by Daniel Hathaway
Italian baroque music is immensely popular not only with modern audiences but also with advertising firms looking for energizing music to help sell cars. And there’s nothing more popular in that repertoire than Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This week, Apollo’s Fire will launch a six-concert series called “Vivaldi’s Four Seasons rediscovered,” featuring its concertmaster, Montréal-based violinist Olivier Brault, as soloist. Two other AF violinists, Johanna Novum and Julie Andrijeski, will do the honors in another Vivaldi concerto, the famous one in d-minor for two violins that Johann Sebastian Bach liked so well that he turned it into a solo organ work.
Brault maintains a busy career in addition to his work with Apollo’s Fire. In Québec, he serves as concertmaster for Les Boréades de Montréal and Ensemble Caprice and runs his his own group, Sonate 1704, devoted to French music for violin and continuo — one of Brault’s specialties. When we spoke via Skype, he had recently returned from Belgium, where he participated in concerts, classes and lectures on music for that combination of musicians. [Read more…]
“I’m just so happy to be back with this wonderful orchestra,” French conductor Lionel Bringuier said in a telephone conversation immediately after Tuesday morning’s rehearsal with The Cleveland Orchestra. On Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 pm at Severance Hall, Bringuier will lead the Orchestra in a concert featuring works by Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Florent Schmitt. The program will be repeated on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 pm.
This weekend, Cleveland-based new music ensemble No Exit will present three concerts that showcase an eclectic mix of avant-garde electronic and electro-acoustic works. “This is a really exciting series,” No Exit’s artistic director Tim Beyer said during a telephone conversation. “We’re fortunate to have performers who are not only amazing ensemble players, but virtuosic soloists as well. And these pieces will allow each member of the ensemble to shine.”
Is there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than listening to great classical chamber music performed by fantastic musicians— who are also donating their talents on behalf of a humanitarian cause? On Sunday, April 19 beginning at 3:00 pm in the Meeting House of First Church Oberlin, the Amici String Quartet will perform a benefit concert for 
“Honestly, bad chamber music makes you feel like you’d rather be at the dentist. But there’s nothing better than playing good chamber music with people that you like,” according to Richard King, principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra and a member of the City Center Brass Quintet. On Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 pm, King will perform on the next installment of the 
Now that the first spring flowers are poking their heads out of the ground, it’s a good time to look ahead to The Cleveland Orchestra’s busy schedule of events for April and May. And who is in a better position to talk about that than Ross Binnie, the orchestra’s chief marketing officer?
The opportunity for young composers to work directly with professional musicians is crucial to their development. Each year, as part of Cleveland Contemporary Players Artist in Residency Series, students at Cleveland State University are able to work directly with some of the leading artists and ensembles in the world of contemporary classical music. Over the past few years, Andrew Rindfleisch, CSU professor of composition and director of the series, has brought the Slee Sinfonietta, the Jack Quartet, and pianist Jenny Lin to the CSU campus for residencies that have include workshops, master classes and lectures. Additionally, students have the chance to hear their compositions performed by visiting artists. 
Since their founding in 2008, the Mivos Quartet have quickly established themselves as leading interpreters of the contemporary classical string quartet literature. On Saturday, March 28 at Transformer Station, the Mivos proved exactly why that is during their hour-long program featuring works by Mincek, Stauning and Lachenmann. Never has a concert consisting almost exclusively of extended techniques felt so much like a meal of comfort food. 
Arianna Körting, who won first prize in the senior division of the 2012 Cleveland International Piano Competition’s Young Artists Competition, will play the National Anthem at Progressive Field on Friday, April 10 just after 4:00 pm, when the Cleveland Indians play their season opener against the Detroit Tigers.
The Piano Trio With No Name (pianist Wu Han, violinist Philip Setzer, and cellist David Finckel) launched their most recent touring project — eventually to include all six of the Beethoven trios — with a brilliant performance on the Tuesday Musical Series at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron on March 31. They’ll be back next season to finish the job.