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The Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with Katia Labèque

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by Mike Telin

When the duo piano team of sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque return to Severance Hall this week, they will be bringing with them a rarity of the two-piano literature. “The Bruch is really the only Romantic concerto we have in our repertoire,” Katia Labèque said during an interview. “The Romantic composers didn’t write a lot for two pianos, so we are very happy to have this one. It is a wonderful piece and we look forward to bringing it to Cleveland.”

On Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 pm, guest conductor Semyon Bychkov will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a concert that includes Bruch’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Detlev Glanert’s Distant Land: Music with Brahms, and Smetana’s Three Selections from Má Vlast: “Vyšehrad,” “The Moldau,” and “Sárka.”  The program will be repeated on Friday at 11:00 am (without the Glanert) and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Interestingly enough, Bruch composed the concerto for the American duo-pianist sisters Rose and Ottilie Sutr in 1912. However, without the composer’s permission, the sisters rewrote the concerto to accommodate their technical abilities. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a conversation with Vinay Parameswaran

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by Jarrett Hoffman

My first opportunity to talk to Vinay Parameswaran came in the form of a phone call last week, but I already had an impression of what his players in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra think of him. In November, violinist Célina Béthoux told me how she had gifted him an origami conductor.

“Last season, some of the seniors gave me thank-you notes, which was also really nice,” Parameswaran told me. “But origami was a new one for me.”

Of course, there are other, more official signs that his tenure has been well received. In February, halfway through his second year, The Cleveland Orchestra extended his contract as Assistant Conductor and COYO Music Director through 2020-2021.

Heading into his latest performance with the younger orchestra on Friday, May 10 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall — with music by Bartók, Bruch, and Shostakovich — Parameswaran said he continues to enjoy what he does. “One of the best parts of my job is working with COYO every weekend.” [Read more…]

Violinist Vadim Gluzman returns to Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto has been part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s repertoire since its founding in 1918. Mishel Piastro soloed in the first Cleveland Orchestra performance of the work on February 13, 1921 under the direction of Nikolai Sokoloff at the Hippodrome in New York City. Mischa Elman gave the first performance at a Subscription Concert on October 23, 1924 at Masonic Auditorium under Sokoloff — who also conducted the first Severance Hall performance on October 20, 1932 with Jascha Heifetz as soloist. Artur Rodzinski first conducted the work on March 29, 1934 with Nathan Milstein as soloist, and Erich Leinsdorf first led the concerto on January 6, 1944 with Efrem Zimbalist.

What did these soloists have in common? They were all students of the great violin pedagogue Leopold Auer, to whom Tchaikovsky originally dedicated the concerto.

Vadim Gluzman will continue the Auer legacy when he performs the work on Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall on the legendary Auer Stradivarius from 1690, the instrument for which Tchaikovsky wrote his famous concerto. The concert, under the direction of Michail Jurowski, also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 (“The Year 1905”). The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Akron Symphony’s West Side Story: O’Brien gets his shot at Tony

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by Jarrett Hoffman

From the first time he saw West Side Story, Connor Bogart O’Brien knew that Tony was a role he was born to play.

So why did he pass on opportunities to do just that — not once, not twice, but three times?

“I didn’t want my debut as Tony to be for anything less than the biggest, most stellar production,” the Ashtabula native said with a laugh during a recent phone call.

Then, about six years ago, O’Brien found himself right where he wanted to be: in Pearl Studios in Manhattan in the final callbacks for the musical’s national tour. “I’m there with two other Tony’s, and I’m thinking, this is it, now is my chance. And fifteen minutes later, I’m on the street wondering what the heck just happened. I did not get it. So I thought, that’s it, I’m going to get too old to play a teenager, and I’m just not going to be able to do it.”

But the universe — via Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins — smiled on O’Brien. [Read more…]

Daniel Meyer to lead his first BlueWater concert as Artistic Director

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“We’re definitely talking about some return visits and some more intensive work together.”

That’s what conductor Daniel Meyer told me over the phone in early April after I asked him about further engagements with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in the seasons to come.

And I can only assume that he was winking when he said it. Less than two weeks later, on April 22, Meyer was announced as the ensemble’s new Artistic Director and Conductor, succeeding founder Carlton Woods, who passed away in 2017.

