ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad
Ad

Re•Views

Cleveland Women’s Orchestra celebrates 90 years at Severance (Mar. 30)

by

by Stephanie Manning

Of the many orchestra performances held at Severance Music Center in a given year, only one of them features a musician roster made up entirely of women. This brief break from the status quo comes courtesy of the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, which has been performing in the space now known as Mandel Concert Hall for 90 years.

Closing out the final weekend of Women’s History Month, the longest-running women’s orchestra in the country marked its 90th anniversary with its annual celebration concert. Music director Eric Benjamin led the program on March 30, which leaned traditional with plenty of orchestral standards.

The group’s strengths showed brightest in the peppy music that bookended the program. Shostakovich’s Festive Overture opened the concert on a strong note with even tempos, a healthy group sound, and satisfying bass drum hits. Benjamin’s conducting was attentive, but not micromanaging. [Read more…]

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes champions Norwegian composers in Cleveland recital (Mar. 27)

by

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Touring musicians have been making some difficult decisions about whether to proceed with their U.S. engagements lately, and Leif Ove Andsnes is no exception.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I arrived in the U.S. yesterday,” the Norwegian pianist wrote in a statement on his social media. “Music cannot solve global problems, but I hope my program can at least inspire some of the emotions we so badly need right now: compassion, empathy, generosity, understanding, and an appreciation of diversity.”

Forging ahead with his recital tour, Andsnes took the stage at Severance Music Center on Thursday, March 27 as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series. The pianist gracefully represented his home country with music by Edvard Grieg and Geirr Tveitt, along with Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes.

[Read more…]

A hero’s score: Cleveland Orchestra’s ‘Black Panther’ concert reigns at Severance (Mar. 28)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The weather gods weren’t kindly disposed to Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor Anthony Parnther last August for his Blossom debut with John Legend. As he reminded his social media followers earlier this month, “We were yanked off the stage a third of the way through the concert because of a storm! This time, we’re in the storm-proof majesty of Severance Hall.”

“This time” came on Friday, when Parnther presided over Black Panther (2018), the first-ever screening of a Marvel Studios film at Severance Music Center. He led a masterful performance of Ludwig’s Göransson’s Grammy and Oscar-winning score, enhanced by Senegalese talking drum guru Massamba Diop.

Among its many credits, Black Panther was the first Marvel Studios film to feature a Black director and a predominantly Black cast. It was nominated for seven awards at the 91st Academy Awards, winning three. It was also the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination, and the first Marvel film to win an Academy Award.

[Read more…]

Pianist Yuja Wang, Cleveland Orchestra do Tchaikovsky justice, despite pre-concert surprise (Mar. 22)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Pianist Yuja Wang is a dazzler. She has a way of dressing, of taking the stage, and of bowing that bespeaks confidence and star quality. Add to those a suspenseful entrance (a few minutes overdue), apparent nonchalance at a last-minute conductor change — assistant conductor Daniel Reith in for music director Franz Welser-Möst — and an astonishing keyboard technique, and you get excitement.

The audience was buzzing with anticipation on Saturday evening March 22 at Severance Music Center for Wang’s appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

To be fair, the delayed entrance likely had more to do with a needed meeting between pianist and conductor before performing the work together. Reith, who received word of the change only two hours before the concert, deserves much of the glory for what followed.

[Read more…]

International Contemporary Ensemble returns to Oberlin (Mar. 14)

by

by Stephanie Manning

The International Contemporary Ensemble hasn’t been back on the Warner Concert Hall stage in a number of years, but seeing them there somehow feels right. Founded at Oberlin Conservatory in 2001, the group has retained strong ties to the school, making their March 14 appearance notable as one of the few homecomings since the ensemble’s founding.

The Friday night concert featured eight artists from ICE’s roster, including four Oberlin alumni, two current faculty members, and twelve Conservatory students. Titled “Composing While Black: Volume I” and curated by the Ensemble’s artistic director George Lewis, the program featured music by people familiar to both the Oberlin community and Northeast Ohio at large. [Read more…]

CityMusic Chamber Orchestra at Fairmount Church (Mar. 20)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

The connective tissue of CityMusic Chamber Orchestra’s varied program on Thursday, March 20 — a miscellany of music by Caroline Shaw, Felix Mendelssohn, and Franz Schubert — seems to be that there was none, other than the desire to play these disparate and individually charming pieces. I attended the concert at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights and felt myself fortunate to be in the company of such fine musicians.

