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Cleveland Women’s Orchestra marks 90th Birthday at CMA (Oct. 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, “the lone survivor of the numerous women’s orchestras that existed in the early 20th century,” as described in the program, celebrated its 90th birthday with a concert in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, October 26.

The original purpose of those ensembles was to provide performance opportunities for talented female musicians barred by gender from the ranks of symphony orchestras. As that world has all but disappeared, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra has played on. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with pianist Garrick Ohlsson at Severance (Oct. 30)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Frequent guest pianist Garrick Ohlsson returned to Severance Music Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 50 years after his first appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra.

The concert, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, reminded us why we cherish these performances year after year: consistent excellence, both familiar and new music, and the company of an artist whose quiet dignity and calm brilliance have become a reliable part of the city’s musical life.

The program opened with “Permissions,” a ten-minute churn by Tyler Taylor, the Orchestra’s new Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow. The Louisville, Kentucky-born composer and horn player brings a performer’s instinct for timbre and ensemble dynamics to his writing.

[Read more…]

Belcea Quartet at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Oct. 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The complete Shostakovich cycle of quartets that the Jerusalem Quartet served up last May in five well-attended performances at the Cleveland Museum of Art to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society was a hard act to follow.

CCMS allowed its patrons some variety by opening its 76th season with a September concert for violin and piano, followed by a bracing program on October 21 from the Belcea Quartet that balanced extreme textures and dissonance with an abundance of sweetness and nuance, while also producing a rich blend and a vast array of articulations. [Read more…]

Les Délices: “Bohemian Rhapsody” at West Shore UU Church (Oct. 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Although Les Délices’ most recent subscription program actually featured music by composers from what is now the western part of the Czech Republic, it borrowed its marketing title from an American rock anthem and culminated in a major work by a celebrated Austrian.

Never mind a slight bit of confusion. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which I heard on Sunday, October 19 in the agreeable space of West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, provided the welcome opportunity to focus in on the classical oboe artistry of director Debra Nagy, and to make at least a nodding acquaintance with historical composers Franz Krommer, Georg Druschetzky, and Katerina Veronika Dusikova-Cianchettini (whose name should be appear on classical radio hosts’ audition scripts), as well as the more recent Nathan Mondry. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir shines with music to mark the hours and seasons (Oct. 25)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Often called The Vespers, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil reaches for something beyond an evening service. Its fifteen movements, rooted in Russian Orthodox chant, rise and surround like incense — not to display magnificence, but to deepen the mystery. Rachmaninoff was so fond of the work that he requested the fifth movement, the Nunc dimittis, be sung at his funeral.

On Friday evening, October 25, the Cleveland Chamber Choir, directed by Gregory Ristow, presented this monumental work in Trinity Cathedral — a resonant space of tradition and calm, where the beauty of the setting matched the beauty of the sound.

[Read more…]

Tuesday Musical opens season with epic works from pianist Marc-André Hamelin (Oct. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

On Tuesday evening, October 21, pianist Marc-André Hamelin opened Tuesday Musical’s 2025–26 season in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall with a program of unusual range and scale. He mapped the human mind and heart across an often-epic landscape — Beethoven’s granite Hammerklavier, Robert Schumann’s not merely scenic Waldszenen, and Ravel’s hallucinatory Gaspard de la nuit.

Composed between 1817 and 1818, the Hammerklavier marks Beethoven’s turn toward the monumental and visionary. Deaf by this time, he wrote for some idealized instrument and listener — music indifferent to ordinary technical or emotional limits. Deemed nearly unplayable at its premiere, it later found champions, Liszt foremost among them, who revealed its vast scope.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists excel with “Ode to Joy” performance (Oct. 23)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Few melodies in the classical canon hold as much name recognition as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The beloved tune, set to the words of German poet Friedrich Schiller, comes from the composer’s Symphony No. 9 — a revolutionary piece both in its form and in its celebration of the indomitable human spirit.

The desire to witness such joyful music making in person is undoubtedly what drove a large audience to Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center on Thursday, Oct. 23. And it’s safe to say that the Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and soloists did not disappoint.

[Read more…]

BW Opera’s dystopian Dido and Aeneas (Oct. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

The contemporary relevance of doomed love, betrayal, and political maneuvering  continues to endear Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas to modern audiences. But the recent staging of the 17th-century opera by Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater made a more direct connection to today’s political climate.

Set “within the dystopian framework of A Handmaid’s Tale,” the all-new production, directed by Scott Skiba, drew parallels between Purcell’s tale and the setting of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book. It’s an ambitious premise, and one that ultimately wobbled rather than sticking its landing. Regardless, the one-hour work featured lovely performances across the board from the student cast.

The Helen Theatre at Playhouse Square provided an intimate, black box venue, giving the small audience up-close sightlines to the action. The cast of the 3:00 pm show on October 11 set a high bar for singing and acting quality, anchored by Christol Stewart as Dido, who absolutely shone with her dignified voice and bearing. Conductor Jason Aquila led a string quartet from the harpsichord. [Read more…]

Miró Quartet celebrates its 30th with Oberlin Beethoven cycle (Oct. 10-12) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

Three decades after its founding at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Miró Quartet celebrated that milestone by playing a complete Beethoven cycle in six concerts from October 10-12 in venues throughout the Lorain County campus.

That musical marathon of sixteen string quartets, performed in the order they were written, neatly coincided with Oberlin’s Homecoming Weekend, a nostalgic occasion for the Quartet’s founding members — first violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Joshua Gindele — as well as for Oberlin alumni in general, who helped swell the audiences for the well-attended Beethoven cycle.

Second violinist William Fedkenheuer and violist John Largess, who joined the ensemble a bit later, complete a well-oiled machine that has something distinct to say musically. They play as a single unit with a rich, blended sound and well-matched articulations, offering an experience that’s both exciting and transcendent.

[Read more…]

Miró Quartet at Finney Chapel (Oct. 10)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

At Oberlin’s Finney Chapel on Friday evening, October 10, the Miró Quartet continued its complete Beethoven cycle and marked its thirty-year homecoming with the three “Razumovsky” quartets of Op. 59. Founded at Oberlin in 1995 by violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Joshua Gindele, the group later took its enduring form with the arrivals of second violinist William Fedkenheuer and violist John Largess.

After winning a competition hat-trick at Fischoff, Banff, and Naumburg, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Miró found a home as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Texas at Austin. Returning to Oberlin for this six-concert Beethoven marathon gave the evening an air that was both valedictory and self-renewing.

[Read more…]

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