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Conductor Lorenzo Viotti to debut with The Cleveland Orchestra

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by Mike Telin

Sometimes the best thing a young artist can do is to turn down a job offer, no matter how tempting it might be to say yes. “Early in my career I was invited to conduct some major orchestras,” Lorenzo Viotti said during a recent telephone interview from Lisbon, Portugal, where he serves as Music Director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. “The most important thing I did was to say no to all of them. I had many things to learn before I stood in front of such great institutions, and I wasn’t ready to deal with the pressure.”

On Friday, November 29 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, Lorenzo Viotti will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut with a concert that includes Prokofiev’s Suite from The Love for Three Oranges, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4, with Yuja Wang as soloist, Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, and Ravel’s La Valse. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

“I’m very excited to be making my Cleveland debut,” the 29-year-old said. “When I was a student in Vienna, Franz Welser-Möst would bring the Orchestra to the Musikverein almost every year and I was at every concert, so I’m feeling very lucky to be able to come.”

[Read more…]

Dover Quartet brings new David Bruce work to Cleveland Chamber Music Society

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by Jarrett Hoffman

On Tuesday, December 3 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the Dover Quartet will return to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society bearing a healthy, six-week-old piece of music by David Bruce alongside works by Britten and Brahms.

The group premiered Bruce’s The Lick Quartet in October on the Dallas Chamber Music Society, then played it again at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Stadthaus in Ulm, Germany. That makes this the fourth performance of the piece, and if you want to get geographic about it, the East-of-the-Mississippi U.S. premiere.

And about that title — it has nothing to do with anyone’s tongue, but rather it’s the word for a melodic fragment in jazz. According to Bruce’s notes on the piece, the term “lick” has become a cliché, an Internet meme, and an inside joke among musicians. But after he noticed the resemblance of a lick in his early sketches for the piece, he decided to challenge himself to use it unironically.

[Read more…]

Kondonassis & Azica Records are among  2020 Grammy Award Nominees  

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by Mike Telin

Yesterday the Recording Academy announced that Cleveland-based Azica Records’ release of Jennifer Higdon’s Harp Concerto performed by Yolanda Kondonassis and the Rochester Philharmonic, conducted by Ward Stare, had received a Grammy nomination in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. The recording on the album American Rapture was produced and mixed by Alan Bise, and engineered by Bruce Egre. Commissioned by Kondonassis, Higdon’s concerto was also nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

“This nomination is always such a huge honor with all the amazing talent out there. To be in this small group is humbling and I’m thrilled beyond belief,” Kondonassis said in an email. “Enormous thanks go to Jennifer Higdon, Ward Stare, The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Alan Bise, Bruce Egre, and Azica Records. These projects are never easy, but what an amazing team to make it all happen!” [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series:
A conversation with Iestyn Davies 

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by Mike Telin

Singing has always been an important part of Iestyn Davies’ life. As a boy treble, he began singing in the choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. In his teens he discovered his falsetto, and became a countertenor at Wells Cathedral School, and after completing the British equivalent of high school, he entered St John’s College as a choral scholar, graduating with a degree in archaeology and anthropology. And as they say, the rest is history.

On Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, Iestyn Davies will join the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment in performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Vivaldi’s Gloria under the direction of Jonathan Cohen. Presented as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, the program also includes Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 2 in d, Op. 9. Tickets are available online.

During a Skype interview, Davies said that like Vivaldi’s Gloria, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has also been used in many films and advertisements. “People will recognize the opening movement. For that reason alone, I think the two pieces are a great combination.”

He noted that although they are religious pieces, like Bach’s B-minor Mass and his two Passions, they are more often performed in a concert situation rather than an ecclesiastical setting. [Read more…]

andPlay @ Kent State’s Vanguard New Music Series 

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by Mike Telin

When the duo andPlay — Maya Bennardo, violin, and Hannah Levinson, viola — were in Cleveland to perform on the Re:Sound Festival last summer, ClevelandClassical.com critic Jarrett Hoffman wrote that “Bennardo and Levinson played with obvious chemistry, genuinely at ease with one another in the kind of way that just makes an audience feel good.”

On Thursday, November 21, andPlay will return to Northeast Ohio for a performance on the Kent State Vanguard New Music Series. The 7:30 pm concert in Ludwig Recital Hall will include Leah Asher’s Letters to My Future Self (2018), Clara Iannotta’s Limun (2011), Anthony Vine’s Terrain (2019), Scott Wollschleger’s Violain (2017), and the premiere of a new work by Adam Roberts. The event is free.

