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Apollo’s Fire and Alan Choo find riches in “Palace of Versailles” (Mar. 6)

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by Peter Feher

In 1715, the French composer Jean-Féry Rebel had the shrewd idea of combining the most popular Baroque dances of his day into a single crowd-pleasing piece. Les Caractères de la Danse was a hit with Parisian audiences, thanks in large part to the thrill that accompanies recognition.

Modern listeners can surely relate, even if they might struggle to tell a minuet from a musette or a gigue from a gavotte. Take Rebel’s concept, but swap in the music and moves of “Y.M.C.A.” or “Kung Fu Fighting,” and you have “Evolution of Dance,” one of the first viral videos in internet history.

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Leonkoro Quartet traces lineage in Cleveland Chamber Music Society debut (Mar. 3)

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by Peter Feher

Out of Vienna is the title of the Leonkoro Quartet’s latest album, but that phrase could easily stand in for all of the ensemble’s recent performances.

Never mind the specialized focus of the recording, which centers on Second Viennese School composers Alban Berg and Anton Webern. In a program of entirely standard repertoire — Haydn, Beethoven, and Felix Mendelssohn were on the bill for the Quartet’s Cleveland debut — the influence of a certain city proved just as inescapable.

Of course, classical music in the 21st century thrives on cosmopolitanism. The young Leonkoros are based in Berlin, having formed at conservatory there in 2019, and they’ve cultivated utmost cohesion and top-level technique. Worldwide attention came after they swept London’s Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in 2022.

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World premiere of “La Diosa” leads Les Délices to Latin America (Feb. 28)

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By Peter Feher

There’s something sacred about the female voice. And while the title of “La Divina” has already been claimed, today’s sopranos might still aspire to a similar status — “La Diosa,” perhaps.

That’s the self-assertion made early on in Soy La Diosa (“I Am the Goddess”), a prophetic new piece by composer Gilda Lyons. The work’s soloist delivers this phrase after detailing, in alternate Spanish and English lyrics, the various guises her spirit can take: “messenger,” “creator,” “warrior,” “protector,” “shadow,” and “song.” Naturally, such shape-shifting calls for a comparable array of vocal techniques, everything from whoops to whispers to full-throated high notes.

Only a confident performer could embody these powerfully clashing roles, and soprano Estelí Gomez was in her element singing the world premiere of Lyons’ score on Saturday, February 28, at the Heights Theater. If the afternoon felt vaguely out of time and place — with the period instrumentalists of Les Délices not just accompanying but commissioning this contemporary endeavor — then ethereal aims accomplished.

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Taplin Quartet journeys to Heights Arts and beyond for debut (Feb. 8)

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by Peter Feher

The Taplin Quartet, Cleveland’s newest chamber ensemble, gave its first local performance this month — and at the same time traveled to Europe, Asia, and Oceania. In fact, the group’s world tour brought along the entire audience at Dunham Tavern in Midtown on Sunday afternoon, February 8.

“From East to West,” the Quartet’s debut program — presented as part of Heights Arts’ Close Encounters concert series — took listeners on a musical trek across three continents while never straying too far from home.

It helped to be embarking with four familiar guides. Violinists Katherine Bormann and Zhan Shu, violist Gareth Zehngut, and cellist Martha Baldwin are all Cleveland Orchestra members, and together as the Taplin, they have the advantage of a shared starting point.

The skills essential for great orchestral playing — rhythmic precision, interpretive clarity, and a quick ability to adapt — were also what kept the Quartet confidently on course during Sunday’s performance.

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Manacorda, Cleveland Orchestra magic leaves nothing ‘Unfinished’ at Severance (Feb. 5)

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by Peter Feher
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Classical musicians have exhausted just about every attempt to complete Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony in the two centuries since the composer’s death at age 31.

But the Cleveland Orchestra doesn’t give in easily to creative despair. With guest conductor Antonello Manacorda, the ensemble has fashioned an effective, elegant substitute for the “missing” movements of Schubert’s score.

