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Re•Views

Les Délices: “Mozart in Paris–Part 2” with fortepianist Sylvia Berry (Oct. 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Mozart’s second sojourn in Paris in the spring of 1778 left the 22-year-old composer in a funk. A child prodigy no longer, he was ignored and double-crossed by Parisian presenters and composers, ran out of funds without the promise of earning more income, and to top it off, his mother fell ill and died. Les Délices, who devoted a program last season to Mozart’s earlier and happier visit in 1763-1764, updated his Parisian saga last weekend in four concerts featuring fortepianist Sylvia Berry. The performances launched the tenth season of one of Northeast Ohio’s most distinguished ensembles. [Read more…]

Youngstown Symphony: all-Mozart opener (Sept. 29)

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by Robert Rollin

On Saturday, September 29, the Youngstown Symphony opened its 2018-19 season with an all-Mozart concert mixing theatrical, operatic, and symphonic elements. The majority of the evening juxtaposed operatic arias with excerpts from Mozart’s letters, read from stage left by actor James McClellan — costumed as the composer himself. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Jerusalem Quartet at Plymouth (Oct. 2)

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by David Kulma

The splendid Jerusalem Quartet’s return to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society on Tuesday, October 2 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights brought welcome respite in a week full of rancor and bitterness. But the powerful Shostakovich quartet that ended the evening brought the inescapable world back into view, both for the weary and the wary. [Read more…]

CIM Orchestra with guest conductor Thomas Wilkins & cellist Daniel Kaler (Sep. 26)

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by Nicholas Stevens

What can a concertgoer expect from a student orchestra? At most conservatories, ensemble membership varies from month to month, and a single concert can involve multiple personnel swaps. The young players face impossible schedules, limiting their time to prepare. Given all these constraints, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, playing under guest conductor Thomas Wilkins, set an astonishingly high bar in an ambitious program on Wednesday, September 26. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Prokofiev & Bartók with Yefim Bronfman (Sept. 27)

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by Daniel Hathaway

It’s difficult to explain why there were so many empty seats in Severance Hall for The Cleveland Orchestra’s third subscription concert of the season on Thursday, September 27. Did Prokofiev + Bartók + Prokofiev scare people away? Had binge-watching the Kavanaugh hearings all day sent folks into a decline? Were subscribers opting for the Orchestra’s big benefit on Saturday instead? Those who passed up hearing the performance — for whatever reason — missed out on one of the most remarkable evenings in recent memory. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir at Maltz PAC (Sept. 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The centennial of the armistice that ended World War I has inspired several concerts this fall. The latest of them was “Remembrance: Music of War, Peace & Comfort,” an affecting performance by Cleveland Chamber Choir on the new Silver Hall Series at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. On Sunday, September 23, in an event that was part concert, part memorial service, Scott MacPherson led his 32-voice chorale in a beautifully curated program of music from six centuries that makes a “universal statement about the suffering that war brings to all people, especially the families of loved ones lost.” [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: The Cleveland Orchestra (Sept. 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Last Thursday evening at The Cleveland Orchestra’s season opener in Severance Hall, music director Franz Welser-Möst was honored with the Orchestra’s twenty-third annual Distinguished Service Award. On Friday, an uncommonly hot evening for September, he deserved a medal for leading the ensemble in full concert dress while his colleagues played in shirtsleeves in Oberlin’s steamy Finney Chapel, surely one of the only major concert halls in Northeast Ohio not to offer climate control. (Photo from an earlier performance). [Read more…]

CD Review —
Finding inner chill: Michael Adcock’s Ragtime in Washington

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by Hannah Schoepe

Now that everyone is returning from summer vacations, school is in session, new seasons are starting, and the workplace is beginning to pick up the pace, the search for a window of relaxation amidst the craziness of everyday life is becoming real. Pianist and Oberlin Conservatory alum Michael Adcock’s new CD, Ragtime in Washington, might be just the thing. The tunes on this album evoke images of sitting by the fire with a warm beverage, enjoying swayed rhythms that make you want to sway too. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at the Breen Center (Sept. 16)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Sometimes, the concerts that a music-lover remembers best revolve around isolated points of interest: a moving phrase here, a glowing chord there, the consistent verve of one player over the course of an evening. However, some performances contain such long successions of bright points that a pattern forms, and the entire experience becomes one protracted highlight. When the musicians of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra opened their ninth season last weekend, it became difficult to miss the forest for the trees: delightful moments kept arriving. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society Showcase at Maltz PAC (September 15)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Concerts that feature multiple players on a single instrument come with a risk: the consistency of tone across the evening can come across as a lack of variety. Some instruments, such as the piano, evade this thanks to centuries’ worth of diverse repertoire. Classical guitarists have additional advantages: their community boasts a strong tradition of writing new transcriptions and original works, and each great player has a unique sound. Both of those were in full evidence at last weekend’s Showcase Concert for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society.

[Read more…]

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