by Mike Telin
A good song is a good song, and for centuries vocal music has been a fruitful source of repertoire for instrumentalists. In “Songs Without Words,” Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy has created an inspired program that juxtaposes 17th-century art songs with 20th-century jazz standards. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The members of the London-based Belcea Quartet hail from Romania (first violinist Corina Belcea), France (second violinist Axel Schacher and cellist Antoine Lederlin), and Poland (violist Krzysztof Chorzelski), but they meld their various backgrounds into an arresting blend that is all the more colorful for its multinational origins. On October 18, the Belcea returned to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights — for the first time since 2014 — for riveting performances of early and late quartets by Franz Schubert, with Dmitri Shostakovich’s weird and wild Quartet No. 8, Op. 110, tucked in between. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The audience for the International Contemporary Ensemble in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Wednesday evening, October 19, heard two versions of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The first was the world premiere of a clever arrangement by Cliff Colnot for thirteen players. The second, Vijay Iyer’s score that accompanied Prashant Bhargava’s film Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi, delivered the spirit of Rite subliminally — which requires some explanation. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Composer Margaret Brouwer curated a fascinating playlist for the most recent concert by her Blue Streak Ensemble. At Heights Arts on October 13, the seven musicians wrapped a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Bascom Little Fund and a remembrance of the victims of 9/11 into a single program, “Looking Back.” [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
The superb young pianist Yuja Wang is a fiery presence. Recently named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year for 2017, the flamboyant, Chinese-born Wang has justly soared to fame for her gutsy performances of the most technically demanding solo and concerto literature for the piano. She plays with a formidable command of the finger-busting pieces of the Romantic and high modern, and she brings to them a sense of burning intensity. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Wednesday night, October 19 at Fairmount Temple, CityMusic Cleveland kicked off its 13th season with an exceptional concert intermingling Classic, Romantic, and 21st-century works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Avner Dorman, the orchestra’s music director. The highlight was a magnificent performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto by stellar soloist Sayaka Shoji. [Read more…]
by Jeremy Reynolds
In February, Chicago’s all-star Third Coast Percussion released an album of Steve Reich’s music on the Cedille label creatively titled “Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich.” It’s quite a good recording. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Classical CD Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, Steve Reich himself, and many other noteworthy voices have all effusively praised the album. [Read more…]
by ClevelandClassical.com Staff
The passing of Grammy-winning audio engineer and information specialist Tom Knab on September 25 at the age of 61 was devastating not only to his family and friends, but also to a long list of colleagues, artists, ensembles, and institutions with whom he worked, and who treasured his expertise in recording and post-producing their music, both for distribution and for posterity. (Read an obituary in the Case Western Reserve University Daily, where he served as Chief Information Officer in the College of Arts and Sciences.)
Erica Brenner was one of Knab’s closest colleagues in the recording industry. They first met at Telarc, when she and Tom were “off hours” editors long before that company was sold and changed its emphasis. “We often handed projects off to each other,” she said in a recent conversation. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
For hundreds of years some of the greatest music ever written was composed for houses of worship — think of composers such as Palestrina, J.S. Bach, and Moses Hogan. “It’s no mystery why music is so important in the life of a church, but people here can’t seem to get enough of it,” said Geoffrey Peterson, Director of Music and the Arts at John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted.
On Friday, October 28 at 8:00 pm, the John Knox Performance Series will kick off its third season with a performance by the Cleveland Chamber Choir under the direction of Scott MacPherson. The program, titled “Americana,” will include music by William Billings, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, John Cage, Samuel Barber, and Stephen Foster, as well as folk songs and spirituals. Read a concert preview here. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
The Boulez Legacy will continue on Wednesday, October 26 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music with a faculty recital featuring the new music ensemble Ars Futura. The program, titled “Boulez the Modernist II,” will feature works by Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Mario Davidovsky, György Ligeti, and Olivier Messiaen.
“I’m honored to be a part of this series, and I learned a lot about Boulez when choosing this repertoire, pianist Shuai Wang said during a recent conference call that included flutist Madeline Lucas Tolliver. “I remember hearing a concert Boulez conducted with The Cleveland Orchestra when I first came to CIM to study — it was amazing,” Wang said. [Read more…]