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…]
by Nicholas Jones
Kelly 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…]
by Mike Telin
To 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…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Over 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…]
by Timothy Robson
The 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…]
by Tom Wachunas
Everything 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…]
by Mike Telin
Since 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…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Probably 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…]