Louis Langrée leads the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, pianist Inon Barnatan, and the May Festival Chorus in Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” at Cincinnati’s Music Hall. Photo by AJ Waltz
“If you’re a fan of classical music, chances are you’ve fantasized about what you would do with a time machine,” writes Joshua Barone in Monday’s (3/2) New York Times. “The most popular destination … might be Vienna, for Beethoven’s Akademie concert of 1808…. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra offered [a] lavish re-creation at Music Hall here over the weekend of that night in Vienna, [when] Beethoven unveiled the Fifth Symphony and the ‘Pastoral’ Sixth. And the Fourth Piano Concerto and ‘Choral Fantasy,’ in his last public appearance as a pianist…. It was Dec. 22…. Inside the Theater an der Wien … the audience was made to shiver through several hours of music. The orchestra was under-rehearsed…. Conditions were much more favorable at Music Hall on Saturday. For one, there was heat. And the able Cincinnatians … were far from amateurs…. You had to admire the earnestness … of Saturday’s performance: pianist Inon Barnatan milking what integrity he could from the melodramatic opening chords [of the ‘Choral Fantasy’]…. Louis Langrée brought [the May Festival Chorus] and the orchestra to a swell at the text’s mentions of art, love and power.” Several U.S. orchestras will re-create the 1808 concert during the Beethoven 250 season.
