by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: OLO’s Camelot
•Announcements: CIPC for Young Artists winners (pictured), R.I.P. Yuzo Toyama and Irene Sharp
•Almanac: Kurt Masur and Nkeiru Okoye
HAPPENING TODAY:
Catch Ohio Light Opera‘s production of Camelot at 2:00 at Freelander Theatre in Wooster. Read Daniel Hathaway’s review here, and get tickets here.
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Charnofsky highlights Peter Schickele, IU memorializes André Watts
. Debut of Handel’s Water Music
HAPPENING TODAY:
Host Eric Charnofsky writes: “Music by Peter Schickele will highlight Monday’s edition (#505) of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, in celebration of the composer’s 88th birthday! (and no, there will not be any PDQ Bach on the program this time). Other featured composers will include Beethoven, Verne Reynolds, Julius Benedict, and Gregg Wramage. Tune in Monday afternoon, 2-4 pm Eastern time, to 91.1 FM in Cleveland or the live stream link here:
R.I.P. ANDRÉ WATTS, 77
Pianist André Watts died of prostate cancer on Wednesday, July 12 at the age of 77. Read an obituary from The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Watts taught beginning in 2004.
NEWS BRIEFS
Organizations that have recently released news of their 2023-2024 seasons include Apollo’s Fire and the Cleveland Museum of Art Fall Performing Arts Series. [Read more…]
After the final concerto round with Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art on Saturday evening, July 15, Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kolhberg announced the prize winners of the 2023 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.
Senior Division Prize Winners
First Prize ($10,000): Saehyun Kim (16, South Korea)
Second Prize ($5,000): Yanyan Bao (16, China)
Third Prize ($2,500): Ryan Wang (15, Canada) [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The six pianists who advanced to the final round of Piano Cleveland’s International Competition for Young Artists cleared the first hurdle on their way to winning first, second, and third place prizes with performances in the Chamber Music Round on Thursday evening in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Demonstrating how well they can play with others, the finalists performed single movements of piano trios with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, collaborations that couldn’t help but inspire them to new heights.
For this round, the Juniors enjoyed the expertise of violinist Yun-Ting Lee and cellist Martha Baldwin, cello, while the Seniors joined forces with violinist Jessica Lee and cellist Dane Johansen. I attended via the live webcast. [Read more…]
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. On the schedule: light opera, Piano Cleveland Young Artist finals, carillon concerts & Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Nikolai Lugansky (pictured)
. Women’s Orchestra appoints music director, New Ohio Arts Economic Relief Program grants, administrative staff cuts at CIM
Almanac: milestones for composers Unsuk Chin, Harrison Birtwistle & James MacMillan
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld — the show with the famous Can-Can and the sixth and final Ohio Light Opera production to open this summer hit the stage in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster on Thursday and repeats on Sunday at 2. OLO’s other shows running in repertoire this weekend: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 2), Arizona Lady (Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Friday at 7:30) and Camelot (Saturday at 7:30).
Six finalists in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists will play concerto movements with conductor Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony in the Final Round on Friday at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Witness these performances either live or online (tickets required). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Surely one of the highlights of Piano Cleveland’s International Piano Competition for Young Artists this summer will turn out to have been an inspiring guest recital by the amazing Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.
In Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance on Sunday evening, July 9, Montero presented pristine, penetrating performances of works from the literature, followed by four ingenious improvisations on musical material submitted by the audience. I watched the recital via the excellent live webcast.
Seated Radu Lupu-style on a straight-backed chair at the Steinway, Montero began with an exploratory journey through Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasy in A-flat, followed by Schumann’s intense portraits of the characters who showed up for the masked ball in his Carnaval. After intermission, she gave a finely etched and effortless reading of Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata with carefully managed dynamics. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Friday, June 30, ChamberFest Cleveland presented a delightful evening of chamber music to a capacity audience at Dunham Tavern. The program, “Words Misunderstood,” included an oddity by György Ligeti, ear-catching 21st-century works by Caroline Shaw and Gabriella Smith, and some engaging German Romanticism by Max Bruch.
Performed without the “obligatory” intermission, the concert began with György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (for 100 metronomes). An oddity or an absurdity, depending on your point of view, here the work was presented as Ligeti intended — as a serious piece of music. Ten musicians made their way to their groups of ten mechanical metronomes, each set to a different tempo, all of them sitting on the wooden shelf that ran along three walls of the venue.
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: two shows at Ohio Light Opera, a Canton Symphony string quartet, and the Chamber Music Round at CIPC for Young Artists
•Announcements: honors and news at Oberlin, Kent State, and CIM
•Almanac: Arnold Schoenberg
HAPPENING TODAY:
Ohio Light Opera presents the opening matinee of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at 2:00 and continues its run of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore at 7:30 (tickets), the Canton Symphony sends a string quartet to The Wilderness Center for “Summer Serenades” at 6:30 (free), and CIPC for Young Artists continues with the Chamber Music Round at CIM’s Mixon Hall at 7:30 (tickets available for in-person and streaming).
More details in our Concert Listings.
by Peter Feher
Camille Saint-Saëns forbade public performances of The Carnival of the Animals during his lifetime, but he might have made an exception for ChamberFest Cleveland this summer.
On June 24 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Kulas Hall, ChamberFest conjured some of the informal spirit of Saint-Saëns’ lighthearted work as it would have been heard in 1886 among the composer’s circle of intimates. It was in keeping with ChamberFest’s theme this season — “Lightness of Being” — even when the evening seemed elaborate and embellished and the music-making sounded seriously first-rate. [Read more…]
by Kevin McLaughlin
The variety of titles that make up Ohio Light Opera’s annual summer series is its secret sauce. Go to a few shows and you’re bound to find something you’ll like, or maybe in this case a dark horse to love. Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady is an unknown in these parts — an OLO premiere this summer, which I heard on July 6 at Freedlander Theatre. It stumbles a little at times, but in the end she’s a winner.
Kálmán, who was born in Hungary, always sounds middle European to me, no matter the setting of a particular show or scene. Though the music and setting in Arizona Lady occasionally seem at odds, it’s fun to hear Hungarian-tinged folksong one minute, Viennese tradition the next, and Western cowboy songs the next.