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DIARY: Monday, December 9, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two free seasonal offerings await this evening, both at 7:30.

At Judson Manor, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra (pictured) presents their holiday concert, and at Painesville United Methodist Church, Matthew Saunders directs the Lakeland Civic Orchestra in a program of light classics and holiday favorites.

For more details and to check out what else is coming up this week, visit our Concert Listings.

ON THE RADIO:

Over the weekend, NPR’s Elissa Nadworny spoke to Rhiannon Giddens and Limmie Pulliam about performing Omar with Oberlin Conservatory. Listen to that interview here, which includes snippets from the opera.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born on this date in 1915 and passed away in her sleep at age 90 in 2006. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra serves up another treasure in fan-favorite Rhapsody in Blue (Nov. 29)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s an all-American extravaganza this holiday weekend at Severance Music Center. With Thanksgiving now in the books and December approaching fast, The Cleveland Orchestra has wasted no time gearing up its next few programs, many of them headlined by fan-favorites, to finish the calendar year on a high note.

On Friday, the marquee piece was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, an orchestral staple — especially in 2024, which marks the work’s 100th anniversary. This isn’t the first time The Cleveland Orchestra has played it this year, as Béla Fleck performed his banjo-and-orchestra transcription at Blossom Music Center in July.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

HAPPENING TODAY:

Plenty of concert options await at this week’s middle mark.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, pianist Kirill Gerstein (pictured) presents a recital with works by Francisco Coll, Robert Schumann, Ravel, and Liszt at Severance Music Center.

In terms of holiday concerts, Apollo’s Fire continues performances of “WASSAIL! An Irish-Appalachian Christmas” in Bath at 7:00 pm; the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts M.U.S.i.C. Stars in the Classics and dancers from the Cleveland Ballet at 6:00; and the Dana School of Music presents Carols & Cocoa and the Dana Holiday Concert at 7:00.

Rounding out today’s events are the Shaker Heights High School Chamber Orchestra at Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert (12:00 pm); the voice performance majors of BW Liederabend (7:00 pm); and an evening of duos with violinist Stephen Tavani and violist William Bender for a Cleveland State University Faculty Recital (7:00 pm).

For more details on these events and more, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Daniel Hathaway

On this date in 1976, England and the classical music world lost one of its greatest composers when Benjamin Britten died in Aldeburgh, Sussex, at the home he shared with his partner, tenor Peter Pears, and in the village where he and Pears had established the Aldeburgh Music Festival in 1948. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, December 2, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

December has arrived, and so have the concerts.

This week, Apollo’s Fire begins their “Wassail!” holiday concerts, while the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra presents “Have Yourself a Kate Reid Christmas.” Joyce DiDonato and Kings Return visit Tuesday Musical, while two pianists visit Severance Music Center: Kirill Gerstein, for a recital, and Emanuel Ax, for a concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Plus, Oberlin Conservatory hosts a packed schedule of performances and events, all leading up to their presentation of the opera Omar this Friday and Sunday.

For more details on these events and more, visit our Concert Listings.

RECENT RECORDING:

Missed the Cuarteto Casals when they visited the Cleveland Chamber Music Society last month? Or want to hear their music-making again?

The string quartet’s latest album, Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1, has garnered praise from The New York Times. “These players let this music breathe a bit, and the results are bracing,” writes David Weininger. “The Casals should be commended for leaving a different aesthetic and emotional imprint.” Read the article here. [Read more…]

Conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali wears his heart on his sleeve in Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Change of plans recently led to unexpected opportunities at The Cleveland Orchestra. And so, this week, guest conductor Santtu-Mathias Rouvali seized the moment. With the Mahler “Das Lied von der Erde” program moved to next season, a rare blank slate appeared. Rouvali stepped in on short notice to make his Cleveland debut presenting an impassioned program.

The three pieces performed on Thursday, Nov. 21 — which will be heard again on Nov. 22 and 23 — share a distinctive expressivity, and each represented an introduction of their own.

Carl Nielsen’s Overture to “Maskarade“ set the scene for the Danish composer’s opera, a well-known work in his home county but rarely played elsewhere. Its five minutes include a whirling ballroom waltz, which Rouvali accentuated by coaxing the brass to cut through the texture. The conductor quickly revealed his taste for flourishes, his motions imbued with a fluttery, cursive affect.

[Read more…]

Finding the Joy with Seckou Keita: Senegalese kora player visits the Oberlin Artist Recital Series

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

The kora, a West African stringed instrument akin to a harp or guitar, doesn’t appear in most orchestral works. So Seckou Keita wrote his own.

