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Archives for March 2023

Les Délices: Enchanted Isle at Plymouth (Feb. 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Les Délices lucked upon a sun-drenched, nearly balmy Sunday afternoon for its February 26 “Enchanted Island” program in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church — weather that perfectly suited the subject but no doubt affected the turnout for soprano Sherezade Panthhaki’s impressive debut with the ensemble in solo cantatas by Clérambault and Rameau.

Although the ensemble reinvented itself to some extent to weather the pandemic, Artistic Director Debra Nagy continues to return to its original, winning format: one-hour programs of French Baroque repertoire, assiduously researched, prepared, and performed by Cleveland’s finest period instrumentalists, usually featuring guest vocalists. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, March 9, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, and Oberlin Opera Theater

•Announcements & job listings: Janet Barlow (pictured) retires from Stocker Arts Center, Credo Music seeks an executive director, and Lima Symphony holds horn and flute auditions

•Almanac: Zakir Hussain, Anna Clyne, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30, you have your choice between Apollo’s Fire in a new program titled “Exile: Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas,” and The Cleveland Orchestra, who will be joined by the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for a playlist that includes Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Mozart’s Requiem.

And at 8, you can check in with the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project for a program featuring The Evolution of the Arm (a quartet made up of oboe, piano, violin, and cello) with cellist Khari Joyner as the opener. Or you can head to Oberlin Opera Theater for Bernstein’s Candide in director Jonathon Field’s final production before retiring. (Read an interview with Field here.)

Ticket links and more details in our Concert Listings.

[Read more…]

New Morse Code at Rocky River Chamber Music Society

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by Mike Telin

For over a decade, the innovative duo New Morse Code — Hannah Collins (cello) and Michael Compitello (percussion) — have been creating projects that shed light on society’s pressing issues. These include The Emigrants, a documentary chamber work by George Lam, and dwb (driving while black), a chamber opera by Roberta Gumbel and Susan Kander.

The ensemble was recently named the inaugural grand prize winner of the Ariel Avant Impact Performance Prize, which supports the development and touring of new works that address sustainability goals and scientific innovation.

On Monday, March 13 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, Rocky River Chamber Music Society will host New Morse Code in a program that will include works by Caroline Shaw, Sam Suggs, Andy Akiho, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Honstein, Florent Ghys, and Viet Cuong. The concert is free.

I caught up with both the cellist and percussionist by phone and began our conversation by asking why they chose these pieces for their program. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: vivid Pictures & more under Welser-Möst (March 3)

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by Daniel Hathaway

If these fingers were crafting a marketing piece for The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts on the weekend of March 2 rather than a review, they might be tempted to entice readers to attend with such alliterative flights of prose as “Sizzling Sonic Spectacular — and more.” But in retrospect, the Orchestra’s performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was just that.

The huge orchestra that filled the Mandel stage after intermission on Sunday played the closing pages of Maurice Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of the original solo piano score with spacious grandeur, the kind of treatment “The Great Gate of Kiev” deserves in these perilous times.

Franz Welser-Möst led the audience through the gallery of Victor Hartmann’s idiosyncratic art like a skilled docent, pointing up interesting details and drawing precise playing from his orchestral colleagues. [Read more…]

Daniel Reith: a busy month for the assistant conductor at Severance 

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by Daniel Hathaway

In addition to being a pair of ears out in the house during rehearsals, the principal duties of the assistant conductor of a symphony orchestra include taking over the podium when the music director or guest conductor is indisposed. If the orchestra runs a youth orchestra, the assistant may function as its music director (with other duties to be assigned, of course!)

Midway through his first season with The Cleveland Orchestra, Daniel Reith found himself doing both jobs in a matter of days.

On the weekend of February 5, Reith covered for the ailing Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who withdrew after the first of a four-concert set, leading works by Andrew Norman, Debussy, and Ravel on short notice (the podium change was announced from the stage by Musical Arts Association president André Gremillet) and without the benefit of rehearsal. Then on February 24, he led the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus in the second concert of their season, which included a Wagner overture, a Schubert mass, and a Brahms symphony. [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, March 8, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Apollo’s Fire launches series of music of the Jewish & African Diasporas

. Architect of CMA’s Atrium passes in New York

. Jarrett Hoffman considers International Women’s Day

. Almanac: Many milestones, but a focus on William Walton, his violin concerto, and The Cleveland Orchestra

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today at 7:30 pm at Bath Church, Apollo’s Fire begins its run of Exile – Music of the Jewish & African Diasporas, celebrating the interwoven connections of the Sephardic, Ashkenazy, Palestinian, and African traditions. Conceived and directed by Jeannette Sorrell & featuring mezzo-soprano Rachel Weston, tenors Jacob Perry & Haitham Haidar & baritone Jeffrey Strauss with Daphna Mor, recorder, ney & vocals. [Read more…]

Heights Arts: Omni Quartet at Dunham Tavern and Museum (Feb. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The high-ceilinged, cozy barn of Dunham Tavern and Museum on a Sunday afternoon was a perfect setting to bask in the company and expertise of the Omni Quartet, who delivered a delightful program of Haydn, Shaw, and Mendelssohn. As the sun lowered and the excellence of the playing and geniality of the players took hold, a glow of contentment began to fill the space.

