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Archives for March 2023

DIARY: Thursday, March 16, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Haewon Song and Robert Shannon (pictured) perform in Oberlin, Daniel Gilbert plays Golijov with CityMusic

. The Cleveland Orchestra adds a free concert, CIM seeks Academy students

. The Almanac reports a mixed list of arrivals and departures

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 7:30 pm Oberlin faculty pianists Haewon Song and Robert Shannon play Schubert, Messiaen, Mozart, Khachaturian & Pabst’s Paraphrase de Concert sur l’opera on Eugene Oneguine de P. Tchaikovsky in Warner Concert Hall. Oberlin Conservatory, 43 South Professor St, Oberlin. Free. Click here for live stream.

Also at 7:30 pm, CityMusic begins its run of concerts titled The Visionary Clarinet. Klezmer, classicism and Jewish melodies swirl together in Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, performed by Daniel Gilbert. The Temple — Tifereth Israel, 26000 Shaker Blvd., Beachwood. Free. [Read more…]

Cleveland Cello Society: i Cellisti! 2023

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by Mike Telin

“A cello society is supposed to promote the advancement of the instrument and bring  professionals, amateurs, and lovers of the cello together for a rich exchange of ideas. And the Cleveland Cello Society embodies that,” Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower said during a telephone conversation.

On Friday, March 24 at 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Cleveland Cello Society will present i Cellisti! 2023, their annual extravaganza that raises funds for their Scholarship Competition. Closing out the evening will be a mass cello ensemble performance of Randall Thomson’s Alleluia. Cellists of all ages and experience are invited to participate. Click here for more information and tickets.

The evening will begin with a performance by Kosower of two works for solo cello.

He noted that as the title suggests, Hans Werner Henze’s Serenade is a light-hearted and entertaining work. “It is a twelve-tone piece, but it doesn’t really sound like it. I find the dissonances to be rather mild in general, and it proves that in the hands of a great composer, great music can be made out of the twelve-tone system.”

[Read more…]

Folk musician Ben Gage to visit
CSO’s Divergent Sounds series

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by Jarrett Hoffman

One of the unique offerings of crossover music in Northeast Ohio is the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Divergent Sounds. The series pairs select bands and singer-songwriters from the area with their own hand-picked group of instruments from the Orchestra. Then arranger Kevin Martinez creates new chamber-ensemble versions of their songs to be performed at Zimmermann Symphony Center.

The next Divergent Sounds concert on Thursday, March 23 at 7:30 pm will feature the Ben Gage Band, led by Akron-based folk musician Ben Gage. Armed with guitar, harmonica, and his own voice, Gage will be joined by electric guitarist Dan Socha, double bassist Brant Novak, and drummer Spencer Cindia — plus an ensemble of clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and cello from the Canton Symphony. Also making appearances will be a trio of guest vocalists: Bethany Joy, Josee McGee, and Chrissy Strong. Tickets are available here.

Both contemplative and down-to-earth, Gage is an absorbing conversationalist, as I found out during an interview earlier this week. Among the topics we touched on: his choice of instruments from the orchestra (influenced by a recent trip to New Orleans), writing songs about the area, growing up in rural Ashtabula County, sharing early versions of his songs on his website, and the people he meets while out on tour.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, March 15, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Concerts at Trinity and CMA feature young performers

. BBC shoots itself in the foot

. Milestones: Lili Boulanger, My Fair Lady

HAPPENING TODAY ONLINE  & IN PERSON:

At 12 noon on the Brownbag Concert Series at Trinity Cathedral, the Choirs of Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights perform a varied program of choral music led by Performing Arts department chair Laura Webster. The concert can be enjoyed in person or watched via live stream. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas (Mar. 8)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Who doesn’t love an Apollo’s Fire concert? Jeannette Sorrell and troupe always seem to offer a festival for the eye and ear — thoughtful thematic programs, all-out committed musicianship, and infectious exuberance. Wednesday’s program at Bath Church UCC was all this and more.

The third in a triptych of Jewish-themed programs titled “Exile and Resilience,” this one — thoughtfully conceived and researched program by Sorrell — offered seven perspectives on Jewish and African exile.

