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ENCORE Chamber Music: Sparked by Murakami (June 13)

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by Cait Winston

ENCORE Chamber Music’s June 13 program, “Sparked by Murakami,” held at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts, explored the narrative potential of chamber music, both through dramatic music conveying characters and story, and through different artistic disciplines that created a hybrid storytelling experience.

Pianist Shuai Wang began the program with Debussy’s “Arabesque No. 1” (from Deux Arabesques) and Jardins sous la pluie (“Gardens in the Rain”), capturing a mood inspired by nature with a hint of the ethereal. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: Opening Concert — “Legends” (June 6)

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by Cait Winston

After the postponement of their 2020 season, ChamberFest Cleveland made a triumphant return on June 6, as they kicked off the 2021 concert series aptly named ‘Together Again.’ Originally planned to be held at The Grove Amphitheater, the venue was changed to St. Paschal Baylon church, due to rain.

The series opener, “Legends,” celebrated the return of in-person concerts with music by Antonín Dvořák, Enrique Granados, Paul Wiancko, and Franz Schubert. The musicians displayed the wide range of expression and color, enchanting communication, and technical brilliance that chamber music can provide. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: Drew Henderson and Petra Poláčková

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by Cait Winston

Online recitals pose the question: can a virtual format preserve the precious conversation between a musician and their audience? In a recently streamed concert, guitarists Drew Henderson and Petra Poláčková proved that such communication can still exist outside of a live setting, when the music is played with generous expressivity and technical finesse. Henderson and Poláčková’s performance, presented by the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, was pre-recorded and streamed on Friday, June 4th. 

Henderson began the evening with his own arrangements of three movements from J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 4 for solo cello. The Prelude features a series of descending patterns interspersed with virtuosic passages, and while these passages effectively highlighted Henderson’s technical skills, he also demonstrated dramatic expertise by playing each descending pattern with different nuances of emotion. The Sarabande, with its poise and stately pace, was juxtaposed beautifully with a lively Bourrée, where notes flurried in quick succession, but Henderson never sacrificed precise articulation for musical momentum.  [Read more…]

CD Review: Fantasy — Oppens plays Kaminsky

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by Cait Winston

The 2021 album Fantasy is the culmination of more than a decade of professional collaboration and friendship between composer Laura Kaminsky and pianist Ursula Oppens. In Fantasy, Kaminsky invites reflection on the current social and political landscape through an impressive variety of genres.The throughline is Kaminsky’s exciting sense of rhythm and expressive harmonic language, perfectly executed by Oppens, a master of new music.  

Fantasy begins with a piano quintet in which Oppens is joined by the Cassatt String Quartet. The first movement, “Anthem,” is driven forward by rhythmic material inspired by the West African drumming patterns that Kaminisky studied during her time in Ghana. In “Anthem,” musical motives are layered on top of one another, creating a thrillingly complex rhythmic world. By contrast, the harmonies remain expansive and largely consonant.  [Read more…]

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