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CityMusic Cleveland: “Tales and Scenes” (Jan. 21)

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by Stephanie Manning

The Christmas season appeared to still be in full swing at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus on January 21. Merry wreaths, festive trees, and twinkling lights filled the cavernous space three weeks into the new year. The evening was a chilly one, and most audience members chose to keep their coats on as they settled into their seats for CityMusic Cleveland’s captivating chamber program, “Tales and Scenes.”

The Pantheon Ensemble kicked off the concert with J.S. Bach’s Concerto in f, where pianist Elizabeth DeMio was joined by violinists Masha Andreini and Mari Sato, violist Yaël Senamaud-Cohen, cellist Nataliya Pschenychna, and bassist Tracy Rowell. The group approached the Bach with a rich, dramatic style fitting for both the piece and the venue. But although the architecture of St. Stanislaus is visually impressive, its extremely resonant space was not always beneficial to the ensemble’s blend and balance.

[Read more…]

Cavani’s “Beyond Beethoven” Finale at Severance Music Center (Dec. 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

What might LvB have thought of having 90 young musicians — led by a professional string quartet — perform the fugue that ends his Quartet Op. 59, No. 3?

That was a present from the Cavani Quartet and the participants in the “Beyond Beethoven” project for the composer’s 250th Birthday — plus one, thanks to the novel coronavirus that put this and many other celebrations off for a year.

Though he could be notoriously cranky, let’s hope that Beethoven enjoyed hearing the fugue from his throne in the Empyrean as much as its performers obviously relished playing it down below. [Read more…]

Cavani and 90 students take last lap of “Beyond Beethoven” project to Severance on Tuesday, Dec. 14   

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by Daniel Hathaway

“It’s like putting on all the Shakespeare plays in a month — it takes all your heart and soul and energy,” Cavani Quartet founder and primo violin Annie Fullard said in a recent telephone conversation about their “Beyond Beethoven” project.

But unlike Shakespeare, no blood was spilled, nobody got poisoned, and no kings were deposed during a three-month program that brought all sixteen of Beethoven’s string quartets — performed in tandem with works by eight living composers — to audiences in as many concerts and different venues around the metropolitan area, and involved working with four high school orchestra programs. “If I had to find one word to describe it, it’s been a lovefest,” Fullard said.

Fullard, a founding member of the Cavani Quartet, played for a decade with its original members, then for 25 years with the second generation of players. Her third time around is also her second time presenting the complete Beethoven cycle, now with three new musicians (she calls it “Cavani 2.0”)

The project will culminate in a Grand Finale on Tuesday evening, December 14 at 7:30 pm in Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center, when the Cavani — Annie Fullard and Catherine Cosbey, violins, Eric Wong, viola, and Kyle Price, cello — play Beethoven’s Opus 59, No. 3, followed by two premieres. [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Cavani assume directorship with Beethoven & Montgomery (Nov. 21) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cavani Quartet’s well-attended concert on Sunday, November 21 at St. Wendelin Church marked the sixth of eight performances in the ensemble’s roaming “Beethoven and Beyond” series, as well as the beginning of the 30th season of the Arts Renaissance Tremont series.

Now under the Cavani’s artistic direction following the passing of its founder, Christine Haff-Paluck, ART also introduced a new venue for its concerts, previously presented at Pilgrim UCC.

Each concert in “Beethoven and Beyond” includes two of LvB’s string quartets with a contemporary work in between, usually by way of contrast, although in her introductory remarks, primo violinist Annie Fullard drew thematic connections between the pizzicati in Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet and Jessie Montgomery’s Strum. [Read more…]

Cavani Quartet to embark on eight-concert “Beyond Beethoven” cycle September 19

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by Daniel Hathaway

COVID-19 may have interrupted the celebration of Beethoven’s 250th Birthday in December 2020, but the Cavani String Quartet has made that event a moveable feast.

On Sunday, September 19, the ensemble will play the first of eight concerts featuring all sixteen of LvB’s quartets. The “Beyond Beethoven” performances, to take place in eight different venues, will match pairs of his quartets with contemporary works, culminating in a grand finale in Severance Hall on December 7.

[Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: Identity and “Syncretism”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

syn·cre·tism — the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought (Oxford English Dictionary).

CityMusic Cleveland will explore that concept with an in-person concert of chamber music on Sunday, April 11 at 3:00 pm at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus. (The audience will be limited to 250 people, and masks and social distancing are required. Click here to RSVP.)

The program begins with a quartet: Jungyoon Wie’s 2019 Han, played by violinists Miho Hashizume and Catherine Cosbey, violist Eric Wong, and cellist Sophie Benn. Then clarinetist Dan Gilbert will join the ensemble for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 1895 Clarinet Quintet in f-sharp.

On a purely musical level, it’s hard to pick two pieces that deserve a wider audience — one of them a fresh and riveting contemporary piece, the other a beautiful and unjustly neglected gem of the past. But these two composers also represent an intriguing pairing through the lens of syncretism.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Composers Guild at Drinko Hall, CSU (Oct. 13)

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by David Kulma

It was another fascinating afternoon of recent music by members of the Cleveland Composers Guild at CSU’s Drinko Recital Hall on Sunday, October 13. Opening the Guild’s 60th anniversary season, the concert featured chamber music by eight local composers in the usual explorative potluck format.

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Arts Renaissance Tremont turns twenty-nine this season

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by Mike Telin 

Since its founding in 1991, Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART) has been a cultural pillar in that West Side Cleveland neighborhood. And from the beginning, the organization has made its home at the historic Pilgrim Congregational UCC. Under the tireless direction of its founder and director Chris Haff-Paluck (left, with Jinjoo Cho), with assistance from a group of dedicated board members and volunteers, ART has remained true to its vision of keeping concerts free of charge.

On Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 pm, ART will kick off its 29th season with a recital by cellist Darrett Adkins and pianist Cicilia Yudha. Their program will feature works by Janáček, Kodály, Messiaen, and Chopin.

“Twenty-nine years — who knows where all the time has gone?” Haff-Paluck said during an interview, noting that the Tremont neighborhood was very different in the early ‘90s. “There are so many restaurants and galleries now, but it wasn’t that way back then. People wanted arts programs to be happening in the neighborhood.”

[Read more…]

Review: Linden String Quartet on Signature Series at Lorain County Community College (October 7)

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by Nicholas Jones

Linden-SQ-outdoorsNortheast Ohio – cradle of string quartets! The Linden String Quartet, which began when the players were graduate students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, have achieved a remarkable record of success in five years – topped by the gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2009 and a win at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition the next year.

On Monday, the Lindens played a full program of string quartet music as part of the Signature Series at Lorain County Community College’s Stocker Center for the Arts.

Like another area quartet (the Jasper, which began at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music), the Lindens went from CIM to a two-year residency at Yale, under the guidance of the Tokyo String Quartet. They have recently returned to the Cleveland area, full of energy about programming, community outreach, and repertoire. [Read more…]

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