ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Archives for November 2023

Tuesday Musical: Akropolis Reed Quintet (Nov. 7)

by

by Peter Feher

It’s not every concert where the bass clarinetist steals the show. But by now, the five close-knit members of the Akropolis Reed Quintet must look forward to that moment in any program when they start Marc Mellits’ Splinter and those first grainy low notes boom out.

The quirky Detroit-based ensemble opened its November 7 performance for Akron’s Tuesday Musical series with this piece, and it was a way to let the audience at E.J. Thomas Hall in on everything they needed to know.

There’s a reason that Mellits’ 2014 composition has become the surest introduction to this novel type of chamber group. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, November 16, 2023

by

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm, Tri-C will present A Tribute to Ruth Brown, including a screening of George T. Nierenberg’s 1988 documentary, That Rhythm, Those Blues, followed by a live performance of music by vocalist Shenel Johns, Dominick Farinacci, and the East Central Jazz Educators All-Star Big Band.

And at 7:30, Jeannette Sorrell will lead Apollo’s Fire in the first of four performances of “Fire and Joy: from Bach and Vivaldi” featuring Debra Nagy, oboe, Alan Choo, violin, & Nicole Divall, viola d’amore (pictured — read a preview here) in works by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi at First Methodist in Akron.

For details of these and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs, who resigned from his teaching post at the Cleveland Institute of Music in October after heading the brass department for 35 years, has been appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year. Read a press release here. [Read more…]

Obituary: Mary Ann Griebling, 87

by

Mary Ann (Rimmel) Griebling, 87, of Akron, Ohio passed away peacefully on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Mendell Eugene Rimmel and Marthena W. (née Diver) Rimmel, on April 29, 1936. She is survived by daughters Karen Griebling (Robin Brown) and Margi Griebling-Haigh (Scott Haigh), and granddaughter Gabrielle Haigh (Mark Nelson). She was a curious, clever, and creative woman who was deeply ambitious on behalf of her family.

As the daughter of a Methodist circuit minister who would later become a professor of Calculus at Kent State University, Mary Ann moved many times throughout Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania during her childhood. Her fondest memories from this time were of riding her tricycle in the attic of a church rectory in Greentree, Pennsylvania. She inherited her gift for music from her much adored paternal grandfather, Alfred Rimmel, who had worked as a child coal miner, but loved music, had absolute pitch, and reportedly built his own violin. Read the complete obituary here.

DIARY: Wednesday, November 15, 2023

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: The Somerset Trio at Trinity at noon, and the CIM Orchestra at Severance at 7:30

•Almanac & interesting read: Daniel Barenboim, his projects promoting understanding between Israelis and Palestinians (Barenboim-Said Akademie and West-Eastern Divan Orchestra), and an article about how both are being tested by the Israeli-Hamas War

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, a Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert will feature The Somerset Trio (English hornist Danna Sundet, French hornist Mark Addleman, and pianist Elizabeth Etter) in music by Alexander Arutiunian, Valery Strukow, and Jan Koetsier. A freewill offering will be taken up. See program details and catch the livestream here.

And at 7:30 at Severance Music Center’s Mandel Concert Hall, guest conductor Anthony Parnther will lead the CIM Orchestra in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in a, Jan Sibelius’ Violin Concerto featuring Yumiko Yumiba as soloist, and Dmitri Shostakich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire presents Fire and Joy: Nicole Divall talks about the ‘Viola of Love’

by

by Mike Telin

“The first time I played the viola d’amore it was a bit of a rush job,” Apollo’s Fire principal viola Nicole Divall recalled. “It was for the St. John Passion and I borrowed an instrument and just fell in love with it. Its sound was just so sweet and beautiful I couldn’t stop practicing.”

On Thursday, November 16 at 7:30 pm at First United Methodist Church in Akron, Divall will be the featured soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto in d for viola d’amore and orchestra.

