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Akron Symphony — Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony (April 16)

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by Mike Telin

ASO-Sounds-of-AkronWhat does Akron sound like to you? This is the question the Akron Symphony Orchestra and composer Clint Needham asked when they invited Akron area residents to download a smartphone app and upload their recordings to the Sounds of Akron website from late last spring through the fall. Those sounds became the inspiration for Needham’s imaginative new work, Sounds of Akron: City Meets Symphony, which received its premiere by the Akron Symphony under the direction of Christopher Wilkins on April 16 at E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Manuel Barrueco at Plymouth Church (April 16)

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by Daniel Hathaway

BARRUECO-ManuelWhen Cuban-born classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco made a cameo appearance with Cuarteto Casals on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series in November of 2013, concertgoers got a tantalizing taste of his artistry in a Boccherini quintet and a single solo piece. In our review, we wished for a solo appearance by one of the world’s great guitar gurus. That finally happened on Saturday evening, April 16 when Barrueco played a distinguished program on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Antonio Pappano and Marie-Nicole Lemieux (April 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

PAPPANO-AntonioLove comes in infinite varieties, and three of them were represented on The Cleveland Orchestra’s program on Saturday, April 30. The program began with Richard Wagner’s “Prelude and Love-Death” from Tristan and Isolde (the romantic-tragic kind of love), continued with Ernest Chausson’s Poem of Love and the Sea (the poetic-tragic flavor), and ended with Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (the narcissistic sort). [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir gives second concert at First Baptist, Shaker Heights (April 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115With its tuning challenges, tricky scherzo, and numerous transitions, Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia is a ten-minute a cappella tour de force that tests the mettle of any choir that takes it on. In the second performance of their inaugural season, the 33 voices of Cleveland Chamber Choir more than rose to the occasion on Saturday evening, April 23 at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. In this and other British choral works, Scott MacPherson’s new professional ensemble validated the initial impression they made last November: this is a superb addition to Cleveland’s musical scene. [Read more…]

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: string sextets on CCMS series at Plymouth (April 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

SextetChamber music societies are big on presenting string quartets — they’re portable, capable of a wide range of musical expression, and they control most of the repertory. But every now and again, programming differently-sized ensembles provides a welcome change. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center gave the Cleveland Chamber Music Society that opportunity on Tuesday, April 19, when it served up a program of string sextets by Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, and Johannes Brahms to a large audience at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Antoni Wit & Jan Lisiecki (April 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Jan LisieckiPoland was much in evidence at Severance Hall on Thursday evening, April 21, when Polish guest conductor Antoni Wit led The Cleveland Orchestra in Richard Wagner’s Polonia Overture and Frédéric Chopin’s f-minor piano concerto with Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki (the son of Polish parents). Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony may have been the outlier, thematically, but it ended the evening on similar notes of proud dignity. [Read more…]

Bohemian Rhapsody: Cleveland Opera Theater’s La bohème at Masonic PAC (April 29)

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by Nicholas Jones

COT-Boheme-CafePuccini’s La bohème, probably one of the world’s most performed operas, packs a wallop pretty much every time you hear it. This weekend at Cleveland Opera Theater, that was again the case for me. But the emotional ending isn’t the whole of the opera. In its first three acts (and even in the opening of the fourth), La bohème often seems more comic than tragic, more boisterous than tender. Perhaps its mix of contraries, not just its sentiment, is what makes it so powerful. [Read more…]

Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
at Harkness Chapel, CWRU (April 17)

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by Mike Telin

dido-aeneas-4When talented young conservatory students are given permission to unleash their creativity, wonderful things can happen. A case in point is Jason Goldberg’s imaginative production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which received area performances on April 15 and 16 at Fairchild Chapel on the campus of Oberlin College, and on April 17 at Case Western Reserve University’s Harkness Chapel (which I attended). From start to finish the production vividly captured all of the opera’s action, magic, love, and heartbreak. [Read more…]

Canton Symphony Orchestra & Chorus: redefining “Inspired” (April 23)

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by Tom Wachunas

CSO-Waddell-April-2016For the final concert in the Canton Symphony Orchestra MasterWorks series of the 2015-2016 season, conducting duties were split. Rachel Waddell, CSO Associate Conductor, directed the ensemble in Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Oberon, and the Ohio premiere of Dreamtime Ancestors by American composer Christopher Theofanidis. Rounding out this eminently spirited program were Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, and Alexander Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, both works for orchestra and chorus, and both conducted by CSO Chorus Director Britt Cooper (pictured above). [Read more…]

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