by Peter Feher
Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre is a piece that’s both oversold and undersold. It’s a favorite of cello superstars, student concerto competitions, and classical compilation CDs. Conductor and cellist Amit Peled made the intriguing decision to place the work on his debut program as CityMusic Cleveland’s new music director. In a memorable performance, he made a redemptive case for the music itself. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
All it took was one visit.
“Last time I was in Cleveland, what was really special for me was the deep connection I had with the orchestra right away,” cellist and conductor Amit Peled said during a telephone interview.
On that trip this past May, he joined CityMusic Cleveland as soloist in Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, and the relationship he felt wasn’t that of soloist and accompanists. “It was really music-making in an equal way,” he said. “That’s what I liked about the orchestra from the time we spent together, and that’s what I want to preserve. I think we both felt a connection, and that’s why it resulted in this relationship.”
In July, it was announced that Peled would be the next music director of CityMusic, while his predecessor Avner Dorman has stepped into the role of music director emeritus. Peled will begin his first season — the ensemble’s 16th — by leading the orchestra in free performances October 17-20 in Beachwood, Willoughby Hills, Slavic Village, and Lakewood (details below).
by David Kulma
CityMusic Cleveland closed out its 15th season with five concerts in worship spaces across the Cleveland area the third week in May. The enjoyable and excellently curated program, “Hidden Gems,” was led by Mélisse Brunet and featured cellist Amit Peled. I heard the Friday, May 17 performance at Lakewood Congregational Church.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Israeli cellist Amit Peled is a warm person, a deep thinker, and a big Cavaliers fan — all equally important aspects of any great artist’s personality.
Next week, from May 15-19, Peled and guest conductor Mélisse Brunet will make their debuts with CityMusic Cleveland in five free concerts around the area to conclude the ensemble’s 15th season.
The title “Hidden Gems” certainly describes three of the four works on the program: Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C, Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 2, and Kodály’s Dances of Galánta.
Not so for Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto. “It’s a piece that we all play as teenagers — one of the first we encounter as quote-unquote serious cellists,” Peled told me during a trip to Europe, where he was to perform in Romania and Austria. For him, the Saint-Saëns was also one of the first concertos he performed with orchestra. “I will never forget the feeling of that first chord, and after that the explosion of emotion and the mastery of cello writing,” he said.
by Mike Telin
Since its founding in 2004, CityMusic Cleveland has been guided by a simple principle: that classical music should be available to all free of charge. Read a history of the ensemble here. This week the traveling chamber orchestra will kick off its fifteenth season with a program titled “A Bounty of Brahms.” Under the direction of Music Director Avner Dorman, the program includes the composer’s Double Concerto featuring a pair of CityMusic favorites, violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Edward Arron, and the Symphony No. 2.
The run begins on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:30 pm at St. Jerome Church in Collinwood, and continues on to Temple Tifereth-Israel in Beachwood (October 25 at 7:30 pm), St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills (October 26 at 7:30 pm), and the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village (October 27 at 8:00 pm), finishing up at Lakewood Congregational Church on Sunday, October 28 at 5:00 pm. Concerts are free but you’ll want to leave a donation. Click here for further information.
On Sunday, November 4 at 7:00 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, CityMusic will participate in the world premiere of Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard’s OUR VOICES: DEMOCRACY RE:visited. [Read more…]