Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States and for most of its history has been one of the finest orchestras in the country.
Founded in 1788, Cincinnati is a riverport city along the Ohio River, in the U.S. Midwest. The city and the areas around it became a major center of immigration from Germany and Switzerland in the 1840s. In 1849 the German communities of Cincinnati, Madison (Indiana), and Louisville (Kentucky) held the first Cincinnati Sängerfest, with a small orchestra and a combined choir of 118 voices. Subsequent Sängerfest events were held annually thereafter in various regional cities, returning to Cincinnati regularly. A Philharmonic Society was founded in 1857, but foundered in 1860.
In 1869, Theodore Thomas, the great German-born orchestra builder, took his new orchestra on its first U.S. tour and included Cincinnati. On his next visit to Cincinnati, the city asked him to run an expanded music festival for 1873, and he put together an 800-voice choir and 108-piece orchestra and held a one-week festival in May.
The Cincinnati Orchestra was formed in 1872 under Michael Brand and augmented Thomas' own orchestra for the biennial May Festivals. The Cincinnati Orchestra Association was founded in 1895 and took the existing Cincinnati Orchestra as the nucleus for its new Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a 48-piece ensemble. The first music director was Frank van der Stucken, who served from the orchestra's founding until it was disbanded in 1907 when the Association refused to meet the demands of the new musicians' union.
The Association worked to raise money to re-establish the orchestra. Its president, Mrs. Charles P. Taft, successfully lobbied to hire the young British conductor Leopold Stokowski as conductor, permitting him to handpick the new 77-member orchestra in 1909. Stokowski stayed for only three years, but built a superb orchestra and established the orchestra's permanent tradition. Ernst Kunwald (1912-1918) presided over the orchestra's first recording, for Columbia in 1917. Legendary Belgian violinist Eugène Ÿsaye was music director from 1918 to 1922 and made the Stokowski-derived string sound even richer and more secure. His successor Fritz Reiner (1922-1931) instilled sharp discipline and gave Cincinnati some of the first American performances of works of Béla Bartók. Eugene Goosens, a charismatic English conductor, served from 1931 to 1946. He commissioned a series of wartime fanfares that included Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
His successor was American Thor Johnson (1947-1958) who was known for his support of American music, and after him, the highly respected conductor and conducting teacher Max Rudolf (1958-1970) continued the orchestra's fine disciplinary standards. During his tenure, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra was formed under assistant conductor Erich Kunzel, still a highly popular combination. Also under Rudolf, the orchestra, under State Department auspices, became the first U.S. orchestra to undertake a world tour, and the May Festival was made an annual event.
Thomas Schippers, a brilliant American, took the podium in 1970, serving until his untimely death in 1977. The prominent German conductor Michael Gielen served from 1980 to 1986, increasing the orchestra's modern music repertory, and from 1986 to 2001, Jesús Lopez-Cobos was music director, with a flair for brilliant and colorful performances. Paavo Järvi served as music director from 2001 to 2011.
The orchestra makes its home in Music Hall, giving 52 subscription performances a year and twenty pops concerts, as well as the popular Concerts in the Park and other outreach performances.
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Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Homenajes & Interlude and Spanish Dance from La vida breve
Jesús López-Cobos, Florence Quivar, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Boléro, La valse & Other Works
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jul. 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner for Orchestra
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 aug. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Festival Prelude, Burleske & Salome's Dance
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane, Eugene Espino, Michael Chertock
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jun. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue & An American in Paris
Erich Kunzel, Eugene List, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Petrouchka, The Firebird Suite & Scherzo à la Russe
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi, Michael Chertock
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 25 mrt. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: The Planets, Op. 32 - Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 26 okt. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi: Church Windows, P. 150; Brazilian Impressions, P. 153 & Roman Festivals, P. 157
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Symphony in C Major & La Péri
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 nov. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74, TH 30 "Pathétique" & Romeo and Juliet (Overture-Fantasy), TH 42
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 23 okt. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, H 48 & Love Scene from Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17, H 79
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 28 aug. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi: Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome & Metamorphoseon modi XII
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 25 apr. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring - Nielsen: Symphony No. 5, Op. 50
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 28 sep. 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Albéniz: Iberia, T. 105
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 feb. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 2; Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Ruggiero Ricci: Complete American Decca Recordings, Vol. 2)
Ruggiero Ricci, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Max Rudolf
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes, La mer & Berceuse héroïque
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi: Transcriptions for Orchestra
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 okt. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Michelle DeYoung
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 nov. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wellington's Victory, Op. 91 - Liszt: Battle of the Huns, S. 105 & Hungarian March to the Assault, S. 119
Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain & Prelude to Khovanshchina
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 25 aug. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Into the Light: Symphonic Expressions of the Spirit
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jesús López-Cobos
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 aug. 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo