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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Berta Rojas makes Cleveland debut

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Guitarist Berta Rojas has made the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré a focal point of her career, from her 2008 album Intimate Barrios to her four-year tour “In the Footsteps of Mangoré” with clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

Rojas will make her Cleveland debut on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in a concert presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Her program highlights Barrios, a fellow Paraguayan who lived from 1885 to 1944.

The first half travels from Spain (Federico Moreno Torroba’s Sonatina) to Brazil (Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Prelude No. 4 and Étude No. 4) and England (Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina, Op. 52, No. 1). And the second half is all Barrios, including two of his Op. 8 Waltzes, the Estudio de Concierto, Las Abejas, Un Sueño en la Floresta, La Catedral, and an arrangement of his Danza Paraguaya in which Rojas will be joined by students of the Guitar Society.

Rojas’ first encounter with the works of that composer came when she was a young guitarist. “I heard the music of Barrios and I fell in love with it,” she said during a recent telephone conversation. [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to present Mozart’s Così fan tutte

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by Mike Telin

Update from Oberlin Conservatory: While there are no suspected cases of COVID-19 on our campus or in our community, we have chosen to limit public gatherings for performances during the coming days to ensure the health and wellness of our community. Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, Hall Auditorium will be closed to patrons for the Oberlin Opera Theater production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

The opera will still be performed, however, and we are currently working on the necessary technology to make the Saturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m. performances available via live stream. We will publicize the link to the live stream as soon as it becomes available.

Here’s a plot worthy of an opera: in a single day the philosopher Don Alfonso will prove to the young officers Guglielmo and Ferrando that like all women, their fiancées Fiordiligi and Dorabella are incapable of remaining faithful. And there’s the maid Dispena who, for a price, is more than happy to help move things along. Thus the stage is set for Così fan tutte.

This week Oberlin Opera Theater will present Mozart’s comic opera — subtitled The School for Lovers — directed by Jonathon Field with Christopher Larkin conducting the Oberlin Orchestra. Performances take place in Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, March 11, Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, March 15 at 2:00 pm. (The performances are closed to the public — see notice above.) [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire — “O Jerusalem!”
a conversation with Daphna Mor 

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by Daniel Hathaway

When we talked by telephone, Daphna Mor was at home in New York, packing for her upcoming trip to Cleveland. That can be complicated for a wind player getting ready to perform with Apollo’s Fire. “I’m laying out all my instruments and making sure I’m not forgetting anything tomorrow out of the ten or twelve I usually bring,” she said.

All of those will be put to use in “O Jerusalem,” a musical and poetical tour of the Jewish, Christian, Arab, and Armenian quarters of that ancient city, to be led by Jeannette Sorrell.

Mor will join soprano Amanda Powell, tenors Sorab Wadia and Jacob Perry, baritone Jeffrey Strauss, oud and qanun player Zafer Tawil and Brian Kay, plucked instruments, in four area performances beginning in Avon Lake on March 5, followed by Fairlawn (March 9), Cleveland Heights (March 10 — note venue change!), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (March 11). Some concerts will include projections.

Daphna Mor counts herself among the legions of children who were introduced to the recorder as students in elementary school — in her case, in the third grade in her hometown near Tel Aviv. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus: Martina Janková & Lisa Wong talk about Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang

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by Daniel Hathaway

The artistic planners at Severance Hall have taken profit of soprano Martina Janková’s current visit to Cleveland to create a mini-Mendelssohn festival. Janková appeared with Vinay Parmareswaren and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus on Sunday evening, March 1 in the motet Hör mein Bitten, and will be featured as a soloist in Lobgesang on March 5, 7, and 8 with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus led by Franz Welser-Möst.

“I feel at home in Cleveland with my beloved orchestra. I think they are the best in the world,” the Swiss soprano said in a telephone conversation. She’s had plenty of opportunity to get to know the ensemble, having starred in three Mozart operas, sung the title roles in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (twice) and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and most recently appeared as soloist in Schubert’s Mass in E-flat.

The opportunity to revisit the Mendelssohn motet was nostalgic for Janková. “It was like coming back to my roots. I began my study at the Basel Academy of Music with Hör mein Bitten twenty years ago.” [Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society:
pianist Spencer Myer &
baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco

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by Jarrett Hoffman

On Monday, March 9 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present pianist Spencer Myer and baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco in a free program of art song and solo piano works by Beethoven, Debussy, Barber, and Bolcom.

The recital begins with Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, a work that deserves a special asterisk in the repertoire of this duo and couple: they read through it on their first date. (As Diaz-Moresco said by telephone, they also sang Schumann’s Dichterliebe. He laughed, adding that things have happily turned out better than they do in those poems by Heinrich Heine.)

