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CityMusic: Vivaldi recomposed at St. Stan’s (Mar. 16)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

By the end of violinist Laura Hamilton’s and CityMusic Cleveland’s convincing performance of Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposed (after A. Vivaldi) on Saturday, March 16 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, you had the uncanny feeling that what you were hearing was not so much a new piece but an old piece in a dream.

In each of the twelve movements Richter brings Vivaldi in and out of focus by isolating and repeating melodic fragments against an attenuated accompaniment. In the slow movements more of the melody is preserved — the Largo in “Winter” for example — but the original harmonic framework is altered. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire “Hispania, a Voyage from Spain to the Americas” (Mar. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Apollo’s Fire makes the enjoyment of old music easy. Less interested in the virtues of museum preservation, this band delights in having practices and creations of the past party with the present.

Their most recent show, “Hispania, a Voyage from Spain to the Americas,” is ostensibly an excursion by sea through sixteenth-century Spain and Latin America in ballades, dances, and instrumental fancies. But where another period ensemble might have rowed their boat with deliberate and reverential strokes, Jeannette Sorrell and her joyous troupe made this trip a theatrical thrill ride. I attended the performance at St. Rocco Parish on March 21.

[Read more…]

Imani Winds bring music for thought to Oberlin (Mar. 7)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Imani Winds completed a brief residency at Oberlin Conservatory in spectacular and moving fashion with a recital of new and involving works in Warner Concert Hall on March 7.

A pre-concert panel — which brought together Oberlin faculty members with the Imani Winds’ Monica Ellis and Chamber Music Detroit’s Bryan Jones — helped frame the music to come. Jeff Scott’s Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, an unflinching look at the U.S. criminal justice system historically misapplied to young men of color, served as the emotional and consequential center of the program, and the through-line of the discussion.

Jody Kerchner shared her activity as Director of the Oberlin Music at Grafton Choir, playing excerpts of music written and performed by its incarcerated members while they listened in real time on a livestream.

[Read more…]

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson, Cleveland Orchestra team up for refined, unfussy evening of Mozart (Mar. 14)

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By Kevin McLaughlin, Cleveland Classical
Originally published in Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Though we missed hearing pianist Igor Levit, who withdrew due to illness, it was a pleasure, as always, to welcome Garrick Ohlsson to Severance Music Center on Thursday, March 14. With Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra musicians as partners, the pianist strode onstage to render as refined and unfussy a performance of a Mozart Piano Concerto as one might hope to hear.

The Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, K. 595 — Mozart’s last — was composed in 1788, though not performed until March of 1791. Many keyboard players like to ascribe to Mozart the same pathos that attached itself to Schubert in his final years of life, but Ohlsson knows better. Mozart’s music rarely reflects immediate personal crises, and this particular concerto wasn’t designed for that anyway. (Photo by Yevhen Gulenko)

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Cleveland Chamber Choir sparkles in “Choral Splendor: Old and New” (Mar. 2)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Composers are always looking back to their elders — and whether out of deference, anxiety, homage, or a desire to understand, it is right and good to admit your debt to the past.

Several contemporary composers (Claudia Hinsdale, Jeff Scott, Joshua Estok, Andrew Rindfleisch, and Caroline Shaw) honored old masters — and did themselves honor in return — in a satisfying program of pairings on Saturday, March 2, at the First Lutheran Church of Lorain. Artistic director Gregory Ristow and the exceptional voices of the Cleveland Chamber Choir were their co-travelers in time.

As one of the earliest examples of a composer referencing an older style, Crucifixum in carne (probably by Medieval composer Pérotin, looking back at the anonymous original) served as an appropriate introduction. Here, the old was intertwined with the new as an elongated cantus firmus undergirded fancy new polyphony. Sung by thirteen unaccompanied male voices led by assistant conductor Peter Wright, the piece resonated warmly in the sanctuary.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Isserlis & Shih dazzle at Disciples (Feb. 27)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Rarely has a recital program packed Disciples Christian Church with as much excitement or as many people as on Tuesday, February 27. Happily, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih more than lived up to expectations.

