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Re•Views

Review: Oberlin Opera Theater — Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus (March 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Fledermaus-1It was clear from the first notes of the overture on Wednesday evening in Hall Auditorium that Oberlin Opera Theater’s Die Fledermaus was going to be a musically distinguished production. Guest conductor Raphael Jiménez and the Oberlin Orchestra (which he regularly conducts in concerts) took brisk tempos and played all the tunes that would come around later with verve and precision, including some wicked violin licks. Jiménez, who has plenty of experience in the opera pit, led a tight performance of the entire operetta, closely partnering singers and infusing the orchestra playing with enough Viennese rhythmic nuance to sound authentic.

The opening night cast for Johann Strauss II’s dizzy tale of a Viennese practical joke that gets repaid with interest was strong, confident and wonderfully comedic. [Read more…]

Review: Rocky River Chamber Music Society — The Capitol Quartet (March 4)

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by Mike Telin

Capitol-Sax-QtIn the crowded world of chamber music, finding an accomplished group of players who easily transverse a myriad of musical styles with technical proficiency, astute musical sensibilities and who can be downright hilarious entertainers is rare.

On Monday, March 4, during their concert for the Rocky River Chamber Music Society at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church before a large and thoroughly attentive audience, the members of the Capitol Quartet proved they are one of those rare ensembles. But there’s an important detail: the Capitol Quartet is not a string quartet; it is a quartet of saxophones. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin Opera Theater: Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus (March 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

 

OberlinOperaFledermausIt was clear from the first notes of the overture on Wednesday evening in Hall Auditorium that Oberlin Opera Theater’s Die Fledermaus was going to be a musically distinguished production. Guest conductor Raphael Jiménez and the Oberlin Orchestra (which he regularly conducts in concerts) took brisk tempos and played all the tunes that would come around later with verve and precision, including some wicked violin licks. Jiménez, who has plenty of experience in the opera pit, led a tight performance of the entire operetta, closely partnering singers and infusing the orchestra playing with enough Viennese rhythmic nuance to sound authentic. [Read more…]

Review: Nightingale Opera Theatre: two one-acts at Akron Art Museum (March 9)

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by Daniel Hathaway

GORDON-Ricky-IanOne-act operas are a vastly neglected sub-genre — except for the few that are performed over and over again. Nightingale Opera put on two rarely-performed titles by American composers last Saturday afternoon, March 9, in the auditorium of the Akron Art Museum. Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice and Lee Hoiby’s The Scarf, each about an hour in length, made for a very interesting pairing — and a nice contrast to The Met’s Don Carlo, which ran more than twice as long that afternoon.

Also in contrast to grand opera, one-acts can thrive with a slim personnel roster. Saturday’s shows called for only four singers, a clarinetist, and a tag-team of pianists who more than filled the small theater with sound and created two very different but equally riveting dramatic situations. [Read more…]

Review: Boston’s Broken Consort at St. John’s Cathedral (March 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Broken-ConsortMusic from nunneries is the source for two fascinating concerts of early music by distinguished ensembles this month. On March 20, the Newberry Consort will celebrate the new gallery organ at the Church of the Covenant with late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century music from Spanish and Mexican convents.

Last Friday evening, the Boston-based Broken Consort visited the Helen D. Schubert concert series at St. John’s Cathedral in Cleveland to present a program of medieval Spanish music called “Burgos, 1275” featuring music from the royal Las Huelgas Convent, selections from the monophonic collection of Marian songs, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, and improvisations on Sephardic and Arabo-Andalucian tunes that brought all three of the prevailing Iberian cultural streams into the mix. It was an era in which three religious traditions flourished side by side and seem to have gotten along well. Their respective music certainly meshed perfectly during this concert, providing the five excellent singers and instrumentalists with a wealth of built-in variety and contrast. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Winds with Bay Village H.S. Wind Ensemble at Waetjen Auditorium, CSU (March 4)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland WindsTwice each season, Cleveland Winds brings together a group of excellent and dedicated wind players — mostly, it would seem, area music teachers — to explore the rich tradition of music written for Symphonic Wind Ensemble. The group, conducted by Cleveland State University music department chair Birch Browning, has also developed a tradition of inviting wind ensembles from area high schools to share the program.

