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Cliburn Competition finals to hit the big screen on June 10

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by Daniel Hathaway

CliburnThe eventual six finalists in Fort Worth’s 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will play concertos with Leonard Slatkin and the Fort Worth Symphony on Saturday afternoon, June 10. For the first time, the final round will be streamed live in HD to select theaters beginning at 12:55 pm. Click here to locate a local screening venue.

On Tuesday, May 30, twelve semifinalists were named — including two competitors who will be familiar to Northeast Ohio piano fans (above): Georgy Tchaidze won fourth prize in the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition, and Tony Yike Yang was first prize winner in Oberlin’s 2014 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Haydn symphonies, Cheung premiere & Ligeti with Aimard (May 18)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO-051817-FWM-AimardThursday evening’s Cleveland Orchestra program at Severance Hall cozied two ear-stretching modern works by Anthony Cheung and György Ligeti between a pair of Haydn Symphonies — No. 39 from the composer’s “Storm and Stress” period, and No. 96 from his late, mature period. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: Spring at Rocky River Methodist (May 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ScottMacPhersonClevelandChamberChoirEveryone’s favorite season of the year has had tough going in Cleveland this time around, with temperatures lurching back and forth between the high 40s and the mid 80s. But Scott MacPherson and Cleveland Chamber Choir certainly nudged nature along at Rocky River Methodist Church on Saturday evening, May 13 with their attractive program, “No Time Like Spring.” The concert was to be repeated on Sunday afternoon at First Baptist in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]

Oberlin’s Michael Lynn to demonstrate ten historical flutes in May 20 program

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by Daniel Hathaway

Lynn with flutes“I always tell my students that performing on different instruments during the same recital is a bad idea,” Oberlin Baroque flute professor Michael Lynn said in a recent lunch interview. Casting aside his own advice, Lynn will host “A Passion for Innovation: A Lecture/Concert on Ten Rare Flutes, 1770-1900” on May 20 at 11:00 am in Kulas Recital Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory. With the assistance of several Oberlin colleagues, he’ll demonstrate just a few of the sixty flutes in his personal collection using period repertoire specially matched to the instruments.

The idea came to him when he acquired a crystal flute made by Claude Laurent in Paris in 1821. Among the most expensive flutes on the market at that time, these instruments were priced well out of the reach of mere musicians and were frequently given as gifts by the wealthy (among their owners were James Madison and Napoleon Bonaparte). Some 120 of these flutes still exist.

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Cleveland Orchestra: Mendelssohn & Henze with Julia Fischer (May 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TiranFWMWhen the 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream with his sister, he ran right home to write a piano duet on the subject that turned into an overture and later a whole suite of incidental music. Did he have any idea that his music would be inextricably bound to Shakespeare’s play — or its march appropriated for countless wedding recessionals? [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: “Cincinnati Meets Cleveland” (May 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

FreimuthOhio is one of the few states to harbor more than one major symphony orchestra within its borders. Three members of the Cincinnati Symphony joined bows, keys, and valves with a trio from The Cleveland Orchestra on Monday evening, May 8 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The program, featuring some unusual music by Carl Reinecke, Franz Strauss, and Ernst von Dohnányi, as well as a not-so-often-heard version of Romances by Robert Schumann, made a gradual crescendo of sophistication. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Pierre-Laurent Aimard talks about György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto

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by Daniel Hathaway

AimardAlthough French-born pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays a wide range of literature, he has a special affinity for the avant-garde music of Hungarian composer György Ligeti. This weekend, Cleveland audiences will have the excitement of hearing him tackle Ligeti’s phenomenally difficult Piano Concerto in partnership with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra. Performances begin on Thursday evening, May 18, and continue on Friday morning, May 19, and Saturday evening, May 20.

Aimard first encountered Ligeti’s music in the mid-1980s, and from 1993 to 2001, the composer entrusted the pianist with the premieres of nearly all of his late Etudes. Ligeti dedicated Nos. 10 and 12 to Aimard himself. He said the pianist had inspired him to compose some of his most complex piano works.

Complex, but remarkably accessible. Speaking by telephone from his home in Berlin, Aimard said, “From the very beginning, I found his music extremely original, and whatever his ideas are, he can communicate them in a clear and efficient way. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Sérgio & Odair Assad at Plymouth (Apr. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

AssadsDeparting from its normal Saturday evening time slot, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society closed its International Series with a duo recital by Sérgio and Odair Assad on Sunday afternoon, April 30 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Though their styles of playing are different, the Brazilian-born brothers have been performing as a duo for 52 years, and know each other so well that they could probably play a recital blindfolded.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony: Mendelssohn’s Elijah at E.J. Thomas Hall (May 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ASO ElijahA critical mass of nearly 200 singers joined Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony, and a first-rate quartet of soloists for a resounding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah on Saturday evening, May 5 in E.J. Thomas Hall. Commissioned for the 1846 Birmingham Festival following the success of his earlier oratorio St. Paul, Mendelssohn’s concert-length work presents the life of the Hebrew prophet in several dramatic scenes.

[Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Mosa Quartet & Barrick Stees (May 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ART-May-7At the end of a long concert season, the final performance in a series may be a happy or a bittersweet moment. For the Mosa String Quartet — violinists James Thompson and Brian Allen, violist Christine Wu, and cellist Anna Hurt — the last Arts Renaissance Tremont concert on Sunday, May 7 at Pilgrim Church was just about the last appearance the group would make as a quartet, for Wu and Allen are off to graduate studies at Juilliard and the University of Michigan, respectively.

[Read more…]

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