Founded in 2009, Omni Quartet members Amy Lee and Alicia Koelz (violins), Joanna Zakany (viola), and Tanya Ell (cello), all members of The Cleveland Orchestra, were convivial hosts, guiding the audience with verbal introductions to each work and brief excerpts by way of guideposts. While this can be overdone, here it was just enough to help the listener stay on the path. The commentaries and demonstrations worked out ahead of time were the most effective.

In her remarks about Haydn’s Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2, violinist Alicia Koelz emphasized the humor and elements of surprise present in the work. Sure enough, Haydn made us laugh, even when we knew the comedy was coming. Whether in the harmonic meanderings, the startling unison tremolo in the first movement, the rhythmic hijinks in the Minuet (a 2/4 march embedded in 3/4), or similar tugs of two against three in the final Vivace, the Omni told every joke with perfect timing and drollery. Koelz, playing first violin, amazed in the Rossini-like barnburner of a finale. Speed and rhythm were kept exact in both soft and loud passages. And is it possible that after the last chord I smelled smoke?

Violist Joanna Zakany’s introduction to Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte (2011) included this composer note: “Entr’acte is an homage to the second movement (minuet) of Haydn’s Op. 77, No. 2, but in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition…[taking] you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass.”

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, March 7, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: recitals by organist Teddy Cheng and pianist Martín García García (pictured)

•Announcements: city of Cleveland plans new senior-level arts position, two Oberlin pianists take home prizes from Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition, and Music From The Western Reserve seeks a new Artistic Director & General Manager.

•Almanac: Ravel and Batiashvili, including her performance of Requiem for Ukraine

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm, organist Teddy Cheng, a doctoral student at Juilliard, will play music by Giovanni de Macque, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Francesco Correa de Arauxo, William Walton, Robert Schumann, and Akira Nishimura for his recital as part of the Tuesday Noon Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant. See the full program here. A freewill offering will be taken up. The concert will also be livestreamed.

And at 7:30 pm, 2021 Cleveland International Piano Competition winner Martín García García will return to Northeast Ohio for a recital at E.J. Thomas Hall as part of the Tuesday Musical series. His program includes Schumann’s Op. 13 Symphonic Etudes and Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in f. Tickets are available here. Read Mike Telin’s interview with the pianist here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, March 6, 2023

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By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky live on the air, Krosnick live at LCCC

. Almanac entries for March 6: Zoltán Kodály, Sarah Caldwell, The Flight of the Bumblebee, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, hosted by Eric Charnofsky. Featured music: Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s Piano Quintet in d, Steven Kemper’s The Seven Stars (prepared piano, Angélica Negrón’s Still Here (saxophone and harp) & Karl Goldmark’s Rustic Wedding Symphony. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

7:30 pm – LCCC Signature Series: Gwen Krosnick, solo cello (pictured). Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Baroque Suite for Unaccompanied Cello (1965), Jeffrey Mumford’s revisiting variazioni elegiaci…once more (2001) & amid fleeting pockets of billowing radiance (1990), Ralph Shapey’s Krosnick Soli (1983) & Donald Martino’s Parisonatina al’Dodecafonìa (1964). Cirigliano Studio Theatre, Stocker Center for the Arts, Lorain County Community College, 1005 North Abbe Road, Elyria. Free. [Read more…]

Field Finds his Pasture After 26 years at Oberlin, innovative director Jonathon Field trades higher ed for Mister Ed.

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This article is posted with the permission of the author and Oberlin Conservatory 

by Jarrett Hoffman

You know the song from Rent that asks how to measure a year of life? Well, steering clear of doing the math for “525,600 minutes” times 26, how do you measure a career lasting over a quarter-century?

After joining the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory in 1997 and heading up the opera program for 26 years—in addition to directing productions with leading professional organizations nationally and internationally, and serving for six years as artistic director of Lyric Opera Cleveland—Jonathon Field will retire at the end of the academic year.

That leaves time for one more show: Field will direct Oberlin Opera Theater in four performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide from Thursday, March 9, through Sunday, March 12, at Hall Auditorium. The English-language operetta, based on the novella by Voltaire, will be performed with supertitles, and Raphael Jiménez will lead the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra.

It marks the end of an era, no doubt—and of course, there are numerous ways to reflect on it.

[Read more…]

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