by Daniel Hathaway
Two rarely-heard works, a duo-piano team making a reappearance after a long hiatus, and a guest conductor who stepped in for an ailing maestro at the last minute to save the scheduled program — all these elements promised more than a little suspense last Thursday evening, February 16 in The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert at Severance Hall. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
French organist Emmanuel Arakélian made his local debut on Sunday afternoon, February 19 at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The Avignon native, born in 1991, is currently studying organ with Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard at the Paris Conservatory. His Cleveland program featured an intriguing mix of well-known standards and transcriptions, as well as a new work by the young French composer Grégoire Rolland. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
If you follow the stream of distinguished chamber music ensembles that tour Northeast Ohio each year, you get the feeling that many of them are making the area their second home. However, when the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet made their fifth appearance on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series on February 8, their splendid, refined performance made you wish they would come through town more often. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
This past week Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s Baroque orchestra conducted by Jeannette Sorrell, presented five performances of its “Virtuoso Bach” program. Sunday afternoon’s performance at Rocky River Presbyterian Church benefitted visually from the church’s lovely setting, but the high ceiling and wide space created a rather muddy acoustic that at times affected the clarity of sound. [Read more…]
by Jeremy Reynolds
Continuing a collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art that began in 2014, Oberlin Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) will give the third of four performances this season on Sunday, February 26 at 2:00 pm in CMA’s Gartner Auditorium. While student vocalists have long performed with CME, the upcoming concert is the first time that a museum program by the Ensemble will be dedicated to vocal music.
The program, under the direction of Gregory Ristow, will include Harrison Birtwistle’s Entr’actes and Sappho Fragments, as well as Oberlin Professor of Composition Stephen Hartke’s Tituli.
Ristow is now in his second year as director of vocal ensembles at the Conservatory. An Oberlin alumnus, he earned his doctoral of musical arts in conducting from the Eastman School of Music.
Ristow also conducts the Interlochen Singers and has previously led the Houston Foundation for Modern Music, and the Voices chamber choir in Rochester.
We caught up with Ristow by phone recently to discuss the upcoming performance and learn more about the program. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Being ready to perform on short notice is part of what makes life interesting for both conductors and soloists. On Thursday, February 16 at 7:30 pm, conductor Xian Zhang will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut when she steps in for Semyon Bychkov, who was forced to withdraw from this week’s performances on the advice of his physician.
Xian Zhang serves as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales — the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra.
Ms. Zhang has agreed to lead the originally-scheduled program, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony and Mozart’s Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos with soloists Katia Labèque and Marielle Labèque. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm.
Last week, before he withdrew, we spoke with Semyon Bychkov from New York to learn more about Tchaikovsky’s rarely-performed Manfred Symphony. [Read more…]
A new music festival held at the University of Western Ontario will give students and audiences an opportunity to look at music from every angle when the first edition of the Western 360 Summer Music Festival takes place from the 10th through the 17th of August in London, Ontario. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Granville, OH native Gavin George first appeared on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series in November of 2014 at the age of eleven. He returned to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, February 12, now thirteen, several inches taller, and even more mature and nuanced in his playing than before — and before was jaw-droppingly impressive. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins has continued his resourceful community engagement initiatives by inviting the young members of Akron’s Alchemy, Inc., founded by G. Kwame Scruggs, to undertake a study of the Russian Firebird myth. To begin the second half of the program on Friday evening, February 10 at E.J. Thomas Hall, a dozen Alchemy drummers set up a stirring groove before tag-team narrating an introduction to Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet, illustrated by musical examples from the Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“The guitar is an amazingly expressive instrument,” William Kanengiser said during a telephone conversation. “I’ve learned from my years with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet that without the right program, the instrument can begin to sound a bit monochromatic. That’s why it’s important to present a lot of different styles — to show that it’s actually a chameleon-like instrument.”
On Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the two-time Grammy-winning guitarist will perform a program featuring music from Spain and North America. The concert is presented as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series.
In addition to programming works that will highlight the “chameleon-like” characteristics of the guitar, Kanengiser said that he also likes to connect the works with a theme. “The first half features music expressing the essential Spanish elements that are such a big part of the repertoire.” [Read more…]