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Preview: Tenebrae Choir from U.K. to sing Russian program at St. John’s Cathedral on November 7

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by Daniel Hathaway

The great British choral tradition, cultivated for centuries in cathedrals, college chapels and prominent parish churches, has spawned a number of superb, mixed choral ensembles who regularly tour in North America. Tenebrae, a chamber choir founded and directed by Nigel Short, which will perform on the free Helen D. Schubert concert series at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday, November 7, offers something a bit different. In Latin, the name means “shadows” (it’s also the name of a trio of dramatic services during Holy Week). Tenebrae chamber choir performances usually invoke a spiritual ambiance through the use of candlelight and special lighting effects, and singers move around ecclesiastical buildings, treating them as real performance spaces.

Short launched Tenebrae in 2001 with concerts in London and Switzerland, after a singing career at both Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, with the Tallis Scholars, the King’s Consort and the King’s Singers as well as in opera productions with the English National Opera and Opera North. He was so committed to the idea of performing by candlelight that he commissioned ten medieval-style iron candle stands from a Swiss ironmonger, each to hold twenty-five candles. [Read more…]

Preview: Operas opening this week— Il matrimonio segreto at CIM and Il mondo della luna at Oberlin: chats with the directors

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by Daniel Hathaway

The operahere departments of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music are busy tightening up the final details of their Fall productions, both of which will open on Wednesday evening, November 7. Each school will present four, double-cast performances, Oberlin of Joseph Haydn’s Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday), CIM of Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage, Wednesday through Saturday).

Stage directors Jonathon Field (Oberlin) and David Bamberger (CIM) had both aesthetic and practical reasons for choosing the Fall opera titles. “Il matrimonio is a wonderful, delightful piece that I directed once before for Cleveland Opera”, Bamberger told us in a phone conversation, “and it showcases our students well”. Field made his choice in conversation with his colleagues: “Last year the voice faculty became enthused about Il mondo della luna because there are a lot of roles for women. There’s a huge number of sopranos in the department and then an equal number of mezzos, tenors and basses. You need to be sure that you are educating as many students as possible.” [Read more…]

Preview: Oberlin Orchestra with bassoonist George Sakakeeny (November 2)

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by Daniel Hathaway

SAKAKEENY-George

At a time when cultural institutions are jumping through any number of hoops to try to break down barriers between artists and audiences, it’s kind of refreshing to find yourself standing in line at the washroom before an orchestra concert next to the featured composer of the evening. That was Peter Schickele, who was at Finney Chapel last Friday evening to hear Oberlin bassoon professor George Sakakeeny play his Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra with the Oberlin Orchestra under the direction of Rafael Jiménez on a program that began with Jacques Ibert’s Escales and ended with Claude Debussy’s La Mer.

The concerto was written in 1998 for Sakakeeny and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and revised the following year. Peter Schickele plays the bassoon himself, so he knew what he was doing when he wrote this challenging piece for Sakakeeny, an artist who is a consummate technician as well as a fine, lyrical player with perfectly even tone from top to bottom of that difficult instrument’s range. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society — The Tokyo String Quartet: a conversation with cellist Clive Greensmith about its valedictory season

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by Daniel Hathaway

Tokyo-SQThe Tokyo String Quartet stunned its many fans when it announced its intention to leave the concert circuit in July of 2013, after deciding not to replace retiring violinist Kikuei Ikeda and violist Hazuhide Isomura. The group’s final appearance in Cleveland will take place on October 30 at Plymouth Church on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series, when the Tokyo will play Haydn’s Quartet op. 76, no. 4, Alban Berg’s Quartet op. 3 and Brahms’s Quartet op. 67. British-born cellist Clive Greensmith (left) joined the Tokyo Quartet in 2002 and along with first violinist Martin Beaver made the decision to retire the whole group. We reached Greensmith by phone in New Haven, where the quartet is in residence at Yale, to ask about how a string quartet goes about closing up shop after 44 years.

Daniel Hathaway: Did it come as a surprise to you when Mr. Ikeda and Mr. Isomura decided to retire?

Clive Greensmith: Actually, no. We had been talking about what direction the quartet should go in, and as has been fairly well publicized for a while, Martin and myself thought it would be a good thing to try to find new members. [Read more…]

Rachmaninoff revealed: a visit to the Cleveland Orchestra Archives and a conversation with Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski

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by Mike Telin

This week at Severance Hall, Robin Ticciati will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in concerts that feature Liadov’s Enhanted Lake and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. The program also includes one of the most popular piano concertos in the repertoire, the Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, with Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski as soloist.

Given the popularity of this concerto, we took the opportunity to once again visit the Orchestra archives to see what archivist Deborah Hefting could tell us about Rachmaninoff’s personal appearance and performance of the piece with the orchestra in 1942. We also spoke to Simon Trpčeski and asked him about the challenges of playing such a well-known piece.