Creating African Rhapsodies — which he released in 2023 with the BBC Concert Orchestra — was an “amazing” endeavor, he says. But his entry into the world of opera later that year was another thing entirely.

“When you have classical music meeting the kora, it’s amazing. But then when you have opera on top of that, it’s something else,” says the UK-based Senegalese musician. “That made me really excited.”

The opera he’s referring to is Omar’s Journey, a shortened version of Rhiannon Giddens’ Omar scored for voices and chamber ensemble. Keita was among the small group of musicians who performed Omar’s Journey at the Ojai Music Festival last year. “It kind of confirmed to me that voice is one of the really pure instruments in life. All those other instruments in the world have been made by humankind — but this, people are born with it,” Keita says.

Keita is no stranger to using his voice either, singing to accompany his playing in much of his solo material. And Oberlin audiences have a chance to experience his music making on December 7 at 7:30 pm, when he performs in Finney Chapel as part of the Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

CIM Opera: all smiles in L’Étoile (Nov. 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

A black box theater might not be the first-choice location for an opera — but with a clever creative team, a smaller production can still get big results. Audiences at the Westfield Studio Theater on November 17 know this firsthand thanks to the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater’s scaled-down L’Étoile, which came wrapped in a bundle of laughs and topped with a ribbon of genuine heart.

It’s true that the Playhouse Square venue — the CIM company’s temporary home while their primary hall is under construction — wasn’t ideal. Interrupted sightlines, occasional volume disparities, and the lack of a proper curtain simply had to be par for the course. But artistic director JJ Hudson’s choice of a comedic opera, especially one that relies on spoken dialogue and physical comedy as heavily as this one by Emmanuel Chabrier, was the perfect decision. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, November 24, 2024

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by Stephanie Manning

LOOKING AHEAD:

This holiday week is, unsurprisingly, pretty quiet. But be on the lookout for the upcoming offerings from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio, West Shore Chorale and Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Cleveland Pops.

For details on these and more, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Musical America has revealed the 2024 winners of its annual “of the year” awards, which includes some faces familiar to Clevelanders.

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (pictured) earned Instrumentalist of the Year. He’s performed with The Cleveland Orchestra on multiple occasions — most recently at Blossom in August — and will return to Severance Hall in February for a duo recital with fellow pianist Yuja Wang.

Barbara Hannigan — who made her Cleveland Orchestra conducting debut in 2023 — was honored as Artist of the Year, while Jake Heggie was named Composer of the Year. Nightingale Opera Theater staged Heggie’s operas If I Were You in 2022 and Two Remain in 2024. Read more about all the winners here.
[Read more…]

Seraph Brass dances through musical travels in Rocky River (Nov. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Before Seraph Brass arrived in Ohio on November 11, the group’s fall touring season had taken them on the road to Missouri, Florida, New York, and even Peru. And at the Rocky River Chamber Music Society, they gave the audience a taste of the traveling life right from the first piece.

The “Prelude” from Edvard Greig’s Holberg Suite whisked listeners away to Norway, with a melody surely familiar to many. It was extra familiar to the brass quintet themselves, who launched into their opening number without sheet music. Playing memorized is part of the group’s trademark, and they smoothly alternated using music and no music throughout the evening. Either way, the wide-ranging program had those at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church spellbound.

Trumpet players Mary Elizabeth Bowden and Raquel Samayoa, horn player Layan Atieh, trombonist Lauren Casey-Clyde, and tuba player Robyn Black sounded equally comfortable in Romantic and contemporary repertoire, flipping between both with practiced ease. [Read more…]

Meridian Arts Ensemble cast a wide net at the Bop Stop (Nov. 8)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Meridian Arts Ensemble specialize in the avant garde, but they’re dextrous enough to flip between all kinds of genres. So, what was Joseph Haydn’s Feldpartie — written in 1780 — doing on the program next to George Lewis’ uber-contemporary Tightrope? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Presented by No Exit, the brass quintet’s November 8 concert at the Bop Stop had something to satisfy fans of modern and traditional music alike. The cheery Feldpartie, appearing just after intermission, balanced out some of the evening’s more thorny works.

Originally written for an outdoor band, this arrangement by trumpet player and group founder Jon Nelson allowed the five players to anchor themselves in a satisfying blend. Nelson, fellow trumpet player Matthew Onstad, horn player Daniel Grabois, trombonist Faustino Díaz Mendez, and tuba player Tom Curry treated the charming mini symphony with love and care. [Read more…]

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