by Daniel Hathaway
At 95 minutes, Gustav Mahler’s third symphony is his longest, as well as one of the most extended orchestral works in the repertoire. At its center are two wonderful movements featuring an alto soloist, women’s chorus, and children’s chorus that last only a few minutes each, but completely change the emotional trajectory of the symphony.
Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, who has joined Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra in half a dozen projects in the past, will return to Severance Hall on Thursday and Friday, October 1 and 2 to sing Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Midnight Song” from Also sprach Zarathustra and “The Bell Chorus” from Das Knaben Wunderhorn in the middle of Mahler’s vast symphony. We reached her by telephone early Wednesday afternoon at her hotel to chat briefly about her role in this weekend’s concerts. [Read more…]
The Cleveland Orchestra crossed Wade Lagoon on Sunday afternoon, September 27 to launch two ships on important missions with a single concert. One order of business was to crack a musical champagne bottle across the bow of the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel. The newly renovated University Circle landmark will continue to serve as a space to celebrate major religious holidays and life events while also providing Case Western Reserve University with the first stage in the creation of a long-needed performing arts facility. 
When you go to one of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s concerts at Transformer Station in Hingetown on Cleveland’s near West Side, expect to hear music as edgy and provocative as the art on the walls (and just as hip: the current exhibition from the collection of the Akron Art Museum dispenses with wall tags in favor of elucidation from your smart phone). The performance on Friday, September 25, the second of three concerts by featured performer Ellen Fullman and cellist Theresa Wong, fit that m.o. perfectly. 
“Chopin and singing are perfect companions,” French pianist François Dumont said by telephone from his home in Lyon, “because Chopin’s music is like a singing piano. In fact, Chopin would tell his students that you have to sing if you want to play the piano. During concerts he would often include a singer performing Italian opera.” On Thursday, October 1 at 8:00 pm in Harkness Chapel, François Dumont and Irish soprano Helen Kearns will present a concert titled From Dublin to Lyon. The program will include four Chopin Ballades and arias from The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, and other romantic operas and operettas. The concert is part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition’s 
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’s last symphony and Richard Strauss’s last tone poem — though he called it a symphony — were splendid choices for the opening concert of The Cleveland Orchestra’s new season last Thursday evening, September 24 at Severance Hall. In these works, both composers were operating at the height of their powers, investing confident brilliance in the “Jupiter” and “Alpine” Symphonies. 
Pianist Philip Thomson joined music director Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a spirited concert on Saturday, September 19 at E.J. Thomas Hall. The “American Journey” began in Mexico with Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, stopped in Texarkana, Texas for Clint Needham’s Southern Air, and traveled to somewhere in the Wild West for Copland’s Rodeo before meeting up with George Gershwin in New York. 
The phenomenal French-Canadian organist Isabelle Demers, who currently teaches at Baylor University, crafted an imaginative program for her recital on the Stambaugh Auditorium organ series in Youngstown on Sunday afternoon, September 20, and delivered it with precision and flair. After flawless, memorized performances of music by Vierne, Prokofiev, Bridge, Reger, J.S. Bach, and Laurin, she saved her best trick for last, ending her concert with a breathtaking performance of a “look, Ma: no hands” extravaganza mostly for pedals alone.