by Daniel Hathaway
The Kent State University Keyboard Series ended its current season on Sunday, April 22 with spectacularly lucid performances of Bartók and Liszt by University of Michigan piano professor Logan Skelton. The former was Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, an unlikely subject for a piano arrangement, the latter Liszt’s sometimes intractable Sonata in b, brilliantly brought to heel on this occasion.
by Daniel Hathaway
Singers Companye, Samuel Gordon’s Akron-based chamber choir, gave three performances of its spring program “An Unclouded Day: A Celebration of Love” in Cleveland, Fairlawn, and Hudson on April 20, 22, and 28. In their first concert at Mary Queen of Peace Church in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood, they presented assured performances of modern choral works, including several by composers with Scandinavian and Baltic roots who write in expressive, opulent textures.
by Nicholas Stevens
The musicians’ collective Urban Troubadour offers not mere concerts, but adventures. In a cultural moment when encounters with chamber music range from formal recitals with traditional programs to party-like gatherings in living rooms, bars, and galleries, alternative formats have become common in Northeast Ohio and across the country. Yet even in the crowded field of efforts to “disrupt” the world of staid programming, Urban Troubadour’s multi-part evenings feel distinct and vital.
by Nicholas Stevens
The 2017-18 performing arts season celebrated several auspicious anniversaries in Northeast Ohio, and last week in Rocky River, the West Shore Chorale marked its first half-century. Any ensemble with an extensive record of uniting communities through music deserves a commemoration of grand scale and ambition, and the Chorale offered just such a program for its own anniversary at Magnificat High School.
by Robert Rollin
Last Sunday afternoon the Youngstown State University Opera Department presented a workmanlike rendition of Jules Massenet’s fairytale opera Cendrillon (“Cinderella”) in Bliss Hall’s Ford Theater. An outstanding cast of singers under production director Misook Yun, an excellent orchestra conducted by Hae-Jong Lee, solid stage direction by Gary Lehman, and Wendy Akers’ fine costumes all contributed to an entertaining performance. [Read more…]
by David Kulma
Surrounded by eclectic new art in Ohio City’s SPACES gallery, No Exit and Patchwork came together on Friday, April 27 to sound the musical cutting edge. With half the works from 2018 and most of the composers under 40, this night was a cross section of current trends in the world of new classical music. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The first of two festivals capping off The Cleveland Orchestra’s centennial season was based around Richard Wagner’s groundbreaking version of the Tristan and Isolde legend. Culminating on April 29 with the third performance of his four-hour-long opera (Wagner called it “eine Handlung”), the festival also included a performance of Messiaen’s transcendent Turangalîla- Symphonie, and a concert titled “Divine Ecstasy,” a gathering of works that translate the notion of love-intoxication into the spiritual realm. [Read more…]
by Tom Wachunas
Thanks to all the pre-publicity surrounding this season-ending performance from the Canton Symphony Orchestra, there wasn’t an empty seat in Umstattd Performing Arts Hall on April 21. We were promised a musical feast of epic proportions, to be served piping-hot by 86 instrumentalists, combined choirs numbering more than 100 voices, three solo vocalists, and a modern dance troupe. So we arrived hungry. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
For their Saturday evening concert on April 20, the Baldwin Wallace University Bach Festival presented Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion in Gamble Auditorium on the BW campus. Festival Director Dirk Garner conducted the Motet Choir and a professional orchestra that included members of Chatham Baroque, who had performed earlier in the Festival. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
This past weekend Baldwin Wallace University hosted its 86th annual Bach Festival with three days of concerts, lectures, and other events. Friday evening’s performance, “Bach and Friends,” was held in Gamble Auditorium on the BW campus. Guest soloists Tyler Duncan, baritone (left), and Dana Sundet, oboe, joined the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tiffany Chang. [Read more…]