I was going to say that this will be a good week for the Columbus Symphony, but it's more appropriate to write that this will be a good week for the audiences - experienced or not - of the Columbus Symphony. It's another of those terrific date night opportunities. A Happy Hour Concert sponsored by the Johnstone Fund for New Music. Thank you, Jack and Zoe! Free, this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Ohio Theater. No tickets necessary. Food is free with a cash bar. Door open at 5:30 p.m. for snacks, networking or good old-fashioned conversation across a crowded lobby. The concert begins at 6:30 p.m. with no intermission and ends around 8 p.m. Conductor Rossen Milanov, no relation to Zinka, returns to the Ohio Theater for this program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS2MRZchzqM Milanov was born in Bulgaria and trained at the Curtis Institute. His career thus far includes music directorships in Spain and the U.S. He is music director of the training orchestra Symphony in C, based in New Jersey Here's what he and the CSO will bring us on Wednesday night. Haydn's Symphony 88, he wrote 104 or 15 depending on who you ask, and selections from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. The concert begins with a riff on the elegant keyboard music of Francois Couperin: Three Studies from Couperin by the young British hot-shot Thomas Ades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzcXFaOuGoc He's one of the most complete musicians I've encountered, as a composer and a conductor. His opera The Tempest was a huge hit at the Met two years ago. The suggested pornography of Powder Her Face didn't hurt the box office at the New York City Opera. Ades has conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony and his music plays everywhere. An Ades score is sophisticated and entertaining. Perfect for date night. And its free, so don't complain about having to listen to new music. It's great and more is always better than less. I'm on stage with Maestro Milanov and our own Columbus Symphony to talk about our orchestra and the music. Come on down! Come hungry for edibles and for great music, made and performed here in Columbus.
Christopher Purdy is Classical 101's early morning host, 7-10 a.m. weekdays. He is host and producer of Front Row Center – Classical 101’s weekly celebration of Opera and more – as well as Music in Mid-Ohio, Concerts at Ohio State, and the Columbus Symphony broadcast series. He is the regular pre-concert speaker for Columbus Symphony performances in the Ohio Theater.