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Review: Cleveland International Piano Competition — Round One, Session Two (July 31)

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIPC-ButterflyFour contestants played in the second session of the first round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art on Wednesday evening, continuing the impressive level of playing we heard from the first five earlier in the day — and raising the proverbial bar even higher.

Qi Xu (18, China) gave a fluent and winning mini-recital of four works to begin the evening. His shapely playing of J.S Bach’s b-minor Prelude and Fugue (WTC II) had a sense of purpose and destination; the fugue subject was beautifully and consistently articulated every time it came around. Chopin’s Etude in C, op. 10/1 was bright and even-handed, but the highlight was a lucid and finely-paced version of Beethoven’s tricky op. 110 sonata, in which Xu created masterful transitions and skillfully sculpted climaxes. His sotto voce sections were lovely. Elliott Carter’s perpetual motion Caténaires (2006) was a deftly-managed toccata with steady rhythm and well-layered secondary themes. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland International Piano Competition — Round One, Session One (July 31)

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIPC-ButterflyThe Cleveland International Piano Competition got off to a strong start on Wednesday afternoon in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. If the other twenty-three contestants can match the quality of the first five who played, this should prove to be a very interesting eleven days.

24-year old Ruoyu Huang from China was the lucky recipient of spot number one in the draw. He led off with nuanced performances of two Scarlatti sonatas (K. 45 and K. 17) that showed off his fleet passage work and clarity of touch. A Chopin set (the first 12 Preludes, Etude in e, op. 25/5 and Ballade in G, op. 23/1) had both fine and uneven moments. Some of the preludes fluctuated in tempo beyond an expressive rubato, and Chopin’s interesting harmonic progressions sometimes went unheralded. The Ballade, though exciting, became episodic and nearly Lisztian in scale. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin Cooper Violin Competition final round at Severance Hall (July 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-Cooper-Tie-2013-MastroianniResuming their ancient tug-of-war for artistic supremacy, Apollo and Dionysius each sponsored a performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto last Friday evening during the final round of the Oberlin Cooper International Violin Competition at Severance Hall with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. It might have been more complicated with a third performance of the Tchaikovsky had not Ming Liu eventually emerged as one of the final three. Her performance of Prokofiev’s second concerto came between Ching-Yi Wei’s and Kyumin Park’s very different takes on the other Russian piece on the program.

First up by way of conductor’s choice was Ching-Yi Wei, 18, from Tainan, Taiwan. His was the Dionysian version, compelling for its physical energy, drive and sense of romantic abandon. After intermission, Kyumin Park, 16, from Seoul, South Korea, brought musical lucidity, variety of tone and a fine sense of pace and scale to Tchaikovsky’s famous showpiece, which seems to respond enthusiastically to different violinistic points of view. Park’s Apollonian reading also boasted a collegial connection to the other onstage musicians, a factor to which the orchestra palpably responded. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra with Stéphane Devène, Cédric Tiberghien and a Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra prelude and side-by-side at Blossom (July 27)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Tiberghien-CedricThe most fascinating paragraph in the program booklet for last Saturday’s Cleveland Orchestra concert at Blossom was in the sidebar summing up salient facts about Camille Saint-Saëns’s second piano concerto: “The Cleveland Orchestra first presented this work in November 1919, with a piano playing from a mechanical roll recorded by Harold Bauer.”

That was a marketing ploy by the Aeolian Piano Company which evidently helped fund a nice chunk of the orchestra’s second season, while nearly driving conductor Nikolai Sokoloff to distraction. Happily, on July 27, 2013 there was nothing whatsoever mechanical about French pianist Cédric Tiberghien’s thrilling progress through the piece in tandem with French conductor Stéphane Devène, which was at times expansive and lyrical, and at others positively seismic.

The first movement became a vast cadenza with dramatic orchestral punctuation that Tiberghien seemed to be creating on the spot — like a ruminative improvisation by an organist (a role Saint-Saëns filled for 19 years at L’église de la Madeleine). [Read more…]

Review: Opera Per Tutti in the Italian Cultural Garden (July 21)

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by J.D. Goddard

OPTItGdnsDedicated as “a symbol of Italian culture” in 1930, the Italian Cultural Garden hosted the San Carlo Opera sixty-eight years ago in its lower level amphitheater. In 2008, this cultural offering was revived presenting the art form of opera that originated In Italy at the end of the 16th century. —Program notes

On a very warm but comfortable Sunday evening, Opera Per Tutti continued its revival of Italian opera in Cleveland’s Italian Cultural Garden with an al fresco performance consisting of twenty-two operatic arias, Neapolitan songs, duets and a quartet sung by a troupe of five professional singers: soprano Andrea Anelli, soprano Rebecca Freshwater, tenors Leodigario Del Rosario and Dan Doty, and baritone Benjamin Czarnota, with Jeannette Davis at the piano. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin Cooper Violin Competition — Six contestants play 30-minute recitals (July 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-Cooper-Six-2013The last hurdle on the way to Severance Hall for competitors in the Oberlin Cooper International Violin Competition is the recital round, where six performers revisit their solo repertoire in 30-minute recitals chosen by the jury from the semi-final round. A large crowd turned out to hear the three-and-a-half hour program in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory on Wednesday evening, a highly-structured event carried live on WCLV, 104.9 FM and hosted by Robert Conrad.

