinnati Opera at 100,” an hour-long televised program commemorating Cincinnati Opera’s centennial. Featuring
insights from local and national opera experts and performances by artists from across the country, “Cincinnati Opera at 100” will premiere on CET 48.1 on Friday, July 3 at 9 p.m. EST.

Additional airings will follow on CET Arts 48.3 through Tuesday, July 7.

The nation’s second-oldest opera company, Cincinnati Opera presented its first performance on June 27, 1920, at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, and its annual Summer Festival has become a Cincinnati arts-going tradition.

Lisa Daltirus in “Aida” at Cincinnati Opera in Music Hall.

Though the company’s 100th Anniversary Season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, “Cincinnati Opera at 100” transports the opera-going experience into viewers’ homes, including performances by much-loved singers from recent Cincinnati Opera productions and historical highlights from opera experts.