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Front Page
Commentary Page: Concert Reports
- Canton Symphony Chamber Players
- St. Olaf Choir at Severance Hall
- Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk in Akron & Oberlin
- Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet at Fairmount Temple
- CityMusic Cleveland at Fairmount Presbyterian
- DBR on Fuze! at the Akron Art Museum
- Apollo's Fire at Fairmount Presbyterian
- Aimard & Boulez in Ravel at Severance
- Logan Skelton on Tri-C Classical Piano Series
- Youth Orchestras of Akron
Preview
Baldwin-Wallace presents Ohio premieres of Ned Rorem's opera, 'Our Town'
by Daniel Hathaway
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ premiered in 1938, but the playwright’s groundbreaking theater piece had to wait nearly sixty years to be reworked into an opera. Wilder’s executors turned down a number of proposals over the years, but finally entrusted the job to librettist J.D. McClatchy and composer Ned Rorem. A partnership between Indiana University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Lake George Opera Company and the North Carolina School for the Arts produced the commission, joined by two other commissioning partners, Opera Boston & Festival Opera of California. The first performances of ‘Our Town’ the Opera took place in February, 2006 at Indiana University. This week, the Ohio premiere will hit the stage at Baldwin-Wallace from February 11-14, guest directed by two veterans of the opera stage, Beth Greenberg and Lucy Arner. We spoke with both directors separately by telephone.
Beth Greenberg
Beth Greenberg, the stage director, has many credits for productions at New York City Opera and around the world, and made a splash in the news for her recent production of Puccini’s ‘Il Tabarro’ on a retired oil tanker moored in a harbor in New York. Having already directed the 2007 west coast premiere of Rorem’s opera with Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, Ca, she was brought into the project by her longtime colleague Lucy Arner. “So I’m coming back to the piece, which is a luxury for a director. You know the piece already and you can take it to the next level and enrich it even more. It’s a great work for younger singers – college age singers are just about perfect because of the ages of George and Emily, and the music is classic Ned Rorem. He’s always stayed wonderfully true to his own voice, which to my ear is distinctly American and contemporary as well. It’s rich, it’s fresh sounding and it’s quite often beautiful”. >>read on
Preview
Clay Christiansen, Mormon Tabernacle organist to play on series at Holy Trinity, Akron
by Daniel Hathaway
If you happened to catch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Blossom a few years back, you've already heard organist Clay Christiansen in action. The veteran of twenty-eight years with the Tabernacle as one of its three full-time organists, Mr. Christiansen will play all by himself this time on the Berghaus organ in Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron on Friday evening, February 12 at 7:30. We caught up with him in Salt Lake City to ask about his duties there and his recital program in Akron.DH: How many organs are there in the Temple Square complex at the moment?
CC: It depends on how deep you dip! We have seven at least. Three practice organs, and four of performance caliber, one a very large two manual Casavant in a chapel that was made out of what used to be the original ballroom in the elegant Hotel Utah, that's now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, but the wonderful lobby was kept along with the restaurant on the top floor; the rest is office space. Then obviously we're blessed with the Tabernacle organ, the wonderful Schoenstein in the Conference Center which in its own way is as remarkable, and then we have the 65-rank Sipe tracker in the Assembly Hall that came here about the time I did in 1982.
DH: Wow. How many organists are on staff at the moment?
CC: We have three full time -- myself, Richard Elliott and Andrew Unsworth -- and two part time.
DH: How does a normal week go for you?
CC: (laughing). As you may guess, I''m chuckling because there's nothing like a normal week. >>read on
On the Blog
Interviews with violinist Joshua Bell & pianist Jeremy Denk, Philippe Jaroussky and St. Olaf Choir conductor Anton Armstrong; a tribute to James Meyers and the opportunity to honor his life with comments, photos and reminiscences. >>go to the blog
Notable this week
Interesting events not previewed elsewhere in this issue.
Tuesday
Apollo's Fire
Your last chance to see Bach Family Fireworks. 7:30 at St. Noel's, Willoughby Hills. Tickets.
Tuesday
Steuart Pincombe
The baroque cellist and gambist gives a benefit concert for the Red Cross's relief fund in Haiti at 8 in Fairchild Chapel at Oberlin. Donations.
Wednesday
CIM Faculty Chamber Music
Mozart's Quintet for Piano & Winds shares a program with Schubert's 'Shepherd on the Rock' with soprano Marla Berg. Kulas Hall at 8, free but seating passes required.
Wednesday
Quink
The fine Dutch vocal quintet with the funny name sings at the Church of Our Savior in Cleveland Heights at 8. Tickets.
