by Daniel Hathaway
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra’s “Strings After Sundown” program at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, February 3 was advertised — as late as the afternoon before in an email blast — as a conductor-less performance to be led by concertmaster Kenneth Johnston. Instead, the audience was greeted by a program insert noting that the concert would be conducted by Erie Philharmonic music director Daniel Meyer. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Boston-based soprano Amanda Forsythe returns to Apollo’s Fire this weekend to sing Johann Sebastian Bach’s wedding cantata, Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, with oboist Debra Nagy and Jeannette Sorrell’s period instrument ensemble. The program, titled “Three Duels and a Wedding,” also includes concertos by Bach and Telemann (those are the “Duels”), and will be performed in four different venues from February 8-11.
Forsythe has been a frequent guest of Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra, having appeared with Apollo’s Fire in “Mozart and Papa Haydn” in 2013, “The Power of Love: Passions of Handel and Vivaldi” in 2014, and in Bach’s St. John Passion in 2016.
The soprano made a strong impression at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2013, when she sang the role of Edilia in Almira, Handel’s very first opera, written at the age of 19 and premiered in Hamburg in 1705. Reviewing those performances for The New York Times, James R. Oestreich found Forsythe “simply dazzling in her fioritura and her altitudinous rages.” [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Suites from Stravinsky’s ballets are popular choices for orchestral programs, but it’s not often the works are actually presented as ballets. It’s even more rare for performances to feature modern, reimagined choreography.
That was the idea discussed a year ago, director-to-director, between the Akron Symphony’s Christopher Wilkins and Neos Dance Theatre’s Robert Wesner. After Wesner took some time to immerse himself in Petrushka, making sure the fit was right for his company, he said ‘yes’ to Wilkins’ challenge, kickstarting a collaboration that will culminate in a performance this Friday, February 9 at 8:00 pm at the University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall.
by Nicholas Stevens
This month, a cast of students gave a genre-bending, violent new opera its Northeast Ohio premiere run at a coffee shop — and all five performances sold out in advance. The scenario may sound unlikely, but Angel’s Bone, a chamber work with music by Du Yun and a libretto by Royce Vavrek, has exceeded expectations since its 2016 premiere. On January 31, the Oberlin Opera Theatre debuted its production of Angel’s Bone, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music Composition, in the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
A Native Canadian boy in the Nipigon country of Ontario dreams of a journey he knows he can’t make. But a figure carved out of cedar, with a strip of lead to keep it upright in the water, and a message inscribed on the bottom to please return it to the water? That might just make it all the way through the Great Lakes, down Niagara Falls, past Quebec City, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and beyond — despite encounters with a snake, a forest fire, passing ships, pollution, and people along the way.
That’s the tale of Bill Mason’s beautiful film Paddle to the Sea (1966), based on an award-winning children’s book and nominated for an Oscar. You can watch the 28-minute movie here, via the National Film Board of Canada. But you’ll want to take it in again this weekend, when a Chicago-based, Grammy-winning percussion quartet visits the Cleveland Museum of Art.
by Mike Telin
On Monday, February 12 at 7:30 pm, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present the Bennewitz Quartet — Jakub Fišer and Štěpán Ježek, violins, Jiří Pinkas, viola, and Štěpán Doležal, cello — at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The free concert will include music by Janáček, Smetana, and Dvorák.
Due to the ensemble’s travel schedule and time zone differences we were unable to schedule a telephone interview, but violinist Štěpán Ježek graciously agreed to answer questions by email.
Mike Telin: The Quartet will be presenting a wonderful program. Could you please share some brief thoughts about each of the works?
by Mike Telin
Since winning the grand prize and three special prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Dover Quartet — Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, and Camden Shaw, cello — have quickly risen to the forefront of young, internationally touring string quartets. Following that 2013 breakthrough, the ensemble has added to their resume a Cleveland Quartet Award, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and most recently an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
On Tuesday, February 13 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, the Dover Quartet will return to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society stage with a program that will include Mozart’s Quartet in d, K. 421, Schoenberg’s Quartet in D, and Zemlinsky’s Quartet No. 2. Tickets are available online.
by Tom Wachunas
One way to appreciate the program selections for the January 27 concert by the Canton Symphony Orchestra titled “German Genius,” is as a thrilling homage to the Austro-German tradition of classical music. While the program certainly wasn’t a comprehensive survey, it was nonetheless an astute, two-point perspective on that tradition, spanning nearly 200d years, from the Baroque-era seeds that took root and blossomed in the marvelous compositions of J.S. Bach, to the monumental, verdant pinnacles articulated by Gustav Mahler in the early 20th century. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Life is good for classical guitarist Jason Vieaux. His recent performances include appearances at the Caramoor Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
This season he will collaborate with the Escher Quartet, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinists Anne Akiko Meyers, Kristin Lee, and Tessa Lark, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordionist Julien Labro. “I don’t know how all of this happened. I call up these fantastic musicians and they all want to work together,” Vieaux said by telephone while he was on a layover in Washington D.C.
Although Vieaux said that airports are his home away from home, he will actually be at home in Cleveland this week. On Friday, February 2 at 7:00 pm at John Knox Presbyterian Church in North Olmsted, he will present a solo recital for the Church’s performance series. The evening will feature classical and contemporary music from Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S. — including selections from Vieaux’s 2015 Grammy Award-winning album, Play. Admission is free.
by Daniel Hathaway
Sometime between the unfortunate episode when Jean Baptiste Lully, leading the Paris Opera orchestra by pounding on the floor with a staff, mortally wounded himself in the foot, and the time when dedicated conductors began waving pointed sticks around in front of their ensembles, concertmasters routinely led orchestras while simultaneously playing their violins.
That’s exactly the role that BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Ken Johnston will be reviving this Saturday evening when he presides over an 8:00 pm program of music by Mozart, Dvořák, and Schoenberg at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.
We reached Johnston, who also serves as concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, to ask how he was preparing for this weekend’s assignment, and what he thought the challenges might be. [Read more…]