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Cleveland Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Sol Gabetta create magic at Severance (Apr. 9)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, OH — A good-sized crowd including an abundance of school agers turned out on Thursday evening, April 9 at Severance Music Center for engrossing performances of works by Dmitri Schotakovich and Franz Schubert led by Finnish guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and featuring Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta.

Only two works were on the agenda, but Dmitri Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto and Franz Schubert’s Ninth Symphony both qualify as “doozies” — “outstanding or unique of their kind.”

The Russian work earns that label for its vast range of emotional content, the Austrian piece for what Robert Schumann described as its “heavenly length” and for the endurance it requires from wind and string players.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Collective: “Travelogue” at Disciples (Apr. 12)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Chamber Collective’s “Travelogue” at Disciples Christian Church on Sunday afternoon April 12 traced a set of journeys — some literal, some inward — across a compact, varied program. What held it together was a shared interest in motion: landscapes, folk traditions, and time itself.

Director Ty Alan Emerson was an amiable emcee, introducing each piece and serving as an efficient stage crew of one. The program’s range — captivating, sometimes far-flung — reflected careful curation, and he deserves praise for bringing it together.

Robert Manno’s Three Scenes from the Mountains, written in 2012 and inspired by the view from his home in the Northern Catskills, opened the afternoon with pastoral charm. In “The Wind on the Water,” flutist Linda White, clarinetist Alix Reinhardt, and pianist Eric Charnofsky conjured the scene, the piano rippling under shifting breezes of flute and clarinet. [Read more…]

David Russell performs wonders for Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (Apr. 11)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On Saturday evening, April 11, David Russell — the renowned Scotsman who makes his home in Spain — walked onto the stage of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, and with a shy smile and wave, set about performing wonders on his instrument for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society.

He began with Mauro Giuliani’s Grand Overture, a piece from the era when the guitar was still trying to elbow its way into the drawing rooms of Europe, hoping to be taken as seriously as the piano or the violin. Giuliani, who left Italy for Vienna in 1806, was among those tireless advocates. Though he once played the cello in the first performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, it was the guitar that preserves his name in amber.

The Giuliani, with its bold chords and quicksilver runs, made a fitting opener. Russell shaped the music wisely, giving each fast passage a clean edge and guiding the piece forward with a sure hand.

[Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater follows the fairy tale of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Mar. 27)

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by Peter Feher

Hansel and Gretel had something better than breadcrumbs to accompany their journey through the forest of Ilsenstein, whose enchanted scenery recently sprang to life on the Kulas Hall stage at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Whether avoiding chores, wandering from home, or outsmarting the Gingerbread Witch, the siblings were guided in their moments of trouble by the enduring melodies and leitmotifs of composer Engelbert Humperdinck.

Nothing too bad could befall these characters, buoyed by folk songs one minute and heavenly orchestral tunes the next. Indeed, there were ample delights — and only the slightest bit of danger — to encounter in CIM Opera Theater’s production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, presented with two student casts in two performances, March 27 and 29.

Darkness doesn’t play much of a role in the German libretto by Adelheid Wette, who in 1890 enlisted her brother Humperdinck to collaborate on a kid-friendly adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Gone are the trail of breadcrumbs and the selfish stepmother who starves her family. The children simply get lost in the woods after eating too many strawberries.

[Read more…]

Conductor Daniele Rustioni, organist Paul Jacobs bask in Mediterranean spirit with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 2)

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by Peter Feher

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When the sun rises on the sea at the beginning of Claude Debussy’s La Mer, there’s no coastline or human civilization in sight. Dark, rumbling waves in the timpani and low strings have brightened to reveal the full orchestra in sublime, surging phrases. We could be anywhere on the wide-open ocean.

But listeners won’t be left adrift in Debussy’s score this weekend at Severance Music Center. The Cleveland Orchestra is embarking on a luxuriously charted course with Italian guest conductor Daniele Rustioni. Although mostly focused on French repertoire, the program basks in a broader Mediterranean spirit.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Ballet partners with BlueWater & Cleveland Chamber Choir for an outstanding production of Handel’s Messiah (Mar. 21) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

Three of Cleveland’s flagship organizations joined forces for gripping performances of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah at KeyBank State Theater from March 20 to 22.

