“It’s fitting that the Maestro Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra should begin their season with a performance of Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’ ” writes David Lyman in Thursday’s (9/13) Cincinnati Enquirer (OH). “It’s Dukas’ invitation to an adventure. And … it’s an invitation to share an opening night gala performance made up entirely of music by composers who, like Langrée, are French. Besides Dukas, the program includes works by Claude Debussy, Guillaume Connesson, Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel…. With the new relative positioning of the orchestra and the audience [in the renovated Music Hall], there seems to be a brightness and purity of sound that wasn’t there before…. ‘The variety of colors in these pieces will resonate just perfectly now that we have the perfect acoustics,’ says Langrée…. ‘The star of the evening is the orchestra.’ … He notes several orchestra members … will be featured players in their own right; principal harpist Gillian Benet Sella, principal flutist Randolph Bowman and principal oboe Dwight Parry…. This opening night … will be a shorter than usual—just 75 minutes with no intermission. Making up for the abbreviated length, though, is a free afterparty…. All audience members are invited.”
Posted September 17, 2018
