ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Pre•Views

Preview: Organists Bálint Karosi and Christopher Houlihan both come to town on April 19, but no need to choose

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Karosi-Houlihan

When it rains, it pours, and in April that’s a good thing. Two stellar concert organists are set to play very different recitals in Cleveland on Friday, April 19, and happily, fans of organ music can catch both of them. 34-year-old Hungarian-born Bálint Karosi opens the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival at 4 pm at Berea United Methodist Church with music by J.S. Bach’s predecessors and the master himself, and 25-year-old Christopher Houlihan performs Vierne and Liszt at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights at 7:30 in a recital jointly sponsored by Fairmount Church and the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

How different can two organists and two recitals be? With centuries of repertory to explore, “a longer history than any other instrument,” Houlihan reminds us in a phone call from his home in New York, there can be plenty of differences. The instruments, for one thing. Karosi will play a baroque-style tracker instrument built by Rudolf Janke in Germany in 1974, while Houlihan will perform on the eclectic, 100-rank electro-pneumatic instrument built by Ohio’s Schantz Co. in 1966 (incorporating elements of an earlier Holtkamp organ). For another thing, the two players come from different backgrounds and were inspired by very different influences. [Read more…]

Preview: Opera Per Tutti to stage two Puccini one-acts at Cleveland Public Theatre

by

by Mike Telin

ANELLI-AndreaSince the premiere of Puccini’s Il trittico in 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, the three one-act operas that comprise The Triptych have continued to be audience favorites. On Friday, Friday, April 19 at 7:30 and Sunday, April 21st at 3:00 pm, Cleveland Public Theatre’s Opera Company in Residence, Opera Per Tutti (OPT) will complete The Triptych cycle with productions of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

“The time was right for us to take this on, “OPT founder and executive director Andrea Anelli told us by telephone. “We had a successful production of Il tabarro, and we wanted to finish The Triptych as well as to stage productions that involved a larger cast, and part of my goal is to provide other opportunities for area artists. Then of course there is my personal love of Puccini.”

Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi are co-productions with Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) and Anelli says that being invited to become CPT’s resident opera company has made it possible for her company to produce larger-scale works. [Read more…]

Preview: CMA Viva! & Gala: Paris Combo — a conversation with David Lewis

by

by Mike Telin

Paris-ComboThe story of Paris Combo began in the early 1990s when vocalist Belle du Berry, guitarist Potzi and percussionist François Jeannin began performing together in Paris as members of a quirky retro revue. In 1994 Australian trumpeter and pianist David Lewis joined the group and the group honed their sound while playing in cafes and on barges along the Seine.

Since the release of their debut CD in 1997, Paris Combo has released three internationally acclaimed CD’s and toured extensively in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. Following a four year break, the group reunited in a rehearsal studio to compose new songs. After bassist Emmanuel Chabbey was added to the group’s lineup in 2011, Paris Combo returned to extensive touring and performing new material that would evolve into “5” their fifth CD. In conjunction with that release, on Friday, April 19, Paris Combo kicks off their 12-city US tour on the stage of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium as part of the museum’s VIVA! & Gala series.

We spoke to David Lewis by telephone from Paris. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra to premiere Sean Shepherd’s Tuolumne this week

by

by Mike Telin

SHEPHERD-Sean“Tuolumne is really the piece of my life so far,” says Sean Shepherd, the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow of the Cleveland Orchestra. Beginning on Thursday, April 18 in Severance Hall, Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in the world premiere of Shepherd’s mammoth score. The concerts also include Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6.

Sean Shepherd is a fast-rising star in the field of contemporary concert music, Recent premieres include Blue Blazes, a Hechinger Commission from Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra, Quartet for Oboe and Strings at the Santa Fe and La Jolla summer festivals in 2011, and a work for the Claremont Trio in celebration of the opening of Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From 2010 to 2012 Shepherd served as the first-ever Composer-in-Residence of the Reno Philharmonic, his hometown, and in 2012 Susanna Mälkki, premiered Shepherd’s Ensemble Intercontemporain-commissioned Blur in Paris and Cologne.

In his program notes, Shepherd writes, “Tuolumne (‘two ALL um knee’ or, as some California locals say it, ‘two ALL ‘o me’), from the Native American language of Miwok, is a word of unclear meaning, but is often thought to describe the small group of indigenous people who lived in what is now known as Yosemite National Park. [Read more…]

Preview: CityMusic Cleveland Intergenerational Concerts — Avner Dorman’s Uzu and Muzu from Kakaruzu

by

by Mike Telin

DORMAN-AvnerEach season CityMusic Cleveland presents a series of intergenerational concerts devoted to music and educational activities that address the social concerns that stem from bullying as well as creating opportunities for discussions about conflict resolution. In 2011 CityMusic presented Margaret Brouwer’s Daniel and the Snakeman, and in 2012 the children’s opera Brundibár highlighted the orchestra’s Persistence of Creativity Series.