A second hearing confirmed a lot that these ears noted in the concerto round the day before, but there were also some pleasant surprises.

Kyumin Park (16, Seoul, South Korea) maintained his rather cautious approach in pieces by Beethoven, Paganini and Chausson. His Beethoven (Op. 12, No. 1, Allegro) was strong and clean, his Paganini (Caprice No. 24) brilliant enough, his Chausson (Poème) perhaps more calculated than spontaneous despite expansive collaborative playing from Elizabeth DeMio. Here’s a talented player who just needs to be fearless and go for it. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin Cooper Violin Competition — Ten contestants play concertos with piano (July 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

OberlinCooperLogoUnless you’re an audiophile on a mission, you’re not likely to sit down and listen to ten complete performances of violin concertos in one day (much less three of Tchaikovsky’s, two each of Brahms’s and Sibelius’s and single performances each of Mendelssohn’s, Shostakovich’s first and Prokofiev’s second). Or unless you’re a judge or audience member at an international violin event like the Oberlin Cooper Competition.

On Tuesday afternoon and evening, July 23, that unlikely possibility became a reality as ten violinists, ages 15 to 18, played the concerto round of the Cooper Competition in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall, giving a fascinating look into the musical personalities and technical prowess of the competitors, who were vying for the opportunity to become one of three finalists to play these pieces with The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday evening in Severance Hall.

All ten players, having passed the entrance auditions and survived the semi-final rounds, have certified that they are fine musicians who have the technical wherewithal to play every note of their chosen concertos. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra: Porgy and Bess and Franklin Cohen at Blossom (July 21)

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by Guytano Parks

FEDDECK-James2The weather couldn’t have been any better for last Sunday evening’s concert at Blossom Music Center and the musical fare was just as delightful as The Cleveland Orchestra under assistant conductor James Feddeck (replacing the originally scheduled Robert Porco) presented a concert featuring The Blossom Festival Chorus, three stellar operatic vocalists and clarinet soloist Franklin Cohen.

John Williams wrote his Liberty Fanfare to commemorate the 1986 centenary of New York’s iconic Statue of Liberty. This short, exuberant piece opened the program, setting an optimistic mood with bold playing by the brass, soaring melodies by the strings and rhythmic impetus by the percussion. Feddeck conducted this, as well as the second offering by Williams, a suite of three pieces from the recent Spielberg film Lincoln, with a keen sense of mood and dramatic understanding. The orchestra responded superbly to his every gesture and nuance as the scenes unfolded. [Read more…]

Review: Credo Chamber Music Finale at Severance Hall (July 20)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Credo-SeverancePeter Slowik’s Credo Chamber Music summer programs — a blend of musical training and performance and service opportunities with an evangelical Christian foundation — are in expansion mode. This summer’s sessions in Oberlin increased from three weeks to four and the grand finale concert at Severance Hall, which last year featured works for chamber ensembles plus a full orchestra performance of Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony, morphed this time around into a challenging symphonic program including a Rossini overture, a string suite by Gustav Holst and a Dvořák symphony.

Most summer music camps culminate in a celebratory concert, but few have the luxury of holding that event in such an opulent venue as Severance Hall. The young musicians of Credo seemed positively giddy with the robust sounds they could produce there, and the small but enthusiastic crowd who turned out applauded their efforts ardently. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Nicholas McGegan and Joshua Smith (July 20)

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by Robert Rollin

McGEGAN-NicholasDespite muggy weather, many Northeast Ohio music enthusiasts turned out for last Saturday evening’s Cleveland Orchestra Classical Era concert directed by British conductor Nicholas McGegan. McGegan has directed San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for over 27 years, and made over 100 recordings of Handel, Vivaldi and other Baroque composers. He is also a flutist and harpsichordist. McGegan’s musical energy and imagination are infectious. He conducted enthusiastically without a baton and constantly molded musical flow with his gestures.

Notwithstanding the presence of the Mozart Flute Concerto, the evening’s highlight was Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, The Drum Roll. Like the later Beethoven Seventh, this is a truly great symphony that charms listener with its melodic beauty, invention, and humor. The first movement, Adagio – Allegro con spirito, justifies the symphony’s subtitle by opening with a powerful rolled timpani solo that surprisingly reappears near the final section. Otherwise it is a conventional first movement, serving up a slow introduction followed by two highly animated themes in rapid six-eight meter. [Read more…]

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