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Archives for December 2016

ChamberFest’s Winter Mini Festival to feature Roman Rabinovich in Haydn sonatas

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by Mike Telin

rabinovich“Many pianists shy away from Haydn’s keyboard works, but I think they’re beautiful — incredibly inventive, funny, deep, and everything in between,” pianist Roman Rabinovich said during a recent telephone conversation.

On Sunday, December 11 at 3:30 pm at the Music Settlement, Rabinovich will present the first of three concerts dedicated to Haydn’s keyboard sonatas as part of ChamberFest Cleveland’s Winter Mini Festival. Each concert will feature five sonatas, as well as additional surprise performances.

The pianist and ChamberFest fan favorite said that these programs are part of his two-year long Haydn Sonata Project. “There are 45 sonatas that are considered to be genuine, but he wrote even more — some of them are lost and some cannot be authenticated — but I am playing all 45.” [Read more…]

Wooster Chamber Music Series: a conversation with Rebecca Fischer of the Chiara String Quartet

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by Carlyn Kessler

chiara-quartet “It is a pleasure to be performing back in Northeast Ohio,” said Chiara String quartet first violinist Rebecca Fischer in a recent phone conversation. Fischer spent several years of her youth living in Oberlin and immersed herself in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra as well as other musical endeavors. On Sunday, December 11 at 3:00 pm, the Wooster Chamber Music Series will present the Chiara String Quartet at Gault Recital Hall in Scheide Music Center.

The Chiara String Quartet — Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violins, Jonah Sirota, viola, and Gregory Beaver, cello — trained as a quartet at the Juilliard School and have won numerous accolades, including the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming and First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. [Read more…]

Messiah from the bottom up: a chat with Apollo’s Fire bassist Sue Yelanjian

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by Daniel Hathaway

yelanjian-sueWhen audiences hear performances of Handel’s Messiah, the composer’s engaging melodic lines probably attract the most attention: who hasn’t found themselves humming the tunes to “Every valley shall be exalted,” “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd,” or “I know that my Redeemer liveth” on the way home?

But underpinning all of Handel’s glorious arias and stirring choruses are the composer’s equally fetching bass lines, played by the indefatigable continuo department — cello, bass, and sometimes bassoon, with a keyboard player or two filling in harmonies on harpsichord or organ.

I spoke with Apollo’s Fire principal double bass Sue Yelanjian by telephone, explaining that I wanted to write a preview of Apollo’s Fire’s forthcoming Messiah performances “from the bottom up.” [Read more…]

New conductor Natalie Mallis to lead Singers’ Club forward into its 125th season

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by Daniel Hathaway

mallis-natalieFounded in 1892 and now the oldest continuing performing organization in town, the all-male Singers’ Club of Cleveland has continued to make history by recently appointing Natalie Mallis as its first woman director. “They’ve had female guest conductors before, but no one has been around for the whole rodeo,” Mallis noted in a recent telephone conversation.

Mallis, who holds degrees from Kent State and Bowling Green State Universities and is a doctoral candidate in choral conducting at the University of North Texas, began meeting with the leadership of the Singers’ Club at the beginning of June.

“It was interesting to get to work with the board of the organization even before getting to work with the singers,” she said. “It was essential for planning a good transition. [Read more…]

CityMusic to play Viennese music with horn soloist Elizabeth Freimuth

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by Mike Telin

freimuth-elizabethEvery New Year’s day, people around the globe tune in to hear the Vienna Philharmonic perform music by Johann Strauss I and II. Beginning on Wednesday, December 7 at 7:30 pm in Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights, guest conductor Stefan Willich will lead CityMusic Cleveland in five concerts featuring Viennese music by the Strauss family that you’d be likely to hear at the Musikverein.

The program will include Strauss the Junior’s Lagoon Waltz and Pizzicato Polka and Strauss the Senior’s Zampa Galop and Radetzky March. Check our concert listings page for times and venues of the four additional performances that run through Sunday.

The concerts will also include the Waltz from Der Rosenkavalier by the unrelated Richard Strauss, as well as that composer’s Horn Concerto No. 2, featuring Elizabeth Freimuth as soloist. [Read more…]

Contemporary Youth Orchestra: a conversation with Andrew Sords

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by Mike Telin

sordsThe Contemporary Youth Orchestra will kick off its 21st season with a concert on Saturday, December 10 at 7:00 at Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium. The program will feature celebrated violinist and CYO alum Andrew Sords in a performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto under the direction of Liza Grossman.

“I feel like I’m the only thirty-year-old violinist on the planet who’s never performed this concerto,” Andrew Sords said during a recent telephone conversation. “But I am of the Zen mindset that when it is meant to be, something or someone will show us that it’s the right time. And 20 years ago to the day of this performance, I played my first concert as a member of CYO.”   [Read more…]

Akron Symphony invites community friends into its “Home for the Holidays” concert

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by Daniel Hathaway

gmschoir“Like families everywhere, the Akron Symphony celebrates the holiday season with our neighbors and friends,” music director Christopher Wilkins said in a press release about the Orchestra’s“Home for the Holidays” concert on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall. And in the case of the ASO, there are a lot of friends to include in the party.

Most American orchestras have established relationships with the wider community they serve, but Wilkins and his predecessors have gone well beyond “outreach” activities to include active participation by community groups in the Orchestra’s activities.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Scholarship winners Cho & Kuznetsova return (Nov. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

cho-kuznetsovaWant a good return on your investment? Give scholarships to budding musicians to help them over the financial humps of their early careers. And if you’re smart, like Tuesday Musical, invite them back several years later to show scholarship donors how richly their contributions paid off. [Read more…]

Italian violinist Francesco D’Orazio to perform on CMA Series

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by Mike Telin

dorazioBy the time Italian violinist Francesco D’Orazio decided to learn Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIII, many violinists were already playing the challenging work. He knew he would need to bring a new approach to the piece if he were to stand any chance of impressing the composer. “So I decided to play it from memory,” D’Orazio said during a telephone conversation from Italy, “and nobody was doing that back then.”

Audiences will have the opportunity to hear the celebrated violinist perform Berio’s Sequenza VIII this week, when he makes his Cleveland debut on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 at Transformer Station as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series. The concert will feature contemporary Italian works for solo violin.

D’Orazio’s professional relationship with Berio dates back to when the violinist was studying with Carlo Chiarappa, for whom Sequenza VIII was written. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Pennsylvania Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Nov. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

tco-nutcracker-2016-mastroianniTchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet has been around since 1892, when it premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. But for more than half of its lifetime, the best-known version in this country is the one that George Balanchine choreographed for the New York City Ballet in 1954. Northeast Ohioans can enjoy that Nutcracker in a fine and colorful collaboration between the Pennsylvania Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra. The show opened on Wednesday, November 30 at the State Theater in Playhouse Square, and runs through Sunday, December 4. [Read more…]

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