Beginning on Tuesday, April 16th, and running through Saturday, April 20th (see our concert listings pages for locations and times) CityMusic will present Avner Dorman’s Uzu and Muzu from Kakaruzu under the direction of guest conductor David Alan Miller.The work features percussionists Luke Rinderknecht and Haruka Fuji. The concerts also include Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie Overture and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 (Schumann for evening performances only)

Israeli composer Avner Dorman has quickly risen to become one of the leading composers of his generation. His unique approach to rhythm and timbre has attracted some of the world’s most notable conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Riccardo Chailly, David Robertson, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop, and Justin Brown. [Read more…]

Preview: KLR Trio to join CIM Orchestra for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at Severance Hall

by

by Daniel Hathaway

KalichsteinLaredoRobinsonTrioNow that two-thirds of the celebrated Kalichstein Laredo Robinson Piano Trio are in residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, there are more opportunities to enjoy hearing them perform locally. On Wednesday, April 17 at 8 pm, the KLR Trio will join Carl Topilow and the CIM Orchestra in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in the orchestra’s final performance at Severance Hall this season.

Last year before the Trio appeared on the Mixon Masters Series, we enjoyed the opportunity of speaking to pianist Joseph Kalichstein about the group’s long history, which began with a gig at an inauguration reception for President Jimmy Carter thirty-five years before (read the interview here). This time, we reached violinist Jaime Laredo and his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson for a joint conversation at their home in Shaker Heights — just as a contractor was leaving.

“We bought this gorgeous, gorgeous old house that we love,” Laredo said, “but there are a million things going wrong all the time.” “A boat would be worse,” Robinson sighed. “We’re three doors down from where George Szell used to live,” Laredo continued. “The first day I walked by his house my stomach turned into a knot like it always used to!” [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Quatuor ébène — not your usual string quartet

by

by Daniel Hathaway
Quatuor-ebeneIf you’re a regular Cleveland Chamber Music Society patron, you already know that the French ensemble Quatuor ébène is scheduled to cross the genre borders between Mozart & Mendelssohn and Jazz & Pop next Tuesday evening, April 16 at Plymouth Church, but don’t be surprised if the four young Frenchmen also break into song — as they charmingly do in this video of “Un jour mon prince viendra” from “Banche-neige et les sept nains” (somehow the brief Tide commercial fits right in with the Snow White theme).

The members of “The Ebony Quartet,” violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Magadure, violist Mathieu Herzog and cellist Raphaël Merlin, got together as an ensemble in 1999, when they were students at the Conservatory in Boulogne-Billancourt on the west side of Paris. In the next decade and a half, the quartet won important awards and acquired a reputation for moving seamlessly between different musical genres. [Read more…]

Preview: Oberlin Cooper Competition Laureates to reassemble for bonus Arts Recital Series concert on April 11

by

Cooper-2012-ThreeSome of the most promising young musicians in the world will perform in Finney Chapel on April 11 at 7:00 pm as a bonus event in Oberlin College’s Artist Recital Series (ARS). The performance features piano and violin laureates of the annual Thomas & Evon Cooper International Competition, which alternates between violin and piano from year to year.

Conservatory Dean David H. Stull said, “The Cooper Competition has done a wonderful job of bringing the top young talent from around the world in both piano and violin to the Oberlin Campus. The final three each year have also had the opportunity to perform with The Cleveland Orchestra. We are bringing them back to the Oberlin campus to have a series of professional experiences that they are all excited about. And to give them an opportunity to perform again. This is a chance for them to get to know Oberlin and for us to get to know then as students.” [Read more…]

Preview: Oboe d’amore concerto debuts at Severance Hall — a conversation with Robert Walters (and a poem)

by

by Mike Telin

WALTERS-RobertIt’s always a big event when an orchestra performs Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The opening O Fortuna (O Fortune) is one of the most recognizable pieces of music thanks to its use in hundreds of commercials and films. The massive forces gathered on stage and the volume that is produced make it a thrill to hear live. Beginning on Thursday, April 11 at Severance Hall, Conductor James Feddeck and The Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by Rebecca Nelsen, soprano, Nicholas Phan, tenor, Stephen Powell, baritone, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Children’s Chorus for four performances of Orff’s masterpiece.

The concert also includes two Cleveland Orchestra firsts, a performance of J.S. Bach’s Concerto in A major, BWV 1055 for oboe d’amore and orchestra featuring Cleveland Orchestra English horn player Robert Walters. The concerts also mark the first time that any oboe d’amore concerto has been performed by the orchestra. [Read more…]

Preview: Takács and DeMaine embark on complete Beethoven cello & piano cycle

by

by Daniel Hathaway

TAKACS-DEMAINEOberlin piano professor Peter Takács was just finishing his decade-long project of recording all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas when he met Detroit Symphony principal cellist Robert DeMaine at the Charleston (SC) Chamber Festival. “We had one of those meetings of the minds which is not that common, but when it happens, it’s very, very nice. After I finished my solo sonata project I was trying to ponder what to do next. I could have rested and said, ‘OK, I’m done’, or I could have said, ‘Let’s do something completely different’. But I decided to stick with The Big Guy (Beethoven) and I thought about Robert because we had such a good time together.”

Takács emailed DeMaine, who was enthusiastic about preparing a series of paired recitals featuring Beethoven’s five cello sonatas and three sets of variations for cello and piano, all in two programs.

Takács has been there before, having performed the cycle three and a half years ago with Oberlin faculty cellist Darrett Adkins, but that pair of concerts took place on the same day. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us