by Nicholas Jones
On a snowy February weekend, the sparkle of Mozart brightened Severance Hall as the distinguished pianist Mitsuko Uchida played and conducted two concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra. A symphony (also by Mozart, and played without conductor) filled in between the two. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
There are few major composers of organ music whose complete works for the instrument can be combined into a single concert of reasonable length. Maurice Duruflé, virtuoso French organist active from the 1930s almost until his death in 1986, is such a composer. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Friday, February 19 at 7:00 pm in St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood, the Syndicate for The New Arts will present their own rendition of Alvin Lucier’s classic of minimal tape music, I am Sitting in a Room. The evening will also launch the Syndicate’s residency at the Church in partnership with St. John’s Institute.
First performed in 1969, the work featured Lucier recording himself reciting this text:
I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I’m going to play it back into the room again and again until any semblance of my speech with perhaps the exception of rhythm is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.
The recording was then played back into the room and re-recorded, a process that was repeated until the words became unintelligible and were gradually replaced by the pure harmonies of the room. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Saturday, February 13 at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, Canadian pianist Dmitri Levkovich will make his fourth appearance with Steven Eva and the Chagrin Studio Orchestra since winning second prize in the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The 7:30 pm concert, a benefit evening for the orchestra, will feature Levkovich in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s third concerto.
Since 2009, Levkovich has been busy performing in Europe, competing in competitions, and winning a prestigious German piano award (details of his activities can be seen on his website). We caught up with the 35-year-old pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was busy practicing for his appearance this weekend.
DH: This will be your fourth appearance with Steve Eva and the Chagrin Studio Orchestra.
DL: The first time was right after the piano competition. Steve wanted me to play Rachmaninoff 2, the same concerto I did with The Cleveland Orchestra. The second time was the Paganini Rhapsody, and then we did a set of concertos: Rachmaninoff 4, and Prokofiev 1. Now it’s Rach 3. We just rehearsed for the first time yesterday, and everything looks good. [Read more…]
by Christine Jay
One of the most remarkable elements of mankind is its ability to endure. History is filled with stories of people struggling, failing, succeeding, and surviving, but few have endured the centuries of exile and forced displacement experienced by the Jews. Performing an inspired program devised by artistic director Jeannette Sorrell, soprano Nell Snaidas, baritone Jeffrey Strauss, and cellist René Schiffer, Apollo’s Fire gave a sensational concert on February 5 at St. Paul’s Church in Cleveland Heights. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Founded in 1998 as a collection of composers, improvisers and interpreters committed to making adventurous music, the New York City-based Wet Ink Ensemble has quickly garnered an international reputation for their innovative and virtuosic performances. Although the ensemble usually performs as a septet, on Friday, February 12 beginning at 6:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Stull Recital Hall, the Wet Ink Trio, Josh Modney (violin), Eric Wubbels (piano), and Sam Pluta (electronics) will present a concert titled hydra | the children of fire. A solo electronic set by Sarah Snider will precede the Trio’s performance.
“The Trio version of the ensemble was formed last year,” violinist Josh Modney said during an recent interview. “Although our main ensemble is a septet, we also wanted to play repertoire by Wet Ink composers that has been written for smaller configurations.”
Modney, who joined Wet Ink eight years ago, pointed out that although they wanted to tour Eric’s 2012 composition the children of fire come looking for fire, they were in need of another piece that would fill out the program. “We asked Sam to write something that would involve himself, so in 2014 he wrote hydra (for violin, piano & live electronics). We made our first Trio tour to England in January 2015. We’ve also toured this program to California, so this will be our third tour.” [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
In his first local, full-length recital in a decade, Cleveland pianist Zsolt Bognár opted for musical intelligence and deep emotional content over keyboard pyrotechnics. On Sunday afternoon, February 7 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Bognár gave probing performances of music by Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg, and Franz Liszt to a good-sized audience that obviously included many of his local fans. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The latest Cleveland Orchestra Fridays@7 event on February 5 took a new tack. Instead of programming world music before and after an hour-or-so long Orchestra performance, the Severance Hall management brought in a DJ and set up both the upper and lower lobbies with couches, comfortable chairs, and tables. This laid-back approach to the evening provided more opportunities for patrons to hang out, enjoy drinks, and have lingering conversations after the performance without having to shout over supercharged sound systems. A nice change. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
The Oberlin Conservatory has been at the nation’s forefront in the training of undergraduate musicians for 150 years. The school’s outstanding programs encompass a variety of musical disciplines, and have produced an impressive list of world-renowned performers, composers, and innovators. On Saturday, January 30, in Symphony Center, Chicago, the conservatory’s orchestral program took center stage when Raphael Jiménez led the Oberlin Orchestra in outstanding performances of works by Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky. The concert was presented as part of Oberlin’s sesquicentennial celebration tour to Chicago. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
Opera is a great medium for exploring the courage of acting for freedom and the personal cost of heroic resistance. There is something built into the art form that deepens our view of even the most resolute of actions, showing us the often tragic consequences of taking the courageous path. We can hardly hear Vissi d’arte without understanding both Tosca’s heroism and the pain that comes with it. [Read more…]