by Mike Telin
What’s on your list of favorite holiday classics? The ones you remember from childhood and — as an adult — still look forward to seeing. My list begins with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, followed by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. And I still enjoy How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas — especially Vince Guaraldi’s musical score.
Another I remember fondly is Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Commissioned by NBC, the one act, made-for-television opera, premiered on December 24, 1951, at the network’s studios in New York’s Rockefeller Center. And now, through the wonders of technology, Cleveland Opera Theater has created a magical new production of the work which is available on demand through January 6, 2021 (Three Kings Day). [Read more…]
Improvisation: the act of creating something without preparation. 
I know noble accents 
Both accessible and deeply original, the music of London-born composer Anna Clyne is a convergence of tradition and invention, sometimes set against each other to provide a fascinating contrast, other times wrapped up into one enchanting package — familiar sound and fresh sensibility. Her latest album, 
Robert Schumann wrote his three string quartets in a span of less than two months during the summer of 1842. We think of such intensely productive times as manic, especially for Schumann, who is now thought to have suffered from bipolar disorder. But in some ways, the music of Op. 41 belies that.
Four string players and a clarinetist, all from The Cleveland Orchestra, came together on December 7 for a quartet and a quintet in “Nothing But Mozart,” streamed live from West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church as part of the 62nd season of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society.
On December 6, CityMusic Cleveland continued its season-long chamber series celebrating 100 years of the 19th amendment with “Baroque Reflections,” streamed live from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.