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DIARY: Wednesday, June 12, 2024

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Today: organist Florence Mustric in “Inspired by Jazz,” Ohio Light Opera presents Guys and Dolls (pictured), and ChamberFest Cleveland opens its season with “Sacred and Profane”

•Interesting reads: ClevelandClassical in the news

•Announcements: Akron Symphony’s Summer Parks Concerts, a new music director at Heights Chamber Orchestra (and auditions announced), and the open position of Donor Relations Coordinator at Cleveland Chamber Choir

•Almanac: several British anniversaries, from Knussen to Ireland and Britten (not Britain)

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, December 4, 2023

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Intersections of politics and music: climate protests at the Met Opera, Russian conductor and Putin supporter Valery Gergiev to lead Bolshoi Theater, and two pieces of news related to Spotify — its controversial new payment policies, and its response to a bill in Uruguay requiring “fair and equitable remuneration”

•Almanac: Benjamin Britten (pictured), Frank Zappa, and National Cookie Day

INTERESTING READS:

A production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera was notable first because of the company debut of baritone Christian Gerhaher — then because of climate protests that broke out from members of the audience. Writing for The New York Times, Joshua Barone reviews the November 30 performance, including the protests themselves, the “angrily bothered, even violent response from others,” and the struggle to fully engage with the show for the remainder of the evening. Read “Climate Protests Upstage a Debut at the Met Opera” here.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, November 22, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: CIM Orchestra at Severance

•News: celebrate Cleveland on Google Arts & Culture (pictured), and revisit the combination of orchestra and effects pedals from Akron Symphony and EarthQuaker Devices

•Almanac: the fourteen operas of Britten, and the fourteen operas of Gilbert & Sullivan

HAPPENING TODAY:

One event on our radar tonight. At 7:30 pm, Carlos Kalmar and the CIM Orchestra will perform Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 at Severance Music Center. It’s free.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Storgårds & Frang (July 15)

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by Delaney Meyers

The Cleveland Orchestra continued its crowd-pleasing summer season at Blossom Music Center on Sunday, July 15 with a fabulous concert featuring Finnish guest conductor John Storgårds and Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir to mark Shakespeare’s 400th on April 23

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by Daniel Hathaway

ClevelandChamberChoir-112115Accidental discoveries you make when you’re drawing up plans for a program sometimes send you off on a new tack. Scott MacPherson had long been contemplating a concert of British choral music for the second concert of the Cleveland Chamber Choir’s inaugural season and wanted something “on the vigorous, peppy side” to balance the “rich, sonorous” music he already had in mind.

“In Sweet Music Is Such Art: Celebrating British Choral Music” will take place on Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights.

“We had performed Cecilia McDowall’s Aurea luce on our first concert in November”, MacPherson said, “so I wrote to her and asked if she had anything along those lines. She told me that her When Time is Broke: three Shakespeare songs had just been premiered by the BBC Singers in January and that the first movement might be just what what I was looking for.” [Read more…]

Oberlin Opera Theater to produce Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia

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by Mike Telin and Daniel Hathaway

Britten-BenjaminThere are a lot of things to consider when choosing an opera that will fit the voices of undergraduate singers. Oberlin Opera Theater director Jonathon Field had both practical and philosophical considerations in mind when he decided to produce Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, which opens for a four-performance run in Hall Auditorium on the Oberlin College campus on Wednesday, November 11.

“If you look at the makeup of any college vocal studies program, most likely 80% of the students are female,” Field said in a telephone conversation. “Lucretia offers a lot of roles and opportunities for female singers. And singing Britten always makes students better performers. I think it’s the way that the words fit the musical lines so completely. It’s quasi-melodic, yet the singers have to get the pitches absolutely right for it to make emotional sense. The music is rhythmically complex, but not impossibly dense. And like a lot of his operas, Lucretia is lightly scored, so that’s perfect for young voices.” [Read more…]

CD Review: Zuill Bailey — Britten Cello Symphony and Sonata

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by Daniel Hautzinger

Bailey-Britten-CDRight at the end of his centenary year (2013), Benjamin Britten is being celebrated in a new Telarc release of the Cello Symphony and Sonata, recorded by Zuill Bailey and released January 14, 2014.

Both pieces, along with three suites, were written for the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Britten and Rostropovich were friends and collaborators, and recordings exist of Britten conducting the Symphony with Rostropovich as soloist, and of the two performing the Sonata (Britten was a fine pianist as well as a composer).

Rostropovich and Britten cast both works as epic dramas, life and death conflicts. Bailey works on a smaller scale: in the Symphony, he becomes a dire prophet warning of the apocalypse.

Titled “symphony” instead of “concerto,” it positions the cellist more as a narrator than a soloist, while the orchestra becomes both the setting and the characters. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra to feature Britten’s Serenade — a conversation with horn soloist Richard King

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by Mike Telin

KING-Richard“I have played many of the big horn concertos and this piece has been on the back burner because [we needed] to find a tenor who was of the right ilk and available, says Cleveland Orchestra principal horn Richard King. The piece King is referring to is Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and luckily for Cleveland audiences, the right tenor has come along.

This weekend at Severance Hall, tenor Matthew Polenzani and Richard King will give the first performances by The Cleveland Orchestra of Britten’s haunting work. The concerts, under the direction of Marek Janowski, also include Fauré’s Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Additionally, on Friday, October 11 beginning at 11:30 at the Beechmont Country Club, Richard King will be the featured guest on the orchestra’s Meet the Artist Series.

We spoke to Richard King by telephone and began by asking him to share his thoughts on Britten’s Serenade.

Richard King: Well I have never played it, so I am very excited. I don’t know if the Serenade is in the mainstream anymore but this is Britten’s 100th birthday year. The piece was written for the great — and maybe the greatest horn player of all time — Dennis Brain at his request. [Read more…]

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