Music Director Louis Langrée’s Impact on the Cincinnati Symphony and the Mostly Mozart Festival

In Friday’s (7/14) New York Times, Joshua Barone writes, “Rehearsals led by the conductor Louis Langrée tend to follow a trajectory. Early on, he speaks poetically and tells stories; during preparations for a May concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he is the music director, he explained Saint-Saëns with references to the Kyrie of a Mass and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. But then his language becomes technical and specific … The result is often an interpretation rich in specificity and color, to a degree that can impress even seasoned musicians…. His career has been a steady climb of prestige and quality, quietly remarkable but undersung even as he has transformed ensembles: in Cincinnati, where he has been at the podium for a decade, and in New York, where he has been the music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra since 2003. His time at both posts, though, is coming to an end…. Langrée is set to depart [Mostly Mozart] this summer at the end of his contract; and his tenure in Cincinnati concludes next season. All this, as he settles into his new job as the leader … of the Opéra Comique in Paris…. The Cincinnati Symphony today, as with the Mostly Mozart orchestra, is largely a product of Langrée’s efforts.”