ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Re•Views

LCCC Signature Series: violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins with pianist Craig Ketter (March 31)

by

by Nicholas Jones

Hall-TomkinsKelly Hall-Tompkins’s recent recital at Lorain County Community College began, as she said, with the miniature and proceeded to the giant. The excellent New York-based violinist, with pianist Craig Ketter, moved from modernist character pieces by Sergei Prokofiev and Jeffrey Mumford to the full-blown Romanticism of Richard Strauss. Versatile and expressive, Hall-Tompkins and Ketter gave the smaller works a dignity belied by their short duration, and brought a welcome variety to the much longer and distinctly pre-modern Strauss. [Read more…]

Syndicate for the New Arts: two concerts at St. John’s, Ohio City (Feb. 19 & Mar. 3)

by

by Mike Telin

Lucier-I-am-sitting-in-a-roomTo inaugurate their first season as ensemble in residence at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood in partnership with St. John’s Institute, the Syndicate for the New Arts recently presented two concerts that provided audiences with completely different listening experiences. The concerts also provided a glimpse into the types of out-of-the-box programming the Syndicate might have in store for the future. [Read more…]

Baldwin Wallace FOCUS Festival: chamber works by guest composer David Lang (Mar. 19)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

LANG-DavidOver the years, Baldwin Wallace’s FOCUS Contemporary Music Festival has showcased a long list of composers of our time, ranging from Witold Lutoslawski and Krzysztof Penderecki to Christopher Theofanidis and Chen Yi. The latest guest, Bang on a Can co-founder David Lang, was fêted in three concerts and a convocation from March 16-19, performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and BW’s own ensembles. I caught the final performance featuring six of Lang’s chamber works on Sunday afternoon, March 19 in Gamble Auditorium. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Bruckner, Schumann & Kurtág at Severance Hall (March 24)

by

by Timothy Robson

TCO102413-MastroianniThe death of French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez on January 5, 2016, at the age of 90, has prompted a series of remembrances from The Cleveland Orchestra and its members. Boulez was honored by the orchestra just over a year ago at the time of his birthday, and on March 24 at Severance Hall, Franz Welser-Möst led the United States premiere of György Kurtág’s Petite musique solennelle: Homage to Pierre Boulez at 90. [Read more…]

Canton Symphony premieres Béla Fleck’s Juno Concerto (Mar. 19)

by

by Tom Wachunas

FLECK-BelaEverything about the March 19 Canton Symphony MasterWorks program, billed as “Scenic Moments,” was thoughtfully designed to take us on an exhilarating journey, starting with Mikhail Glinka’s brilliant Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla. Just as the music tells of Russlan’s enchanted adventure to win the hand of Ludmilla in marriage, so too music director Gerhardt Zimmermann was clearly on a mission to claim our unqualified affections for his ensemble’s thrilling versatility. And that he did. [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: FiveOne Experimental Orchestra at Rising Star Coffee Roastery (March 5)

by

by Mike Telin

RoasteryGroup-1Since 2008, the Cleveland-based music collective FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO) has built a sizeable audience base because they have never steered away from their mission to experiment. Part of the ensemble’s draw is their passion for presenting of concerts in non-traditional venues. “We feel more at home in a post-industrial setting,” 51XO’s executive director Jeremy Allen told ClevelandClassical.com during a recent interview. [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: Contemporary Youth Orchestra plays music from video games at CSU (Mar. 12)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

CYO-031216Probably nothing divides human beings quite so neatly into two groups than whether or not they play video games. The members of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra obviously fall on the “I do” side of that divide. On Saturday evening, March 12 in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, Liza Grossman led CYO in their annual “Music and Its Industry” concert, this year featuring symphonic arrangements of video game music. Presented under the umbrella of NEOSonicFest, the evening was as fun as it was loud. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: The Miró Quartet (March 10)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Miro-QuartetThe Miró Quartet, two of whose current members formed the ensemble at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1995, visited the campus on Thursday, March 10 to play a gripping Beethoven marathon concert on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. Founders violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Joshua Gindele joined violinist William Fedkenheuer and violist John Largess for Beethoven’s three “Razumovsky” Quartets, Op. 59. [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater: Handel’s Alcina (Mar. 9)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Alcina-&-RuggieroJust before the lights dimmed in Hall Auditorium on Wednesday evening, March 9, a young couple in the row behind me commented on the plot synopsis for George Frideric Handel’s Alcina. “I read it before I auditioned for the opera,” one of them said, “and I never figured it out.” The other replied, “I just read it now, and I don’t have a clue!” [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: flutist Carlton Vickers at Heights Arts (March 5)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

VIckers-Heights-ArtsThe second of two performances by contemporary flute guru Carlton Vickers sponsored by No Exit under the aegis of NEOSonicFest took over most of the available space in the Heights Arts gallery on Saturday evening, March 5. The audience, tucked in among a variety of exhibits of culinary-themed art, heard an intense hour’s worth of recent music written for one of the most ancient of musical instruments. [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us