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Archives for February 2023

Cleveland Chamber Choir: a conversation with Gregory Ristow

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by Daniel Hathaway

The next pair of concerts by Cleveland Chamber Choir this weekend will be led by Gregory Ristow, associate professor of conducting and director of vocal ensembles at Oberlin Conservatory, who has been appointed acting artistic director of the ensemble following the mid-season announcement of founding director Scott MacPherson’s retirement.

The program, “Of Sound Mind: From Darkness into Light,” explores the universality of grief and sorrow, helping us to embrace our common humanity in the struggles we individually and collectively experience. Free performances will take place on Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 pm at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills and on Sunday, February 19 at 3:00 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in Cleveland. A pre-concert talk with Oberlin musicologist Charles Edward McGuire will begin 30 minutes prior to each performance.

After their Cleveland concerts, the Choir will perform at the 2023 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Cincinnati later this month. Of the hundreds of choirs from across the country that auditioned, CCC was one of 28 choirs invited to perform, and will send 32 singers to perform two 25-minute performances to thousands of attendees.

I reached Gregory Ristow by telephone to chat about the repertoire for this weekend, and began by asking how much input he had into the program. [Read more…]

Mahler and Chin play to The Cleveland Orchestra’s strengths (Feb. 9)

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by Stephanie Manning

On February 9, concertgoers approaching Severance Music Center likely noticed the dramatic lighting choices — the building had been lit up in a deep red. With Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on the program, it felt fitting. The composer’s intense and passionate works are popular with both musicians and audiences, and an unsurprisingly crowded house packed Mandel Concert Hall for the occasion. Not only was the music guaranteed to generate interest, but so was the conductor: young Finnish phenom Klaus Mäkelä, in his second consecutive week this season with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Audiences did not see much of Mäkelä the previous week, as illness forced him to bow out of three of four performances. But on Thursday evening, he was back and characteristically full of energy. With fluid, yet bouncy movements that make his style easily identifiable, the conductor is a fascinating watch on the podium. Frequent changes in stance and an unabashed expressiveness create the feeling that the beats are echoing through his body.

The musicians were responsive to Mäkelä’s every move. [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: The Butler Piano Trio (Feb. 6)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On February 6, the Butler Piano Trio (Sandy Yamamoto, violin, Joshua Gindele, cello, and Colette Valentine, piano), treated the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church audience to a compelling evening of generous and potent music making.

Abundantly evident in the performance of Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1 — a cohesive single-movement work written when the composer was just nineteen — was the Butlers’ special chemistry. The group seemed to exhibit an extrasensory awareness of shared phrasing, expression, and rhythmic timing. Valentine managed Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic piano writing with ease, trading iterations of the elegiac theme with the strings in powerful combination. Three instruments were present onstage, but the music seemed to emit from a single voice.

Beethoven’s Trio in D, Op. 70, composed in 1808, is nicknamed “Ghost” for its eerie Largo movement. According to the unsigned program notes, Carl Czerny thought it evoked Hamlet’s meeting with the ghost of his father, but it was in fact part of Beethoven’s sketch for a never-completed Macbeth opera. The Butlers’ performance was taut and aptly unnerving. In the dramatic Largo the group relentlessly pressed the repeated rhythmic figure (triplet and sixteenths), conjuring a doomed march imposed by a spectral martinet. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, February 15, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A special day for guitars: CIM studio at Trinity, Vieaux in Peninsula, Fire & Grace at Oberlin

. Semplice Duo at Oberlin

. Anniversaries of various musicians and composers with a special nod to John Adams

HAPPENING TODAY: 

A day of guitars: Students from the Cleveland Institute of Music guitar studio host the Brownbag Concert at Trinity Cathedral today at Noon, their mentor, Jason Vieaux, plays a solo recital at Happy Days Lodge in Peninsula tonight at 7, and Oberlin presents its new faculty member, violinist Edwin Huizinga in concert with his Fire & Grace (pictured) colleague, guitarist William Coulter at 7:30 in Fairchild Chapel. Another Oberlin event features the Semplice Duo, Cristina Ballatori, flute & Kevin T. Chance, piano, to Kulas Recital Hall, also at 7:30.

ALMANAC FOR FEBRUARY 15:

In an unusual coincidence, early German composer Michael Praetorius departed this life in Wolfenbuttel on February 15, 1621, the same date on which he was born in Creuzberg an der Werra in 1571.  [Read more…]

Alan Choo & Apollo’s Fire:  “Muse of Fire” (Feb. 3)

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by Peter Feher

Longtime fans of Apollo’s Fire might think they’ve heard everything possible from Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra, but they should have another listen. A fresh lineup of musicians and a largely unfamiliar set of composers were featured in the group’s concerts this month, making for an exciting evening with just a hint of trial and error.