On March 4, the Bay High School Symphonic Band under director Darren Allen were the invited guests for “Lights and Legends” in CSU’s Waetjen Auditorium. Between them, the two ensembles featured some famous British military band pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst which helped establish a new standard of quality for twentieth-century wind ensemble music. [Read more…]

Review: Boston’s Broken Consort at St. John’s Cathedral (March 8)

by

by Daniel Hathaway

Music fromBroken-Consort nunneries is the source for two fascinating concerts of early music by distinguished ensembles this month. On March 20, the Newberry Consort will celebrate the new gallery organ at the Church of the Covenant with late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century music from Spanish and Mexican convents.

Last Friday evening, the Boston-based Broken Consort visited the Helen D. Schubert concert series at St. John’s Cathedral in Cleveland to present a program of medieval Spanish music called “Burgos, 1275” featuring music from the royal Las Huelgas Convent, selections from the monophonic collection of Marian songs, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, and improvisations on Sephardic and Arabo-Andalucian tunes that brought all three of the prevailing Iberian cultural streams into the mix. It was an era in which three religious traditions flourished side by side and seem to have gotten along well. Their respective music certainly meshed perfectly during this concert, providing the five excellent singers and instrumentalists with a wealth of built-in variety and contrast. [Read more…]

Review: Trinity Brownbag Concert: Case Collegium Musicum (March 6

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by Daniel Hathaway

CaseTrinity1Debra Nagy’s Case Collegium Musicum treated the Brownbag Concert audience at Trinity Cathedral on March 6 to fifteenth-century songs and dances by Guillaume Dufay, Pierre Fontaine, Hugo de Lantine, Gilles Binchois and Johannes LeGrant. And elaborations by a non-fifteenth-century composer, Debra Nagy, who continued her interesting practice of adding new voices to old music with such a sure hand that Dufay and company would surely applaud her efforts if they were still around.

The Collegium on this occasion included sopranos Elena Mullins and Sian Ricketts and mezzo-soprano Tracy Cowart (Ricketts also played recorder), tenor Corey Shotwell, vielle players Cynthia Black and John Romey, lutenist Michael Bane and recorder and douçaine player Luke Conklin. [Read more…]

Review: Blue Water Chamber Orchestra with Jane Eaglen at Plymouth Church (March 2)

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by J.D. Goddard

 

On SaturdayEaglen-Jane evening, March 2 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, conductor Carlton Woods and the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra presented a program entitled “Jane and Ludwig.” (i.e. Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen and composer Ludwig van Beethoven), a somewhat misleading title because Ms. Eaglen was performing Wagner and not Beethoven.

 

The orchestra opened with a crisp and efficient “teaser,” Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, which immediately set the tone for the evening’s fare.

 

The Egmont Overture was a commissioned work intended as incidental music for Goethe’s play of the same name. The Overture has survived as an independent concert piece and is now mostly performed without the rest of the incidental music. [Read more…]

Review: Rocky River Chamber Music Society: The Capitol Quartet (March 4)

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by Mike Telin

 

In theCapitol-Sax-Qt crowded world of chamber music, finding an accomplished group of players who easily transverse a myriad of musical styles with technical proficiency, astute musical sensibilities and who can be downright hilarious entertainers is rare.

 

On Monday, March 4, during their concert for the Rocky River Chamber Music Society at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church before a large and thoroughly attentive audience, the members of the Capitol Quartet proved they are one of those rare ensembles. But there’s an important detail: the Capitol Quartet is not a string quartet; it is a quartet of saxophones. http://wp.me/pxJ4l-OP [Read more…]

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