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CIPC Finals zero in on top four pianists at Severance (Aug. 9-10)

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by  Daniel Hathaway

By the time that Evren Ozel, Maxim Lando, Zijian Wei, and Giuseppe Guarrera played concertos with conductor Ruth Reinhardt and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center last weekend, their places in the winners’ circle of the Cleveland International Piano Competition were already determined.

It only remained to be revealed which of the generous cash prizes (ranging from $75,000 to $10,000) they would take home.

Given the quality of the competitors’ playing to this point, the jury had some tough choices to make. [Read more…]

CIPC Semi-Finalists show more of their musical personalities

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by Daniel Hathaway

In altering the repertory requirements for the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, the organizers made the rounds much more interesting for the attendees, but probably more complicated for the jury, who now had to compare wildly different apples to oranges.

Another change moved the chamber music round from the final to the semi-final round and reduced the players from a piano quintet to a piano trio (the instrumentalists here were violinist Maria Yudenich and cellist Gabriel Martins).

Here are our impressions of works we heard performed by the eight semi-finalists from August 1 through 4 (chamber music comments at the end).

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra provides a grand musical backdrop for an epic screening of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (August 2) 

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by Peter Feher
This article was originally published on cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio  — The Cleveland Orchestra has assembled an army of musicians for this weekend’s performances at Blossom Music Center, which is only fitting for an epic finale.

Hundreds of singers and instrumentalists are joining forces for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” live in concert, the eagerly awaited conclusion to a trilogy that began for Northeast Ohio audiences in 2022.

Over three summers, the Cleveland Orchestra will have presented each film in director Peter Jackson’s monumental fantasy series — the ensemble playing Howard Shore’s sweeping symphonic scores as the story of Frodo and Sam, the One Ring, and the fate of Middle-earth unfolds on screens around the Blossom Pavilion.

[Read more…]

CIPC Quarter-Finalists show their musical personalities

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by Mike Telin & Daniel Hathaway

Relieved of some of the customary competition repertory requirements, the sixteen pianists who played in the five CIPC Quarter-Final Rounds this week were pretty much given carte blanche to share their musical personalities with the jury and audience through their own choice of repertory.

This change made for the most interesting programming to be heard to date at the Cleveland competition. Over the five sessions, no piece was played twice.

Those of us who have been following CIPC for years probably rejoiced at not hearing multiple performances of the Chopin “Winter Wind” etude, or sitting through three performances of the same lengthy Schumann work in a single evening. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Summers at Severance with Petr Popelka & James Ehnes (July 25)

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by Peter Feher

Movie music has been cropping up on more and more Cleveland Orchestra programs in recent seasons — even when it’s not advertised.

This was all to the good at Severance Music Center on Thursday, July 25. The Orchestra sounded very much its polished self in the second concert of this year’s Summers at Severance series, the set of strictly classical offerings that the ensemble has brought back to balance out this summer’s lighter programming at Blossom Music Center.

All the same, summer was in full swing on Euclid Avenue. The front terrace outside Severance was strung with lights and set up with white tents serving refreshments. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra, Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra delight in Blossom performance (July 27)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

by Kevin McLaughlin | ClevelandClassical.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Finnish guest conductor Hannu Lintu strode onstage at the Blossom Music Center on July 27, all six-feet-plus of him, as purposefully as the hero in Lemminkäinen’s Return. The opening work on The Cleveland Orchestra’s program on Saturday is the fourth tone poem in Jan Sibelius’s “Lemminkäinen Suite,” based on Finland’s national epic, the “Kalevala.”

All he needed was a horse. But then, with a turn toward the orchestra and a mighty downbeat, he unleashed equestrian fury from strings and woodwinds, allowing some brass aggression here and there. With loose-limbed, ropey arms and an occasional leg-lift, Lintu projected the relaxed potency of a warrior leading his team to victory. 

[Read more…]

The Concert Truck brings CIPC talent to Edgewater Beach (July 23)

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by Stephanie Manning

’Tis the season for outdoor concerts, and after a beautifully mild weather pattern swept in last weekend, this may be one of the best weeks this year to enjoy them. In other words: July 23 was the perfect day for a concert on the beach.

To be fair, the Concert Truck wasn’t actually on the sand at Edgewater Beach, but it was close — parked right outside the Beach House and facing the water. Beachgoers and locals gathered on a bright sunny day for the lunchtime concert, presented by the Cleveland International Piano Competition. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera’s The Arcadians: all upbeat, all the time (July 18)

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by Peter Feher

The Ohio Light Opera is traveling to a world terrifically out of time in The Arcadians, the company’s sixth and final production of the summer.

No, not Arcadia, the mythical realm where shepherds and nymphs always tell the truth and, as a result, never grow old. That vision of utopia lasts for only one act of Lionel Monckton, Howard Talbot, and Arthur Wimperis’ 1909 musical comedy. For the remainder of the show, we’re whisked to what would have been familiar territory for the three songwriters but what, in 2024, might seem like an even more fantastical setting: Edwardian England.

The delightful sense of dislocation owes a little to OLO’s staging and a lot to the inevitable reality that The Arcadians has aged. Like much turn-of-the-20th-century musical theater, the story here — by librettists Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson — comes second to the songs. [Read more…]

Kent Blossom closes out Faculty Concert Series with two classics (July 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

With a program of only two pieces, both of them staples in chamber music repertoire, creating the conditions for a standout performance might be more difficult than usual. But the musicians in Kent Blossom Music Festival’s final entry in this year’s Faculty Concert Series knew what to do.

“Friendship is a requirement to open up and enjoy this piece,” clarinetist Afendi Yusuf said of the opener, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet — though this sentiment could equally apply to Schubert’s Octet that followed. The July 17 performance in Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall proved that the group had the friendship element in spades. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra delights with Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Beethoven at Blossom Music Center (July 20)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

by Kevin McLaughlin | ClevelandClassical.com

CUYAHOGA  FALLS, Ohio — There were plenty of midsummer smiles at The Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Music Center concert on Saturday July 20, as Mendelssohn’s fairies cavorted, Veronique Gens’s lovely voice wafted forth, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony danced everyone to their feet.

To begin, guest conductor Antonello Manacorda led a glittering performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream — so vivid and atmospheric you could swear that you spotted elves prancing on the lawn.

The opening woodwind chords that ushered us into Shakespeare’s magical world were well balanced and pure, largely thanks to the flute and clarinet playing of Jessica Sindell and Daniel McKelway. Violins scurrying at a fast but prudent tempo — and an impossibly soft but effective dynamic — summoned the fairies. Throughout, Manacorda’s gestures were expressive and economical.

[Read more…]

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