I caught up with the duo by telephone and began our conversation by asking how their invitation to Kent came about.

[Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: catching up with Soyeon Kate Lee

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, a medalist at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, will return to play a free concert on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday, November 24 at 3:00 pm. Her program includes works by Mozart, Debussy, Auerbach, and Chopin.

We last spoke with the pianist and her husband, Ran Dank, who both teach at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, before their duo-piano recital in June of 2018 under the auspices of CIPC’s Competition for Young Artists. In the meantime, they’ve welcomed their second child into the family. “Was that just a year ago? That’s amazing. I can’t keep track of what’s going on,” Lee said in a late October telephone conversation.

“In a nutshell, I teach and practice, and try to juggle life. Last night at 11, I was at Kroger’s for some last-minute Halloween decorating and shopping. Our older child just turned five. He’s going to dress up as Superman. He asked me what I was going as and I said, ‘Can I just be a really tired lady?’ Lee said, laughing. “But things are good, though I’ve been on the road a lot, which leaves me with a massive number of makeup lessons at the moment. Ran and I try to take turns with the kids, and we don’t do as many duo concerts now because of the logistics.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with principal trumpet Michael Sachs

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by Mike Telin

“It’s always wonderful when I get to stand up front,” Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs said during a telephone conversation. “I’m usually at the back, so I’m hearing all these wonderful sounds in front of me. But to have those sounds converging upon you is a completely different perspective that I’m always amazed and humbled by. I have a renewed respect for the people that I am lucky enough to work with.”  

On Thursday, November 21 at 7:30 pm, Friday the 22nd at 7:00 pm, and Saturday the 23rd at 8:00 pm, Michael Sachs will return to the front of the Severance Hall stage playing Hummel’s Concerto in E. The program, under the direction of Nicholas McGegan, also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”) and selections from Schubert’s Rosamunde.

Friday’s performance is part of the Fridays@7 Series. The straight-through concert will be followed by a royal cocktail party in the Lotus Club with British-themed appetizers and cocktails, including bangers and mash, fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, and a selection of English beers. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

John Thomas Dodson: Manon Lescaut, a view from the podium

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Friday evening, November 22 and Sunday afternoon, November 24, The Cleveland Opera will raise the curtain on what it believes to be the first local productions of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in living memory. Performances will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the Tudor Arms Hotel with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra under the direction of John Thomas Dodson.

The cast includes Dorota Sobieska (as Manon Lescaut), Mikhail Urusov (Chevalier Renato des Grieux), Jonathan Stinson (Lescaut), Francisco Prado (Geronte di Revoir), Brian Skoog (Edmondo), Loren Reash-Henz (Innkeeper), Elizabeth Frey (Singer), Cory Svette (Dance Master), and Jeremy Gilpatric (Sergeant of the Royal Archers).

The story of Manon Lescaut originated from the pen of Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles (1697-1763), commonly known as the Abbé Prévost, a worldly character and prolific writer who began his career as a Jesuit, ended up as a Benedictine monk, and famously wrote the chronicle of the courtesan Manon Lescaut in the seventh volume of his Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité.

The tale gained such currency that it became the subject for operas by Daniel Auber in 1856 and Jules Massenet in 1884. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (first of two articles)

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by Mike Telin

Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

On Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment. Under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, the program will include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 2 in d, Op. 9, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. The concert will feature sopranos Katherine Watson and Rowan Pierce, countertenor Iestyn Davies, and oboist Katharina Spreckelsen. Tickets are available online.

Following the performance, you can unwind with members of the OAE during The Night Shift. The free hangout and performance will take place at the Birenbaum club, on the lower level of the Hotel at Oberlin. Capacity is limited, and guests will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical Association: a conversation with pianist Fei-Fei

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Following in a line of pianists that has included Garrick Ohlsson, Yuja Wang, Emanuel Ax, and Conrad Tao, the latest performer to be featured in Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert is Fei-Fei.

A finalist in the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition and winner of the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Competition, Fei-Fei was also featured in Virtuosity, a documentary about the Cliburn that aired on PBS.

Beyond her resume, Fei-Fei has a unique approach to programming and is simply a delightful person, as I discovered during a recent phone call to talk about her recital at E.J. Thomas Hall on Thursday, November 21 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

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