Handel’s 1741 oratorio has firmly established itself in the U.S. as a Christmas religious tradition, although it was first performed in Dublin’s Fishamble Street Musick Hall at Easter time, when performances of Italian opera had fallen out of favor in London.

Cleveland Ballet’s productions restored Handel’s most celebrated oratorio to its original context in a theater, with some 50 excellent Blue Water Chamber Orchestra and Cleveland Chamber Choir musicians performing from the orchestra pit under the sensitive direction of CCC’s artistic director Gregory Ristow. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series features bassist Linda May Han Oh (Mar. 19)

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by Max Newman

Upon first thought, you would think that conveying complex themes like “the fragility of time and life” through mostly wordless music would seem futile. Bassist Linda May Han Oh and her band would beg to differ.

On March 19 in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel, the group achieved exactly that with their performance of The Glass Hours. It was an uncategorizable concert, heavy with feeling and chock-full of technical prowess.

Some concerts in Finney Chapel are swallowed up by the venue’s cavernous qualities. This was not one of them. Oh and her band sent notes swimming to every corner of the space, building walls of sound that were dotted by well-defined lead lines and solos — the ensemble was able to simultaneously convey cacophony and sonic exactitude with exquisite dynamic control.

[Read more…]

Heights Chamber Orchestra with Mark Kosower (Mar. 22)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Joseph Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto has had an unusual life. Written in the 1760s, likely for the Esterházy cellist Joseph Weigl, it disappeared for nearly two centuries before resurfacing in a Prague museum in 1961. Since then it has become central to the cello repertory — admired for its clarity, proportion, and wit.

Mark Kosower, principal cello of The Cleveland Orchestra, brought distinction to the Heights Chamber Orchestra’s program on Sunday, March 22 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, shaping Haydn’s Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile with clarity and poise. He made Haydn’s charm into a jewel, and the afternoon into something memorable.

Kosower is a smiling, modest man onstage, but his musicianship told the larger story. His playing was assured and clear, his passagework was clean and sonorous, and his  phrasing logical. In the intimate space, you could watch his left hand at work — precise, disciplined, like five little soldiers carrying out orders. The cadenzas in all three movements were his own — feats of daring in classical style, full of well-turned, lucid flourishes.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Composers Guild: American Mosaic (Mar. 19)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Cleveland Composers Guild marked the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States on Thursday evening, March 19, at Saint Francis Chapel of John Carroll University with American Mosaic. Faculty performers from JCU joined the university’s Wind Ensemble in a program that paired familiar American fare with recent works by Guild composers — an odd patchwork of band music, art song, and new vocal works that surprised but ultimately pleased.

What linked this varied program was its ballad-like storytelling, direct expression, and an unembarrassed urge to communicate.

Gayle Getts and the JCU Wind Ensemble opened with Aaron Copland’s noble Fanfare for the Common Man in Robert Longfield’s arrangement for band. Written during World War II as part of Eugene Goossens’ fanfare project, Copland’s valedictory has outlived its companions and settled comfortably into the culture. Modest in numbers (about 19 players), the ensemble had a town-band quality — a little rough around the edges — but they were well prepared, and in obvious sympathy with the music they were there to perform. [Read more…]

Poiesis Quartet lift up their peers with the beautifully thoughtful “Love Letters” (Mar. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Much has already been made of the meaning of “Poiesis,” a Greek word that means “to create,” particularly something new. The Poiesis Quartet, who play new and commissioned works all the time, live up to their name in all sorts of ways. But this idea felt more relevant than usual during their recent visit to the school where they were founded.

On March 18, the Poiesis returned to Oberlin Conservatory to present “Love Letters,” a project that commissioned works from five QTPOC (Queer & Trans People of Color) composers, all either current Oberlin students or alumni.

The resulting collection of deeply personal pieces gave the Quartet — violinists Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby — the opportunity to give back to the communities that shaped and supported them. And it gave the composers the opportunity to hear their music performed by a quartet whose star only continues to rise.

[Read more…]

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