by David Kulma
As snow came down outside on Thursday, March 8, an absorbing evening of piano cornerstones warmed the inside of E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. This performance by Andreas Haefliger was the 12th of Tuesday Musical Association’s annual concerts that honor the late pianist Margaret Baxtresser, a musical giant of Northeast Ohio.
by Daniel Hathaway
Are the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel in Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera The Turn of the Screw real, or just the product of the overactive imagination of the young governess who chronicled this “curious story” in her own hand? Stage director Jonathon Field thinks they’re for real.
by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday’s matinee performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel by the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater at Kulas Hall sparkled. An excellent cast, David Bamberger’s fine direction and blocking, David Brooks’ beautiful sets and effective scene changes, Harry Davidson’s expeditious control of the full orchestra and balance with the singers, and Inda Blatch-Geib’s imaginative costumes, all combined to create a beautifully flowing production whose energy never flagged.
by Tom Wachunas
The thematic and formal diversity of the March 3 MasterWorks program by the Canton Symphony Orchestra was a compelling reminder that the sounds emanating from an orchestra constitute a language. Like any spoken language, those sounds can articulate a distinct vernacular — the parlance of a specific time and/or place. Here in Umstattdt Performing Arts Hall, the marvelous expressivity of the CSO was transportive, taking us from America’s Texas plains, then to the mid-20th century jazz era, and finally journeying back to the pinnacle of 18th century European classicism. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Conductor Nikolaj Znaider and pianist Yefim Bronfman brought two grand works with them to their guest appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Thursday evening, March 1. Beethoven’s well-known Fifth Piano Concerto and Elgar’s lesser-known Second Symphony gave both the soloist and the orchestra ample opportunity to fill the house with magnificent music on a blustery, snowy evening that left an unusual number of seats unoccupied.
by Daniel Hathaway
On Sunday afternoon, March 4 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Tim Weiss and his Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble once again made seemingly easy work out of several challenging scores. It must be every composer’s dream come true to have their creations brought to life by an ensemble that can play at such a high level of precision and understanding. Surely that sentiment was shared by the good-sized audience. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Cleveland-based Contrapunctus Early Music, a 17-member a cappella ensemble of high voices directed by David Acres, performed a concise concert of music in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Friday, March 2 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Despite their name, the ensemble — deployed in a variety of combinations — covered a wide array of works, from Gregorian chant to the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work by British composer Graham Keitch. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday night February 24, Les Frères Méduses (The Jellyfish Brothers) completed their Cleveland residency with a concert at Shaker Heights’ Plymouth Church focusing on 21st Century music for two guitars. The Duo, Frenchman Benoit Albert and Ohio native Randall Avers, featured their own improvisations, which were tossed off with flair and impeccable ensemble. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Those who have never heard a concert by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and their sibling organization, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, have been deprived of a very fine musical experience. Their recent concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, February 25, under their youthful new music director, Vinay Parameswaran, was again proof of the fine training that these young musicians receive from their own teachers as well as from their Cleveland Orchestra coaches. If anything, this concert improved upon past performances. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
“Do not put Mozart into a box!” The plea, issued by Omni Quartet cellist Tanya Ell at the Heights Arts Close Encounters concert last weekend, could apply equally to the ensemble itself. In the barn of the Dunham Tavern Museum, the quartet demonstrated both range and focus, showing off the group’s unique sound in works by Mozart and expanding its ranks to play a sextet by Brahms. [Read more…]