Spearheading the experiment was violinist Alan Choo, a regular standout performer with Apollo’s Fire and, as of this season, the ensemble’s Assistant Artistic Director. With “Muse of Fire,” the first program he’s led here entirely solo, Choo played up the idea of coming to the fore. He chose a handful of small-scale works by lesser-known composers of the 17th century and then let much of this music speak brilliantly for itself.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are the perfect vehicle for a violinist looking to make a splash. Choo has been putting all his energy into polishing these pieces, recording the complete set for an album he’s headlining with Apollo’s Fire (due out next year) and highlighting two of the fifteen sonatas here. The mastery and deliberation that come from knowing a score so well shone through in his performance on Friday, February 3 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, February 14, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Abraham Ross at noon, and “A Romantic German Valentine” at 7:30

•News: Julia de Burgos Cultural Center announces a call for artists, while Cleveland Orchestra announces upcoming releases

•Almanac: Steven Mackey, Steven Stucky, Renée Fleming, and an amphibious Valentine’s Day

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12 pm, the Church of the Covenant presents organist Abraham Ross (pictured) on the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series — check out the program here. A freewill offering will be taken up.

And to celebrate the holiday, at 7:30 pm you can enjoy “A Romantic German Valentine,” a chamber program that includes music by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann as well as world premieres by Margi Griebling-Haigh. A freewill donation of $20 is suggested. Read a preview article here, and see our Concert Listings for details.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, February 13, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. New episodes of SalonEra & Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Rowley returns to BW

. R.I.P. YSU’s Stephen L. Gage, Cleveland Orchestra releases Blossom schedule, Apollo’s Fire adds a performance

. Almanac anniversaries: Sor, Wagner & Kleinsinger

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Les Délices releases SalonEra 3.5: Finding Lisette. Baritone/scholar Jean-Bernard Cerin traces the history of the Haitian Creole song “​Lisette quitté la plaine” and explores how the song becomes a lens through which we can explore the dynamic, fraught history of Haiti and its occupiers.

From 2-4 pm, Eric Charnofsky hosts Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, featuring music by David Dzubay, Douglas Lilburn & Arthur Bliss

And at 7:30 pm, Baldwin Wallace welcomes back its distinguished graduate, soprano Jennifer Rowley (pictured as Tosca), for a solo recital, and CIM sponsors a Music for Food Concert to benefit the Cleveland Kosher Food Pantry. See our Concert Listings for details. [Read more…]

A Romantic German Valentine

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by Mike Telin

What is it about the central German city of Weimar that has inspired so many important artists, musicians, poets and philosophers?

In 2019 composer Margi Griebling-Haigh had the good fortune to visit the picturesque city twice — she too was inspired. “The apartment I was staying in was on the top floor of an old building on the Herderplatz. My window overlooked the bell tower of the church in which Bach wrote most of his organ concertos,” she recalled during a recent conversation. “It snowed most of the week I was there — it was beautiful. But looking out at the bell tower and hearing them ring, I realized that this is what Bach would have heard. I actually recorded them on my phone, and I knew that somehow I would use them in a piece.”

On Tuesday, February 14 at 7:30 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church Chapel, Griebling-Haigh’s Weimarer Winterszenen and Lufthaltenlieder will receive their world premieres during a program titled “A Romantic German Valentine.” The program will also include Schubert’s Auf dem Strom, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen and Schumann’s Drei Romanzen & Drei Fantasiestücke  performed by Gabrielle Haigh (soprano), Robert Woolfrey (clarinet), Jesse McCormick (horn), Margi Griebling-Haigh (English horn), and Randall Fusco (piano). Suggested freewill donation: $20 at the door. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, February 10-12, 2023

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by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Visiting artists include cellist Seth Parker Woods (with the Oberlin Sinfonietta on Friday), Broadwas and jazz singer Aisha de Haas (with Cleveland Pops on Friday), conductor Klaus Mäkelä (with The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday and Sunday, Mahler Symphony No. 5).

Local soloists and ensembles on Saturday feature organist Todd Wilson (Lake Erie College), the Akron Symphony’s Gospel Meets Symphony (pictured), and on Sunday, Cleveland Ballet and  Inlet Dance Theatre (with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance), Heights Chamber Orchestra (with trumpeter Ron Goldberg in Cleveland Hts.), and Steven Plank’s Cleveland Consort of Voices (at the Church of the Saviour).

And two organizations are raising a toast to Valentine’s Day: M.U.S.i.C. (Musical Upcoming Stars in the Classics) in Pepper Pike, and The Cleveland Opera (formerly Opera Circle, in Shaker Hts.) 

See our Concert Listings for details. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, February 9, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: Cleveland Orchestra with Mäkelä part two & Canton Symphony with singer-songwriter Bethany Joy (pictured)

•News: COYO applications open & program changes from The Cleveland Orchestra

•Almanac: Alban Berg, integrating tonality & serialism

HAPPENING TODAY:

There are two options for you tonight, both at 7:30 pm. Members of the Canton Symphony will join Cleveland-based indie soul/jazz singer-songwriter Bethany Joy at Zimmermann Symphony Center as part of the orchestra’s Divergent Sounds series — tickets here. Meanwhile guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä and The Cleveland Orchestra will play Unsuk Chin’s SPIRA – Concerto for Orchestra and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at Severance Music Center. Read a preview article about that program here, and get tickets here. 

[Read more…]

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