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Archives for October 2019

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Hungarian evening with Alexander Fedoriouk (Oct. 14)

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by Nicholas Stevens

The music of Hungary occupies a unique place in the world of classical music. Musicians active between the mid-1800s and early 20th century understood the nation as either a land of best-kept secrets and hidden musical diversity, or as a foreign wonderland where exotic dance tunes and virtuosic fiddling occupied a lonely throne. In a recent concert, cimbalom soloist Alexander Fedoriouk and members of The Cleveland Orchestra explored both sides of the old divide: the Hungary that one expects and the richer, stranger version as well.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Gerstein plays new Adès Concerto (Oct. 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pianist Kirill Gerstein brought the resplendent new concerto that Thomas Adès has written for him to Severance Hall on October 11. Debuted by the Boston Symphony earlier this year when it was led by Adès himself, the simply titled Piano Concerto formed the torso of a topsy-turvy Cleveland Orchestra program guest conducted by Alan Gilbert that began with a symphony, and ended with an overture. In 25 eventful minutes, Adès creates a sendup of the Romantic piano concerto, clothing a traditional body in the latest fashion. [Read more…]

Cleveland Composers Guild at Drinko Hall, CSU (Oct. 13)

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by David Kulma

It was another fascinating afternoon of recent music by members of the Cleveland Composers Guild at CSU’s Drinko Recital Hall on Sunday, October 13. Opening the Guild’s 60th anniversary season, the concert featured chamber music by eight local composers in the usual explorative potluck format.

[Read more…]

Frady to guest direct BW’s
Dido and Aeneas at Red Space

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by Daniel Hathaway

Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater will stage Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Red Space in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday and Thursday, October 23 and 24 at 7:00 pm, in a production directed by Kathryn Frady of Knoxville’s Marble City Opera.

Frady returns to BW at the invitation of opera studies director Scott Skiba, after having directed scenes and sung in a premiere during Cleveland Opera Theater’s {New Opera Works} Festival two years ago. “I love contemporary opera,” she said in a recent telephone conversation. “This season, Marble City Opera is producing the world premiere of Shadowlight by Larry Delinger and Emily Anderson. It’s about Beauford Delaney, a famous artist who grew up in Knoxville. We’re building a whole festival around the opera from January through May.

Dido and Aeneas, on the other hand, is a very old theater piece, perhaps having been first performed in London at a dancing school in the late 1680s. “Dido was Scott’s idea,” Frady said. “Originally, we were to have staged Menotti’s The Medium, but casting issues made a switch necessary. But Dido is a great piece.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project to present Alia Musica Pittsburgh

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Composer and conductor Federico Garcia-De Castro was 12, living in his native Colombia, when a left-leaning politician named Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa was shot and killed at an airport in Bogotá.

“He was part of a whole political party that was exterminated one by one,” Castro said during a recent interview. “Estimates range from 3,000 to 5,000 people.”

Among all the killings, that one in March of 1990 left the biggest mark on Castro. “He was a very charismatic leader who was picking up more and more steam,” the musician said of Jaramillo. “I remember that I was very shocked and disturbed.” Years later, after seeing a documentary, he decided to write a piece in homage to that leader.

The new music ensemble Alia Musica Pittsburgh, which Castro directs and conducts, will perform his Memoria for soprano, violin, cello, guitar, and percussion this Sunday, October 27 at 7:00 pm at the Bop Stop. The free program also includes works by John Arrigo-Nelson, James Ogburn, Kerrith Livengood, and Bowling Green faculty composer Marilyn Shrude, and will serve as the season opener and kickstarter launch for the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project.

[Read more…]

“Tallis Through the Looking Glass” with The Thirteen Choir at St. John’s

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by Daniel Hathaway

Matthew Robertson’s The Thirteen Choir will visit the Helen D. Schubert Concert Series at St. John’s Cathedral on Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 pm with its program “Tallis Through the Looking Glass.” A freewill offering will be received.

Robertson, based in Washington D.C., started his ensemble the better part of a decade ago with special repertory considerations in mind. “There are not many American professional choirs, and even fewer with an interest in singing all kinds of music,” he said in a recent telephone conversation. “My interests are more kaleidoscopic.”

Singers are drawn from a nationwide network of choral ensembles, chosen for each program based on the repertoire. And the name? Robertson, no triskaidekaphobiac, had America’s original colonies in mind in calling his ensemble The Thirteen Choir, but also found that twelve singers (plus himself) constituted the most practical format.

The Thirteen’s Cleveland program is fascinating. “It’s chiastic,” Robertson said. “Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia and Tallis’ votive antiphon Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater are the bookends. [Read more…]

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s: Erik Suter (Oct. 18)

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by Timothy Robson

Ars Organi II, a multi-week series of organ recitals and lectures at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, came to an end last weekend. Audiences had been treated to new music for saxophone and organ with Noa Even and St. Paul’s organ mastermind Karel Paukert, followed by a weekend tribute to the great Austrian organist and pedagogue Anton Heiller, including brilliant recitals by two of his former students, Jay Peterson and Christa Rakich. 

[Read more…]

Canton Symphony with rising star Eva Gevorgyan (Oct. 12)

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by Tom Wachunas

With music director Gerhardt Zimmermann in the pulpit, as it were, the Canton Symphony Orchestra took us to church with the first of the three works on its season-opening October 12 program. Written by the acclaimed contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon in 1999, blue cathedral is a tone poem inspired by the searing loss of her younger brother, Andrew “Blue” Higdon, to cancer.

[Read more…]

Women unite on Trinity’s
Brownbag Concert Series

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by Mike Telin

When soprano Kristine Caswelch and mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr were given carte blanche to create a concert for Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag series, it took a little time for them to figure out what direction their program would take. Then over the summer the two got together over coffee and came to the realization that, like many women, they’re not happy about much of what’s going on in the world right now — and a lot of great music has been written about being angry.

On Wednesday, October 23 at 12:00 pm at Trinity Cathedral, Caswelch and McGirr, assisted by pianist Todd Wilson, will perform a concert of works that explore a range of human emotions from anger and fear to humor and sisterhood. The concert is free, but a freewill offering will be received. Audiences are invited to bring lunches or purchase one for $7.

During a sitdown interview, Caswelch and McGirr said they wanted to include some early music on the program. “The mad songs from Henry Purcell’s era are so cool,” McGirr said. “They’re about women who are upset over some aspect of love. But at the same time a lot of these women are not just angry, they’re really mad — as in crazy. [Read more…]

Jerusalem String Quartet
returns to CCMS Series

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Jerusalem String Quartet, now beginning its 24th season together, will give the second concert of the 70th season of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Plymouth Church on Tuesday October 22 at 7:30 pm. Their program includes works by Mozart, Korngold, and Shostakovich.

One of CCMS’s most frequently-invited ensembles, the Jerusalem Quartet has visited the series once a year since 2017, and once every other year from 2010 through 2015. In addition to Cleveland, the ensemble’s U.S. tours this season will include concerts in Houston, Durham, Baltimore, West Orange New Jersey, and New York, and a return to Boston’s Celebrity Series.

The Quartet’s program on  October 22 begins with Mozart’s Quartet in d, K. 421, one of the set of six quartets the composer dedicated to his mentor, Joseph Haydn. For someone who normally composed rapidly and with little effort — Mozart’s sister noted that he often concocted whole pieces in his head while playing games, then sat down and simply wrote them out — these works inspired the composer to produce music at a level of perfection unusual even for him. [Read more…]

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