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Archives for February 2017

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra to go conductorless at the Breen

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by Mike Telin

Johnston“When a composer writes a piece of music, they don’t really picture someone with a stick telling the musicians what to do,” BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Ken Johnston said during a recent telephone conversation. On Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts, Johnston and his BlueWater colleagues will go conductorless when they perform works by Aaron Copland, Richard Wagner, and Benjamin Britten.

Johnston said that as concertmaster, he is always leading and communicating with the players. “I don’t think this is going to be a huge stretch from what I’m used to doing. And with a group this good, the leadership is going to be shared.” [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire — Virtuoso Bach: ten minutes with oboist Debra Nagy

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by Daniel Hathaway

NAGY-DebraApollo’s Fire’s next series of concerts from February 16-20 will spotlight members of the ensemble as soloists in orchestral music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Oboist Debra Nagy will be featured in the Oboe Concerto in g, and Nagy will join oboist Kathryn Montoya in the C-Major Orchestral Suite. Completing the program will be Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 4.

We reached Debra Nagy in Berkeley, California. She was on the West Coast fulfilling one of her many guest gigs with early music ensembles nationally and abroad. In Cleveland, she is artistic director of the French Baroque ensemble Les Délices.

[Read more…]

Pianist Lucas Debargue at Reinberger Chamber Hall (Feb. 3)

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by Daniel Hathaway

DebargueFrench pianist Lucas Debargue inspired a standing ovation after only the second piece he played during his Cleveland debut in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall on Friday evening, February 3. That tribute from a rapt audience might have come even earlier had he not made a direct segue from Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata, K. 132 into Chopin’s Ballade No. 4. No wonder he wowed both critics and audience at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition. [Read more…]

“Karel Paukert Up Close and Personal” at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights (Jan. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

PaukertInterview-KellerRemember the reality documentary series This Is Your Life? On Sunday afternoon, January 30, the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists honored Karel Paukert with a retrospective of his distinguished career, together with a recital that included the world premiere of a new work by Frank Wiley. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra releases 2017 Blossom Calendar

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FWMBlossom070916The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2017 Blossom Music Festival calendar, which features 21 concerts between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will lead three of the classical programs, including an opera night with soprano Erin Wall. Special tributes will include concerts honoring Carole King and Ella Fitzgerald, a side-by-side with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of the Kent/Blossom Festival’s 50th anniversary, and a screening of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, shown in HD with the score by John Williams performed live on the last three nights of the season. [Read more…]

Pianist Lara Downes spreads a message of hope in Oberlin (Feb. 4)

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by Larry & Arlene Dunn
special to ClevelandClassical.com

Downes-and-DoveAmerican pianist Lara Downes, a frequent visitor to Northeast Ohio, just completed a four-day stint in Cleveland, Oberlin, and Akron. On Saturday, February 4, she performed and discussed works from her recent CD America Again for an enthusiastic audience in Heiser Auditorium at the Kendal at Oberlin retirement community. [Read more…]

Factory Seconds Brass Trio gears up for concerts at BW, Bop Stop, and on the Rocky River Chamber Series

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Daniel Hathaway

Factory-SecondsThe amusingly-named Factory Seconds Brass Trio — all second-chair players in The Cleveland Orchestra — will have a busy schedule in February. Trumpeter Jack Sutte, hornist Jesse McCormick, and trombonist Richard Stout will start out the month with two different concerts on Sunday, February 12.

At 3:00 pm, the Trio will play a faculty concert in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace titled “Well-Tempered Hindemith: Modernist, Traditionalist, Pragmatist, Artist.” Pianist Christine Fuoco will join each of the players for a solo sonata by Paul Hindemith, and pianist Christina Dahl will take over the bench for Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis, “a counterpoint homage to J.S. Bach.”

At 7:00 pm on the 12th, Factory Seconds will be the featured performers at the Bop Stop as the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents its latest edition of Bach Haus and Brews. The music will include bluegrass, broadway, jazz, and — of course — Bach. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Imani Winds at E.J. Thomas Hall (Jan. 25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Imani-Winds-2017The Imani Winds returned for their third appearance on the Tuesday Musical Association series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on Wednesday evening, January 25. Their exuberant performance of brightly-hued works by Elliott Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Simon Shaheen, and the quintet’s own Jeff Scott and Valerie Coleman proved that two decades on the road together has only added depth and sheen to their distinguished reputation. [Read more…]

Mahler at Severance Hall: a conversation with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung

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by Daniel Hathaway

DeYoung-MichelleMezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will return to Severance Hall this weekend to sing Gustav Mahler’s symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde with tenor Paul Groves, guest conductor Donald Runnicles, and The Cleveland Orchestra.

DeYoung’s previous appearances with the Orchestra have included Giuseppi Verdi’s Requiem under Robert Porco in May 2012, and a concert honoring Pierre Boulez on his 90th birthday in January 2015, when she replaced Anne Schwanewilms in three excerpts from Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Another area appearance was in May 2011, when the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival presented DeYoung in a solo recital, the occasion for an extensive interview published on ClevelandClassical.com.

I spoke with Michelle DeYoung by telephone at her home in Evergreen, Colorado to chat about Mahler. I began by asking her about her recent activities. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Christopher Wilkins talks about musical myths and legends

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by Mike Telin

Wilkins-Christopher“The greatest music in The Firebird exists between what we hear in the suites,” Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins said of Igor Stravinsky’s complete ballet score. “The horn is Prince Ivan, and during the solo horn passages in the full ballet you can hear him speaking. You can hear his dialogue with the princess and the little interjections from the Firebird who is swirling overhead.”

On Friday, February 10 at 8:00 pm, music inspired by myths and legends will take center stage at E.J. Thomas Hall when Christopher Wilkins leads the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking ballet The Firebird.

The program will also include Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture” to Der Freischütz — based on the German folk legend of the “free shooter” who has a contract with the devil — and the Suite No. 2 from Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, which recounts the love between a goat herder and a shepherdess. [Read more…]

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