Directed by Jeannette Sorrell, the program also includes Bach’s Oboe Concerto in F with Debra Nagy as soloist, Vivaldi’s Concerto in d for Two Violins & Cello, and three Bach Sinfonias as well as Brandenburg Concerto No. 4

The program will be repeated on Friday at 7:30 at Lakewood United Methodist, on Saturday at 8:00 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, and Sunday at 4:00 at University Circle United Methodist Church. Violinist Andrew Fouts will give a pre-concert talk one hour before each performance. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Generosity and poise at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society (Nov. 6)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

Generosity and poise are two qualities a chamber musician would be fortunate to possess. Fortunately for those of us in attendance at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River on Monday, November 6, cellist Keith Robinson and pianist Hyunsoon Whang are endowed amply with both, thus conveying only the pleasure of performance in two difficult cello sonatas — Barber’s early Op. 6 and Prokofiev’s late Op. 116. Whang also lent ease and grace to Brahms’ solo Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2, and clarinetist Daniel McKelway lent luster in the Brahms Trio, Op. 114 on the second half.

Poise was tested early, as no sooner had our musicians sat down to begin when a stentorian “Ah-choo!” boomed out from somewhere in the audience. Startled, Robinson nodded in the sneezer’s direction with a good-natured, “You scared me!” [Read more…]

Violinist Jinjoo Cho: Barber with BlueWater & writing a book

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Following up on her Tchaikovsky Concerto performance four years ago, violinist Jinjoo Cho will make a return appearance with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra on Friday, November 17 at 7:30 pm at Church of the Covenant.

This time, the first prize winner of the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis will focus on the Concerto of Samuel Barber — part of an all-American program led by Daniel Meyer that will also include Cindy McTee’s Adagio for String Orchestra and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring: Suite for Full Orchestra. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, November 14, 2023

by

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At Noon, harpsichordist Mikhail Grazhdanov will play works by Louis Couperin, J.H. D’Anglebert’& J.S. Bach at the Church of the Covenant.

And tonight at 7:30 at Disciples Cultural Arts Center, the Danish String Quartet will perform on the Cleveland Chamber Music Series.

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK:

The last two visits the Danish String Quartet planned for Cleveland were not without incident. In 2022, the concert scheduled for January 25 was canceled due to positive COVID-19 test results from one of the performers. Before that, the quartet’s 2017 concert got off to a late start because its cellist was delayed.

As I wrote in a review, “What’s a string quartet to do when their cellist is running late for a concert? Vamp until ready, of course. Before their October 10 debut on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society Series, Danish String Quartet violist Asbjørn Nørgaard and violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen entertained the audience with an informative little off-the-cuff pre-concert lecture, charmingly laced with dry Danish humor and musical examples. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater explores a Baroque fantasy world of love and magic with student production of Handel’s Alcina

by

by Mike Telin
This article was originally published in the Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com

“Fantasy and opera go hand-in-hand really well,” CIM Opera Theater interim director JJ Hudson said during a telephone call. And when it comes to fantasy, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s upcoming production of George Frederick Handel’s Alcina is all about fantasy. “We’re not downplaying the various reversals of fortune via magic — that’s part of the fun, and we want this show to be fun,” says Hudson.

Still, Hudson does think the opera’s plot is a little bizarre. The story takes place on a magical island belonging to the sorceress Alcina, who seduces every man who comes along, only to turn them into rocks or wild animals once she’s grown tired of their company.

Her most recent victim is the knight Ruggiero, which causes his fiancée Bradamante and her guardian Melisso to follow him to the island. Disguised as a man named Ricciardo, she attempts to free Ruggiero with the help of a magic ring. The plan goes astray when Alcina’s sister Morgana becomes smitten with Ricciardo and dumps her lover Oronte. [Read more…]

Barbara Hannigan makes a compelling debut conducting the Cleveland Orchestra

by

Critically acclaimed Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan has built a separate – though sometimes simultaneous – career as a conductor. She made her conducting debut with the Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday, leading the ensemble in works by Haydn, Strauss Vivier, and Ligeti. Photo: Roger Mastroianni

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com 

by Kevin McLaughlin

Barbara Hannigan, the Canadian dynamo who started singing professionally at 17 and later added separate — though sometimes simultaneous — responsibilities as conductor, has at last made her debut in that role with The Cleveland Orchestra. That she might give soaring accounts of mainstream and contemporary works by Haydn, Strauss Vivier, and Ligeti, was hoped for, even if not surprising, but that she should make such works about mourning, death, and loneliness so compelling and listenable, may be a good reason to have her back.

[Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us