ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Pre•Views

Akron Baroque to feature
“The Class of 1685” on Sunday

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Bach Handel ScarlattiHow did the planets align so that Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti — three of the most eminent and prolific composers of the Baroque period — all came to be born in the same year? That defies explanation, but it makes for interesting concert programming. On Sunday, March 11 at 4:00 pm at Faith Lutheran Church in Fairlawn, Akron Baroque will raise a glass to “The Class of 1685” with a free concert devoted to music by these three luminaries.

The performance will include J.S. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in f featuring Robert Mollard, Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonata in G in an arrangement for orchestra by Amy Barlowe, and Handel’s Concerti Grossi in F and G from his Op. 6. We spoke with concertmaster Alan Bodman to ask how Akron Baroque narrowed down their choice of repertoire for Sunday’s concert.

“We were pretty sure we wanted to do a Handel concerto grosso, so we listened to all of the Op. 6 pieces and really liked No. 1 in G.” Bodman said. “They’re so imaginative, and offer a lot of variety in their movements. We needed something very lively and upbeat to conclude the program, and No. 9 stood out for us.”

[Read more…]

Singers’ Club turns nostalgic in
“The Way We Were” this weekend

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Singers Club SquareWhen you’re 125 years old, you have lots of memories to share. Institutionally speaking, the Singers’ Club of Cleveland has reached that elevated station of life this season, and it’s time to reminisce. The chorus will do just that on Saturday, March 10 at 7:30 pm in its next concert at the Breen Center at St. Ignatius High School in Ohio City.

“We’ve already programmed an old-fashioned Christmas,” artistic director Natalie Mallis said in a telephone conversation, “and now we’re going to give a concert titled ‘The Way We Were,’ with the Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford movie in mind. We’ll give the audience a look at what we’ve done over the years through footage of our performances, and sing songs from movies all the way back to the advent of the talkies and all the way forward to the music of John Williams. We’ll even project baby pictures of our current members.”

The all-male chorus is one of Cleveland’s oldest performing organizations, having been formed at the request of the Cleveland YMCA in November of 1891. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra to present Scheherazade with Enchantment Theatre Company

by

by Mike Telin

Enchantment Co Scherezade“When I think of introducing the classical music that we love to young kids, Scheherazade is one of the first pieces that comes to mind,” Cleveland Orchestra Assistant Conductor Vinay Parameswaran said during a telephone conversation. “Rimsky-Korsakov’s music vividly tells the story and it’s so easy to latch onto its dramatic elements. And if you’re hearing an orchestra for the first time, you get a sense of all the colors and sounds that it can produce.”  

On Sunday, March 11 at 3:00 pm at Severance Hall, Parameswaran will lead a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade in a Cleveland Orchestra Family Concert with Enchantment Theatre Company. The production takes the audience to exotic lands on Sinbad’s ship with the help of costumes, magic, and puppets. Tickets are available online.

Parameswaran said that pairing the music with acting, dancing, and visuals adds a beautiful narrative element that helps to tell the story without any speaking. “The great thing is that the audience will be able to hear Scheherazade without interruption, so they will get a sense of the combined music and drama.” Prior to the performance, the orchestra will play excerpts from what the audience will hear.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland to present “Two Faiths: One Spirit” series

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Dorman-AvnerNext week, a series of concerts by CityMusic Cleveland, led by music director Avner Dorman, will aim to unite the Jewish and Arab communities, promote togetherness in Greater Cleveland, and emphasize the value of preserving the arts — regardless of culture. Titled “Two Faiths: One Spirit,” the series was inspired by stories of priceless religious texts that were rescued by people of other faiths.

The musical centerpiece of the series is Bosnian-born Merima Ključo’s Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book, featuring the composer on solo accordion. The work will receive its world premiere in a new orchestrated version commissioned by CityMusic Cleveland.

Also included on the program are works by Kareem Roustom, Behzad Ranjbaran, Tom Cohen, and Josef Bardanashvili — composers whose roots stretch from Syria to Iran, Georgia, and Israel. Six free performances run from March 14-18 in Beachwood, Cleveland, Parma, Lakewood, and Elyria (see our Concert Listings for times and locations).

[Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to present
Britten’s Turn of the Screw

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

Turn of the Screw Score CoverChilling bones since 1898, Henry James’s ghostly novella The Turn of the Screw has inspired movies, plays, ballets, literary reworkings — and a stunning 1954 opera by composer Benjamin Britten and librettist Myfanwy Piper.

Oberlin Opera Theater will bring Britten’s and Piper’s take on the tale to Northeast Ohio this week, turning the stage of Hall Auditorium into the haunted Bly House. Directed by Jonathon Field, conducted by Christopher Larkin, and featuring the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, performances run at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — March 7, 9, and 10 — and conclude on Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 pm. The Turn of the Screw will be sung in English and include supertitles. Tickets are available here.

The story centers on an unnamed young Governess, who is hired to care for Miles and Flora, the children of Bly House. But two ghosts — the former valet Peter Quint and former governess Miss Jessel — have returned to possess the children.

