by Daniel Hathaway
In what’s become a reliably annual visit to The Cleveland Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan brought his British-born charm and wit to the Severance Hall podium on Thursday, November 21 for an alluring program of music by Schubert and Haydn, separated by a brilliant performance of Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto by Michael Sachs. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Monday evening, November 18, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society took the welcome step of acknowledging that their performance space houses a pipe organ by presenting organist Timothy Olsen and trumpeter Judith Saxton in a program of music that effectively conjoined the two instruments. A popular combination in France, solo trumpet with organ is not so often encountered in the States, though there’s plenty of literature to explore. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Britain’s Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment brought smashing performances of well-known Baroque works to Oberlin’s Finney Chapel on Friday, November 22 as part of the college’s Artist Recital Series. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto in d, and Vivaldi’s Gloria are titles you can routinely encounter on programs by avocational ensembles — they’re well within the capabilities of amateur musicians — but hearing them burnished to such a high gloss by 32 professional period instrumentalists and singers was revelatory. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
It takes supreme self-confidence to turn a Shakespeare comedy into an opera, and even more daring to follow up someone else’s iconic music with a score of your own. Benjamin Britten is one of the few composers who could succeed on both counts. His version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, composed in 1960 and produced by Oberlin Opera Theater earlier this month, preserves the magic of Shakespeare’s verse with atmospheric writing that stands up well to Mendelssohn’s wonderful incidental music. Directed by Jonathon Field, with Christopher Larkin and the Oberlin Orchestra in the Hall Auditorium pit, the production, of which I saw the fourth and final performance on Sunday afternoon, November 10, boasted a uniformly superb cast of Athenians, Fairies, and Rude Mechanicals. [Read more…]
by Colin Roshak
Special to ClevelandClassical.com
This past Friday, in a night of highlights — a young virtuoso soloist, a powerhouse horn player, and an astonishing young ensemble — the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra more than earned their stage time in the legendary Severance Hall. The concert began with a modern selection in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s colorful Something for the Dark, a sort of concerto for orchestra. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
You can usually count on Jakub Hrůša to offer up some Czech music during his guest conducting appearances at Severance Hall. Not this time, but in his recent two weekends of concerts, works by Russian, American, and Austrian composers revealed the conductor’s ability to communicate in multiple musical languages. His readings of Shostakovich and John Adams were as probing and masterful as his takes on Beethoven and Mahler were fresh and surprising, and he brought his colleagues along with him all the way. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Accordion music remains alive and well in Northeast Ohio. The first evening concert of the International Digital Electronic Accordion Society (IDEAS) symposium took place Friday evening, November 8 at Warren, Ohio’s Avalon Inn and Resort. If anything, the organizers outdid last year’s opening event. Jazz and cinematic music took center stage. Highlighting the virtuoso performances was the appearance of New Jersey jazz accordion great Eddie Monteiro (left), accompanied by talented drummer Bob Bacha. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
“Greatness,” as a measure of artistic merit, has a fatal flaw: experts and enthusiasts have to will it into existence. As with a ship’s christening, conferral requires masters of ceremonies, an assenting crowd, a suspension of disbelief, and an intoxicant: in this case, a love of the art form. Bias seeps in all too easily. In the past, some denied that entire groups of artists, such as composers who were women, could ever achieve greatness — a falsehood long since aged to unpalatable bitterness. Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble, joining forces with Amethyst Strings and Windsong, focused on versatility, variety, and vastness of vision in a recent concert of music by women. Together, the groups decanted diverse vintages, finding greatness by the barrel. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
On Friday evening, November 15, Opera Western Reserve delivered an excellent performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth at Stambaugh Auditorium. The lead singers were exceptional, as was conductor Susan Davenny Wyner’s splendid orchestra. Barbara Luce’s costumes were lively and added color to the darkly sad subject. Blocking and stage presence were outstanding, but constrained by the presence of a single set that never really changed. This limited the production, despite imaginative lighting effects.
by Tom Wachunas
The November 9 concert by the Canton Symphony Orchestra was a particularly eclectic program of five works exploring the theme of storytelling, beginning with Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro. In the genre of opera buffa, there’s hardly a more scintillating curtain raiser than this madcap orchestral frolic. The fast-paced music is replete with crisply punctuated rhythms and many shifting colors, and the ensemble played it impeccably. [Read more…]