Substitute soloists at the Symphony

The Cincinnati Symphony has announced that both the conductor, Stephane Deneve, and the piano soloist, Boris Berezovsky, have had to cancel their appearances with the CSO this week for personal reasons. Berezovsky was forced to cancel all of his engagements on his entire United States tour, including one with the Indianapolis Symhony this month, too.

Maestro Deneve, well-regarded by local audiences, is rescheduling his appearance with the CSO becuase of the expected due date of his first child this week.

So if you have tickets to concerts this Thursday through Saturday in Music Hall, you'll see pianist Alexander Korsantia perform Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and conductor Elvind Gullberg Jensen lead Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. It looks like there's one program change: the concert will open with Norwegian composer Knut Vaage's "Tjat" (Chatter).

Paavo Jarvi says he has worked with Korsantia, who won first prize and gold medal in the Artur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition. Korsantia, a native of Tbilisi, Georgia, has worked extensively with Valery Gergiev and has toured the U.S. in recital with Russian violinist Vadim Repin. He lives in Boston, where he is professor of piano on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

For more info about the concert (and don't forget the free buffet with Thursday's concert) visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org.