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Archives for April 2022

Piano Cleveland presents: Prelude to Piano Days 2022 Listening Series

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by Mike Telin

Piano Cleveland has a lot in store for Northeast Ohio this summer. But before PianoDays@CLE kicks off on July 24, why not take a deep dive into how to listen to piano music by enrolling in the Prelude to Piano Days 2022 Listening Series? During the three sessions you’ll discover how two pianists work together, what it means to immerse yourself in the work of a single composer, and what exactly is involved in improvisation. Click here for more information.

“We call this ‘education for adults,’” Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kohlberg said during a Zoom conversation. “It’s all part of our mission to make piano music as accessible as possible. And to help everybody, regardless of their knowledge of piano music, find something to connect with.”

Following the success of last year’s listening series which touched on the basics, Kohlberg said that this year the series will go one step further. “Everything that is being presented during the listening series will be heard during the summer performances. So there is a direct connection.” [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Wednesdays are busy days at Trinity Cathedral, with (at the moment) biweekly lunchtime concerts and weekly 6:00 pm Choral Evensongs. Today’s calendar features the Salzedo Harp Duo at Noon (both in-person and live streamed), and a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs at 6 with solo baritone Edward Vogel and the Cathedral Choir.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain with Kala Ramnath, violin, and Jayanthi Kumaresh, veena, in an evening of Indian classical music in Gartner Auditorium.

CONCERT UPDATES:

Arts at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Akron, has announced that visa problems have led to the cancellation of Polish organist Marik Kudlicki’s recital on Sunday, April 24, but not his workshop, which will move online on Saturday, April 23. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, April 19, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Concerts today from harpist Juan Riveros and the CIM New Music Ensemble

•The new director of bands at Kent State, and auditions for the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus and Youth Chorus

•Calendar additions: Canton and Firelands Symphonies, and Sacred Heart Concert Series

•Our almanac featuring Kay Swift, who became the first woman to score a complete Broadway musical with the hit 1930 comedy Fine and Dandy

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra:
Ax plays Chopin (Apr. 7) 

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by Peter Feher 

The Cleveland Orchestra could have partnered with the Cleveland Museum of Art for last weekend’s concerts. The give-and-take between composers and visual artists — and the historical movements that emerged in the process — inspired the program on Thursday, April 7 at Severance Music Center.

Actually, some of the Orchestra’s players — along with the week’s soloist, pianist Emanuel Ax — did end up at the museum the following evening, for a benefit concert in support of Ukraine. But before their night off, the performers put the relationship between music and art on dazzling display for the audience at Severance. Alan Gilbert conducted four works that ranged from the 19th century to the 21st and that showed what’s changed in the culture since. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, April 18, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S EVENTS:

In today’s edition of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky makes a nod to Easter and Spring with Benjamin Fuhrman’s Study After Hokusai, for clarinet and viola, Kenneth Leighton’s An Easter Sequence, Malcolm Arnold’s 1st symphony, and Rachmaninoff’s cantata, Spring. Also, the premiere recording of two piano pieces by Georges Mathias, French-born student of Chopin. It’s on from 2 to 4pm over WRUW from Case Western Reserve University. Click here to listen to the internet feed.

NEW CONCERTS ON THE CALENDAR:

It’s good to keep an eye out for interesting events that suddenly pop up on the Oberlin Conservatory Calendar. Like this week’s Messiaen Mini-Festival in Finney Chapel on Thursday and Friday April 21 and 22. The brainchild of conductor Timothy Weiss and organ professor Jonathan Moyer, the event includes Thursday discussions and Friday performances of two extended works by the French composer (pictured), who died 30 years ago. [Read more…]

Berta Rojas admirably resilient in recital with Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (Apr. 2)

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by Stephanie Manning

Guitarist Berta Rojas’ in-person appearance at the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, a two-year journey which finally came to fruition on April 2, has not been without some major setbacks. First before her travels, when the pandemic forced Rojas to cancel her trip in March 2020, and second — and most heartbreaking — after her arrival, when her beloved guitar was stolen on April 1st.

But despite her grief, the Paraguayan guitarist determinedly continued with her recital as scheduled. Playing on an instrument she borrowed from Colin Davin, Rojas captivated audience members at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights with a program that honored two women pioneers of classical guitar: Ida Presti and María Luisa Anido.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend April 15-17,  2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Almost every concert-giving entity is observing Easter and Passover with darkened stages. There are a few exceptions on Friday and Saturday:

At 11:00 am Friday and 8:00 pm Saturday, The Cleveland Orchestra continues to welcome two guests to the Severance stage: conductor Kahchun Wong, who will lead Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Christian Tetzlaff (pictured).

On Friday at 7:30 pm, Trinity Cathedral presents its annual Good Friday concert, this time featuring English music for the season: Robert White’s Lamentations of Jeremiah and John Rutter’s Requiem.

On Friday at 7:30 pm, Chris Anderson leads the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble from Finney Chapel (live stream available) in music by Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, and Jay Ashby, and on Saturday at 8, Larry Snider and Matt Dudack host the University of Akron Steel Drum Band with guest Michel Spiro and alumni at E.J. Thomas Hall.

Details in our Concert Listings. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, April 14, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today’s events: Oberlin Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble, and The Cleveland Orchestra

•Interesting reads: the environmentalism surrounding Yolanda Kondonassis’s latest recording project, and a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio aimed at both hearing and deaf audiences

•Videos of CityMusic’s recent premieres

•Almanac: Van Cliburn on The Tonight Show, Metallica sues Napster, and a feature on Handel’s Messiah

[Read more…]

Les Délices: The White Cat, a new Baroque opera at the Breen (Apr. 2)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Ailurophiles rejoice! There’s a new opera in town, created as many French Baroque titles were back in the day, out of bits and pieces of existing material, and the principal character is a large feline. (It’s actually a princess seeking to be rehumanized through the traditional heroic means of fulfilling a series of impossible challenges or quests.)

The creative team behind The White Cat begins with Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy, who has had Larry Rosenwald adapt Marie-Catherine D’Aulnoy’s story La Chatte Blanche into a five-act (or five-quest) libretto that recasts the manipulative Puss in Boots, who gets ahead almost entirely through trickery, into a kinder, gentler feline. Each quest is linked with a French version of one of Aesop’s Fables coupled with a divertissement, and joined together by well-known tunes like Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses. [Read more…]

Conductor Kahchun Wong makes Cleveland Orchestra debut this week

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by Mike Telin

When visa issues prevented conductor François-Xavier Roth from leading this week’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts, the door opened for Kahchun Wong.

On Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm, the Singaporean conductor will make his Severance Music Center debut with a concert featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Christian Tetzlaff, and Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. The program will be repeated on Friday at 11:00 am and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

What were his first thoughts when he got the call telling him that he was needed in Cleveland? “Honestly, I didn’t have time to be nervous. All I could think about were all of the logistical matters,” the 35-year-old said during a recent telephone conversation.

With one residence in Japan — he is the principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic — and another residence in Germany — he is the chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra — his first task was to locate his scores. “It wasn’t until I was on the flight that I thought, oh my, I’m going to conduct The Cleveland Orchestra.” [Read more…]

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