The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2017 Blossom Music Festival calendar, which features 21 concerts between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will lead three of the classical programs, including an opera night with soprano Erin Wall. Special tributes will include concerts honoring Carole King and Ella Fitzgerald, a side-by-side with the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of the Kent/Blossom Festival’s 50th anniversary, and a screening of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, shown in HD with the score by John Williams performed live on the last three nights of the season. [Read more…]
Pre•Views
Factory Seconds Brass Trio gears up for concerts at BW, Bop Stop, and on the Rocky River Chamber Series
Daniel Hathaway
The amusingly-named Factory Seconds Brass Trio — all second-chair players in The Cleveland Orchestra — will have a busy schedule in February. Trumpeter Jack Sutte, hornist Jesse McCormick, and trombonist Richard Stout will start out the month with two different concerts on Sunday, February 12.
At 3:00 pm, the Trio will play a faculty concert in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace titled “Well-Tempered Hindemith: Modernist, Traditionalist, Pragmatist, Artist.” Pianist Christine Fuoco will join each of the players for a solo sonata by Paul Hindemith, and pianist Christina Dahl will take over the bench for Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis, “a counterpoint homage to J.S. Bach.”
At 7:00 pm on the 12th, Factory Seconds will be the featured performers at the Bop Stop as the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents its latest edition of Bach Haus and Brews. The music will include bluegrass, broadway, jazz, and — of course — Bach. [Read more…]
Mahler at Severance Hall: a conversation with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung
by Daniel Hathaway
Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will return to Severance Hall this weekend to sing Gustav Mahler’s symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde with tenor Paul Groves, guest conductor Donald Runnicles, and The Cleveland Orchestra.
DeYoung’s previous appearances with the Orchestra have included Giuseppi Verdi’s Requiem under Robert Porco in May 2012, and a concert honoring Pierre Boulez on his 90th birthday in January 2015, when she replaced Anne Schwanewilms in three excerpts from Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Another area appearance was in May 2011, when the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival presented DeYoung in a solo recital, the occasion for an extensive interview published on ClevelandClassical.com.
I spoke with Michelle DeYoung by telephone at her home in Evergreen, Colorado to chat about Mahler. I began by asking her about her recent activities. [Read more…]
Akron Symphony: Christopher Wilkins talks about musical myths and legends
by Mike Telin
“The greatest music in The Firebird exists between what we hear in the suites,” Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins said of Igor Stravinsky’s complete ballet score. “The horn is Prince Ivan, and during the solo horn passages in the full ballet you can hear him speaking. You can hear his dialogue with the princess and the little interjections from the Firebird who is swirling overhead.”
On Friday, February 10 at 8:00 pm, music inspired by myths and legends will take center stage at E.J. Thomas Hall when Christopher Wilkins leads the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking ballet The Firebird.
The program will also include Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture” to Der Freischütz — based on the German folk legend of the “free shooter” who has a contract with the devil — and the Suite No. 2 from Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, which recounts the love between a goat herder and a shepherdess. [Read more…]
Cleveland Chamber Music Society: a conversation with Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet hornist Fergus McWilliam
by Daniel Hathaway
It’s a great time of year for woodwind quintets in Northeast Ohio. Last week, Tuesday Musical brought the Imani Winds to E.J. Thomas Hall, and on Tuesday, February 7, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will welcome the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet back to Plymouth Church for their latest appearance on the Society’s series.
The Berliners — Michael Hasel, flute, Andreas Wittmann, oboe, Walter Seyfarth, clarinet, Fergus McWilliam, horn, and Marion Reinhard, bassoon — will play a far-reaching program that includes Anton Reicha’s Andante arioso for English Horn and Woodwind Quartet, Kalevi Aho’s Quintet No. 2, György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, and Carl Nielsen’s Quintet, Op. 43.
