by Daniel Hathaway
Among the more persistent bits of misinformation about Johann Sebastian Bach is the notion that the Cantor of Leipzig was completely forgotten soon after his death in 1750, his antiquated musical style disdained by a younger, cooler generation of composers — including his sons. In fact, Bach’s legacy never completely died out. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Like a commuter ferry, The Cleveland Orchestra took on more passengers as it went along through the Thursday, April 6 concert featuring pianist Mitsuko Uchida. First, twenty-four string players and four winds came onboard for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12, then the winds disembarked and more string players appeared on deck for a Mendelssohn string symphony. Finally, nine winds joined that larger body of strings for Mozart’s 20th Piano Concerto. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Last heard in Cleveland in September as one-third of the Montrose Piano Trio, pianist Jon Kimura Parker returned for a solo recital on Sunday, April 9 in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. His unusual, brilliantly played program, “Passion and Pictures,” concluded the tenth season of Tri-C’s Classical Piano Series. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Chinese-born guitarist Xuefei Yang’s program on Saturday, March 25 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights paralleled the life cycle of a flower — budding at the beginning with a lute suite by Johann Sebastian Bach, opening up its petals in pieces by Niccolò Paganini and Xu Changjun, then coming into full, fragrant bloom with a set of Brazilian tunes by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Dilermando Reis, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Aníbal Augusto Sardinha. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
When you’re programming English Baroque music by Handel and Purcell for an American orchestra, it’s helpful to have a native Englishman in charge, especially someone who has produced music in some of the same halls as those storied composers. Having served early in his career as sub-organist at Westminster Abbey, Harry Bicket knows how to recreate British pomp and ceremony on this side of the pond, as he demonstrated in a scintillating concert with The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday evening, April 1 in Severance Hall. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Having paid tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach’s prowess as a composer of orchestral music in its last set of concerts, Apollo’s Fire and Apollo’s Singers presented expertly performed examples of his Leipzig liturgical works at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Heights on Friday, March 24 with guest conductor Joseph Gascho at the helm. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
When you’re in your mid-eighties, it’s good to stimulate your grey matter by taking up something new. This year, the 85th Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival will make a little detour from its normal four-year cycle of performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s B-minor Mass, the two Passions, and the Christmas Oratorio.
On the weekend of April 7-8, the Festival will focus on the theme of how Bach’s music inspired Johannes Brahms, and the featured choral work will be the German Requiem. Pianists Pierre and Sophié van der Westhuizen, who perform as the Westhuizen Duo, will also play a central role in this year’s Festival.
In a conference call with Festival director Dirk Garner and Pierre van der Westhuizen, Garner was quick to assure Bach Festival regulars that this year’s departure from the norm is a special case. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
When Robert Cronquist conducts the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra in its 82nd anniversary concert in Severance Hall on Sunday, April 9 at 3:30 pm, the performance will feature Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Louisville-based pianist “Nada” as soloist.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Nada Loufti fled into the mountains to escape civil war and terrorism, which claimed her mother’s life in a mortar explosion. Her seven years in exile nevertheless prepared her to enter the Paris Conservatory, where she was the first woman of Middle Eastern descent to win a first prize.
“I loved it. The Conservatory was still in its old building on the Rue de Madrid — such a historic place,” the pianist said in a telephone conversation. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Here’s a librarian’s nightmare: knowing what you should find between its covers, you sit down to examine one of the great sources of English pre-Reformation music, only to discover that one-third of its contents no longer exists.
It’s still a mystery why so many pages of the late 15th-century Eton Choirbook that contains Richard Davy’s Matthew Passion went missing. But this weekend, Northeast Ohio audiences can hear Quire Cleveland sing the complete work in a restoration by its artistic director, Ross W. Duffin.
Performances will take place on Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 pm at St. Bernard’s Church in Akron, and twice on Palm Sunday, April 9 — at 3:00 pm at Historic St. Peter’s in downtown Cleveland, and at 7:00 pm (note corrected time) at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
There may be more vocal techniques to explore in addition to the sighs, slides, hums, whistles, heterodyning, Spanish tongue-twisters, and keening that the four women of Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble produced with larynxes, mouths, lips, and teeth on Wednesday, March 22 at Transformer Station. But selections from works by eleven composers gave an ear-opening introduction to state-of-the-art vocal chamber music, a field that’s still evolving. [Read more…]