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Archives for May 2024

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Garrick Ohlsson at Disciples (May 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland audiences have recently enjoyed a double dose of Garrick Ohlsson’s piano wizardry. After stepping in for Igor Levit with The Cleveland Orchestra in March, Ohlsson returned to close out the Cleveland Chamber Music Society season with a predictably wonderful recital at Disciples Christian Church on Tuesday, May 7. The four works on his program — a Beethoven sonata, a Schubert fantasy, a contemporary Australian piece, and a Chopin triptych gave the large audience plenty to rave about.

Beethoven’s Sixth Sonata is something of an entremet among the three works of his Opus 10. Shorter and lighter in spirit than its siblings, it made a delightful curtain raiser. Ohlsson played the opening movement with an elegant clarity, inviting his listeners to join in the fun he was obviously having. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra presents Magic Flute: a conversation with the Queen of the Night

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by Mike Telin

Since its premiere on September 30, 1791 in Vienna, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, has become regarded as one of the greatest operas ever written. Its enchanting story about the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment, and how power is used for good or evil purposes continues to enthrall audiences around the world.

On Thursday, May 16 at 7:00 pm at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra will present Mozart’s timeless tale under the direction of Nikolaus Habjan as part of The Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival. Franz Welser-Möst will lead the Orchestra and a cast that includes Julian Prégardien (Tamino), Ludwig Mittelhammer (Papageno), Christina Landshamer (Pamina), Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night), and Tareq Nazmi (Sarastro).

Sung in German with English supertitles, performances will continue on Saturday the 18th and Friday the 24th at 7:00 pm, and Sunday the 26th at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online. Click here to see the full schedule of the Festival.

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: clarinet trios among friends (May 6)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

What is a little chamber music among friends? Pure enjoyment, that’s what. On Monday, May 6 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, you got the feeling that the pleasure had by this group — clarinetist Afendi Yusuf, violist Wesley Collins, and pianist Dawoon Chung — might have occurred with or without the rapt Rocky River Chamber Music Society audience in attendance.

But, lucky for us, we were. The program — clarinet trios by Mozart, Bruch, and Robert Schumann — brought together not only infrequently performed repertoire, but an obviously friendly group of collaborators.

[Read more…]

Re:Sound festival — new & experimental music in concert, workshop & installation

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project will present the 2024 edition of its Re:Sound festival from Friday to Sunday, May 17-19.

Presenting both local and visiting artists who span all different strands of new and experimental music, the festival takes place at two locations. Convivium 33 Gallery will host a triple-bill concert each day at 7:30 pm, as well as a 2:30 pm workshop on Saturday led by festival headliner Elliott Sharp.

Meanwhile, three sound art installations will be presented on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm at Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center, located at the Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression. Tickets for the festival are available here.

A headlining act is something new for Re:Sound, as Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) managing director Stephan Haluska explained during a recent interview. “He’s the only artist we booked ahead of our call for applications.”

[Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, May 11-12, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 2 at the Main Cleveland Public Library, Les Délices will perform music composed and published by Charles Ignatius Sancho, a man of letters, merchant, abolitionist, and theater lover who lived from 1729-1780, and made history as the first British man of African descent to vote in a general election.

Saturday evening at 7:30, the Akron Symphony will bring its 70th anniversary season to a close with Mozart’s “Great Mass in c minor.” Written to be performed at the composer’s wedding but never completed, its torso still makes for an impressive work that features magnificent writing for double chorus. Christopher Wilkins conducts at E.J. Thomas Hall.

And on Sunday at 2:30 in Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin Conservatory will celebrate piano professor Peter Takács’ 48 years on the faculty with a concert by alumni from his studio over the past six decades, culminating in the world premiere of Robert Spano’s Benediction for piano four hands, performed by Takács (pictured) and the composer. Click here for livestream. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, May 10, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:15 Noon, in an outdoor concert that can scoff at rainy conditions, guest carillonneur David Osburn will play a concert celebrating Mother’s Day Weekend on the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle. Click here to view the complete program and watch the livestream.

Tonight’s program of short silent films at Transformer Station reflecting The Many Moods of Melodrama: Sentiment, Satire, Horror, and Noir with original scores performed by students from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music is sold out.

And at 7:30 in Finney Chapel, Raphael Jiménez conducts the Oberlin Orchestra in Shulamit Ran’s Violin Concerto with soloist Maya Irizarry Lambright, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s  Scheherazade. Click here to watch a livestream. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra with guitarist Jason Vieaux at the Covenant (May 4)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Saturday evening, May 4 found the excellent Blue Water Chamber Orchestra wrapping up their 14th season with guitarist Jason Vieaux playing Vivaldi and Avner Dorman, and the orchestra finishing up with Beethoven 7 at the Church of the Covenant under Daniel Meyer.

Blue Water comprises musicians and features soloists who live in Northeast Ohio, asks its audiences to “Pay what you wish,” and has committed itself to straight-through programs that normally run less than 90 minutes.

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, the featured soloist in a collaboration between BlueWater and the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, is both an international touring artist and a local hero, who treated the capacity audience to an elegant performance of Vivaldi’s D-major concerto — originally for lute — with a fine sense of pacing and crisp articulations. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, May 9, 2024

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Oberlin Opera Theater will present two concerts of opera scenes in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel. The 4:30 performance will feature Act I from Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and the 7:30 program will include selections from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Verdi’s Don Carlo, and Copland’s The Tender Land, both available via livestream.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced that tickets are now on sale for the final dress rehearsal of director Nikolaus Habjan’s production of The Magic Flute on Monday, May 13. All tickets are general admission seats in the Mandel Concert Hall balcony and dress circle. As part of the evening, Habjan will talk about the giant puppets that appear in the opera (pictured above: the Queen of the Night). [Read more…]

The Many Moods of Melodrama:
Sentiment, Satire, Horror, and Noir in silent film

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by Mike Telin

When we think of modern-era film composers, the names Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Howard Shore immediately come to mind. But who was responsible for creating the music that accompanied films during the silent era?

During the past three and a half months, a group of Oberlin students have been diligently learning how to create film scores from a historical perspective.

Emily Laurance, a visiting associate professor of musicology at Oberlin Conservatory and executive director of the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium, said during a telephone conversation that one of the objectives of her class — Music and Melodrama on Stage and Screen — was for the students “to get a feeling of music in melodrama, and to get a sense of the history of the silent film genre by learning how to compile a musical score.”

The class will culminate in a performance on Friday, May 10 at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Transformer Station. [Read more…]

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