I recently spoke with Fergus McWilliam by telephone from Berlin. Born in the Scottish Highlands, McWilliam was enraptured by the horn as a small child when he attended his first orchestral concert at the Edinburgh Festival. [Read more…]
Earth and Air: String Orchestra to present “Norwegian Melodies”
by Mike Telin
If you were to ask any classical music enthusiast to list some works by Edvard Grieg, most people would name his Piano Concerto and the incidental music he composed for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. But there are hidden gems to be enjoyed.
On Friday, February 3 at 7:30 pm in Tucker Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Earth and Air: String Orchestra and director David B. Ellis will continue their second season with a concert titled “Norwegian Melodies: Music by Edvard Grieg.” The program features three of the composer’s lesser-known compositions — Two Nordic Melodies, Op. 63, Two Melodies, Op. 53, and Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34 — as well as the popular Holberg Suite, Op. 40. [Read more…]
French pianist Lucas Debargue to make Cleveland debut at Reinberger Hall February 3
by Mike Telin
During any music competition, it is not unusual for the jury and the critics to disagree as to who the winner should be. Such was the case during the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, when the jury awarded French pianist Lucas Debargue the fourth prize, while his emotional expression and musical individuality earned him the Moscow Music Critics’ Award as “the pianist whose incredible gift, artistic vision, and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience.”
On Friday, February 3 at 8:00 pm in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance Hall, Lucas Debargue will make his Cleveland recital debut with a program featuring Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in C, K. 132, Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade No. 4, Op. 52, Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata No. 1 in f, Op. 5. [Read more…]
Ogni Suono saxophone duo to perform on Syndicate series
by Mike Telin
When saxophonists Noa Even and Phil Pierick formed Ogni Suono in 2009, they were faced with a dilemma. “There’s not a lot of repertoire for saxophone duo,” Noa Even said during a recent telephone conversation.
They recognized the only way to solve that problem was to commission new works. The Duo’s debut album, Invisible Seams, features some of their early collaborations with composers. Then, with support from New Music USA, Even and Pierick launched SaxoVoce, a long-term commissioning project exploring the musical, dramatic, and theatrical possibilities inherent in the synthesis of saxophone and voice.
On Sunday, February 5 at 7:30 pm at Historic St. John’s in Ohio City, the Syndicate for The New Arts will present Ogni Suono in a concert featuring works written for their SaxoVoce project. [Read more…]
No Exit: a conversation with composer Emily Koh
by Mike Telin
Composers never know how and when they will find inspiration for a new work. For Emily Koh it was during a visit to a museum. “I was walking around the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a painting by Esphyr Slobodkina caught my attention,” Koh said during a recent telephone conversation. “Her pieces are abstract, colorful, and angular — all the things I find interesting, not only in music, but in art and sculpture as well.”
On Saturday, February 4 at 8:00 at SPACES Gallery, No Exit will present the world premiere of Emily Koh’s esphyr, performed by violinist Cara Tweed, pianist Nicholas Underhill, and percussionist Luke Rinderknecht. The concert will also include Lou Harrison’s Suite for Solo Piano (tribute to Arnold Schoenberg), Christopher Deane’s Mourning Dove Sonnet for vibraphone, Nicholas Underhill’s Habanera for violin, and George Antheil’s Violin Sonata No. 2. The program will be repeated on Monday, February 6 at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Auditorium, and on Saturday, February 11 at Heights Arts. Both concerts begin at 8:00 pm. [Read more…]
CMA celebrates Philip Glass’s 80th with screenings of the Qatsi Trilogy
by Mike Telin
“Philip Glass is turning 80 on the 31st of this month, and I thought that was certainly cause for tipping the cap to one of the most famous composers of our time,” said Tom Welsh, Cleveland Museum of Art’s Director of Performing Arts, during a recent telephone conversation. “As a composer, Glass had a real impact on the whole world — not just in classical music, but everything — and I thought that was worth recognizing.”
Beginning on Friday, January 27 and continuing through Sunday, CMA and the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque will celebrate Glass’s 80th birthday with a presentation of The Qatsi Trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi by filmmaker Godfrey Reggio with landmark musical scores by Glass. [Read more…]