The program, presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, included highlights of 20th-century Russian cello repertoire — sonatas of Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, and Rachmaninoff, plus one unsung gem by the cellist’s grandfather. Mstislav Rostropovich — the late-great cellist-progenitor for a large swath of modern cello works, including the Kabalevsky — seemed to hover as inspiration and patron saint.

Isserlis, who adopts the posture and breathing habits of a singer, produced a voluptuous tone, a range of colors, and a princely demeanor from the start. Shih was the ideal collaborator, an eloquent and graceful player in her own right, with a massive technique.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Zidur Guitar Duo (Feb. 24)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Hermelindo Ruiz and Samuel Diz, constituents of the Zidur Guitar Duo, made their Cleveland debut on Saturday, February 24, endearing themselves to the crowd at the Maltz Performing Arts Center with an attractive program and winning personalities — two young virtuosos from out of town you’d like to meet afterwards over tapas and beer.

Ruiz, a native Puerto Rican, and Diz, Spanish-born, delighted in sharing music from their respective countries, including works by Egúrbida, Gottschalk, Rodrigo, Vide, and Acosta, plus two by Ruiz himself. While other guitarists might have been inclined to flashier repertoire, Ruiz and Diz chose milder stuff, perhaps ambassadors of a gentler sort.

[Read more…]

JazzNEO to premiere February 26: a conversation with host Dee Perry

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Good news for jazz lovers, or even the jazz-curious: the launch on February 26 of Ideastream Public Media’s full-time jazz channel. Featuring hosts Dee Perry, Dan Polletta, and John Simna, JazzNEO will broadcast on 90.3 HD2 and be livestreamed on JazzNEO.org.

Perry, who gladly came out of retirement to be one of the inaugural hosts, is excited about the venture. “Northeast Ohio has a vibrant culture of players, presenters, and students of jazz, and what really excites me is how JazzNEO can shine a spotlight on all that talent and connect it to listeners who are looking to nourish their ears, brains, and hearts,” she has said.

I sat down with Perry in Ideastream’s facility on Euclid Avenue to talk about JazzNEO and her love of jazz. I began by asking her about her first experiences with the genre.

Dee Perry: My dad built his own stereo set, and he had three albums: Miles Davis’s Flamenco Sketches, a Gloria Lynn album — I think it was Great American Songbook tunes done in a jazzy kind of way — and a third album of train sounds.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony Celebrates Thirty years of Gospel Meets Symphony (Feb. 10)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

For the past 29 years, the Akron Symphony’s “Gospel Meets Symphony” concert has brought together African American and European classical music traditions. During the 30th edition at E.J. Thomas Hall on February 10, which involved the Gospel Meets Symphony choir, junior gospel choir, soloists, rhythm section, and the Akron Symphony Orchestra, the power and joy of the gospel repertoire outmatched the classical — and the exuberance from choirmaster Jonathon Turner and his ensembles eclipsed everybody.

ASO music director Christopher Wilkins was a genial host, downplaying his conducting role even while he did it skillfully. “The way to conduct these concerts is just to light the fuse,” he said. He spoke easily and warmly, an unabashed advocate of the program, eager to introduce the music and enjoy it along with the rest of us.

[Read more…]

George Benjamin and Cleveland Orchestra transform Severance into a realm of vivid imagery (Feb. 15)

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by Kevin McLaughlin | Cleveland Classical

Originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ballet scores may be the most evocative music. Play Ravel’s Mother Goose on a concert stage without dancers or scenery, and you will still imagine the dancing in your mind. On its own, as conducted by George Benjamin and played by The Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday, February 15, it was as full of vivid imagery as if we had spent a night in the theater.

Benjamin, who has described himself as “a composer who conducts,” showed to a nearly full house at Severance Music Center that he can do both equally well. In a challenging program including his own Dream of the Song, and scores by Dieter Ammann, Oliver Knussen, and Maurice Ravel, he also showed the ability to realize each composer’s imagination.

[Read more…]

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