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Christmas with Cantus at Tuesday Musical (Nov. 30)

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by Peter Feher

Tuesday Musical gave Akron audiences a generous Christmas gift this year. The presenter tied three holiday classics together in one sumptuous concert on Sunday afternoon, November 30, at E.J. Thomas Hall. First up was the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, followed by a quick waltz through The Nutcracker and a ride on The Polar Express.

Delightfully, this trio of tales was recounted with drama and poise — not by any actors or dancers but by the eight members of the all-male a cappella ensemble Cantus. The group, based in Minnesota and now in its fourth decade, is once again touring the country with a polished, compact production of carols, pop tunes, and of course Tchaikovsky.

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Oberlin Music Theater soars in The Great Comet of 1812 (Dec. 3)

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by Peter Feher

The stars aligned for Oberlin Music Theater’s production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, suggesting a bright future for the college’s newest area of study.

Oberlin Conservatory has cultivated young talent for more than 150 years, but musical theater only entered the curriculum this semester. The program’s first students arrived in the fall under director and professor Victoria Bussert, who brought with her several colleagues from Baldwin Wallace University — including a few who collaborated on her 2023 staging of Great Comet for Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater company.

Even for the experienced, this show is a massive undertaking, with a story adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and a score demanding stamina and stylistic range. But nothing daunted the student actors on opening night, December 3. Not the immersive direction by Bussert, nor the energy-intensive choreography by Alex Sanchez. (Two casts alternated in eight performances through December 10.)

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Les Délices’ elaborate, entertaining Aesop Project (Nov. 22)

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by Peter Feher

In the 1670s, Louis XIV commissioned a series of 39 fountains for the Gardens of Versailles, each modeled on a story from Aesop’s Fables and intended for the education of the king’s young son, the Dauphin.

The Aesop Project, the latest community offering from Les Délices and artistic director Debra Nagy, is slightly less ornate but just as inspired. Cleveland’s ever-resourceful period chamber ensemble partnered with local puppeteers and poets for this family-friendly program teaching music and morals.

After touring Northeast Ohio schools earlier in the week, the project received a public performance at the CMA Community Arts Center on Saturday morning, November 22. Children, parents, and committed patrons of early music sat down for the 35-minute show, surrounded by spectacular displays of costumes and props from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual Parade the Circle celebration. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony goes for glory in Handel’s Messiah (Nov. 15)

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by Peter Feher

The holiday season got off to an early start at E.J. Thomas Hall over the weekend, with the Akron Symphony and Chorus reveling in a performance of Handel’s Messiah.

In truth, it’s tradition for this great oratorio — which embraces the New Testament theme of Jesus as savior — to arrive ahead of schedule. Handel intended the work to be presented each year during Lent, when theaters were otherwise closed and only entertainment of the most ennobling character was allowed. But in the centuries following its 1742 premiere, Messiah crept up the concert calendar to become a Christmas favorite.

Never mind that the famous “Hallelujah” Chorus comes from Part 2 of the oratorio, which recounts Christ’s death and resurrection. Part 1 includes the Nativity, and it was to this opening section that the Akron Symphony and music director Christopher Wilkins devoted themselves on Saturday, November 15.

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Cleveland Orchestra makes a sinister showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (Nov. 5)

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by Peter Feher

A violin bow is an unlikely murder weapon. But in the hands of composer Bernard Herrmann, the slashing motion of a string instrument seems almost one and the same with the stabbing knife onscreen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho.

The infamous soundtrack to secretary Marion Crane’s final moments in the shower — and also to private investigator Milton Arbogast’s stumbling death down the stairs later in the film — is horrifyingly simple. A series of screeching down-bows begins in the first violins and then stacks in dissonant intervals as the remaining string sections join in. The gesture is more like a Foley effect than music per se, evoking something between a human scream and the shriek of metal against metal.

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