Asked about that first time reading music together, Myer said in a separate phone call that he remembers an instant connection. “And that’s kind of how our relationship has been the entire six years. Everything has just been easy and natural, and I think that comes through when we perform together as well.” [Read more…]

Beethoven’s complete String Quartets in two and a half days at Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

In case you’re not aware, 2020 marks Beethoven’s 250th birthday. Although the actual day is not until December, arts organizations around the globe are already knee deep in celebrations, and Oberlin is no exception. From Friday, March 6 through Sunday, March 8, Conservatory string students will present tag-team performances of all of the composer’s sixteen quartets in five free concerts in Stull Recital Hall. The marathon begins at 4:30 pm on Friday, with other concerts scheduled on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm. You can join the live webcasts here.

“This undertaking is unique to other schools in that all the performers are students,” violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson said during a conversation in his studio. “The students are so excited — we’re all excited about this project, and it’s been all hands-on-deck. The entire string faculty is involved coaching the groups. And some of the theory professors have been coaching as well by offering their perspectives. Some are highlighting the quartets in their courses. So there’s a great synergy around the project. Presenting the complete quartet cycle is exciting no matter where you are, but we’re doing it in five concerts over two and a half days.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to present “We March On! Music of Social Justice”

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by Mike Telin

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. On June 3, 1970 that tragic event was commemorated when Robert Shaw led a community performance of the Cherubini Requiem in c at Kent United Church of Christ.

On Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 pm at Kent United Church of Christ, the Cleveland Chamber Choir will mark the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings with “We March On! Music of Social Justice.” Directed by Scott MacPherson, the concert includes music by Joel Thompson, Ethyl Smyth, Linda Kachelmeier, Catherine Dalton, and Natsumi Osborn. The program will be repeated on Sunday, March 8 at 3:00 pm at Cleveland’s St. Ignatius of Antioch Church. Charles Edward McGuire will give a pre-concert talk 45 minutes before the performances. The concerts are free.

The idea for creating a program around social justice music came about when a group from CCC attended a performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s passion cantata Considering Matthew Shepard at Bowling Green State University. “When we heard the song All of Us, we started talking about how we should sing it,” CCC alto and managing director Kira McGirr said by telephone. “We talked to Scott MacPherson and he said that if we could come up with a concert theme, he’d be happy to program it.” [Read more…]

Brownlee joins Youngstown Symphony in “Spiritual Journey”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“At a time in our country when we could use something that’s truly uplifting — that celebrates an enormous triumph of the human spirit — this concert is just such an experience,” Youngstown Symphony music director Randall Craig Fleischer said during a recent phone call.

On Saturday, March 7 at 8:00 pm in Edward W. Powers Auditorium, Fleischer and the YSO will be joined for the first time by tenor Lawrence Brownlee in “Spiritual Journey: The Road to Peace and Freedom.” The program includes arias, spirituals, and songbook standards, as well as a piece by Fleischer and his wife, comedian Heidi Joyce.

That work, Spiritual Journey, explores the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The orchestra will play arrangements of spirituals, ending with Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Brownlee will read excerpts from the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Read more…]

Les Délices:
“Torchsongs Transformed”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Les Délices has added a new twist to their acclaimed Baroque-jazz fusion program. Previously known as “Songs Without Words” — in the form of both a live concert and a beautiful album from 2018 — it’s now called “Torchsongs Transformed,” and adds soprano Hélène Brunet to the core of Debra Nagy (Baroque oboe), Mélisande Corriveau (viola da gamba and pardessus de viole), and Eric Milnes (harpsichord).

Here the ensemble explores the relationship between 17th-century French love songs (airs de cour) and 20th-century torchsongs and jazz standards arranged for and improvised by the ensemble. It’s all laid out in the arc of an affair, viewed through the lens of each passing season, as songs like Gershwin’s Summertime and Johnny Mercer’s Autumn Leaves are interleaved with music by Michel Lambert, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Sebastian Le Camus. See the full program and read Debra Nagy’s notes here. 

Performances take place Friday, March 6 at 7:30 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Akron, Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 pm at Lakewood Congregational, and Sunday, March 8 at 4:00 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

CONCERT CANCELLED
Cleveland Museum of Art: a conversation with Fatoumata Diawara

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Note: due to flight cancellations, this performance has been cancelled.

Fatoumata Diawara aims for a particular balance in her music: respect for her Malian roots, and enthusiasm for international influences. Another balance? The singer and guitarist loves pop, which you can hear in her songs, but listeners should expect her lyrics to venture into heavy territory. And yet — another balance — when she’s onstage, she radiates joy.

The fascinating and thoughtful Diawara — who will perform at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Wednesday, February 26 at 7:30 pm — picked up the phone last week in Lake Como, Italy. And when someone tells you they’re at Lake Como, there’s only one possible response.

Jarrett Hoffman: It’s so beautiful there!

Fatoumata Diawara: It’s a special place, very peaceful.

JH: I imagine that it’s also a great place to write music.

FD: Of course! It’s so nice when you take your guitar to the lake — you get inspiration right away. [Read more…]

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