by Robert Rollin
On Saturday evening, April 9, the Youngstown Symphony presented Hebraic Rhapsody, the last of its three Powers Auditorium classical concerts of the season, conducted by music director Randall Craig Fleischer. The highlights were two works the Orchestra performed with Israeli cellist Inbal Segev: Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo and Leonard Bernstein’s “Three Meditations” from Mass. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Friday night, April 8, the Earth and Air String Orchestra presented Losing Innocence: English Music at the Turn of the 20th Century in Tucker Hall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. It was the perfect setting for the interesting, well-organized, and beautiful program, and the 18-member string ensemble performed with exceptional skill. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Apollo’s Fire brought baroque dance in both its noble and theatrical styles to its engaging program, “A Harlequin Romance” at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in University Circle on Saturday evening, April 9. Dancers Julie Andrijeski and Steven Player were the headliners, but concertmaster Olivier Brault also got into the act, as did several orchestra members in an encore. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, Roomful of Teeth consistently proves that the human voice is among the most versatile instruments in music. The ensemble’s concert in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace on Sunday evening, April 3, demonstrated the astonishing variety of non-traditional sounds that eight sets of vocal cords can produce. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
If planning an orchestral season is like assembling a vast jigsaw puzzle, The Cleveland Orchestra’s program on Saturday, April 2 felt as though it might have been put together from the leftover pieces after everything else had fallen neatly into place. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent film Jeanne d’Arc’s Lidelse og Død, (“Joan of Arc’s Suffering and Death,” also more commonly known as The Passion of Joan of Arc or La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc) is considered by film historians to be one of the most significant movies of all time for its advanced editing techniques and the indelible performance of Renée Maria Falconetti in the title role. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland Orchestra’s newest collaboration with Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet brought a pair of dark, suspenseful stage works by Béla Bartók to Severance Hall on April 7 (with repeat performances through April 10). Nine Joffrey dancers and two fine singers shared the crowded stage with music director Franz Welser-Möst and the orchestra for performances of the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and the one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle that were riveting and chilling and made imaginative use of minimal stage gear and props. Read the review at Classical Voice North America
by Mike Telin
When Łukasz Kuropaczewski presented his remarkable Cleveland Classical Guitar Society debut recital in October of 2014, the powerhouse guitarist thrilled audiences with a performance that was technically brilliant and musically alluring. On Saturday, March 12 at Plymouth Church, the Polish guitarist returned to Cleveland, this time sharing the CCGS stage with the powerhouse accordionist (and his countryman), Maciej Frąckiewicz. Once again, the results were stunning. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
It’s not that rare that poems are used on recitals to complement the music, but it’s unusual to find a concert that features poetry and music on a relatively equal basis, and to find the poems written by one of the lead performers. That was the case this weekend, however, at the Heights Arts concert, “The Sung Path,” featuring Oberlin Conservatory Professor and Cleveland Orchestra English hornist Robert Walters. The combination inspired our reviewer, an occasional poet, to some verses of his own; as an academic, he thought it best to add some footnotes as well. —ed.
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by Timothy Robson
The Calder Quartet’s concert sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art on Thursday evening, March 31 was an extraordinary event both musically and in its setting. It took place in Cleveland’s Hingetown neighborhood in Transformer Station’s white-washed, post-industrial salon, a lofty cube with menacing chains and hooks dangling from the ceiling. The sold-out concert was wisely limited to about 40 people, surrounding the quartet, who were placed in the center of the room. This arrangement created an unusual intimacy between performers and audience, and made for an intense musical experience. [Read more…]