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Preview: ChamberFest Cleveland season two — (It’s) About Time — June 20-30

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by Mike Telin

COHEN-Frank-&-DianaFollowing on the heels of their highly successful premiere season, ChamberFest Cleveland artistic directors Frank and Diana Cohen have again assembled an impressive lineup of artists who will perform a variety of musical offerings in an expanded array of diverse venues.

Beginning on Thursday, June 20, and running through Sunday, June 30, (IT’S) ABOUT TIME explores the different elements of time as related to the musical experience, through metaphoric and literal representations of musical time. “We struggled a lot with the title,” Diana Cohen told us by Skype. “Our returning guest speaker, Patrick Castillo, had the idea that the title should be about the interesting aspects that exist in the relationship between time and music. We couldn’t come up with a name, then somebody said, ‘so, it’s about time,’ and it stuck.”

Cohen says the decision to expand to eight ticketed concerts as well as increasing the number of free programs this season was not easy. “There was a lot of debate in terms of how much we should expand, in part because what we liked about last season was the fact that everything was sold out in addition to the incredible amount of community support we received.” Cohen says that last season’s audience surveys, which were full of “honest” feedback,  helped them a lot in making decisions about this season. [Read more…]

Preview: Russian Duo kicks off Music by Nature series in Cuyahoga Valley National Park on June 9

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by Mike Telin

Russian-DuoOn Sunday, June 9 beginning at 6:30 pm at the Happy Days Lodge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Music By Nature presents Russian Duo, Oleg Kruglyakov, balalaika & Terry Boyarsky, piano in a concert featuring Russian, classical, Soviet & folk music. As always, Music By Nature audiences are invited to picnic on the grounds beginning at 5 pm, and a dessert reception follows the performance.

Although the combination of balalaika and piano may seem a bit unusual, Terry Boyarsky and Oleg Kruglyakov think the variety of musical styles that are included in their nature-inspired program highlight the range of possibilities the combination of instruments are capable of producing. “I think the idea is that we are taking music from different parts of the planet and blending them [together] with these instruments and it does sound like nature re-united, like the United Nations,” says Kruglyakov. [Read more…]

Preview: Apollo’s Fire Countryside Concerts — My Father Was a Matchmaker

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by Mike Telin

FOLEY-TomáseenJune is finally here, which means it’s time for many musical groups to move into Summer Mode. For Apollo’s Fire, that means the 2013 edition of the group’s popular Countryside Concerts is just around the corner. Beginning on Thursday, June 6 and running through Tuesday, June 11, with a special children’s concert on Tuesday June 11, (check our Concert Listings page for locations and times), the acclaimed Irish storyteller Tomáseen Foley returns to Northeast Ohio with a new show titled My Father Was a Matchmaker: Tunes & Tales of Love from Old Ireland.

Foley will be joined by his longtime collaborator and Grammy Award-winning artist William Coulter, guest music director & guitarist, vocalist Ross Hauck, Irish piper & dancer Brian Bigley, hammered dulcimer player Tina Bergmann & Canadian fiddler Edwin Huizinga.

Foley says the idea for My Father Was a Matchmaker came after last season’s highly successful Celtic Crossings: Songs & Stories of the Irish-American Journey. “Jeannette Sorrell and I were discussing some ideas for the future and I told her about my father. She thought it was a great idea and so it developed from there.” [Read more…]

Review: Classical Guitar Weekend at CIM — Five solo recitals (May 23-25)

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by Daniel Hathaway, James Flood & Mike Telin

VIEAUX-JasonWhiteThough packed with lectures, panel discussions, exhibits and master classes, Classical Guitar Weekend, sponsored by Guitars International, centers around a series of solo recitals by international artists. This year’s fetival — the thirteenth — featured Cleveland’s own Jason Vieaux, assisted by three instrumentalists from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the debut of Korean guitarist Jiyeon Kim, the American artist Colin Davin, the Belgian guitarist Raphaëlla Smits in her fourth appearance at the festival, and British-born artist Jonathan Leathwood. The five players offered the Mixon Hall audiences a wide range of repertory to ponder and enjoy.

Jason Vieaux

Representing the host of Classical Guitar Weekend, Cleveland Institute of Music guitar professor Jason Vieaux sometimes caps off the weekend’s activities, but this time was the headliner for Thursday evening’s opening concert. After playing a sweet and beautifully layered performance of Fernando Sor’s Bagatellle, op. 44, no. 3, Vieaux told the audience that he had decided to revisit repertory he had played over the years at Classical Guitar Weekend, after working on some of the pieces on the program with students and recalling how much he liked them. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra’s Fridays @ 7 (May 24)

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by Guytano Parks

SELVAGGIO-BobbyThe Cleveland Orchestra concluded its 2012/13 Severance Hall subscription series this weekend with a bang. Riding the wave of success from last week’s “At Home” neighborhood residency program in the Gordon Square Arts District on Cleveland’s West Side, The Happy Dog and its co-owner, Sean Watterson went in with University Circle Inc. and the Orchestra to provide bus service to Severance Hall with a reduced ticket price for the final Fridays @ 7 concert in addition to the festive @fterparty.