[Read more…]

“Viva Latina!” —
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra (Mar. 4) 

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Accordionist Hanzhi Wang held the Church of the Covenant audience in thrall on March 4 as she demonstrated mastery of the wild marvel that is her instrument in a performance of Piazzolla’s Bandoneon Concerto. The BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and conductor Daniel Meyer provided able accompaniment there, as well as lovely accounts of works by Arriaga and Copland in this Latin-tinged program.

The Symphony in D by Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, written in 1825 when the composer was just seventeen, is cast in the Haydn-Mozart mold. The performance revealed a deftly crafted work — exciting, tuneful, and blustery. After the Haydnesque slow introduction that prepares the listener for a D-major Allegro, the orchestra leaned into the unexpected d-minor with stormy energy and dynamic contrasts. Meyer kept fast tempos under control, battling acoustically challenging circumstances — distinctions of timbre and precision of attacks were frequently lost in the cavernous space.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, March 14, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Keith Reas (pictured), Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Bennewitz Quartet

•Announcements: a call for visual artists as part of a collaboration between Heights Arts and No Exit New Music, and a webinar about the Ohio Arts Economic Relief Grant program

•Almanac: Peter Maxwell Davies and musical funhouse mirrors

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm, organist Keith Reas plays music from Nicolaus Bruhns, the Susanne van Soldt manuscript, Tarquinio Merulo, Heinrich Scheidemann, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Dietrich Buxtehude, and J.S. Bach (program details here) on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series. The recital will also be livestreamed. A freewill offering will be taken up.

At 7, Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra will head to Severance Music Center’s Reinberger Chamber Hall for a concert to benefit UNICEF’s response to the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. Click here for more information and here to purchase tickets.

And at 7:30 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present the Bennewitz Quartet. Their program is bookended by C-Major string quartets — beginning with Haydn’s Op. 54, No. 2, and ending with Dvořák’s Op. 61 — with Hans Krása’s Theme and Variations for String Quartet and Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet in between. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, March 13, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Is Bach for everyone? (Nicholas Phan asks)

. Rarities from CWRU courtesy of Eric Charnofsky, New Morse Code in Rocky River

. Two titans of the art song share an Almanac date

HAPPENING TODAY ONLINE  & IN PERSON:

Released today: Les Délices — SalonEra 3.6: BACH 52. SalonEra partners with GRAMMY-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan to probe the question “Is Bach’s music for everyone?.” Drawing on tenor arias and interviews captured for Phan’s BACH 52 project, Nicholas, Debra Nagy, and a range of community members reckon with the complex social history of Bach’s music as well as its enduring resonance in their lives. Available online and as a podcast through June 30, 2023. Click here. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Verona Quartet with Wu Man (Feb. 25)

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by Mike Telin

If you are familiar with the Pipa — a Chinese lute-like instrument with a history that dates back more than 2,000 years — chances are that you first heard it played by Wu Man.

On February 25 in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall, the world’s premiere pipa virtuoso joined the Verona Quartet — Jonathan and Dorothy Ro (violins), Abigail Rojansky (viola), and Jonathan Dormand (cello) — for a program that traveled the musical globe to explore the question, What is home? The concert was presented as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series.

Throughout the evening, the large audience was treated to a musical collaboration that never felt forced. As always, Wu Man’s innate sense of musicality proved that great virtuosity is not always about fast technical passages, it can also be found in the nuances of serenity. And the Verona, Oberlin’s Quartet-in-Residence, were unified partners, producing musically intelligent and technically flawless playing that seamlessly moved in and out of a spectrum of colors and stylistic emotions.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, March 10-12, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A long list of multiple & single performances

. The acoustic of Notre-Dame in Paris, an interactive experience from the New York Times

. Almanac entries: anniversaries of Honegger, Mendelssohn’s revival of Bach’s Matthew-Passion and a Leipzig summer extravaganza featuring Bobby McFerrin on his birthday, remembering Nijinski (pictured)

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Multiple performances: The Cleveland Orchestra’s Mozart Requiem (Fri, Sat, Sun afternoon), Oberlin Opera’s Candide (director Jonathan Field’s last production, Fri, Sat, Sun afternoon).

Single performances on Friday: Apollo’s Fire’s Exile – Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas (in Cleveland Hts.), Youngstown Symphony: Musical Titans & electric violinist and vocal master L Shankar (Cleveland Museum of Art). [Read more…]

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