by Mike Telin
ChamberFest Cleveland has done it again and come up with eleven intriguing programs for their sixth season, which will run from June 15 through July 1.
This year, co-artistic directors Franklin and Diana Cohen have put a new spin on the Festival. Cycles: Phases! reflects on the complexity of the human experience at each stage of life.
There will be many familiar faces onstage, as well as a number of performers who are new to the ChamberFest family. As always, programs will be presented in a variety of venues, from the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall and CWRU’s Harkness Chapel to modern, urban settings such as Hingetown’s Transformer Station and the Bop Stop, and Midtown’s Dunham Tavern Museum. Tickets are now on sale. Click here for further information.
ChamberFest kicks off with Cycles: Phases! on Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall. The evening will feature Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Elgar’s rarely heard Piano Quintet in a, and John Adams’ playful Hallelujah Junction for two pianos.
On Friday, June 16 ChamberFest gets extra-hip with Messin’ ’round at the Bop Stop! Bassist-composer Xavier Foley will spin out his own compositions during the cabaret-style evening, which will also include seductive songs by Kurt Weill and George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola. There are two performances, at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm.
The Festival moves to Harkness Chapel on Saturday, June 17 at 7:30 pm. Recycled will feature Mahler’s unfinished Piano Quartet in a, later completed by Schnittke, and Fauré’s Piano Trio (rescored for viola). Schubert’s popular Piano Quintet in A, “Trout,” rounds out the program.
Experimental film meets avant-garde music on Tuesday, June 20 at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm at Transformer Station. Kafka Fragments will feature Cleveland-based filmmaker KASUMI’s digital imagery while violinists Yura Lee and Alexi Kenney and mezzo-soprano Lauren Eberwein perform György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments.
Music written at the end of the 19th century will be featured on Thursday, June 22 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall. Fin de Siècle will include Ravel’s La Valse for two pianos, Brahms’s Clarinet Trio, and Korngold’s Suite for Strings and Piano Left Hand.
Hommage, on Friday, June 23 at 7:30 pm at Mixon Hall, will feature works by Bach and composers reverent of that Baroque master. The program includes Bach’s Non sà che sia dolore (Cantata No. 209), Kurtág’s Selections from Játékok, Gubaidulina’s Reflections on the theme “B-A-C-H” for string quartet, Bach/Kurtág’s Sonatina from Actus Tragicus (Cantata No. 106), and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in d.
It’s all about Youth on Sunday, June 25 at 2:30 pm at Dunham Tavern Museum. The afternoon features Beethoven’s youthful Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, and Bartók’s romantic Piano Quintet, a work unlike anything else he ever wrote. Flutist Demarre McGill makes his ChamberFest debut with Wilhelm Popp’s flashy Rigoletto Variations.
On Monday, June 26 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, Pierrot features Arnold Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Pierrot Lunaire. The evening opens with a wild journey through musical styles from the avant-garde madrigals of Count Gesualdo to the ethereal Sept Papillons for cello by Kaija Saariaho. The program will also include Shostakovich’s Waltzes for flute, clarinet and piano and Guillaume Conesson’s Techno Parade.
On Thursday, June 29 at 7:30 pm at Mixon Hall, Innocence/Corruption will feature Weber’s Clarinet Quintet and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 in an arrangement for piano trio and three percussionists.
Music written at the end of three composers’ careers takes center stage during Sunset, on Friday, June 30 at 7:30 pm in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall. The program will include Strauss’s String Sextet from Capriccio, Mozart’s String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat, K. 614, and Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 3 in g, Op. 110.
ChamberFest comes Full Circle on Saturday, July 1 at 7:30 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. The concert will include Dvořák’s rustic Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Quintet, and the world premiere of Sebastian Chang’s rock-influenced Cohen Family Quartet.
After the performance, the audience is invited to celebrate ChamberFest’s first real-life love story with a toast to newlyweds-to-be Diana Cohen and Roman Rabinovich (pictured above).
Published on ClevelandClassical.com May 16, 2017.
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