by Peter Feher
The Cleveland Orchestra brass were busy with Bruckner the prior weekend, but then on Sunday, March 1, The Orchestra’s second trumpet player, Jack Sutte, played a recital at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson, part of Music from The Western Reserve’s 2019–2020 concert series. His program emphasized artistry over athleticism and served as a good reminder that sensitive, sustained solo playing naturally differs from the big orchestral approach. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
Quire Cleveland doesn’t box itself into one time period. True, the early music vocal ensemble sang a program of exclusively 16th-century music on February 28 at Cleveland’s St. John Cantius Church (the first of two performances). But the music’s inspiration was older, even while the performers’ sensibility was thoroughly new.
by Peter Feher
The history of classical music sometimes borders on mythology. The music on the Akron Symphony’s Saturday, February 22 program has taken on this fabled, quasi-historical quality — Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony, and Beethoven’s over-finished Leonore Overture No. 3. Fortunately, in performance the music more than lived up to the story. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
The three works on The Cleveland Orchestra’s Thursday, January 30 program all evoked other music — a different composer, another piece, or a famous performance. Opening the concert was Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony, decidedly a B-side in the composer’s symphonic catalogue. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
There was an unspoken tension between the composers on the Akron Symphony’s January 18 concert. Gustav Mahler’s hour-plus Fifth Symphony dominated the one-night-only program at E.J. Thomas Hall, which also featured an uncharacteristically short work by Richard Wagner — no slouch when it comes to profundity and grand gestures in his own music. Yet Wagner’s somewhat humble place on the program provided a conceptual key to Mahler’s self-contained, sometimes overwhelming symphony.
by Peter Feher
“Holiday Concert” doesn’t do justice to the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra’s December program. The ensemble staged an orchestra concert proper, followed by a festive coda, on December 14 at Cleveland State’s Waetjen Auditorium (the first of two performances). A certain Renaissance flair marked the evening’s two big pieces, selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Poulenc’s Gloria. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
The best children’s music, like the best children’s literature, has something in it for the adults. Wisely, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra put together a family concert on December 8 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center that could appeal to young and old alike. Ravel’s delicate, miniature Mother Goose Suite made up the brief first half of the program, but Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead, with music by Nathaniel Stookey, was the real family fare for the afternoon. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
It’s tempting to think that learning only goes one way in a youth orchestra concert. Young musicians see months of rehearsal realized, often on a classic piece, maybe one they’ve never performed before. The Contemporary Youth Orchestra concert on November 16 at Tri-C East’s Mandel Theater satisfied that equation, and then offered something new. Gustav Holst’s titan-sized The Planets occupied the second half of the program, but the real energy and inventiveness came in the first, with the world premiere of a piano concerto that took a far-from-standard approach to the genre. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre is a piece that’s both oversold and undersold. It’s a favorite of cello superstars, student concerto competitions, and classical compilation CDs. Conductor and cellist Amit Peled made the intriguing decision to place the work on his debut program as CityMusic Cleveland’s new music director. In a memorable performance, he made a redemptive case for the music itself. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
Not enough repertoire — that’s the basic challenge for anyone looking to program a violin and guitar recital. Transcriptions can work, but the players are faced with a competing pair of approaches: to emulate the original instrumentation, or to forge an entirely new sound and interpretation. Guitarist Jason Vieaux and violinist Adam Barnett-Hart experimented with those approaches on Tuesday night, September 24 in their season-opening recital for the Tuesday Musical series. The results were uniformly pleasing, though some transcriptions felt more substantial than others. [Read more…]