[Read more…]

Les Délices to present “Dido’s Lament”: a conversation with Baroque harpist Maria Christina Cleary

by

by Mike Telin

Cleary-MariaDebra Nagy’s latest Les Délices creation, “Dido’s Lament,” will view the famous queen of Carthage from three emotional and musical perspectives. The tragic story of Dido, who was famously deserted by the Trojan warrior Aeneas, is based on Book 4 of Virgil’s classical epic The Aeneid. The program will include excerpts from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Cavalli’s Didone, and Montéclair’s La Mort de Didon.

The concerts, held on Saturday, March 10 at 8:00 pm in Lakewood Congregational Church, and on Sunday, March 11 at 4:00 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, will feature soprano Clara Rottsolk, harpist Maria Christina Cleary, oboist Debra Nagy, violinists Julie Andrijeski and Scott Metcalfe, violist Allison Monroe, viola da gambist Jaap ter Linden, and harpsichordist Eric Milnes. Tickets are available online.

On Saturday at 3:00 pm at the Bop Stop, the ensemble will present “Instrument of the Angels,” an LD@Play family concert. Registration is recommended.

In an email Debra Nagy said that she is thrilled to bring Maria Christina Cleary from Milan, Italy for these performances.

[Read more…]

Two days, three clarinetists: Richard Hawkins, Allan Ware, and Randy Klein in Oberlin, Rocky River, and Canton

by

by Jarrett Hoffman

TriClarinetCollage2A return to a concerto that brought with it a solo debut. The celebration of a long chamber music partnership and friendship. And one final concerto in a 22-year orchestral tenure.

Those landmarks in the careers of three clarinetists — Randy Klein, Richard Hawkins, and Allan Ware — can be heard across two days, March 3 and 5, in Canton, Oberlin, and Rocky River. On the docket are concertos by John Corigliano and Aaron Copland, and clarinet quintets by Carl Maria von Weber and Johannes Brahms.

The clarinet show begins on Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 pm in Umstattd Hall. Randy Klein will join his Canton Symphony colleagues and music director Gerhardt Zimmermann for the Copland Concerto, in between performances of Stephen Montague’s Snakebite and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

“This is my last season in Canton,” Klein said in a recent conversation. “I’m retiring from the orchestra.”

[Read more…]

Contrapunctus returns to St. John’s Cathedral for concert of Marian music for high voices

by

by Daniel Hathaway

ContrapunctusContrapunctus Early Music, an endeavor launched by British countertenor David Acres, has been absent from the Cleveland musical scene for a couple of years. The high-voice chorus of sopranos, altos, and countertenors is back again to sing a concert of music dedicated to the Virgin Mary on Friday, March 2 at 7:30 pm at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

In the interim, Acres and his wife Judith have been busy on another project in South Carolina. “We have been concentrating on our choir in Charleston, The King’s Counterpoint, and we have enjoyed a wonderful 24 months,” Acres wrote in a recent email.

“A series of Baroque Messiahs and the inaugural concert in our exploration of Handel’s Oratorios, commencing with Judas Maccabaeus — both with members of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra; a critically acclaimed performance in last year’s Piccolo Spoleto Series and an invite to return this year; together with over 16 performances in South Carolina, have stopped us from returning to Cleveland to explore more high-voice repertoire with Contrapunctus.”

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater to present Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

by

by Mike Telin

BrothersGrimm1812The first volume of children’s tales published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 includes some of today’s most beloved stories, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin. Also in that volume is the tale of Hansel and Gretel, two children who cleverly outwit a witch. This week, Engelbert Humperdinck’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale returns to the Kulas Hall stage at the Cleveland Institute of Music in four performances by CIM Opera Theatre. David Bamberger directs and Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra.

The opera will be sung in German with English supertitles, and has a runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission. Evening performances will be held February 28 through March 2 at 7:30 pm with a special family performance on Saturday, March 3 at 3:00 pm. Click here for an illustrated synopsis of the opera, compliments of the Metropolitan Opera. Tickets are available online. Before each production, non-perishable food items will be collected at the Kulas Hall entrance from patrons interested in donating to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

I spoke with mezzo-soprano Meg Linebaugh and soprano Anne Carruthers, who will sing the roles of Hansel and Gretel respectively during the Thursday and Saturday performances. I began the conversation by asking each of them about their character and their relationship with their sibling. [Read more…]

This week at Severance:
a conversation with
Jean-Yves Thibaudet

by

by Mike Telin

ThibaudetOver the years Jean-Yves Thibaudet has developed what he calls a “beautiful relationship” with The Cleveland Orchestra. “There are the recordings we did in the ‘90s of all the Rachmaninoff works for piano and orchestra, and we’ve done so many concertos over the years — but never this one.”

On Thursday, February 22 at 7:30 pm at Severance Hall, the French pianist will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The all-Ravel concert, under the direction of Matthias Pintscher, will also include the Suite from Mother Goose and the complete ballet Daphnis and Chloë. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Although Thibaudet had learned all of Ravel’s works for solo piano as well as the G-major concerto by the time he was 15, he avoided tackling the left-hand concerto. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us