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Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel: spirited Schubert at CCMS (Sep. 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

After more than a decade spent together as an ensemble, Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel have become very familiar with certain pieces. And they’re determined to make sure those works only get better with age. On September 13, the pianist, violinist, and cellist opened the 73rd season of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society with a staple in their repertory — Franz Schubert’s two piano trios.

The group recorded both pieces for an album in 2008 and have performed them frequently, including in a concert for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society more than ten years ago. After all this time, they still manage to make things feel fresh.

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DIARY: Weekend of August 12-14, 2022

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by Stephanie Manning

IN THIS EDITION:

•Lots of pianos on stage this weekend at Lakeside, Blossom, and The Madison

•How climate change is affecting summer venues

•Almanac: remembering Janáček, Massanet, and Persichetti

CONCERTS AND EVENTS:

This weekend of piano features will kick off with the Lakeside Symphony, which will close out its 59th summer residency in Lakeside Chautauqua tonight at 7:30 pm. Due to a soloist change, pianist David Allen Wehr will now perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in A, and conductor Daniel Meyer will also lead the ensemble in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel). Click here to purchase pass and parking.

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DIARY: Wednesday, August 10, 2022

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by Stephanie Manning

IN THIS EDITION:

•Cimafunk brings Afro-Cuban funk fusion to City Stages this evening

•Is the age of the printed program over?

•Almanac: the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, then and now

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30, Afro-Cuban fusion artist Cimafunk will perform as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s upcoming City Stages event. The concert, which includes his nine-person band from Havana, will take place at Transformer Station — 1460 W. 29th St. in Cleveland. Admission is free, but seating is limited, so consider bringing your own. Read Noah Auby’s interview with the artist here.

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DIARY: Monday, August 8, 2022

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by Stephanie Manning

The Daily Diary is back from its two-week hiatus!

IN THIS EDITION:

•Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music features composers from Hungary, India, Ukraine, and the US

•2022-23 season updates: Minnesota Orchestra music director, Cleveland Orchestra tickets, SalonEra third season

•An insightful interview with Huang Ruo about his new opera M. Butterfly

•Almanac: appreciating French pianist Cécile Chaminade

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Stanislav Khristenko unites friends new and old for PianoDays @CLE

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by Stephanie Manning

Local audiences may remember Stanislav Khristenko from his electrifying performances at the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition, where his performance of the Brahms Concerto No. 1 with The Cleveland Orchestra helped him to take home the grand prize. This summer, competition organizer Piano Cleveland has invited him back to perform as part of the inaugural PianoDays @CLE.

Winning the CIPC is not Khristenko’s only connection to Cleveland — the pianist also earned an artist diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. “Cleveland is really my home here in the U.S.,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. On Sunday, August 7, he’ll return to his alma mater for his PianoDays program at 2:00 pm in Mixon Hall. Titled “Stanislav and Friends,” the performance will include a number of musicians that he met as a student. Purchase in-person or virtual tickets here. [Read more…]

Pianist Aaron Diehl returns to Blossom for the genre-crossing Zodiac Suite

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by Stephanie Manning

Take a look at pianist Aaron Diehl’s upcoming concerts and you’ll see a little bit of everything. There’s “Jazz in July” at New York’s 92nd Street Y, “Bach to Bebop” with his Trio in Irvine, CA, and Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra — all in the span of a few months. Much of Diehl’s work lies at the intersection of jazz and classical, and so does Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite, which he’ll be performing this weekend with The Cleveland Orchestra.

It was on the Blossom Music Center stage where the Columbus, Ohio native made his debut with the Orchestra back in 2017. “I remember how sensitive they were to the music and how the sections within the orchestra were so together, and so expressive and nuanced,” he reflected in a 2019 interview with ClevelandClassical.com. “It was like playing with a chamber music group.”

For his third appearance at Blossom, Diehl will be joined by bassist David Wong, drummer Aaron Kimmel, and soprano Mikaela Bennett on Saturday, July 16 at 7:00 pm. Led by conductor Jader Bignamini, the Orchestra will also perform two works by Ottorino Resphigi: Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Tickets are available here.

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ENCORE embraces the journey with “Tales of Travel & Transformation”

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by Stephanie Manning

Summer 2022 has seen a surge in travel, as those who were kept from family, friends, and favorite places over the past two years try to make up for lost time. The upcoming July 4 weekend should be one of the busiest yet. But for those staying in the Cleveland area, the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute’s Music & Ideas Festival is offering audiences a musical getaway on July 3 at 4:00 pm with “Tales of Travel & Transformation.”

The featured performers, the Verona Quartet, are a group of world travelers themselves. Hailing from four different countries, the musicians — violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky, and cellist Jonathan Dormand — have performed as a group across four continents. Over the past two years of their residency at Oberlin Conservatory, the Quartet has appeared in venues all over Northeast Ohio — this weekend, they will add the Gilmour Academy’s Dodero Center to that list.

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ChamberFest Cleveland: exploring the visual experience with Nicholas Houfek

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by Stephanie Manning

It’s unconventional to interview a lighting designer for an upcoming chamber music concert. But then again, a performance of Anna Thorvaldsdottír’s In the Light of Air is unconventional, too.

The four-movement suite for viola, cello, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics has a long history with the International Contemporary Ensemble (IntCE), but a new group of players will take it on for a concert as part of ChamberFest Cleveland on July 1. As lighting designer and current IntCE member Nicholas Houfek explained in a recent conversation, the difficulty with programming the piece lies in the logistics of the installation.

“We’ve had other people reach out, but once they hear what’s needed and required to install it, a lot of them kind of get scared and back away. It’s a lot for a chamber music festival or organization to take on.”

Houfek knows these requirements better than most — he’s been involved with the piece since its inception, working closely with Thorvaldsdottír while she composed it for IntCE in 2014. Describing the piece’s soundscape as “warm” and “natural” but also “otherworldly,” he discussed how sound and light combine to create the finished product.

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A long-awaited celebration from the Blue Streak Ensemble (May 22)

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by Stephanie Manning

In the two years since the Cleveland Institute of Music’s centennial, Margaret Brouwer’s Blue Streak Ensemble has been patiently waiting for the opportunity to celebrate — and they weren’t about to let another chance pass by. After three pandemic-related delays, the concert finally presented on May 22 at CIM’s Mixon Hall was a testament to both the institution and the resilience of the ensemble itself.

Sunday’s program, the first in a pair of performances from the ensemble, featured four contemporary works with instrumentations ranging from one to six players. It also paid homage to the lineage of CIM composition faculty with a work by Donald Erb — the second performance, on Tuesday the 24th, highlighted Marcel Dick and Keith Fitch. (Brouwer herself was the head of the composition department from 1996 to 2008.)

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The Cleveland Orchestra performs Schubert: light and dark collide (May 12)

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by Stephanie Manning

Many musicians will remember exactly what they were rehearsing in March of 2020, when the music suddenly stopped. For The Cleveland Orchestra, that unlucky piece was Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, which at the time was only heard by a private audience of staff members. More than two years later, the Orchestra finally gave the work the live performance it deserved on May 12 — and the seats at Severance Music Center were plenty full.

Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, the Orchestra was in their element for the popular symphony, also known as “The Great” — a nickname born not out of a value designation, but to differentiate it from a shorter work of Schubert’s also in C Major. Clocking in at just under an hour in total, the four demanding movements are a test of endurance, which prompted the woodwind section to enlist some assistant players.

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