by Daniel Hathaway
Jack Sutte’s second album of solo trumpet music, Bent, follows Fanfare Alone and continues his passion for discovering new repertoire in that genre. After exploring various possible meanings of the album title in his liner notes (“images of metal, tubing, sound waves, refracted light”), Sutte writes that “solo works for trumpet are bent for the performer and listener; each requiring a willingness to fully participate in the unusual musical format.” [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Violinist Leila Josefowicz had already performed John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 more than 50 times before she and the composer brought the piece to The Cleveland Orchestra for Severance Hall performances last weekend. More than merely having the nearly hour-long concerto under her fingers, Josefowicz has it under her skin, and the work was the highlight of the evening on Friday, November 30. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Although she didn’t set out to make her appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus this week one for the record books, British conductor Jane Glover will reach her century mark of Messiah performances on Thursday evening, December 6 at Severance Hall, the first of four presentations of Handel’s oratorio through Sunday, December 9.
I reached Glover by telephone in London late last week during her quick trip home between engagements. “I was in Chicago doing the Christmas Oratorio until Tuesday,” she said. “I got back here on Wednesday morning and have had four days to turn around, and I’ll be coming back on Sunday. I’m so looking forward to Messiah in Cleveland. It’s going to be a high point of the year.”
I wanted to chat with the conductor about her personal approach to George Frideric Handel’s most famous oratorio, but I began by asking whether these concerts were to be her third or fourth engagements with the Orchestra.
Jane Glover: It will be my third appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra. I’m thrilled because it’s my favorite orchestra on the planet.
Daniel Hathaway: I believe I read an interview in which you said you’d already led 100 performances of Messiah.
JG: Actually, the first performance with Cleveland will be number 100. Last year I had a couple in the book that I had to cancel because something clashed with them. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Programs of opera scenes are pedagogical standards in music schools, but Kent State Opera’s fall excerpts offered something special this time around. The premiere of senior education major, oboist, and composer Scott Little’s one-act opera, The Story of an Hour, along with two large chunks of Mozart and Berlioz revealed deep talent among Kent’s voice students in cleverly staged performances by Marla Berg with music direction by Jay White. Karen Ni Bhroin and Tori Petrak conducted, and pianist Vicky Tong fluently covered the orchestra parts. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Asked to list some Czech composers, most of us could immediately come up with Dvořák, Smetana, Martinů, Janáček, and maybe Suk. Miloslav Kabeláč’s name would probably not come tripping off the tongue, unless you’re a performer who has played his Wind Sextet. So Cleveland Orchestra audiences learned something from Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša the weekend of November 15-18, when he brought Kabeláč’s Mystery of Time to his guest appearances at Severance Hall. [Read more…]
by David Kulma
The delightful second concert of Tri-C’s free Classical Piano Series at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Gartner Auditorium on Sunday, November 18 featured Alon Goldstein. The program featured his gloriously precise pianism across three centuries from Scarlatti to Bernstein, including helpful speaking from the stage along the way. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Fans of Canadian violinist James Ehnes recently got to enjoy his artistry twice in one month — first on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series with pianist Andrew Armstrong, then with his string quartet on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series. And ChamberFest Cleveland admirers of violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti didn’t have to wait until next summer to hear her play again. The two joined violist Richard O’Neill and cellist Edward Arron in ravishing performances of quartets by Beethoven, Elgar, and Bartók on November 13 at Plymouth Church. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Conductor Alain Altinoglu brought music by his fellow Frenchpeople Debussy and Ravel to his guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra last week, along with an intriguing new work by Matthias Pintscher featuring principal flute Joshua Smith. The concert on Saturday, November 10 played to a large audience who may not have been lured to Severance Hall by the U.S. premiere, but who gave the Pintscher work a thoughtful hearing and its soloist a big ovation. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On November 7 in Hall Auditorium, Jonathon Field’s Oberlin Opera Theatre celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s centennial year with a professional-quality performance of his one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, and a revisiting of some of his Broadway triumphs in excerpts both brilliantly sung and crisply danced. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Kent State music education major Scott Little’s new opera, The Story of an Hour, has inspired KSU opera director Marla Berg to take her annual fall opera scenes program to a new level this year.
“Although I didn’t hear the portion of Scott’s piece that was workshopped during Cleveland Opera Theatre’s {NOW} Festival, Tim Culver thought it was really good. Then I heard a reading of some of the work at Kent. But what really spurred me on is that Scott wrote a short piece for the Kent orchestra and choral concert last spring, and I really liked it. He came in to talk with me about what it would be like to produce an opera and I thought, you know what? It’s a 40-minute piece. Wouldn’t it be an extraordinary experience for everybody involved if we did it.”
Berg’s decision to mount the premiere ramped up the usually modest fall opera scenes program considerably. “I normally do a montage of eight to ten small scenes, and I thought, I’ll just match Scott’s piece up with two bigger scenes,” Berg said. Although she’s always promising to make things easier on herself the next time around, the director ended up choosing Act III of The Marriage of Figaro and scenes from Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict with spoken dialogue from Shakespeare, all of which share the theme of marriage. [Read more…]