Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Beethoven 7 & Dessner Premieres

May 3–4, 2024
1241 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202

The Paris-based Cincinnati native Bryce Dessner, 48, writes for symphony orchestras, plays (with his twin brother Aaron) in the rock band The National, and moonlights from time to time as a Grammy-winning producer for Taylor Swift. Alice Sara Ott, the German-Japanese soloist who premiered his new Piano Concerto in the City of Lights, now parachutes into Cincy to introduce it stateside. The program also includes Dessner’s recent orchestra piece Mari, at 20 minutes a good deal more than a curtain-raising teaser, and, oh yeah, that old pièce de résistance, Beethoven’s Seventh. Louis Langrée conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch