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Archives for October 2017

CIPC Concert Series: Martha Argerich & Sergei Babayan at Severance Hall (Oct. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Argerich-Babayan-RearAlthough Argentine pianist Martha Argerich has never before played here, her reputation guaranteed a full house of ardent fans when she joined Cleveland’s own Sergei Babayan in a duo piano recital on Monday evening at Severance Hall sponsored by the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Their virtuosic playing in music by Mozart and Prokofiev was simply phenomenal, leading the cheering audience to demand two encores at the end — after multiple bouquets of flowers had made their way to the stage. [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater & Baldwin Wallace: Threepenny Opera at the Maltz (Oct. 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TPO-Set-and-CastCleveland Opera Theater got top billing, but students from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory covered most of the singing and acting duties in Brecht & Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, which received its second and final performance at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in University Circle on Sunday afternoon, October 29. Directed by Scott Skiba, the joint production was supported by a seven-piece instrumental ensemble conducted by Domenico Boyagian. [Read more…]

Time Canvas to present
“Silence, Space & Sound”

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by Mike Telin

Time-CanvasOne of the newer ensembles to emerge in the Northeast Ohio music scene is Time Canvas — Chiara Fasani Stauffer, violin, Joshua Stauffer, guitar and theorbo, and Roland Gjernes, cello — a group that brings together Baroque and contemporary repertoire, along with free improvisation.

This weekend they will present their most recent project, “Silence, Space & Sound,” on Friday, November 3 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City and on Saturday, November 4 at Zygote Press. Both performances begin at 8:00 pm. The program includes modern works by Piazzolla and Bogdanovic, as well as a world premiere by Jeremy Allen, alongside Baroque works by Böddecker, Mealli, and Stradella. Click here to reserve a seat.

“The project is designed to emulate an art installation,” Joshua Stauffer said during a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

Cleveland Museum of Art presents kayagum virtuoso Ji Aeri

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by Jarrett Hoffman

JiAeriWinding down their exhibit on the Korean still-life paintings known as chaekgeori, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents Ji Aeri, a virtuoso on the zither-like kayagum. This program of traditional and contemporary Korean music on Sunday, November 5 at 2:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium is free, but tickets are required.

Ji Aeri teaches at Seoul National University and is internationally recognized for her immaculate and sensitive readings of music both old and avant-garde. “It’s so nice to present tradition and modernity at the same time in this concert,” she wrote in a recent email conversation.

Her interest in the kayagum actually has roots in another art form. [Read more…]

Classical Guitarist Sharon Isbin to make her Cleveland debut

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by Mike Telin

IsbinIn an appearance on the Tavis Smiley show, celebrated classical guitarist Sharon Isbin said that she came to the instrument by accident. “Our family was living in Italy when I was nine years old, and when an older brother said he wanted guitar lessons — and my parents learned there was a famous teacher who commuted to our village from Milan who was touring all over Italy and had studied with Segovia — they brought my brother for the interview. He said, ‘What? Classical? No, no, I want to be Elvis Presley.’ He bowed out before the first lesson, and out of family duty I volunteered to take his place.” The rest is history.

The winner of two Grammy Awards and Guitar Player magazine’s “Best Classical Guitarist,” Isbin has appeared as soloist with over 170 orchestras and has given sold-out performances in the world’s finest halls. Her documentary Troubadour has been viewed by millions of people on over 200 television stations.

On Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will present Sharon Isbin in her Cleveland debut as part of its International Series. [Read more…]

Michel Bouvard: recital for the 40th Anniversary of Trinity’s Flentrop (Oct. 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Bouvard-MichelFrench organist Michel Bouvard visited Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday, October 24 to play a wide-ranging recital in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the cathedral’s Flentrop organ. With the assistance of two registrants who drew and retired stops — the organ was built in 1750s Dutch style, all-mechanical and with no gadgets for pre-setting combinations — Bouvard masterfully put the 1977 instrument through its paces in stylish performances of music ranging from Renaissance dances to transcriptions of works by Vivaldi and Mendelssohn. [Read more…]

Pianist Emanuel Ax returns to Severance Hall this weekend

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by Mike Telin

emanuel_ax“It’s an incredible thrill to be able to play with Vladimir Ashkenazy. When I was a young student, he was one of the two or three greatest pianists in the world. I went to hear him all the time and was awed by everything that he did,” pianist Emanuel Ax said during a recent telephone conversation. “I continue to be awed, but he is such a nice man that you feel like you can talk to him normally, and that is very nice. He has always been one of my idols, so it is going to be very special to be onstage with him. He also has a long relationship with the Orchestra, which makes this very exciting.”

On Friday, November 3 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, Emanuel Ax will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy. The program, which also includes Elgar’s Serenade and the Enigma Variations, will be repeated on Saturday the 4th at 8:00 pm and Sunday the 5th at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to present
The Marriage of Figaro

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by Mike Telin

figaro_imageA mainstay of the opera repertoire, The Marriage of Figaro is the first of Mozart’s collaborations with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. The plot is filled with mistaken identity, surprise paternity, and intrigue, as the servants Figaro and Susanna triumph in marriage while comically thwarting the attempts of the philandering Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna.

Raphael Jiménez will lead the Oberlin Orchestra and cast at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, November 1, 3, and 4, and at 2:00 pm on Sunday, November 5 in Hall Auditorium. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. Click here for ticket information.

Figaro is a social commentary about the lower versus the upper class — servants outsmarting the aristocracy. “The plot of this opera is as current as #metoo,” Oberlin Opera Theater director Jonathon Field said during a recent conversation. “It is about men who are in positions of power and assume that gives them the authority to sleep with whomever, whenever they want to.” [Read more…]

Oberlin Cantata Project puts Bach’s church cantatas in perspective

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-Cantata-ProjectBeginning this Saturday, Oberlin student Matt Bickett will be putting Johann Sebastian Bach’s church cantatas into context with his Oberlin Cantata Project. Bickett will lead an ensemble of mainly student singers and instrumentalists in three performances of Bach’s cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, that will surround the work with Dietrich Buxtehude’s Alles was ihr tut and Johann Pachelbel’s Gott ist unser Zuversicht — other pieces that might have been heard during the same service at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

The Cantata Project will be presented on Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, on Sunday, October 29 at 6:30 pm in Warner Concert Hall in Oberlin, and on Sunday, November 5 at 5:00 pm at the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland. All events are free. [Read more…]

Mikko Franck in for Dohnányi at Cleveland Orchestra

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Cleveland, October 25 — The Cleveland Orchestra announced today that Mikko Franck will step in for music director and conductor laureate Christoph von Dohnányi for its concerts on December 7, 8, and 9. Dohnányi has been advised by his physician not to travel. The programs remain as previously announced: Julian Anderson’s Incantesimi, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 (”Paradis”) with Richard Goode, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1

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