Thursday—Saturday
Boulez & Mahler at Severance
Boulez conducts the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 & Magdalena Kozena & Christian Gerhaher sing 'Das Knaben Wunderhorn'. 8pm all three nights. Tickets.
Friday
Babayan at CIM
Sergei Babayan plays four Mozart Piano Sonatas in Mixon Hall. Free.
Friday
Todd Wilson & Friends
Unusual music for solo winds and organ by Craig Phillips, Thierry Escaich & Frank Martin played by Mary Kay Fink, John Clouser & Neil Mueller. Free at 8 in Kulas Hall at CIM.
Saturday
Meyers Memorial at KSU
Kent's School of Music presents a concert in honor of the late cellist and recording engineer James F. Meyers. 3 pm in Ludwig Hall. Free.
Saturday
Paul O'Dette at Harkness
The celebrated lutenist plays on the Chapel, Court & Countryside series at 7:30. Tickets.
Sunday
Levkovich & Rach 2 redux
Dmitri Levkovich reprises the concerto which won him second prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition last summer. Steven Eva conducts the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra at 8 at Chagrin Valley Falls Theatre. Tickets.
Sunday
Choices, choices! and all free
Two Cleveland Orchestra members give 4pm faculty recitals: Frank Rosenwein at CIM, hornist Jessie McCormick at B-W...Zahari Metchkov leads Ensemble Secundum Silentium in Tavener & Maxwell Davies (7, St. Paul's, Cleveland Hts)...pianist Emanuela Friscioni plays Chopin No. 2 with Horst Buchholz & Heights Chamber Orchestra (7:30, First Unitarian, Shaker Heights)...the Linden Quartet plays the next edition of Classical Revolution Cleveland (Barking Spider Tavern in University Circle at 8).
The Cleveland Orchestra announces that its performances with conductor Pierre Boulez on February 11, 12, and 13 at Severance Hall in Cleveland will be recorded live by Clasart Classic, the musical arm of the Tele München Group, along with Deutsche Grammophon for future television broadcast and DVD release.
The all-Mahler program includes Gustav Mahler’s 'Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major', and Mahler’s 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”)', Songs for Voice and Orchestra. Vocal soloists joining the Orchestra will be mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, in her Cleveland Orchestra debut, and baritone Christian Gerhaher.
These performances take place during Pierre Boulez’s second of two weeks of Cleveland Orchestra concerts marking his 85th birthday year and the 45th anniversary year of his American professional orchestra debut with The Cleveland Orchestra. Among Mr. Boulez’s many recordings with The Cleveland Orchestra, five have won Grammy Awards, including the 1969 award in the “Best Classical Performance, Orchestra” category, for their album including Debussy’s Images.
The recording is a coproduction between Clasart Classic, ARTE, and Deutsche Grammophon to be directed by William Cosel.
Akron Symphony to return to Severance
The Akron Symphony will encore its March 20th E.J. Thomas Hall performance of Mahler's 9th Symphony under Benjamin Zander in a performance at Severance Hall on Sunday, March 21 at 3. The extra performance is sponsored by the J.M. Smucker Company. The orchestra made its Severance debut under Zander in 2008. Tickets will be available from the Severance Hall ticket office (216.231.1111). Those who attend both concerts can get a discount of $5 for the March 21 performance by presenting their Akron ticket stub at the Severance box office.
Piano Competition announces 2010 concert series
The Cleveland International Piano Competition will present three events in May, June and November featuring laureates from the last two competitions.
On May 12, in "The Piano Plus Four", Dmitri Levkovich, second prize winner in 2009 plays Chopin, Rachmaninov and Strauss-Shultz-Evler and joins the Cavani Quartet in Brahms' Quintet at CIM.
On June 11, 'The Winners Return' features 2009 champion Martina Filjak in Liszt and Balikirev, 2007 gold medalist Alexander Ghindin in Liszt and Mozart-Liszt-Busoni and piano duos by Rachmaninov, Prokoviev and an arrangement of Gershwin's 'An American in Paris'.
Then on November 6, the 2009 fourth prize winner Evgeny Brakhman appears in "Piano Portraits" in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, playing solo works by Scriabin and Sergei Babayan, first prize winner in 1989, will conduct the Cleveland Competition Orchestra in concerti by Schnittke and Shostakovich. More details to come on CIPC's web site.
Ohio Light Opera
Ohio Light Opera's 2010 season runs from June 19 to August 7 in Wooster this summer, and the box office is now open. OLO's thirty-second season of lyric theater includes Kismet, Gypsy, The Count of Luxembourg, Iolanthe, El Capitan, Patience and Kalman's The Gypsy Princess. Click here for a schedule (pdf file) and here to go to OLO's ticketing website.
