by Daniel Hathaway
The Oberlin Artist Recital Series opened its new season in Finney Chapel on September 28 with a late afternoon concert that brought a celebrated string quartet together with a virtuoso on a fascinating instrument.
The wonderfully constructed program, performed in a single 70-minute set without intermission, was created for the Takács Quartet’s 50th anniversary and features Julien Labro both as soloist and ensemble player on the bandoneon and accordina. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Given that symphonies have been a staple in the orchestral repertoire for 300 years, it would be impossible to cover their entire history in one evening. Even so, the three works on The Cleveland Orchestra’s October 4 program gave listeners a taste of the styles of composers writing in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Fittingly, the evening opened with music by Franz Joseph Haydn, the “Father of the Symphony.” With 106 symphonies to choose from, the Orchestra selected No. 92, nicknamed “Oxford,” even though it was commissioned by the comte d’Ogny for performance in Paris in 1789. Guest conductor Daniel Harding, who happened to be born and raised in Oxford, led the performance with precision and without unnecessary dramatics.
by Peyton Avery
On Sunday, September 30, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s New Music Ensemble presented a concert in Mixon Hall featuring music by Charles Ives, in celebration of his 150th birthday, as well as works by Kulas visiting artist Curtis Stewart.
The program opened with Ives’ three movement String Quartet No. 2 performed by violinists Maude Cloutier and Amelia Korbitz, violist Ben Carter, and cellist Liam Battle. This piece, which took Ives six years to complete, portrays four men — represented by the ensemble members — who converse, argue, and eventually ascend a mountain together. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the symphonic world, a change of conductor often means a change of repertoire as well. When Elim Chan stepped in to lead four Cleveland Orchestra concerts this weekend featuring Yefim Bronfman in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909), she swapped out Stravinsky’s Petrushka for another Rachmaninoff work, his Symphonic Dances (1940).
On paper, that looked like an overabundance of Rachmaninoff, but Chan and the Orchestra made the Russian super-melodist’s lavish scores sound freshly minted, transparent, and teeming with exquisite detail.
After hearing numerous performances of “Rach 3” by piano competition hopefuls, it was revelatory on Thursday evening, September 26, to experience the work interpreted by a mature artist who is fully in control of its musical content, and whose transitions can make sense of the composer’s mercurial changes of direction.
by Stephanie Manning
“For some melodies, there are no words.”
More than just an inner monologue, this lyric from Jake Heggie’s Two Remain is really the thesis of the entire opera.
Telling the stories of two Auschwitz survivors through music is no easy task. But Heggie’s work approaches the subject with sensitivity and lyricism — as did the cast and crew of the Nightingale Opera Theatre on September 28.
After performances in Australia this summer, the production came to Cleveland for a one-night-only performance at Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood. [Read more…]
by Kevin McLaughlin
Chanticleer’s widely-varied program “Music of a Silent World” opened the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 75th season on Tuesday, September 24 at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.
Throughout the two-hour performance, Chanticleer brought a lovely and well-blended group sound, faultless intonation, and an extraordinary stylistic range — from German romantic to Sondheim. Tim Keeler is the group’s Music Director, and Chanticleer performs without a conductor. Their remarkable group sound is a tribute to the lovely mixture of predominantly lighter male voices — six countertenors, three tenors, and three baritones/basses.
This program centered around selections from Majel Connery’s song cycle The Rivers Are Our Brothers, whose declamatory lyrics readily identified the messengers (“I am the air,” “I am a cloud,” “I am a river”). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — When Johann Sebastian Bach had his “Keyboard exercise, consisting of an ARIA with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals” published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg in 1741, he noted in the preface that the work was “composed for connoisseurs, for the refreshment of their spirits.”
Whether or not the sizeable crowd in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center on Tuesday evening, September 24 regarded themselves as connoisseurs, the powerful ovation at the end of Pavel Kolesnikov’s 75-minute program suggested that their spirits had surely been refreshed — if not profoundly touched — both by the composer’s genius and the pianist’s captivating performance of the Variations. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
It’s not every day you get the chance to hear a bassoon on your lunch break.
But on September 18, Sororii provided their audience with that and more at Trinity Cathedral. Bassoonist Arleigh Savage and cellist Carolina Borja created some mid-day merriment as part of the Cathedral’s BrownBag Concert Series.
The duo’s instruments — both lower-pitched with warm timbres — fit naturally together, even though there isn’t a ton of music written for this exact pairing. Luckily, Savage and Borja are contributing to the canon with some original compositions. Most of the program they brought to Trinity came off their album Esperanza, recorded in 2022 with funding from New Music USA. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Eighty years after his death, the ghost of Robert Schumann helped unearth his own violin concerto. Or at least that’s how the story goes.
Whether or not you believe that the composer actually spoke to violinist Jelly d’Arányi via ouija board, that incident ultimately led to the works’s rediscovery in the 1930s. And on September 19 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra treated its first audience of the season with a rare opportunity to hear it.
by Peyton Avery
On Sunday, September 15, Tremont’s Kaiser Gallery was alive with the sound of new music. Using fish bowls, gongs, multiphonics, and operas, members of Chicago-based The _____ Experiment made sure the afternoon’s concert remained lively and dynamic. Joined by Cleveland percussionist Joseph Fox, founding members oboist Ava Wirth and saxophonist Drew Holser presented an hour-long program featuring a variety of musical styles.
If you are looking for a unique and relaxing venue, The Kaiser Gallery is the perfect destination. Although it is small and minimalist, the gallery is surprisingly spacious. With its ever-changing exhibits and a bar, this gallery is the ideal space to enjoy a mid-day cocktail and some music.