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.
© TiVo
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Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Dances from Aleko & Scherzo in D Minor
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Craft Recordings on Oct 27, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49, TH 49; Capriccio italien, Op. 45, TH 47 & Cossack Dance from Mazeppa, TH 7
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kunzel
Classical - Released by Telarc on Jan 1, 1979
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, B. 178 "From the New World" - Martinů: Symphony No. 2, H. 295
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Sep 27, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra & Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes - Elgar: Enigma Variations
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Sep 26, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49, TH 49 - Beethoven: Wellington's Victory, Op. 91
Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Jan 1, 1979
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet – Complete Suites from the Ballet
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Oct 28, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen Suite, Symphony No. 1 in C Major & L’arlésienne Suite No. 1
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Apr 1, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Orchestral Works
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Feb 24, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music of Turina & Debussy
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jesús López-Cobos
Classical - Released by Telarc on Nov 27, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Dances from Aleko & Scherzo in D Minor
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Oct 27, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Jan 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Op. 60 & Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Feb 5, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93 & Tormis: Overture No. 2
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Mar 24, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók & Lutosławski: Concertos for Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Apr 25, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43 - Tubin: Symphony No. 5 in B Minor
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Aug 27, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder & Kindertotenlieder
Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Andreas Schmidt
Classical - Released by Telarc on Nov 1, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rouse: Symphony No. 6 (Live)
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Louis Langrée
Symphonic Music - Released by Fanfare Cincinnati on Sep 15, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto/Variations for Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Ursula Oppens
Classical - Released by New World Records on Jan 1, 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Transatlantic (Gershwin, Varèse, Stravinsky)
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Louis Langrée
Classical - Released by Fanfare Cincinnati on Aug 23, 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
LP Pure, Vol. 34: Ricci Plays Paganini & Saint-Saëns
Ruggiero Ricci, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Max Rudolf
Classical - Released by Archiphon on Mar 17, 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Homenajes & Interlude and Spanish Dance from La vida breve
Jesús López-Cobos, Florence Quivar, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Telarc on Jan 1, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo