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Cleveland Orchestra, guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste earn three curtain calls for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: Review (Feb. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin | Cleveland Classical

Originally posted on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — That crackle you may have heard around 9 o’clock on Friday evening may not have been an atmospheric event or even static coming from the dryer. More likely it was The Cleveland Orchestra playing the jubilant fourth movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

The program, in addition to Beethoven’s Fifth and the infrequently performed Schubert Sixth, was intended to be led by Herbert Blomstedt, the eminent 96-year-old Swedish maestro. But Blomstedt took a fall last December, and while he recovers, his engagements in Cleveland and other American cities have been canceled. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor and artistic director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, came heroically to the rescue, making his first appearance in Cleveland since October of 1995.

[Read more…]

Takács Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Jan. 23)

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By Peter Feher

The Takács Quartet and pianist Marc-André Hamelin put pleasure first in their January 23 performance for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. In a program that could have been bogged down by questions of national pride and identity, these players instead chose to convey all the charm and character of their repertoire from a cosmopolitan perspective.

Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, the first piece on Tuesday’s concert at Disciples Christian Church, set the tone for the evening. After some initial stiffness, the Takács players warmed up to the romantic atmosphere imagined by this Austrian composer who, in his short life, would never actually visit the Mediterranean.

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Power of three: Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos deliver wonderful interpretation of Beethoven works at Severance Music Center (Feb.1)

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By Peter Feher

Originally published in Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Most performances of Beethoven’s symphonies at Severance Music Center have the full force of The Cleveland Orchestra behind them.

But last night, pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma proved that consummate musicianship can power these compositions at any size. The trio played for a sold-out crowd in Mandel Concert Hall on Feb. 1, and between the choice of repertoire and the larger-than-life artistry, it was a chamber recital of symphonic scope.

“Think of us as the Euclid Avenue Philharmonic,” Ax quipped in his introductory remarks from the stage.

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Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Busch Trio from Amsterdam (Jan. 29)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Making their Cleveland debut on Monday, January 29 in Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s already highlight-filled season, the Busch Trio showed itself to be an astonishing young ensemble. They brought youth and energy, yes (all are still in their twenties), but they also brought a fearlessness to their program — trios of Mozart, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky — and a level of musicianship and precision that made this reviewer’s jaw drop.

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“Smooth and Smart…Rodgers & Hart” — Cleveland Jazz Orchestra & Musical Theater Project (Jan. 27)

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 by Kevin McLaughlin

There is something both artful and nonchalant about the songs of Rodgers & Hart. There is no sales job, no “look at this clever harmony, or this sly lyric.” Only effortless joy, romance, and wit. And sometimes performances — like the one by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and The Musical Theater Project at Maltz Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, January 27 — are just as smooth and smart.

“Smooth and Smart…Rodgers & Hart,” an evening of 25 songs with commentary — written, co-produced, and co-hosted by The Musical Theater Project’s Bill Rudman and the Jazz Orchestra’s Paul Ferguson — only confirmed the songs’ perfection. Rudman and Ferguson (pictured) were joined onstage by five horns from CJO, singer-pianist Joe Hunter, drummer Holbrook Riles III, bassist Aidan Plank, and vocalists Evelyn Wright and Michael Shirtz.

Rudman’s scripted commentary between musical numbers kept momentum on a smooth glide, as did film, audio clips, and slides. [Read more…]

Cleveland Composers Guild at Fairmount Presbyterian (Jan. 21)

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by Sicily Xiao

On January 21, a serene Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Composers Guild curated the second concert of its 2023-2024 season at Fairmount Presbyterian Church. The program, dedicated to cutting edge chamber music compositions, included the 1st prize winner of the Guild’s 11th Collegiate Composition Contest.

The concert began with Ty Alan Emerson’s Pan Songs played by percussionist Dylan Moffitt on a version of the modern steelpan which avoided precise tuning, resulting in a distinctive harmonic and spatial system. The emphasis on sound, color, and rhythm beautifully showcased Emerson’s concepts. In the second movement, Moffitt traded mallets for brushes, more commonly used in jazz, adding a layer of flexibility to the timbral palette.

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Canton Symphony: “Celtic Celebrations” (Jan. 20)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

“Celtic Celebrations” was the theme for the program comprising two Gaelic-themed symphonies performed by the Canton Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, January 20 at Umstattd Hall. A nice ring to it, even if actual Irishness or Scottishness was sometimes more in the mind than in the scores.

Gaelicism is present, of course, in the symphony nicknames — Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” and Amy Beach’s “Gaelic” — as well as their respective germs of inspiration: Mendelssohn’s almost mystical giddiness after a trip to the Scottish countryside (though not realized in music until over a decade later), and Beach’s methodical use of Irish tunes (added to her own) to create an original (and American) synthesis. More concoctions of mind than authenticities, perhaps, but still — what’s not to like?

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Alla Boara: creating soundscapes from history at CMA (Jan. 24)

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by Max Newman

If there’s one thing that the Ohio-based group Alla Boara can do, it is allowing their listeners to explore the past by relishing in the present. And for those who packed into the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on Wednesday, January 24 for the ensemble’s performance celebrating the release of their new record, that is exactly what they got.

It was an evening of storytelling through word and song.

Bandleader Anthony Taddeo, the group’s composer and drummer, based his arrangements off of a series of Alan Lomax’s 1954 field recordings of Italian folk music. Throughout the night, Taddeo and other band members laid out historical context to the pieces on show with a backdrop of original images from Lomax’s Italian journey. It gave the audience a clear snapshot of Italy in the mid-1950s, and created an authentic atmosphere for each song played. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra revels in wild Weimar-era symphonies by Sergi Prokofiev and Anton Webern (Jan.17)

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Originally published on Cleveland.com

Photo by Roger Mastroianni

by Daniel Hathaway, Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In his Concert Overview for The Cleveland Orchestra performance at Severance Music Center on Wednesday evening, January 17, music director Franz Welser-Möst wrote:

“Tonight’s program was conceived as part of Carnegie Hall’s festival, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, which looks at the 15 years of the Weimar era (1918–33), some of the wildest and most innovative for the arts in history.”

The program, which will be repeated tonight (Thursday) before the Orchestra travels to New York for a two-day Carnegie residency, included brilliant performances of wildly contrasting, two-movement works by Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Webern that both bore the title of “Symphony,” though they couldn’t have been more divergent in intent and style.

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Akron Symphony: adaptable, exceptional (Jan. 13)

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by Peter Feher

The Akron Symphony pulled off an exceptional concert at E.J. Thomas Hall on January 13 that would have stretched any other ensemble to its limit.

Between the different instrumental configurations and the sheer variety of musical styles, there were what sounded like four distinct orchestras onstage Saturday night.

But the Akron Symphony came up with a pragmatic solution that made the performance possible. Music director Christopher Wilkins kept the ensemble small — scarcely more than 30 musicians for the biggest work of the evening. If the orchestra wasn’t exactly out in full force here, this tight-knit group of players nonetheless had all the power and finesse of a seasoned symphonic unit.

[Read more…]

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