Apollo’s Fire Summer Concerts: at home and on the road

July 7, 2021 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

Now that in-person concerts are becoming the rule rather than the exception, Apollo’s Fire is scheduling three local performances of “Bach, Vivaldi, and Friends!” from July 10-14, and taking shows on the road to four summer festivals: Tanglewood, Chautauqua, Caramoor, and Ravinia.

The local performances will be given at Avon Lake United Church of Christ on Saturday, July 10 at 8:00 pm, at Evans Amphitheatre at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, July 13 at 8:00 pm, and in Rogers Garden at the Akron Art Museum on Wednesday, July 14 at 7:00 pm.

Conducting from the harpsichord, Jeannette Sorrell will lead the ensemble in Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto Polonois, Antonio Vivaldi’s Ciacona in C and Double Violin Concerto in a, and J.S. Bach‘s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. Violinists Olivier Brault, Alan Choo, and Emi Tanabe will be the featured soloists.

The ensemble’s touring program, “Virtuoso Bach & Vivaldi,” will be presented at Tanglewood on Friday, July 16 at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. The program, which will be tailored to the presenter’s wishes, may include Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Concerto for Violin and Oboe, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins, Double Violin Concerto in A, the “Gardellino” Flute Concerto,and the Double Cello Concerto in g minor.

The Orchestra’s “Love in Venice” program is scheduled for New York’s Chautauqua Festival on Tuesday, July 27, for the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, New York on Sunday, August 1, and for the Ravinia Festival in Chicago on Tuesday, August 3.

On deck for those performances are more Vivaldi concertos, songs by Monteverdi, “Summer” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and a feminist lament by Barbara Strozzi. Programs conclude with Jeannette Sorrell’s barn-burner ensemble showpiece, La Folia.

Click here to purchase tickets for the three local concerts in July, and here to book tickets for the four festival events.

Want to join AF patrons in the Berkshires on July 16? Contact Angela Mortellaro at 216.320.0012 x6 or send her an email.

Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 7, 2021.

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About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

Apollo’s Fire: “Hope and Solitude” featuring countertenor Reginald Mobley (Nov. 17)

by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’s Fire concertmaster and assistant artistic director Alan Choo curated an thoughtful, unusual, and thoroughly engaging program at Rocky River Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon, November 17.

Featuring the formidable vocal gifts of countertenor Reginald Mobley, the program managed to gather under a single banner an orchestral suite and other selections by Henry Purcell, lute music by John Dowland, a suite by John Eccles, and an aria from J.S. Bach’s “Hunting” cantata as well as his solo cantata Ich habe genug. The well-attended concert ended with Spirituals that fit remarkably well into a menu of music played on period instruments.

In his director’s notes, Alan Choo wrote that this program “epitomizes the universality of music and its ability to uplift, heal, and revitalize the human spirit,” quoting the text of 17th-century Anglo-Welsh royalist poet Katherine Phillips’ O Solitude as set by Henry Purcell. [Read on…]

Conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali wears his heart on his sleeve in Cleveland Orchestra debut

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Change of plans recently led to unexpected opportunities at The Cleveland Orchestra. And so, this week, guest conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali seized the moment. With the Mahler “Das Lied von der Erde” program moved to next season, a rare blank slate appeared. Rouvali stepped in on short notice to make his Cleveland debut presenting an impassioned program.

The three pieces performed on Thursday, Nov. 21 — which will be heard again on Nov. 22 and 23 — share a distinctive expressivity, and each represented an introduction of their own.

Carl Nielsen’s Overture to “Maskarade“ set the scene for the Danish composer’s opera, a well-known work in his home county but rarely played elsewhere. Its five minutes include a whirling ballroom waltz, which Rouvali accentuated by coaxing the brass to cut through the texture. The conductor quickly revealed his taste for flourishes, his motions imbued with a fluttery, cursive affect.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra impresses with Boulanger, Copland, and Rachmaninoff

By Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical

This article was originally posted on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Anyone who believes that tired old canard that classical music is dead or dying needed to hear conductor Daniel Reith and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra play music by Lily Boulanger, Aaron Copland, and Sergei Rachmaninoff in their Autumn Concert at Severance Music Center on Sunday afternoon, November 24.

That challenging program tested COYO’s musicianship. Not only does it run deep, but it’s so sophisticated that the young players can make Boulanger sound French, Copland American, and Rachmaninoff Russian.

Boulanger’s D’un Matin de Printemps was light and airy, conjuring up in its five minutes a Gallic Spring morning with lovely solos by concertmaster Aika Birch and individual winds. Surges suggested the burgeoning surprises nature still had in store.

[Read on…]

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