Annunziata Tomaro, who has guest conducted for CityMusic before, showed herself to be an engaging presence at the podium. If it were up to me — which it isn’t — Tomaro would immediately be engaged as the orchestra’s next music director. She’s that good.

[Read more…]

Suburban Symphony Orchestra celebrates 70 years (Mar. 16)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

Northeast Ohio is home to an astounding number of community orchestras and choruses, many with proud histories that go back decades. To attend a concert by such a plucky band is to experience the excitement and joy of the performers, and to see their seriousness of purpose realized.

On Sunday, March 16 in Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center, the Suburban Symphony celebrated its 70th anniversary. Under the direction of music director Domenico Boyagian, they did so in style with performances of Sibelius’ Karelia Suite and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”).

The Orchestra was joined onstage by two other longstanding musical organizations: the Western Reserve Chorale, (David Gilson, artistic director) and the West Shore Chorale (Michael Lisi, artistic director). All told, there were around 240 smiling faces gathered onstage.

[Read more…]

No Exit: Works by Greg D’Alessio at Trinity Cathedral (Mar. 13)

by

by Kevin McLaughlin

In a program that was partly retrospective and partly world premiere, works by Greg D’Alessio compelled rapt attention at Trinity Cathedral on Thursday, March 13. And the performances by No Exit sparkled.

D’Alessio, who teaches at Cleveland State University, makes frequent use of electronic sounds, either in isolation, or in combination with traditional instruments — echoes of Mario Davidovsky, perhaps, his teacher at Columbia. Film is also a favorite medium, affording flights of imagination both visual and auditory.

The opening work was the video, A Brief Word from the Present Moment (2025). Moving images and a hyperactive soundtrack combined for what the composer called, “a kind of hallucinatory newscast,” commenting with wide-angled perspective on recent and historical events. An AI-manipulated  projection of No Exit Artistic Director Tim Beyer’s talking head narrated, as ancient scenery, medieval paintings, and the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, paraded past. Combined with frantic music, the effect was unnerving, but partly nostalgic, too — like watching 1980s MTV.

[Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra Continues its 15th Anniversary with Covenant Concert (Mar. 1)

by

by Daniel  Hathaway

When BlueWater Chamber Orchestra made its debut at the Breen Center on September  12, 2010, its founder and conductor Carlton Woods introduced the new ensemble with an ambitious program of works that included Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Howard Hanson’s Serenade for Flute, Harp and Strings, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F for violin and orchestra, Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, and Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes.

In a review of that performance, I wrote

The orchestral showpiece of the afternoon was Ginastera’s Concert Variations, described by Woods as “the South American Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Beginning with Kent Collier’s big cello solo accompanied by harpist Jody Guinn, the work showcased the fine solo talents of violist Laura Shuster, clarinetist Alix Reinhardt, concertmaster Kenneth Johnston, hornist Ken Wadenpfuhl and bassist Ann Gilbert, as well as the fine ensemble acumen of the rest of the orchestra.

[Read more…]

Guitarist Marko Topchii cheerfully breaks the rules at CCGS (Mar. 8)

by

by Stephanie Manning

Spend a few minutes with Marko Topchii, and you’ll know he’s a performer that likes to bend convention. The guitarist took the stage at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on March 8 wearing a baby blue suit jacket over a graphic tee, before promptly announcing that he was adding another piece to the program. Instead of kicking things off with Frederic Hand’s Undercurrents, his first selection was a brief, reflective work called Ground, written by his mother.

Speaking from the stage with commentary that was both personable and concise, Topchii charmingly contextualized the music on his extensive program. Undercurrents, which he got to shortly after his opening shakeup, was the commissioned work for the Guitar Foundation of America’s 2023 Competition — an event where Topchii came out on top with the grand prize.

Thanks to his win, the Ukrainian guitarist has been touring the U.S. almost nonstop since September, with two months left to go. But at his visit to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, his relaxed speaking and focused performance belied the inevitable stressors of that schedule. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us