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Preview: Akron Symphony to celebrate fortieth anniversary of E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall on October 12

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by Mike Telin

EJ-Thomas-exteriorWhen the Edwin J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall opened at the University of Akron in October 1973, the multi-use space received rave reviews from critics. The 2,955 seat auditorium also became home to the Akron Symphony. On Saturday, October 12 beginning at 8:00 pm, Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead the ASO in a concert that celebrates the Hall’s 40th anniversary. The program features Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture conducted by Guy Victor Bordo, Nikola Resanovic’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (Collateral Damage) with Kristina Belisle Jones as soloist, and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.

As is the case with many of the world’s concert halls, E.J. Thomas has presented acoustical challenges for the symphony. But as Wilkins points out, “the positives of E.J. Thomas are easy to enumerate. It’s a very comfortable space for the audience and I think it’s an interesting piece of architecture. Also the physical location is ideal because it’s right on the line between the University campus and downtown and as the campus has moved toward downtown that whole area is so active.”

Wilkins says he chose Ein Heldenleben not so much because it was autobiographical for Strauss but rather it was a musical story of an artist’s life. [Read more…]

Preview: Stile Antico to sing English Renaissance music at St. John’s Cathedral on October 11

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by Daniel Hathaway

Stile-AnticoThe twelve-member British vocal ensemble Stile Antico will return for its second visit to the Helen D. Schubert Concert Series at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland on Friday evening, October 11 at 7:30. The program this time, entitled “Phoenix Rising,” is devoted to church music of the English Renaissance, including William Byrd’s, Mass for Five Voices & Ave verum corpus, Thomas Tallis’s Salvator mundi & In ieiunio et fletu, Thomas Morley’s Nolo mortem peccatoris, Orlando Gibbons’s O clap your hands together & Almighty and everlasting God, Robert White’s Portio mea & Christe qui lux es, Thomas Weelkes’s, Gloria in excelsis Deo & John Taverner’s O splendor gloriae. The concert is free.

Most of Stile Antico’s singers — Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Hickey, Emma Ashby, Eleanor Harries, Katie Schofield, Jim Clements, Andrew Griffiths, Benedict Hymas, Will Dawes, Tom Flint & Matthew O’Donovan — grew up in the choral tradition of the Anglican Church and many still sing professionally in cathedrals and parish churches. The ensemble operates without a conductor or artistic director, making Stile Antico unique among vocal ensembles of its size. The group also boasts three sisters among its members, two of them twins. [Read more…]

Preview: Chagrin Valley Chamber Music — Andrew Sords and Eriko Izumida in “Virtuoso’s Showcase”

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by Mike Telin

Sords-IzumidaViolinist Andrew Sords has been described by global critics as “utterly radiant” and “exceptionally heartfelt and soulful.” Having appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras and performed on notable recital series across four continents. Sords is recognized for performances of the standard violin concerti of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 2012, Sords was the sole recipient of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Career Grant.

On Sunday, October 13 beginning at 3:00 pm in Valley Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls, the Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Concert Series presents Andrew Sords and pianist Eriko Izumida in “Virtuoso’s Showcase.” The program includes sonatas by Mozart and Elgar, Hubay’s Carmen Fantasy, Piazzolla’s Grand Tango and Bartók’s Romanian Dances.

Andrew Sords looks forward to Sunday’s recital and the opportunity to reunite with his long time collaborator Eriko Izumida. “We’ve known each other since I was 14,” he said, adding that they first met because he needed a pianist to play a Beethoven sonata with him in high school. “She did a number of competitions with me and I continue to enjoy working with her. We have performed the Mozart we’re doing on Sunday around thirty times together.” [Read more…]

Preview: Apollo’s Fire celebrates its twenty-second season with seven home programs and national and European tours

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by Daniel Hathaway

SORRELL-JeannetteAfter I congratulated her on launching her ensemble’s twenty-second season, Apollo’s Fire founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell said, “We’re into adulthood now, and we’re in a really fantastic place regarding our artistic reputation.” Cleveland patrons don’t need to be reminded of the high quality of playing their resident baroque orchestra turns in on a regular basis, but a wider audience is now sitting up and paying attention.

One indication of Apollo’s Fire’s “grown-up” status: the ensemble has recently been picked up by Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI), “a big stamp of approval”, Sorrell said. “We’re the first period instrument orchestra to appear on their roster, and after twenty-one years of honing our craft and trying to perfect our art, it’s great to be getting global attention.”

We reached Jeannette Sorrell via Skype last weekend to chat about the multiple performances of seven programs that local audiences will enjoy in area church venues this season. It all begins with “Virtuoso Orchestra”, which opens on Thursday, October 10 at First Methodist in Akron and will be repeated on October 11 and 12 at Fairmount Presbyterian in Cleveland Heights and on October 13 at Rocky River Presbyterian.

Sorrell promises that the program will live up to its name with dazzling performances including Vivaldi’s concerto for four violins, Bach’s fourth Brandenburg Concerto and a novelty for local audiences, a concerto by J.D. Heinichen. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with tenor Matthew Polenzani

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by Mike Telin
POLENZANI-MatthewAmerican lyric tenor Matthew Polenzani has been praised for the artistic versatility and fresh lyricism that he brings to concert and operatic appearances on leading international stages. Of his recent Metropolitan Opera performance as the young military officer Ferrando in Cosí Fan Tutte, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote, “[Polenzani’s] singing of Ferrando had Mozartean elegance along with exciting, tenorial ping. He brought honeyed sound and melting pianissimos to the sublime aria ‘Un’aura amorosa.’”

