by Daniel Hathaway
Having discovered surprisingly little overlap between their mailing lists, Cleveland’s two main purveyors of chamber music decided to bring their followers together on April 5 to enjoy a joint concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.
Although they tend the same vineyard, The Cleveland Chamber Music Society and ChamberFest Cleveland go about their mission differently. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
I was once told that it’s good to not think too much about life’s problems. However, there are more than enough reasons to ask yourself: why more isn’t being done to combat climate change? How much is corporate greed responsible for the changes? Why do people buy into mass marketing?
On April 2 at SPACES and presented by No Exit, the excellent Brooklyn-based Unheard-of//Ensemble — Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), and Daniel Anastasio (piano and electronics) — presented three thought provoking works that challenged listeners to never stop thinking about these questions.
by Stephanie Manning
An audio recording does not do Fire & Grace & Ash justice. In their 2019 album, Partita Americana, the trio — Edwin Huizinga, violin, William Coulter, guitar, and Ashley Hoyer, mandolin — brought first-rate musicianship to a melting pot of classical, bluegrass, and folk music. It’s a record that’s impressive enough on its own, but it paled in comparison to the trio’s live, in-person concert on April 30 at St. Malachi Church.
The opening few minutes were the perfect introduction to the range of styles ahead, flowing seamlessly through Bach, the classic folk tune “The Wayfaring Stranger,” and an energetic fiddle piece. The three musicians, who moved naturally as a unit, clearly enjoy making music together, and their mood was infectious. Huizinga’s resonant violin sound filled up the space, while Coulter on guitar was a steady, reliable bass voice. In the face of two louder instruments, Hoyer’s mandolin was sometimes more difficult to hear — but her time to shine came during her piece Two Trees, a sentimental tune that brought her crystal-clear tone to the forefront.
by Peter Feher
Many conductors are happy to travel from orchestra to orchestra with the same set of pieces. Not Michael Tilson Thomas, who brought a unique but instantly recognizable program to Severance Music Center over the weekend.
A visit from the San Francisco Symphony’s music director laureate usually means interesting repertoire, stylish interpretations, and the prospect that he’ll return next season.
If that workload and those artistic commitments would be exceptional from anyone else on the podium, this year they have to count as remarkable for Tilson Thomas, too. The conductor announced his semi-retirement two months ago, going public with the details of a brain-cancer diagnosis but promising to keep making music all the same. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
Lawrence Brownlee was still in master-class mode when he visited the Cleveland Chamber Music Society on April 26. The star tenor, born and raised in Youngstown, brought an educational element to his recital at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.
The program, “Song of My Youth,” served as an introduction not just to Brownlee’s artistry but more generally, to the world of classical vocal music. Songs in the three “big” languages (Italian, German, French) filled the first half, and excerpts from opera, musical theater, and elsewhere comprised the second. It all made for a concise overview of the standard styles in which any voice student today should be well versed, and Brownlee played up this aspect of his selections cheerfully. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
After observing so many concerts from The Cleveland Orchestra — an ensemble that has long been lagging in its representation of women — it was refreshing to see their usual stage occupied by a group that reverses that gender discrepancy.
On April 24 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and conductor John Thomas Dodson presented a program that gave a healthy challenge for its players without getting too far out of their comfort zone.
by Jacob Strauss
On Tuesday, April 12th, and into the small hours of the morning, Kassa Overall and his ensemble played a set of jazz-infused rap — or rap-infused jazz — at the ’Sco on Oberlin College’s campus.
Kassa Overall, a drummer and a 2005 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory’s Jazz Department, makes records that are confident and imaginative, groovy and avant-garde. He unashamedly mixes underground and alternative rap production and attention to lyricism with an internalized comprehension of all forms of jazz.
No, he is not picking up where Kendrick Lamar left off with To Pimp A Butterfly — Overall has a distinctive ear and omnivorous taste which makes his music singular, a disciple following a revolutionary tradition. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
A recital by Evgeny Kissin isn’t over when it ends. Anyone who’s kept up with the Russian pianist’s career — he was last in Cleveland 25 years ago — knew what to expect on Sunday, April 24 at Severance Music Center. After the final billed piece, Kissin returned to the stage four more times, playing a set of encores that made for a third act to the evening.
It’s his signature move for a reason. With these extra, off-the-cuff performances, Kissin shows remarkable command and pacing. He manages simultaneously to satisfy his own artistic standards and to respond to the demands of the crowd. When the mood is right, he can go on for hours, racking up a dozen encores that all but upstage the planned recital in breadth and artistry. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
No matter how many times certain symphonic staples are performed, the music always invites the opportunity to dig deeper — and on Friday, April 22 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra did just that. Under the baton of rising star Klaus Mäkelä, the ensemble took two masterworks in the classical canon to a new level with a performance that plumbed the emotional depths of both Sibelius and Shostakovich.
The young Finnish conductor seemed to relish his third appearance on the Severance podium, and both he and soloist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider approached Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with passion. Though the compositional process of Sibelius’s only concerto was hampered by uncertainty, there was nothing uncertain about Szeps-Znaider’s interpretation. His full, warm sound blended effortlessly with the Orchestra, whose lush, Romantic playing never obscured the soloist.
by Peter Feher
The Cleveland Orchestra could have partnered with the Cleveland Museum of Art for last weekend’s concerts. The give-and-take between composers and visual artists — and the historical movements that emerged in the process — inspired the program on Thursday, April 7 at Severance Music Center.
Actually, some of the Orchestra’s players — along with the week’s soloist, pianist Emanuel Ax — did end up at the museum the following evening, for a benefit concert in support of Ukraine. But before their night off, the performers put the relationship between music and art on dazzling display for the audience at Severance. Alan Gilbert conducted four works that ranged from the 19th century to the 21st and that showed what’s changed in the culture since. [Read more…]