Friday evening’s patrons who didn’t ride the bus (it left at 6:00 p.m.) were encouraged to attend the 6:00 p.m. pre-concert st@rters in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall event, a lively sampling of Bobby Selvaggio’s unique saxophone artistry featuring the Bobby Selvaggio Quartet and Strings. Then came the hour-long Fridays @ 7 concert by The Cleveland Orchestra with guest conductor Manfred Honeck. The @fterparty brought the night to a high-energy close with a return to the roots of funk by the 11-piece music collective Mokaad. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra with Manfred Honeck & Lars Vogt at Severance Hall (May 23)

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by Mike Telin

HONECK-ManfredThis past weekend The Cleveland Orchestra concluded its 2012-13 Severance Hall season with a series of concerts that featured the music of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Martinsson under the direction of Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, who was making his highly anticipated Cleveland Orchestra debut. Honeck, who serves as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, has earned a reputation for his ability to bring new life to the standard repertoire. In an interview with this publication Honeck, said that “…having the audience feel like they are hearing a world premiere of a piece is very important to me.” On Thursday, May 23, Manfred Honeck achieved his goal in every way as he and the outstanding Cleveland Orchestra gave an emotionally gripping performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

From the beginning you were aware that this was not going to be another run-of-the-mill performance of an old warhorse as the opening lines in the clarinets seemingly grew out of the stage floor. [Read more…]

CD Review: “Kol Nidrei & Beyond: Lev’s Story” — Brian Thornton, cello, with Spencer Myer, piano

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by Daniel Hathaway

ARONSON-LevLev Aronson was a Latvian cellist who managed during the Nazi regime to survive slave labor, the confiscation of his instruments and internment in the concentration camp at Stutthof. After being rescued by the Soviets, he was re-imprisoned, miraculously escaped and made his way to the American Zone. After the War, he became principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony and, as a celebrated teacher, profoundly influenced a number of young cellists including Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirchbaum and Brian Thornton. He died in 1988 (The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson, a book about his life by Frances Brent, was published in 2009).

Thornton, a member of The Cleveland Orchestra, has launched a project to honor Lev Aronson’s legacy with an annual festival at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, set to launch on June 10, a CD to be released today, May 29, and a forthcoming series of concerts in temples and synagogues.

The CD, Kol Nidrei & Beyond: Lev’s Story is an evocative, living memorial to a great cellist told through wordless songs: original music by Max Bruch (his setting of Kol Nidrei), Sergei Rachmaninoff (Vocalise) and Ernest Bloch (Prayer from Jewish Life, No. 1), Yuriy Leonovich’s Fantasie on Themes from Dvorak’s ‘Rusalka’, four of Aronson’s arrangements (a Hassidic dance, Ansky’s Mipnei ma, Bloch’s Abodah and Lavry’s Kinereth), and Patrick Zimmerli’s five-movement Sonata “Kol Nidrei” for solo cello which Thornton commissioned especially for the project. Spencer Myer is the excellent pianist. [Read more…]

Review: Quire Cleveland: “Palestrina at St. Peter’s” with guest conductor Jameson Marvin (May 25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

QuireJohn, son of Louis from the town of Palestrina, essentially became the official composer of the Church of Rome when he was appointed as master of the papal choir (Cappella Giulia) at St. Peter’s Basilica in 1551 and had come to represent the culmination and perfection of Renaissance polyphony by the time he died in 1594. He wrote as many masses as Haydn wrote symphonies, as well as hundreds of motets, offertories and hymns for use in the Roman Rite.

Quire Cleveland gave a large audience just a taste of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s vast trove of liturgical music on Saturday evening, May 25 at Historic St. Peter’s Church in downtown Cleveland when guest conductor Jameson Marvin conducted the 22 professional singers in what is probably Palestrina’s most famous mass setting, its movements interspersed with six motets, five of them on Marian texts. [Read more…]

Preview: Summer Events in Northeast Ohio

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by Daniel Hathaway

Blossom-Lawn-by-Roger-Mastroianni-CLO81703_408Concert series began spinning down just before Memorial Day weekend, but looking ahead, there’s a long list of summertime classical music events to enjoy in Northeast Ohio. Here’s an overview in alphabetical order of major summer concert series and events (keep an eye on the ClevelandClassical concert listings for details and more single events). Click on the links in the headers below for further information and online ticketing.

Apollo’s Fire, June 6-11, in Hunting Valley, Chardon, Olmsted Township, & Bath

Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra turns into a folk ensemble for its summertime “Countryside Concerts.” This year’s series, “My Father was a Matchmaker,” features Irish storyteller Tomaséen Foley.

Blossom Festival, July 3 – September 1, Cuyahoga Falls

After playing its annual “Star-Spangled Spectacular” in Public Square on July 1, The Cleveland Orchestra opens its summer season at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Valley National Park on July 5 and 6 with music director Franz Welser-Möst conducting. His third concert at Blossom on July 13 will mark the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth with opera selections featuring soprano Christine Brewer and bass Alan Held. [Read more…]

Review: Bootsy Collins and Contemporary Youth Orchestra in “Rock the Orchestra” at CSU (May 17)

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by Mike Telin

COLLINS-BootsySince 2001, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra under the direction of its always-creative founder and music director Liza Grossman, have presented an end-of-season Rock the Orchestra concert. Past concerts have given CYO members the chance to work with some of the greats from the world of Rock including the likes of Graham Nash, Jon Anderson, Pat Benatar, Donnie Iris and Jefferson Starship. On Friday, May 17 in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins joined forces with CYO in an electrifying concert titled Psychotic Bump School.

But this concert amounted to far more than a celebrated artist playing his or her beloved tunes backed up by an orchestra; this performance was all about the collaborative nature of music. Collins, the CYO, the 57-member Campus International School Bootsy Choir under the direction of Janice Fields Pohl, and his own band — Keith Cheatham, guitar, “Monster” Mike Cobb, bass, Ken “BAM” Smith, drums, Zac Adams, Candice Cheatham and Lauren Mallory, vocals — plus some cool dance steps by Patti Collins, all added up to one gigantic music-making and dancing machine. [Read more…]

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