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Review: Cleveland Classical Guitar Society — Beijing Guitar Duo at Plymouth (Jan. 25)

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by James Flood

Beijing-Guitar-DuoDespite Saturday’s prodigious snow, a decent-sized crowd braved hazardous road conditions to greet the Beijing Guitar Duo for their Cleveland appearance. As the snow swirled outside Plymouth Church UCC, the duo warmed the audience with an engaging performance.

Duo members Meng Su and Yameng Wang opened the program with transcriptions of four Domenico Scarlatti harpsichord sonatas. The Beijing Guitar Duo’s warm, gentle, yet full-bodied tone brought an ease and naturalness throughout the four works. In the opening K.173, L. 447 in G minor, their keen sense of phrasing gave the piece an undulating quality. In the second and fourth sonatas of the set (K. 45, L. 265 in D Major, K.151, L. 422 in D minor) Su and Wang established their status as virtuosi with exceptionally fast and effortless scales which moved simultaneously, executed in perfect lockstep between the two. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland ChamberMusic Society — a chat with Albers Trio guest pianist Orion Weiss

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by Mike Telin

WEISS-Orion“I love playing in Cleveland,” says 32 year old pianist and native Clevelander Orion Weiss, “it’s always an honor to come home and I’m looking forward to the concert very much.” On Tuesday, February 4 beginning at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Albers Trio — violinist Laura, violist Rebecca and cellist Julie — with pianist Orion Weiss. The program includes Beethoven’s Trio in G major Op. 9, No. 1, Martinů’s Trio No. 2, H. 238 and Dvorák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 87. A pre-concert interview hosted by Eric Kisch begins at 6:30 pm.

Since graduating from the Juilliard School in 2004, Orion Weiss has performed with many major North American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, Weiss is enthusiastic about playing chamber music. [Read more…]

Report: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Open House at Severance Hall (January 20)

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by Daniel Hautzinger

MLK1In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 20, The Cleveland Orchestra honored Dr. King’s calls for universal brotherhood by hosting its annual Community Open House featuring various Cleveland performing arts groups.

Severance Hall provided warmth throughout the snowy day, with various performances and activities scheduled. The Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer was transformed into a dance floor with flashing lights and an emcee for a fun diversion between performances. Downstairs, in the Smith Lobby, guests were invited to view a display about the life of Dr. King.

Performances began at 12:15 with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus. Directed by Lisa Wong, the enthusiastic high school-age singers demonstrated balance and musical maturity well beyond their years. [Read more…]

Review: Canton Symphony — a rewarding program of American works (January 25)

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by Tom Wachunas

WATTS-AndreAmerican composer Arthur Foote (1853-1937) once wrote that “…the object of the artist should be to tell us in music…the truths of life and the beauty and sublimity of life.” It is an operative philosophy that inspired his best works. The most famous of those is his Suite for Strings in E Major, which was the first selection on the January 25 Canton Symphony Orchestra Masterworks program that spotlighted American composers. I think it fair to say that the other composers on this program shared Foote’s musical outlook.

His Suite for Strings is a brilliant platform for showcasing the depth and sensitivity of this orchestra’s string section. From the lush and pastoral sweep of the first movement, the delightful precision of the Tchaikovsky-esque Pizzicato second movement, and throughout the churning power of the finale, the orchestra was altogether breathtaking. [Read more…]

Preview: Les Délices: “Conversations Galantes” — Visiting the Salons of 18th-Century Paris

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by Daniel Hautzinger

Les-Delices-3The salons of eighteenth century Paris sparkled with witty repartee, political argument, fashionable taste-making, and philosophical deliberation. The rigid hierarchy of the French court disappeared as ranks and genders mingled in exquisite conversation. On Saturday, February 1 at 8:00 pm at Tregoning & Co. Gallery in Cleveland and on Sunday, February 2 at 4:00 pm in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, French Baroque specialists Les Délices will recreate that environment with their program Conversations Galantes.

“Conversations galantes is the idea of intellectual exchange that happens within the salon,” oboist and Les Délices director Debra Nagy said during a recent telephone conversation. “We’re featuring some of the earliest French quartet repertory, which is based on that idea of conversation, where all the voices are equal and contribute to what’s happening melodically.”

The title of the program comes from a 1743 collection of quartets by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, some of which will be performed. [Read more…]

Tribute: Gretchen Garnett (1913-2013)

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by Beverly Simmons & Ross W. Duffin — Special to ClevelandClassical

Gretchen Garnnett in 1995

Gretchen Garnett, 1995

Gretchen Garnett died one day short of her hundredth birthday last month. When we arrived at Case Western Reserve in 1978, she was the longest-serving faculty member in the Music Department. She had been “grandfathered in” as an applied teacher of voice after the Joint Music Program was established between Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1968, when CIM was given responsibility for all the applied music.