This weekend Matthew Polenzani returns to Severance Hall for three performances of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. I reached him on his cell phone in New York where he was experiencing a real life moment —yes, stars of the Metropolitan Opera do get stuck in traffic with their kids. But being the very down-to-earth and gracious Midwesterner that he is, when I ask him if he would prefer that I call at another time he responds, “No not really, now is as good a time as any.” I began by asking him when he first came to Britten’s Serenade.

Matthew Polenzani: I knew about it because I have enjoyed Britten’s music from the time I first became interested in classical music. And I was invited to sing it with Jeffrey Tate in Minnesota around 2000. That was the first time I performed the piece and I loved it. It’s great music, very descriptive and pictorial writing. It’s just beautiful and I’ve enjoyed it very much. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra to feature Britten’s Serenade — a conversation with horn soloist Richard King

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by Mike Telin

KING-Richard“I have played many of the big horn concertos and this piece has been on the back burner because [we needed] to find a tenor who was of the right ilk and available, says Cleveland Orchestra principal horn Richard King. The piece King is referring to is Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and luckily for Cleveland audiences, the right tenor has come along.

This weekend at Severance Hall, tenor Matthew Polenzani and Richard King will give the first performances by The Cleveland Orchestra of Britten’s haunting work. The concerts, under the direction of Marek Janowski, also include Fauré’s Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Additionally, on Friday, October 11 beginning at 11:30 at the Beechmont Country Club, Richard King will be the featured guest on the orchestra’s Meet the Artist Series.

We spoke to Richard King by telephone and began by asking him to share his thoughts on Britten’s Serenade.

Richard King: Well I have never played it, so I am very excited. I don’t know if the Serenade is in the mainstream anymore but this is Britten’s 100th birthday year. The piece was written for the great — and maybe the greatest horn player of all time — Dennis Brain at his request. [Read more…]

Review: Linden String Quartet on Signature Series at Lorain County Community College (October 7)

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by Nicholas Jones

Linden-SQ-outdoorsNortheast Ohio – cradle of string quartets! The Linden String Quartet, which began when the players were graduate students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, have achieved a remarkable record of success in five years – topped by the gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2009 and a win at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition the next year.

On Monday, the Lindens played a full program of string quartet music as part of the Signature Series at Lorain County Community College’s Stocker Center for the Arts.

Like another area quartet (the Jasper, which began at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music), the Lindens went from CIM to a two-year residency at Yale, under the guidance of the Tokyo String Quartet. They have recently returned to the Cleveland area, full of energy about programming, community outreach, and repertoire. [Read more…]

Review: Les Délices — A Woman Scorned at Plymouth Church (October 6)

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by Nicholas Jones

Les-Delices-Woman-Scorned-BustaAnger, murder, guilt, and recrimination! The last episode of Breaking Bad? No: this was the opening concert of the season for Les Délices, the remarkable Cleveland-based chamber group specializing in music of the French baroque.

The program, “A Woman Scorned,” featured lurid stories of betrayal and revenge involving five of the great women characters of classical myth. These were stories that the court of Louis XIV loved, apparently seeing them as safe ways in which to rehash their own tortuous infidelities: Juno, the goddess jealous of her philandering husband Jove; Phaedra, driven mad by passion for her stepson; Armida, sorceress and seductress; Circe, who turned men to beasts; and Medea, sorceress and lover—passed over by Jason for a younger woman, she proceeds to poison her rival and then murder her own children in order to drive her ex to kill himself.

Not material for the faint-hearted. [Read more…]

Review: A Mixed Scottish Bag from the Canton Symphony Orchestra (October 5)

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by Tom Wachunas

CSO-ZImmermannWhat more appropriate way to begin a Scottish-themed program than with a live pipe and drum band? Members of the Celtic Eagle Pipe Band joined the Canton Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in opening its 2013- 2014 season with Marches and Airs, written by local composer and Music Director of the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Eric Benjamin.

In his program notes, Benjamin made no secret of his love for the sound of bagpipes. Addressing the task of effectively blending the orchestra with the sequence of six traditional Scottish tunes that comprise the work, he wrote, “As the music exists for pipes and drums alone, the challenge for me as an arranger was to come up with interesting things for the orchestra to do so as to contribute something unique to the sequence.”

Not least among the challenges was to allow the orchestral instruments to be heard against a loud group of three pipers and two drummers. [Read more…]

Preview: eighth blackbird returns to Oberlin for concert with Contemporary Music Ensemble

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by Mike Telin

eighth-blackbirdDeemed by the New York Times as “a hotbed of contemporary-classical players” and a “rural experimental haven,” the Oberlin Conservatory of Music has a history of cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship in its students. “Oberlin gives students the opportunity to experiment,” says Tim Weiss, director of Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. “Undergraduates don’t really think about the limited number of ways one has to enter the music industry, they are only thinking about music as an art form. It’s very pure and they have no fears about entering the industry so I think that students are better equipped to be entrepreneurs because of their involvement in experimentation.”

On Friday, October 4 at 8:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall, Tim Weiss will lead the Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) in a concert featuring guest artists and three-time Grammy-winning eighth blackbird, a group originally formed at Oberlin. The program includes music by composer-in-residence Benjamin Broening, Kaija Saariaho, Lisa Kaplan, Derek Bermel, and David Lang. The concert also features the premieres of pieces by Oberlin Technology in Music and Related Arts (T.I.M.A.R.A.) professors Tom Lopez and Peter Swendsen

Weiss, who reluctantly takes credit for forming eighth blackbird, says that he first put them together as a chamber group. [Read more…]

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