The Diary is taking Easter Monday off, returning on Tuesday.
Cleveland Orchestra: catching up with organist Paul Jacobs
by Mike Telin
For over a decade, organ virtuoso Paul Jacobs has been a frequent guest soloist on Cleveland Orchestra programs. Jacobs made his debut in February of 2015 when he had the Severance Hall stage all to himself when he opened for the Orchestra, playing music by Johannes Brahms and Johann Sebastian Bach on the 94-rank Norton Memorial Organ.
Jacobs returned in September of 2016 with Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony and in November of 2017 with Stephen Paulus’s Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra. In March of 2019 he gave the U.S. premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Okeanos for organ and orchestra. And in 2021 he was featured in Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani.
On Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 pm Paul Jacobs will return to the Mandel Concert Hall stage to revisit Poulenc’s concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra. Under the direction of Daniele Rustioni, the concert also includes Gabriel Fauré’s Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, Alfredo Casella’s Italia, and Claude Debussy’s La Mer. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available online.
CIM Opera Theater’s Hänsel and Gretel: a conversation with JJ Hudson
by Mike Telin
The first volume of children’s tales published in Germany by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 includes some of today’s most beloved stories — Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin. That volume also includes the tale of Hänsel and Gretel in which two children cleverly outwit a witch.
On Friday, March 27 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, March 29 at 3:00 pm, Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, returns to the Kulas Hall stage at the Cleveland Institute of Music in performances by CIM Opera Theatre. JJ Hudson directs and Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra The production, which has a running time of two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission, will be sung in German with English supertitles. Tickets are available online.
I caught up with JJ Hudson by telephone and began our conversation by asking why they chose this particular title for the spring opera.
JJ: This year we will have produced two operas based on fairytales — Judith Weir’s Blonde Eckbert in late January and now Hänsel and Gretel. Both introduce our students to early German romanticism and its themes: mystery in the forest, witches, birds that speak, and otherworldly things.
Third Coast Percussion celebrates its 20th anniversary at CIM
by Mike Telin
On Sunday, March 22 at 3:00 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion — Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore — will present “Time Pieces: The New Classical.” The program celebrates two decades of genre-defying, award-winning music, including many of the ensemble’s 20th anniversary commissions. The concert is sold out.
I caught up with David Skidmore on Zoom and began by asking about the group’s 20th anniversary program.
David Skidmore: The first half is highlights from the past 20 years. And the second half is all pieces that we commissioned for our 20th anniversary, which is some of our favorite music to play right now.