By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It's the best lineup of soloists seen in years.

Paavo Jarvi, who has been jazzing things up at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, is bringing an A-list of soloists for his third season as music director.

Piano legend Andre Watts, violinist Midori, American fiddle sensation Mark O'Connor, pianist Richard Goode and Ohio-born soprano Sylvia McNair are a few of the major artists coming for the CSO's 109th season, and the 125th anniversary year of the historic Music Hall, the orchestra's home.

The roster includes 10 pianists - among them Yefim Bronfman and Garrick Ohlsson - as well as Norwegian cellist Truls Mork and 22-year-old violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn.

Jarvi will continue to add to the CSO's canon of new music. He and the orchestra will commission two world premieres: an opening weekend fanfare by Douglas Lowry, dean of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a new work by 30-year-old African-American composer Jonathan Holland in honor of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, to open in Cincinnati in 2004.

Unlike many American orchestras - which have lost recording contracts or stopped touring because of financial troubles - the CSO will make two tours and two recordings next year.

In November, Jarvi and the CSO will take their first international tour together, performing eight concerts in seven cities in Japan (Nov. 6-15). And in March 2004, the CSO will make a swing through six cities in Florida, with the Eroica Trio performing Beethoven's "Triple" Concerto.

"I would go to the North Pole with this orchestra," says Jarvi by phone from Cologne, Germany, where he is guest conducting this week. "When you're on the road, there is a certain closeness and a sense of collective that is only possible when you are representing your team outside your own stadium."

Jarvi will continue his relationship with the Grammy-winning Telarc label, to make a Debussy disc (La Mer, Nocturnes and Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun), and a blockbuster pairing of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 5.

Of the latter, Jarvi says, "Imagine two composers writing at practically the same time, with such different conceptions of musical language. It is a connection one almost never makes. I thought, `What an interesting concept. I'll find out, will it be interesting to anybody else, or just me?' "

(So far, he seems to have the Midas touch. His first CSO albums are selling briskly, and his Stravinsky album, out March 25, will be an Editor's Choice in Gramophone in May.)

19 Music Hall premieres

The season has 19 works that the CSO has never played in Music Hall, such as Lutoslawski's Symphonic Variations and Christopher Rouse's Rapture, the latter to be conducted by Marin Alsop. The admired American composer John Corigliano will be represented by his Piano Concerto, performed by James Tocco, a CCM faculty member who has recorded the concerto.

Jarvi, an Estonian-born American, will introduce Searching for Roots by countryman Erkki-Sven Tuur and Overture No. 2 by Veljo Tormis. And in January, the CSO will give the U.S. premiere of Contrapunctus XIX from The Art of Fugue, an arrangement of Bach's famous work by Italian avant-gardist Luciano Berio.

But the comfort food will be there, too. Jarvi will continue his cycle of Brahms (No. 1) and Mahler (No. 4) symphonies, and he and his musicians will perform their first Schumann symphony (No. 2) together. He will also conduct fifth symphonies by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, as well as Bruckner's Third.

"It's all world premiere for us, together-speaking. To us, it's the first time," says Jarvi, who will conduct 13 of the season's 22 weekends. "A lot of the composers are strategically chosen. We're doing a new Beethoven symphony every year. (Beethoven's Seventh will close the season May 6-8, 2004). We are slowly going through our standard repertoire, and coming back to others."

Opening Sept. 12-13

The season will open Sept. 12-13 with Lowry's Exordium Nobile (Grand Opening), Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D Minor and cellist Mork performing Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante. The date is a make-up for Mork, who was unable fly from Norway for Jarvi's first weekend as music director in 2001, just days after 9-11.

Also in September, American pianist Goode will make his Cincinnati debut in Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3 (an unexpected choice from this widely hailed Mozart specialist), and Jarvi will conduct Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550.

It's a banner year for Mozart. Mozart, says Jarvi, is something the orchestra needs to play more often "because it is in danger of disappearing from the concert stage."

This year, the CSO will play Mozart's Prague and Haffner symphonies, Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major with Ohlsson, Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491 with former prodigy Helen Huang, Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish, with Vladimir Spivakov and Mozart's Concertone in C Major, K. 190 with CSO concertmaster Timothy Lees and principal second violinist Gabriel Pegis.

During Tall Stacks Weekend (Oct. 17-18), O'Connor will make his debut as both fiddler and composer when the CSO premieres his The American Seasons, a work the Fort Worth Star-Telegram calls "the first musical masterpiece of the 21st century."

The fiddler, better known for his Grammy-winning collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and bassist Edgar Meyer, will share the all-American program with conductor Michael Morgan, music director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony.

Well-known names

Season highlights include Watts performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor - pairing one of America's most celebrated artists with a masterpiece of piano literature (April 30-May 2). In January, two-time Grammy winner McNair sings Ravel's Sheherazade and the Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne, in a program with Debussy's Nocturnes and Nielsen's Symphony No. 5.

Midori - whose TV appearances range from the 1992 Winter Olympics to The Tonight Show - will perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in February. And the superb flutist Emmanuel Pahud will take his first Music Hall bow in the Nielsen Flute Concerto in March.

To prepare for the CSO's tours, Jarvi will revisit Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and Charles Coleman's Streetscape. There will be no concerts in November, while the CSO is in Japan, but concertgoers will get a tour preview in concerts with the tour artists: pianist Yundi Li (Chopin's Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Sept. 26-27) and violinist Akiko Suwanai (Brahms Concerto in D Major, Oct. 24-26).

Other artists are soprano Jennifer Aylmer, trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov and pianists Imogen Cooper and Stewart Goodyear. CSO members Eric Kim, cellist, and Cristian Ganicenco, trombonist, will also perform solos.

American conductors

Three Americans will visit the podium: Alsop, whose titles include principal conductor of the Bournemouth (England) Symphony and conductor laureate of the Colorado Symphony; Morgan, who is former assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony; and Andrew Litton, music director of the Dallas Symphony.

Music director emeritus Jesus Lopez-Cobos returns for one weekend, featuring Brahms' Nanie and Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) with the May Festival Chorus. Kazimierz Kord, former CSO principal guest conductor, will conduct Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, and Krzysztof Penderecki will conduct his own "De Profundis" from Seven Gates of Jerusalem, on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Andreas Delfs, who leads the orchestras of Milwaukee and St. Paul; Stephane Deneve, who was a hit with Cincinnati Opera in 2000 and 2001; Milanese maestro Gianandrea Noseda; and Russian conductor Vassily Sinaisky will make their Music Hall debuts.

CSO subscriptions for the 2003-04 season go on sale Monday. Packages range from a four-concert series starting at $47 to the 22-concert series from $198. There is also the five-concert Thursday series, which includes a free buffet, and Classic Choice vouchers. Single tickets, from $13, go on sale Aug. 8. 381-3300 or visit Web site.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com

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