The May Festival concert on Friday opened with a surround-sound experience: Trumpeters rang down from the upper reaches of Music Hall, playing antiphonally against the organ and brass of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Onstage, the May Festival Chorus was echoed by the May Festival Youth Chorus from the back of the hall.
Gabrieli’s “Magnificat à 33,” written for the vast spaces of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, was an inspiring opening to the new tenure of Juanjo Mena, the festival’s…