He will lead his first concert as Music Director on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights (more on that program in a bit). He already knows the players well, having appeared as guest conductor with BlueWater several times over the past few seasons.

And he seems to genuinely love the orchestra. “I took to them right away,” he told me. [Read more…]

Quire Cleveland to present “Ave Maria: England’s Rose”

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by Daniel Hathaway

Quire Cleveland’s spring program, to be performed on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church and Sunday, May 5 at 4:00 pm at Historic St. Peter Church in downtown Cleveland, will be devoted to Marian music of the early English church.

Both concerts are free, and will cover a wide range of pre- and post-Reformation music by John Dunstable, Leonel Power, William Cornysh, William Byrd, Richard Dering, Peter Philips, Robert White, and Robert Parsons. Quire is also inviting the public to witness the final polishing of the repertoire by attending a free rehearsal on Friday, May 3 from 6:45 to 9:30 pm at the Lakewood venue (online registration is required).

I reached Quire’s artistic director Jay White by telephone at his studio at Kent State University to chat about the music he has chosen for this program. I began by asking why English music of the period seems so rich in references to Mary. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with guest conductor Stéphane Denève

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by Mike Telin

Ecstasy:
1) An overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.
2) An emotional or religious frenzy or trance-like state, originally one involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.

This week at Severance Hall, guest conductor Stéphane Denève will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a musical exploration of the realm of ecstasy. The program includes Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral, James MacMillan’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (“The Mysteries of Light”) featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy. Performances take place on Thursday, April 25 at 7:30 pm, Friday at 11:00 am (no MacMillan), and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society closes 69th season with hornist William Caballero

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by Daniel Hathaway

Although string quartets normally dominate its guest list, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will take a different tack for the finale of its 69th season. William Caballero, principal horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony for the last 29 seasons, will bring two of his orchestra colleagues along to Forest Hills Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, April 30 for an unusual program of chamber music.

The 7:30 pm concert will feature Caballero and pianist Rodrigo Ojeda in Eugène Bozza’s En Foret, Anthony Plog’s Three Miniatures, Oliver Knussen’s Horn Concerto, and an arrangement of Johannes Brahms’ Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No. 2. Pittsburgh Symphony principal oboe Cynthia DeAlmeida will join the party for Carl Reinecke’s Trio for Piano, Oboe and Horn in a, Op. 188.

In a recent phone interview, Caballero said, “My last full recital was in 2002 — I usually only play half recitals for workshops, or split recitals with colleagues. So I wanted to choose some repertoire for Cleveland that I hadn’t played before.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater to present La traviata at the Maltz

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by Mike Telin

Violetta Valéry is among the most popular of the many sopranos who die in the last acts of operas. You can relive the story of that “fallen woman” this weekend when Cleveland Opera Theater turns the Maltz Performing Arts Center into an opera house for Verdi’s La traviata.

Scott Skiba directs, Domenico Boyagian conducts, and the cast features Angela Mortellaro as Violetta, Benjamin Werley as Alfredo, and Grant Youngblood as Germont. The Act II party scene is always a highlight, but this one, featuring Cleveland Burlesque, promises to be a show-stopper. The lights go up on Friday, April 26 at 7:00 pm and on Sunday, April 28 at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

“Cleveland Burlesque performs all around Cleveland,” Skiba said during a telephone conversation, “and I reached out to them because we are setting the production in contemporary times. I was thinking, who would Flora hire to perform at her party, and I thought she would hire burlesque dancers.”

[Read more…]

Chagrin Arts: fusing art and music with bassoonist Barry Stees

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Inside every artist’s brain is a region where the words of their mentors float around like balloons, even years or decades later. During a recent phone call, bassoonist Barry Stees looked back on one such piece of advice from the late K. David Van Hoesen, his former teacher at the Eastman School of Music.

“He was always encouraging us to read literature, view art, and take in other forms of culture to fill in the context behind the music we were learning,” said Stees, who serves as assistant principal bassoon in The Cleveland Orchestra.

That stuck with him. And now, he’s developed a concert program themed around music and the visual art and artists that inspired it. He’ll bring that to life with pianist Randall Fusco, oboist Cynthia Watson Sperl, and the Callisto Quartet at Chagrin Falls United Methodist Church this Friday, April 26 at 7:30 pm as part of the Chagrin Arts series. Visual art will be displayed on the walls, and shown on projections.

[Read more…]

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