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Guest conductor Jonathon Heyward presents captivating program in Cleveland Orchestra debut (July 26)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — The July 26 concert at Blossom Music Center marked the exciting Cleveland Orchestra debut of conductor Jonathon Heyward — the music director of the Baltimore Symphony and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center. His program should have captivated even the most distant lawn loungers with works by Dvořák and Beethoven, as well as a recent concerto by London-born composer Anna Clyne, who now resides in the United States.

The centerpiece of the evening was Clyne’s Glasslands, a haunting, kaleidoscopic concerto for soprano saxophone, written for the 27-year-old British saxophonist Jess Gillam, who premiered it with the Detroit Symphony in 2023 and performed it on Saturday with beauty and authority.

[Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: The Cousin from Batavia (July 23)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Last seen in Wooster in 2002, The Cousin from Batavia (1921) — with its tangle of mistaken identities, impromptu romance, and Southeast Asian impostures — may be less familiar to English-speaking audiences than other Golden Age operettas. But Ohio Light Opera’s sweet-tempered, farcical revival at Freedlander Theatre on July 23 proved charming enough to win over even the staunchest devotees of the present-day and plausible. The late operetta scholar Richard Traubner rendered the text into vivid English.

Composed by Eduard Künneke with a witty libretto by Hermann Haller and “Rideamus” — “Let us laugh,” the Latin pseudonym of German-Jewish satirist and lawyer Fritz Oliven — Batavia blends the lyricism of Viennese operetta with the slapstick of farce. Wilson Southerland’s crisp conducting and the orchestra’s fine playing brought out all the color and buoyancy in Künneke’s sparkling score. [Read more…]

Blind Injustice: six lives wrongly incarcerated, one story of hope and resilience (July 11) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

Opera can be a powerful medium for documenting social injustice, especially when the plot hits close to home. Case in point: the six wrongly convicted individuals in Northeast Ohio whose stories are told in David Cote’s and Scott Davenport Richards’ 80+-minute work, Blind Injustice. 

The opera, premiered by Cincinnati Opera in 2019 and subsequently produced in Colorado, New Jersey, and New York, was presented by Chagrin Arts on July 11 at the Outcalt Theatre in Playhouse Square.

The tightly-constructed, one-act music drama tells the real life stories of Rickey Jackson, Nancy Smith, Clarence Elkins, and the East Cleveland 3 — teenagers Laurese Glover, Eugene Johnson, and Derrick Wheatt — all imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. The opera follows each of them from their conviction to their eventual release through the work of the Innocence Project. [Read more…]

Cooper International Piano Competition: Concerto Round at Oberlin (July 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

After two days of semi-final rounds in which 20 contestants each performed 40-minute recitals, the field of the Cooper International Piano Competition was narrowed to six. On Tuesday, July 22 in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall those six pianists performed full concertos with piano accompaniment in afternoon and evening sessions. Here are our impressions.

Yangting Wang (13, China) led off with an ingratiating performance of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 in C. His well-shaped phrasing of its long lines and elegant, clean scale passages made this performance easy to listen to.

Wang’s relaxed tempo in the Largo movement allowed room for melodies to shine. His playful approach to the third movement Allegro was enhanced by his brisk tempo and well-chosen accents.

Overall, Wang took pains to keep the concerto cool and Apollonian. At the second Steinway, Dr. Annie Lin was a fine collaborator. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet (July 17)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet was a grand hit in 1929, but its large cast, relatively complex plot, and throwback operetta format have kept it out of the regular repertoire in recent years.

Thank goodness for Ohio Light Opera’s polished new staging, seen on July 17 at The College of Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre. This elegant — and yes, bittersweet — tale of love, loss, and the passage of time was elevated by superb singing, splendid orchestral playing under Michael Borowitz’s baton, and all the wit, warmth, and visual splendor one hopes to find at the theater.

Structured as a memory play, Bitter Sweet is a deeply personal work. According to biographers, the love story — particularly as expressed through the character of Carl Linden — puts Coward’s romantic ideals on full display.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Finnish conductor Rouvali dazzles in return performance (July 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Santtu-Matias Rouvali has only led the Cleveland Orchestra twice, but he’s already established a formula that works. The Finnish conductor skillfully matches his programs to his conducting style — whimsical, sparkling, and humorous, while remaining precise and rhythmic.

The approach meshes well with the orchestra, who easily responded to Rouvali, just as they did during his debut last fall. On Thursday, July 17, a trio of works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Ravel made for a lighthearted evening on the Summers at Severance series.

Nowhere was Rouvali’s magic more evident than in Igor Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes. The wild card of the program in more ways than one, this lesser-known ballet by the Russian composer depicts an actual card game, where the mischievous Joker is eventually defeated at the end of three rounds. The conductor kept things moving briskly during the brass fanfare that opens each “Deal,” symbolizing the shuffling of the cards.

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Cleveland Orchestra performance Saturday at Blossom highlighted by debut of violinist Veronika Eberle (July 19)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Four fateful notes were knocking around in Beethoven’s head when he was composing many of his most famous works in his mid-30s.

This motif would, of course, find its supreme expression in his Fifth Symphony, premiered in 1808 and part of the popular imagination ever since. But just a few years before, Beethoven had tried out a variation on the idea — softer but no less suspenseful — at the beginning of his Violin Concerto.

The crowd at Blossom Music Center last night, Saturday July 19, was remarkably hushed, ready to hear the four faint quarter notes tapped out on timpani that begin the concerto. Over the next 45 minutes, violinist Veronika Eberle elaborated on the sequence in numerous flights of virtuosic fancy, floating high above the solid, sturdy accompaniment of the Cleveland Orchestra. Yet throughout, the performance remained grounded in the quiet clarity of that opening measure.

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Kent Blossom Music Festival: Imani Winds return (July 2)

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by Stephanie Manning

Already no strangers to Northeast Ohio, Imani Winds are quickly turning last summer’s debut at the Kent Blossom Music Festival into an annual event. For the second year in a row, the wind quintet visited Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall on July 2 to perform on the Festival’s Faculty Concert Series.

Their program, “Grooves and Meditations,” included some familiar names from their 2024 outing, including Paquito D’Rivera and Andy Akiho. But there were also plenty of new additions, like composer Fazıl Say and his piece Alevi Dedeler rakı masasında. The four-movement work is essentially about “old grandpas getting drunk at the bar,” bassoonist Monica Ellis said with a grin. [Read more…]

Richard Strauss’ early symphony gets Summers at Severance Cleveland Orchestra premiere (July 10)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In a night that saw several promising debuts at Severance Music Center, one young artist impressed so thoroughly that he’s already been invited back next season.

Richard Strauss was only 20 years old when he completed his Symphony in F Minor, which received its first Cleveland Orchestra performance on Thursday, July 10, in Mandel Concert Hall.

Of course, Strauss is no stranger to Cleveland or to the standard repertory — his music has been programmed for almost every season in the Orchestra’s century-long history. But this favorite composer still has a few surprises to offer even the most well-acquainted concertgoer.

[Read more…]

Osmo Vänskä and Cleveland Orchestra spin the wheel of fortune in ‘Carmina Burana’ (July 12)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — When the goddess Fortuna spins her wheel, your fate is on the line. That’s the idea behind “O Fortuna,” the famous dramatic tune that has become part of pop culture thanks to its use in commercials and TV shows.

Those crashing waves of sound, lamenting life’s cruel twists of fate, both open and close Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” which headlined The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert on July 12. Conductor Osmo Vänskä led the Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus in a lively performance of the work at Blossom Music Center.

[Read more…]

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