“I need to say that it is a great challenge, as I think it is for any pianist who is playing such a popular piece like the Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto”, Trpčeski told by telephone from his home in The Republic of Macedonia. “One always tries to find something, even if it is a little thing [to do differently] in each performance, since it has been played millions of times.” [Read more…]

Mixon Masters Series: Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio — an interview with pianist Joseph Kalichstein

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by Daniel Hathaway

Many a fledgling chamber ensemble has launched its career with a house concert, but few have done that at so prestigious an address as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Zipcode 20500. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, who did make their debut at the White House, will open this season’s Mixon Masters Series at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Tuesday, October 17 at 8 pm with Beethoven’s Trio in G, op. 1, no. 2, André Previn’s Trio No. 2 (commissioned by the group), and Brahms’ Trio in B, op. 8.

Pianist Joseph Kalichstein was born in Israel and came to the US in 1962 to study at Juilliard. He rose to prominence after winning the Young Concert Artists Auditions and making his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in a televised performance of Beethoven’s fourth concerto. After winning the Levintritt Prize in 1969, he made his Cleveland debut with George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra in that same work. This season, he celebrates the 35th anniversary of the founding of the KLR Trio. We reached Joseph Kalichstein at his home in New Jersey to ask about the Mixon Hall concert and how he first got together with violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson.

Daniel Hathaway: Is it true that Jimmy Carter was the matchmaker who formally brought the KLR Trio together?

Joseph Kalichstein: Yes, absolutely. One of his better accomplishments, I think. [Read more…]

Preview: Mark S. Doss to sing Centennial celebration recital at The Music Settlement on December 9

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by Mike Telin

GrammyDOSS-Mark-S Award-winning bass-baritone and Cleveland native Mark S. Doss will sing a recital on Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 3 pm in Glick Recital Hall at The Music Settlement. The performance is part of The Music Settlement’s ongoing Centennial celebration and is presented in conjunction with the Singers’ Club of Cleveland. Doss, who will be joined by pianist Jerry Maddox, will perform works by Adams, Bach, Barber, Boito, Copland, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner.

Mark S. Doss has sung 55 roles in more than 60 major opera houses around the world, the most notable being Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera. At the age of 28 he first sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. This past summer Doss premiered the role of Paul Rayment in Nicholas Lens’ production of Slow Man at its world premiere as an opera at Poznan’s Grand Theatre Opera House Wielki in Poznan, Poland. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Archives: the American premiere of Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1

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by Mike Telin

Marin Alsop will make her Severance Hall debut on December 8, 9 and 10 with Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Bernstein’s Serenade with Peter Otto as soloist, and Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) featuring Joela Jones. Barber’s symphony received its American premiere in 1937 by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, an event that inspired us to take a look in the Cleveland Orchestra Archives to see what critics had to say about the work and composer.

At a very young age, Samuel Barber was already aware that he was destined to become a composer — a fact he made quite clear to his mother at the time. The Archives preserve an article from International Musician of December, 1961, where John Briggs writes

Early in this century an eight-year-old resident of West Chester, Pal, already with a number of compositions to his credit, left a note on his mother’s dressing table. It read in part:

“To begin with, I was not meant to be an athelet (sic) I was meant to be a composer, and will be, I’m sure…Don’t ask me to try to forget this…and go play foot-ball.—Please—Sometimes I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad! (not very).” [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera: Conversations with William Bolcom and Joan Morris

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by Mike Telin

Bolcoms-1111Last week the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s Opera theatre presented four performances of American composer William Bolcom’s comic opera A Wedding. Bolcom was present for Wednesday’s opening performance as well as to give a talk on Friday about his career and his work in opera. A Wedding was preceded by McTeague, and A View from the Bridge. All three operas were commissioned by Chicago Lyric Opera.

On Thursday morning only minutes prior to an interview on WCPN’s “Around Noon” program, the composer and his long-time performance collaborator and wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, were beaming at the success of the previous night’s opening performance. “I am so pleased with the way it went”, Bolcom said with a smile. “The conductor had the perfect tempos, and that’s always a concern of mine.” Bolcom was soon ushered into the studio with “Around Noon” host Dee Perry, and the two had an engaging conversation about how A Wedding came to be and his about career as a composer and teacher. Although Ms. Morris must have heard these stories before, as well as living many of them, she listened attentively to the interview in the green room, smiling and nodding with affirmation as Bolcom and Perry conversed. “She’s very good” Bolcom said of Perry following the interview, “Very well prepared, and she asked good question.” [Read more…]

Denis Azabagić opens Classical Guitar Society’s Masters Series on October 1

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by Mike Telin

AZABAGIC-Denis2Bosnian-born guitarist Denis Azabagić has won first prize in virtually every classical guitar competition in the world. He opens the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Masters Series with a ticketed concert on Saturday, October 1 at 7:30 at First Unitarian Church of Cleveland in Shaker Heights (see the Calendar Listings for details), and will give a free master class there on Sunday at 1 pm. We reached him by telephone in Chicago, where he is on the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at the Roosevelt University.

Mike Telin: How are things going in Chicago?

Denis Azabagić: Busy! I am head of the department now and there is a lot of teaching.

MT: A friend of mine referred to you as the King of Competitions because you have been awarded 24 prizes. How did winning these prizes help to establish your professional career?

DA: I was fortunate to be successful at the competitions, and it was also a way for me to make money. [Read more…]

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