Jackie Danicki

Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend (Cincinnati)

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I was excited to be able to fit in two of the weekend’s many free Fine Arts Fund Sampler events.

First, we went to see the impressive May Festival Youth Chorus perform the following:

El Grillo (Josquin Des Prez)
Sicut Cervus (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)
Haleluya Haleli nafshi (Salomone Rossi)
Where are the Hebrew Children (Peter Cartwright - 19th century shape-note)
Hebrew Children (from Southern Harmony) (William Duckworth)
Make We Joy (William Walton)
Cantique de Jean Racine (Gabriel Fauré)
The Last Words of David (Randall Thompson)
Ezekiel Saw de Wheel (William Dawson) - my favorite, I think

James Bagwell was an energetic, generous director who seemed like a lot of fun to sing for. David Kirkendall accompanied (though several of the first pieces were sung a capella). I enjoyed them so much - a little more so than the older May Festival Chamber Choir, which performed selections from Rachmaninoff’s The All Night Vigil (Vespers) and had a witty director in Robert Porco. Both groups were excellent, though, and obviously put a lot of time and effort into their singing.

Then we had the best seats in the house for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnaval des Animaux) by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns. This was a concert geared toward families with young children, but was equally enjoyable for old crusties. In addition to Saint-Saëns’ work, the orchestra also played Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in G Major, Op. 46, No. 8. (ooh, check this out) and Grieg’s gorgeous (if ubiquitous) Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. They closed out the performance with Smetana’s Dance of the Comedians from The Bartered Bride.

I was also pleasantly shocked at the fact that most kids were well-behaved, and the parents of screamers took them out of the hall without hesitation. BRAVO, PARENTS! Seriously, this was an unexpected bit of good fortune for the audience.

(Aside: Why was the Fine Arts website so ridiculously convoluted when it came to figuring out what was going on? A simple calendar would have been very useful. This event also needs to be promoted much more online - by engaging local bloggers, first and foremost - as so many people really don’t pay attention to radio and TV ads.)

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