She continued to teach voice students with great success until her retirement around 1990. An extraordinary person and a joy to be around, she would hum happily as she walked, smile at everyone, and speak plainly and directly. Her wit was in evidence at the lunch we shared just before her 99th birthday and, when her 100th birthday party had to be postponed for other reasons, she suggested a date next March. So we were all shocked that she didn’t make it even to December 16 – the birthday she shared with Beethoven. [Read more…]

CD Review: Massimo La Rosa, trombone — Sempre Espressivo

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by Daniel Hathaway

LaRosaSempreThree years after releasing his CD, Cantando, Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone Massimo La Rosa has once again teamed up with pianist Elizabeth DeMio — and added four Cleveland Orchestra string colleagues — for a new solo album entitled Sempre Espressivo. Recorded in July, 2013 at Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Clonick Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory, the album was shepherded into production by the eminent team of Elaine Marton (Sonarc Music) and Thomas C. Moore (5/4 Productions) and engineered by 5/4’s Michael Bishop.

The playlist is an intriguing mix of music intentionally written for the trombone and arrangements of solo pieces originally conceived for other instruments. The original works are Frank Martin’s Ballade, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Cavatine and Ferdinand David’s Concertino. The arranged pieces are Puccini’s Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut and Antonio Carlos Gomes’s Grande Valsa de Bravura — both repurposed by Yury Leonovich — and La Rosa’s own adaptations of Wagner’s Träume (Wesendonck Lieder), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Sinfonia in F and J.S. Bach’s first solo cello suite in G. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin String Quartet Intensive & Festival — The Cavani Quartet in Kulas Hall (January 17)

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by Mike Telin

CavaniQuartetWhy is it that we so often take for granted the musical greatness that exists in our own town? Case in point: the Cavani Quartet.

Appointed quartet-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1988, the Cavanis are the only ensemble to have twice received the Guarneri String Quartet Award for Artistic Excellence (2005 and 2011). In addition to their numerous recital appearances at CIM they are also committed to taking the great string quartet literature out of the recital hall and into the neighborhoods. An example is the Beethoven & Brotherhood Project – during which the Cavanis played the complete quartets of Beethoven, one at a time, in sixteen public libraries throughout the Cleveland area.

As educators, the Quartet developed CIM’s Intensive Quartet Seminar, the Apprentice Quartet Program and The Art of Engagement for student ensembles devoted to the serious study of chamber music. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Classical Guitar Society — Beijing Guitar Duo at Plymouth on January 25

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by Mike Telin

Beijing-Guitar-DuoFollowing their May of 2011 performance at Classical Guitar Weekend, ClevelandClassical wrote: “The Beijing Guitar Duo’s recital…was a musically stunning lesson in ensemble playing. Like concentric circles, Meng Su and Yameng Wang performed from a common center: articulations, tonal colors, crescendos, decrescendos, whether jointly or individually were perfectly matched…”

On Saturday, January 25 beginning at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church, the Beijing Guitar Duo returns to Northeast Ohio for a performance on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. The concert features music of Domenico Scarlatti, Tan Dun, Giulio Regondi, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Granados and Piazzolla. A pre-concert demonstration of traditional Chinese painting will be given by Jerry Wang.

“We are very excited to be returning to Cleveland,” Meng Su told us by telephone from Baltimore. “We’re especially looking forward to playing Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolor,’ recalling a visit that she, Yameng Wang and their teacher Manuel Barrueco made to the composer’s home in New York. [Read more…]

Preview: Pianist/Improviser Gabriela Montero to appear on Mixon Masters Series at CIM on January 23

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by Daniel Hathaway

MONTERO-GabrielaGive a baby a toy piano and she’ll almost inevitably attack its keyboard with a fist. Not Gabriela Montero. When the Venezuelan-born pianist was seven months old, she used her fingers to caress the keys of the gift her grandmother had just given her.

That auspicious beginning led to piano lessons and, when she was eight, her concerto debut with José Antonio Abreu’s original National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, when she played Haydn’s D Major Concerto.

Montero will visit Cleveland to perform on the Mixon Hall Masters Series at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Thursday, January 23 at 8:00 pm, when she will play Brahms’s Three Intermezzos, op. 117, Schumann’s Fantasy in C, op. 17, and a series of classical improvisations on themes suggested by the audience. The concert is part of this season’s “Return of the Composer Virtuoso” series.

A talent for improvisation was among Montero’s earliest self discoveries. The pianist, who was not available for an interview, has written, “I have been improvising since my hands first touched the keyboard, but for many years I kept this aspect of my playing secret. [Read more…]

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