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Oberlin’s Cooper International Competition features young pianists
in 2016

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by Mike Telin

Tony-Yike-Yang-Oberlin-Cooper-Finals-(Mastroianni)Since its inauguration in 2010, the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition has established an impressive track record for identifying young pianists with potential. That year 14 year-old American pianist George Li took home the top prize. Since then, Li has quickly established himself as a young pianist to watch on the international concert scene. In 2015, Li won 2nd prize at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.

In  2012, 16-year-old Italian Leonardo Colafelice won the top honors, and he too quickly cultivated an impressive career. In 2014 the first prize was awarded to 15 year-old Canadian Tony Yike Yang (left, with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra), who at the age of 16 won the fifth prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition, making him the youngest prizewinner in the history of that competition. [Read more…]

Cellist Steuart Pincombe to solo at Oberlin’s Slow Train Café July 17

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by Mike Telin

PINCOMBE-Steuart-with-celloAt 5:00 pm on Sunday, July 17, cellist Steuart Pincombe will bring his Music in Familiar Spaces series back to Northeast Ohio for a free performance at Oberlin’s Slow Train Café in cooperation with Credo Chamber Music. The concert, titled Adaptation through form and function, will feature music by Domenico Gabrielli, J.S. Bach, Jean-Louis Duport, and Carlo Alfredo Piatti for cello without endpin using baroque, transitional, and modern bows. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition plans extensive Festival in 2016

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by Mike Telin

Westhuizen“This summer is going to be a full-immersion experience for our audiences,” Pierre van der Westhuizen (left), President and CEO of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, exclaimed during a recent telephone conversation. “They can attend something in the morning, afternoon, and evening, with lunch and dinner in between.”

When the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition and Festival gets underway on July 24 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, patrons will discover that CIPC is a true destination event. [Read more…]

McCalmont’s List 8: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in c, Op. 67 (1808)

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Beethoven-Thayer's-Copy-1808by Neil McCalmont
Part of McCalmont’s List Series

Genre: Symphony – a composition for orchestra, usually in several movements
Scoring: Orchestra
Era: Classical – Early Romantic
Length: c. 35 minutes
Will you recognize it? I’d be upset if you didn’t
Recommended Recordings: Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic; or George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra; or Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra; or Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic (it’s an important piece, okay?)

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). What possibly could be said about Beethoven that hasn’t been said already? [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society to hold educational benefit at the Zoo July 10

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by Mike Telin

AZABAGIC-Denis2If you’re looking for something to do with this weekend, why not head to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo? On Sunday, July 10 beginning at 2:00 pm, a fun-filled afternoon will benefit the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s education programs, which provide guitar lessons to 150 young people in Cleveland and Akron. Tickets include admission to the Zoo, a 2:00 pm Meet and Greet with hors d’oeuvres. Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagić will perform at 3:00 pm, and the Brazilian sounds of Moises Borges will begin at 4:00 pm. Tickets can be reserved online.

Prior to his solo appearance on the Society’s International Series in October of 2011, we spoke with Azabagić about his career and his thoughts on music education. The following is an excerpt from that conversation. [Read more…]

McCalmont’s List 7 — Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A, D. 667 “The Trout,” (1819)

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by Neil McCalmont
Part of McCalmont’s List Series

SCHUBERT-Wilhelm-August-RiederGenre: Chamber Music (Piano Quintet) – piece for piano and four other instruments; usually two violins, viola, and cello
Scoring: Piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass
Era: Classical/Early Romantic
Length: c. 35 minutes
Will you recognize it? The fourth movement has achieved fame on its own, so perhaps
Recommended Recordings: Alfred Brendel and the Cleveland Quartet; or Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Pamela Frank, Edgar Meyer, and Rebecca Young

Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Like J. S. Bach, Schubert wrote over a thousand pieces of music and received almost zero recognition for his compositions during his lifetime. In fact, since his music was so rarely performed, Schubert often had to live through the generosity of his friends in order to survive, unfortunately fulfilling the stereotype of the “starving artist.” Many of his works come from the last decade of his life — he died when he was only 31. [Read more…]

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute to perform Bach’s B-Minor Mass

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by Neil McCalmont

bpi-massOn Friday, July 1 at 8 pm in Warner Concert Hall, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute will close its faculty concerts with a masterwork by a titan of Western culture: J.S. Bach’s Mass in b minor, BWV 232. The institute traditionally selects one magnum opus per season, but this summer has chosen two: Handel’s Concerti Grossi, Op. 3 (the concert was on June 24), and the Bach mass. For an added twist, the mass will be performed with one singer, one instrumentalist per part, a decision that has sparked fistfights in the past.

The work’s history is complicated, as Bach originally wrote the “Kyrie and Gloria,” “Sanctus,” and “Crucifixus” earlier in his career for different purposes. Though the composer was nearly blind in his last years, he revised these movements accordingly and completed the work in 1749, only a year before his death. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland’s A Soldier’s Tale: conversations with T. Paul Lowry & Alison Garrigan

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by Mike Telin

TPaulLowryThe eighth in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (“A Soldier’s Tale”) tells a timeless parable about a young soldier who sells his fiddle — and his soul — to the devil in order to achieve unlimited gains in life. On Saturday, July 2 at 8:00 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, ChamberFest Cleveland will present Stravinsky’s groundbreaking work on the final concert of the festival.

Narrated by Dorothy Silver, this new production will feature life-sized puppetry, created and performed by Talespinner Children’s Theatre, and will include video mapping technology by T. Paul Lowry. Click here to watch a video of ChamberFest co-directors Franklin and Diana Cohen talk about this not-to-be-missed show. [Read more…]

On the Road in Drottningholm, Sweden: The Rococo Machine — opera in an 18th-century venue

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by Nicholas Jones

DrottningholmThe Palace Theatre at Drottningholm, a royal residence on a beautiful lake not far from Stockholm, is celebrating its 250th anniversary this summer. Replacing an earlier baroque theatre destroyed in a fire, the new theatre was used steadily during the second half of the 18th century by the opera-loving Swedish king, Gustav III.

In an operatic turn of fate, Gustav was assassinated in 1792 during a masquerade at Stockholm’s Royal Opera House — a story revisited in Verdi’s opera, Un ballo in maschera.

After Gustav’s death, operas ceased at Drottningholm. The theatre was abandoned and turned into a place to store old furniture. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland: meet composer Kurt Rohde

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by Mike Telin

Kurt-Rohde_Jeanette-YuThe seventh in a series of articles highlighting ChamberFest artists

Composers can be inspired by many things. A visit to a special place, an event, or listening to a piece of music can serve as the impetus to sit down and start writing. Composer and violist Kurt Rohde said that he found inspiration while preparing for a performance of Beethoven’s Op. 127 string quartet with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.

“Op. 127 happens to be my favorite Beethoven Quartet,” the Rome and Berlin prize-winner said during a telephone conversation. “I was inspired by the first movement because musically it does everything wrong in the most perfect way, and the result is this sublime, even extra-musical experience.”

On Friday, July 1 at 8:00 pm in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance Hall, ChamberFest Cleveland will present Kurt Rohde’s …maestoso…misterioso for amplified violin, viola and assorted items. [Read more…]

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