ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Archives for July 2023

DIARY: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

by

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Next up at Wooster and Kent Blossom Festivals

. Report from “Europe’s Most Interesting Opera Festival”

. Almanac: remembering Oscar Hammerstein II in 4,600 of his 25,000 letters — “the best ones”

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2pm, Ohio Light Opera’s production of Frank Loesser’s How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying returns to the Freedlander Theatre stage in Wooster.

And at 7:30, the second of four Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts in Ludwig Recital Hall on the Kent State campus features pianist Orion Weiss, piano (pictured), violinist William Hagen, and members of The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, July 11, 2023

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Ohio Light Opera with H.M.S. Pinafore, and Athena String Quartet (pictured) in music by Mendelssohn, Beach & Still

•Announcements: Ohio Arts Council talks all-hazards planning, Kaboom Collective looks for a podcast-making team, and Cleveland Repertory Orchestra seeks board members

•Almanac: Thorvaldsdottir, Blomstedt, Gershwin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 2:00 pm at Freedlander Theatre in Wooster, Ohio Light Opera performs Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (tickets here). And at 7:00 at Cain Park’s Alma Theater, Local 4 Music Fund presents the Athena String Quartet in a free program of music by Felix Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, and William Grant Still.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, July 10, 2023

by

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky from WRUW, summer organ institute faculty from Oberlin

. R.I.P. Peter Nero

. Nipper, an early audiophile?

HAPPENING TODAY:

From 2 to 4 this afternoon, Eric Charnofsky hosts Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from the studios of WRUW. Today’s playlist includes unusual selections by Louis Aubert, Gerhard Stäbler, J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, Carl Orff & Elizabeth Austin.

And tonight at 7:30, an Oberlin Summer Organ Institute Faculty Concert features Jonathan W. Moyer & Kirk M. Rich performing on the organs by D.A. Flentrop (Dutch)  & Greg Harrold (Spanish) in Warner Concert Hall. Click here for webcast.

For details, click here. [Read more…]

The Final Six: Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists  

by

by Mike Telin

This summer Piano Cleveland has turned its attention to the stars of the future. Earlier this week the six finalists — three in the Junior Division (ages 11 -14) and three in the Senior Division (ages 15 – 18) — were selected to come to Cleveland for the Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists.

Qinyaoyao Ji (13, China), Elisey Mysin (12, Russia), and Zhonghua Wei (14, China) will vie for the top cash prize of $5,000 USD while Yanyan Bao (16, China), Ryan Wang (15, Canada), and Saehyun Kim (16, South Korea) will compete for the first prize of $10,000 USD.

The six were selected from 32 contestants who recorded their First Rounds performances at locations in London, Hamburg, Cleveland, New York, Beijing, and Seoul, in partnership with Steinway & Sons galleries. All First Round performances are available to watch on Piano Cleveland’s YouTube Channel. Read the pianists’  biographies here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, July 7-9 2023

by

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Four OLO shows, Montero recital, three visits to Jurassic Park, and U.C. Bells

. Cleveland Pops’ season & William Byrd’s legacy

. Almanac remembers premiere of Paula M. Kimper’s Sojourner Truth & milestones for Percy Grainger, Fernando Sor, George Antheil & Randall Thompson

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

In Freedlander Theatre on the campus of the College of Wooster, Ohio Light Opera repeats Arizona Lady, an unusual Viennese operetta by Emmerich Kálmán with an American West theme on Sunday at 2, and continues its stagings of H.M.S. Pinafore (pictured, Friday at 2), No, No, Nanette (Saturday at 2), and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Saturday at 7:30). Check our reviews columns to read what our writers have had to say about the productions (we’ll eventually review all six of the shows). [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera:
H.M.S. Pinafore, or 
The Lass That Loved a Sailor (June 29)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

It’s been a good thing for the creative team of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan that Victorian England was rife with unqualified public officials, rigid class distinctions, and social inequality. What would the plot of H.M.S. Pinafore, one of their most popular Savoy Operas, have been like without the opportunity to lampoon such functionaries as W. H. Smith, a politician with no nautical experience, by portraying him as Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty? His advice:

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus (July 1)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

Undeterred by clouds in the sky, The Cleveland Orchestra let joy prevail on opening night of the 2023 Blossom Music Festival on Saturday, July 1. Somehow the weather held, families gathered, blankets came out, and Beethoven’s jubilant message issued forth.

