by Timothy Robson
From November 7-10, Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater presented a double bill of Igor Stravinsky’s early Le Rossignol and Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges in CIM’s Kulas Hall. Dean Southern directed, and Harry Davidson conducted the CIM Orchestra, with sets and lighting by Dave Brooks and costumes by Inda Blatch-Geib. It was a very fine show, both musically and theatrically. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“A lot of people say the Dvořák Wind Serenade is his best work,” conductor James Feddeck said during a telephone conversation. “I think the same is true for the Brahms Serenade No. 2. It’s one of his best works. And I think it’s wonderful that this concert is free for Northeast Ohio. When I heard that I said I want to be part of it.”
On Monday, November 19 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present a concert titled Gala Serenade Evening featuring these exquisite works by Dvořák and Brahms. James Feddeck conducts members of The Cleveland Orchestra and friends — Saeran St. Christopher and Jessica Sindel, flutes, Sally Sherwin, piccolo, Jeffrey Rathbun and Corbin Stair, oboes, Daniel McKelway and Benjamin Freimuth, clarinets, Barrick Stees and Jonathan Sherwin, bassoons, Richard King, David Brockett, and Meghan Guegold, horns, Wesley Collins, Lembi Veskimets, Eliesha Nelson and Jessica Pasternak, violas, Charles Bernard, Linda Atherton, and Julie King, cellos, and Mark Atherton and Scott Dixon, double bass. And yes, the concert is free.
by Daniel Hathaway
Conductor Alain Altinoglu brought music by his fellow Frenchpeople Debussy and Ravel to his guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra last week, along with an intriguing new work by Matthias Pintscher featuring principal flute Joshua Smith. The concert on Saturday, November 10 played to a large audience who may not have been lured to Severance Hall by the U.S. premiere, but who gave the Pintscher work a thoughtful hearing and its soloist a big ovation. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On November 7 in Hall Auditorium, Jonathon Field’s Oberlin Opera Theatre celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s centennial year with a professional-quality performance of his one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, and a revisiting of some of his Broadway triumphs in excerpts both brilliantly sung and crisply danced. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“He was such a powerful romantic guy who wrote beautiful poems,” Celino Romero said, recalling his grandfather Celedonio Romero, who with his sons Celin, Pepe, and Angel founded the legendary guitar quartet The Romeros 60 years ago.
On Sunday, November 18 at 2:30 pm in Finney Chapel, “The Royal Family of the Guitar” will return to Northeast Ohio for a concert on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. The program will include works by Albéniz, de Falla, Villa-Lobos, Granados, and both Celedonio and Pepe Romero. Tickets are available online.
“60 years, isn’t that crazy?” Celino Romero said by telephone from his home in San Diego. “It blows my mind. But what really blew my mind was when I realized that I have been in the quartet one year longer than my uncle Angel was. When I started in 1990 it was my grandfather, my uncle Pepe, my father Celin, and myself. When my grandfather got sick in ‘95, Angel’s son Lito — who was already playing a lot with his father — joined the group.”
by Daniel Hathaway
Kent State music education major Scott Little’s new opera, The Story of an Hour, has inspired KSU opera director Marla Berg to take her annual fall opera scenes program to a new level this year.
“Although I didn’t hear the portion of Scott’s piece that was workshopped during Cleveland Opera Theatre’s {NOW} Festival, Tim Culver thought it was really good. Then I heard a reading of some of the work at Kent. But what really spurred me on is that Scott wrote a short piece for the Kent orchestra and choral concert last spring, and I really liked it. He came in to talk with me about what it would be like to produce an opera and I thought, you know what? It’s a 40-minute piece. Wouldn’t it be an extraordinary experience for everybody involved if we did it.”
Berg’s decision to mount the premiere ramped up the usually modest fall opera scenes program considerably. “I normally do a montage of eight to ten small scenes, and I thought, I’ll just match Scott’s piece up with two bigger scenes,” Berg said. Although she’s always promising to make things easier on herself the next time around, the director ended up choosing Act III of The Marriage of Figaro and scenes from Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict with spoken dialogue from Shakespeare, all of which share the theme of marriage. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša makes his annual visit to Cleveland, audiences have come to expect that the concert will include a gem that is rarely, if ever, performed at Severance Hall. His past programs have included Martinů’s Parables, Dvořák’s The Golden Spinning Wheel, Janáček’s Jealousy, and Suk’s Asrael Symphony.
On Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 pm, Hrůša will keep that tradition alive when he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Miloslav Kabeláč’s Mystery of Time. “I think he is the most important symphonist of 20th-century Czech music after Martinů,” the conductor said during a telephone interview. The concert will also include Stravinsky’s Capriccio (for piano and orchestra) featuring Emanuel Ax, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday, November 17 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday November 18 at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.
Hrůša noted that the lineage of Czech symphonic composers begins with Dvořák, whom he called the “founder” of that repertoire. “Then you have Smetana, who was not interested in the symphony but wrote symphonic poems. After that is [Zdeněk] Fibich, then Janáček — who never wrote a symphony, then Martinů with his six symphonies. There is always the question of who is next.”
by Mike Telin
For the past 23 years, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra has treated audiences to many firsts. These include premieres of new works as well as first-time collaborations between rock musicians and an orchestra. When CYO kicks off their 24th season on Saturday, November 17 at 7:00 pm at Tri-C’s Metro Auditorium, the program will include the premiere of Michael McIntosh’s MESH: concerto for drumline and orchestra, the first work of its kind.
Under the direction of CYO founder and artistic director Liza Grossman, the concert will also include works by Christopher Rouse, Michael Daugherty, and Charles Griffes. Tickets are available online.
“I’m so excited about this premiere,” Liza Grossman said by telephone. “This is something that has never been done before. In the drumline world both Mike McIntosh and the Cavaliers are top-tier. I’ve told the orchestra that bringing in the Cavaliers is similar to bringing in Yo-Yo Ma.” [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
“Verdi and Wagner together represent the pinnacle of the high Romantic age in music, and both were masters of drama,” Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins says in a video on the ASO’s YouTube channel.
Those two composers will find themselves paired in a program titled “Verdi and Valkyries,” to be performed by the Akron Symphony and Chorus on Friday, November 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.
Another pairing: Wilkins and chorus director Marie Bucoy-Calavan, who will trade off conducting duties throughout the evening. Bucoy-Calavan will handle much of the first half, comprising Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, the Overture and “Va, pensiero” from Nabucco, the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, and the Ballet and Triumphal March from Aïda.
by Jarrett Hoffman
There are certain people in the world who amaze you with how deeply they feel about what they do. After my recent telephone conversation with fourteen-year-old violinist Célina Béthoux, I can say that she’s one of them.
A member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Béthoux is also a co-winner of its 2018 concerto competition. That’s earned her a solo appearance in the Samuel Barber Concerto during the ensemble’s 8:00 pm concert this Friday, November 16 at Severance Hall, led by music director Vinay Parameswaran.
And it might be what Béthoux says, or maybe it’s something that comes across in her voice, but it’s clear that her interest in classical music isn’t at all obligatory, self-important, or resumé-stuffing. It’s just love.