Susanna Mälkki was a persuasive presence on the podium, leading the orchestra, the Blossom Festival Chorus, and soloists in music by William Grant Still, Samuel Barber, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Still’s “Mother and Child,” a slow movement from his 1943 Suite for Violin and Piano here arranged by the composer for string orchestra, is a soft and sincere work alluding to folk song. Under Mälkki’s direction, the strings gave a beautifully timbred, reverential reading.

[Read more…]

Stanislav Kochanovsky brings Rachmaninoff for his Cleveland Orchestra debut

by

by Mike Telin

“Every debut with a new orchestra is a special moment you never forget. But the famous Cleveland Orchestra is definitely one of the most extraordinary musical institutions in the world,” Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky wrote in an email. “I have so many of their historical recordings with Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Lorin Maazel in my private collection and I can’t wait to hear the unique voice of the orchestra with my own ears.”

Next week he will have just that opportunity. On Saturday, July 15 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Kochanovsky will lead an all-Rachmaninoff program featuring the Symphony No. 1 and the Piano Concerto No. 3 with Nikolai Lugansky as soloist. Tickets are available online.

Mike Telin: You’re bringing a wonderful program. Why did you choose these particular pieces?

Stanislav Kochanovsky: This year the whole world is celebrating Rachmaninoff’s 150th  anniversary. As I have almost all of his works in my repertoire, I proposed the rarely performed and not so well known First Symphony. Later I found out that The Cleveland Orchestra has never performed it in their history. This fact makes my debut even more exciting! As for the Piano Concerto, I think it was the soloist’s choice.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, July 6, 2023

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: Ohio Light Opera, CIPC for Young Artists, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project

•Announcements: a grant for Les Délices, season subscriptions for Canton Symphony, concert schedule for Heights Chamber Orchestra

•Almanac: Dalcroze, Ashkenazy, Hartke

HAPPENING TODAY:

Ohio Light Opera presents the opening matinee of Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady at 2:00 pm at Freedlander Theatre in Wooster (tickets here). CIPC for Young Artists puts on a “Contestants in the Community” event at the University of Akron’s Guzzetta Hall at 7:30 pm (free). And at 8:00 at Convivium 33 Gallery, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project presents improviser Seth Andrew Davis (pictured) with percussionist Alexander Adams, as well as music from harpist Stephan Haluska. More information here.

[Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: “Vortex” (June 25)

by

by Mike Telin

If you are familiar with William Cowper’s 1785 poem The Task, then you know the famous line “Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.” On Sunday, June 25 at Harkness Chapel, ChamberFest Cleveland presented a program that was steeped in musical variety and spices for the ear.

Written in 1977, Alfred Schnittke’s Moz-Art (after the fragment K. 416d) is based on the first violin part from Mozart’s unpublished pantomime, with dollops of the opening theme of his 40th Symphony stirred into the mix. The quirky five-minute work for two violins asks the players to throw caution to the winds as they seemingly compete to see who can turn a classical line into something absurd faster than the other.

The performance by Itamar Zorman and Diana Cohen was bust-your-gut funny. Bowed notes turned into plucked ones, then scratchings, in tune became out of tune, and slow tempos became fast enough to break the sound barrier. Hilarity ensued when the players swapped out their instruments, Zorman grabbing a very tiny violin while Cohen opted for a viola. After reclaiming their rightful fiddles, the players mischievously walked away whistling.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us