by Kevin McLaughlin
The theme of the June 21 ChamberFest concert may have been “Paradise Lost,” but the performances and repertoire were of such high caliber, there was nowhere you would rather have found yourself.
A joyful noise opened the concert. J.S. Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen featured soprano Sarah Shafer and trumpeter Brandon Ridenour in a sparkling account of the cantata Bach liked so much that he designated it as suitable for performance “in ogni tempo” — at any time.
by Kevin McLaughlin
On June 20, the day when the two warm seasons join, ChamberFest Cleveland put on a program that was more about springtime than summer.
Titled “Rite of Spring” — for Stravinsky’s ballet and the stem-winder of an arrangement for two pianists and two percussionists that ended the concert — tonight’s program was distinctly light in mood, including silly songs by Bernstein and P.D.Q. Bach, a couple of tearjerkers by Dvořák and Kurt Weill, and dance music by HK Gruber and Martinů.
by Stephanie Manning
Hearing the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” was not on my ChamberFest Cleveland bingo card. But Brandon Ridenour had other ideas.
“Antonio Vivaldi was the Paul McCartney of his time,” the trumpet player told the audience at the festival’s June 22 concert. Accompanied by string quartet, Ridenour brought his arrangements of both the Beatles and the Baroque to the program — titled “In Other Worlds” — and made a pretty strong case for the connection between 18th-century opera and 1960s pop.
by Mike Telin
This week guitarist Jason Vieaux will make his long-awaited ChamberFest Cleveland debut, appearing in three separate concerts. “We’ve tried for many years, but it always conflicted with other dates that I already had on my calendar. So it’s really great that we can finally do something together.”
On Wednesday, June 26 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Vieaux will play Luigi Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D (“Fandango”). The piece is one of the most popular works in the guitar chamber music repertoire and one that he’s recorded with the Escher Quartet.
Why is it so popular? “My guess is that it’s because of the third movement — the famous Fandango that gets played on radio stations around the country. But I think what really brings it over the top is when the cellist plays the castanets. It’s just one of those works that presenters like to program.”
by Max Newman
The 2024 edition of ChamberFest Cleveland has already seen a variety of wonderful events since its opening on June 12. However, the June 16 musical celebration of “CFC at the Nature Center: Music on the Path,” was the perfect addition to ChamberFest’s diverse programming and undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of all who attended.
Centered around the parking lot of the Nature Center, the sunlit late-morning event at Shaker Lakes had an inviting, family-friendly atmosphere. [Read more…]
by Peter Feher
Like any good introduction, opening night at ChamberFest Cleveland this year left you wanting more. The sold-out concert on June 12 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall was a chance to savor a little of what the 2024 festival has to offer.
The theme behind this year’s programming, “Sacred and Profane,” was front and center for the first concert. So was the overriding idea that guides ChamberFest every season: bringing together great musicians and great music. Wonderfully, these aims aligned on Wednesday in an arresting performance of Claude Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane featuring harpist Bridget Kibbey. It was the shortest work of the evening, but also the standout.
In exploring the fundamental dichotomy between heaven and earth, eternity and reality, the spirit and the body, Debussy was simply trying to demonstrate everything that a modern harp could do. He had been commissioned by a French manufacturer to write a showpiece for the company’s new instrument, yet the resulting work wasn’t strictly contemporary when it premiered in Paris in 1904.
by Kevin McLaughlin
Bridget Kibbey did on Saturday what harpists rarely get to do: she stole the show. No mean feat when sharing the stage with the other bright and esteemed performers who regularly appear as part of ChamberFest Cleveland — particularly during “Fantastic Tales,” the third concert of this year’s season, which took place on June 15 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall.
Kibbey was also lively with the microphone, giving an engaging introduction to André Caplet’s 1924 Conte Fantastique (Fantastic Tale). After the performance, she mingled among the crowd — not so much a star gesture as a genuine one that made her performance even more memorable.
Given that André Caplet orchestrated and conducted some of Debussy’s works, many associate the two composers. To say Caplet’s musical language is impressionist-adjacent is partly true but hardly encapsulates his unique, ahead-of-his-time voice.
Kibbey made the most of Caplet’s action-packed work — part harp concerto and part tone poem, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death.
by Stephanie Manning
Sprinkling a few changes into a chamber concert program can add the perfect amount of variety to an otherwise straightforward evening. Such was the case at ChamberFest Cleveland on June 14 with “Mystical Reveries.” The choice of swapping keyboard for harp in works by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and C.P.E. Bach, as well as opting for the original horn/piano pairing in the Robert Schumann, injected just enough excitement into this pleasant evening of music.
The Friday night program at Harkness Chapel saved the most traditional selection for last: Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 2 in C. Pianist Roman Rabinovich, violinist Joseph Lin, and cellist Oliver Herbert gave a spirited performance, taking advantage of the Chapel’s tastefully dry acoustic to accentuate moments of uber-quiet playing.
by Mike Telin
This week, trumpeter Brandon Ridenour will be featured in three ChamberFest Cleveland programs both as a performer and arranger.
Ridenour’s journey to becoming a trumpet soloist, collaborative artist, composer, and arranger began at age 5, when he started studying piano with his father. After picking up the trumpet in 5th grade band class in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ridenour went on to study at the Juilliard School. After graduating he became the youngest member to join the Canadian Brass and eventually embarked on a solo career.
In 2014 Ridenour became the first trumpeter in 30 years to win the Concert Artist Guild competition. In his role as performer-composer, he helped to launch the Brooklyn-based ensemble Founders, and in 2023, he joined the American Brass Quintet. As an educator, he serves on the faculties at Juilliard, The New School and the Manhattan School of Music, where he is passionate about developing a new model of education for a well-rounded, progressive musician of the future.
by Mike Telin
ChamberFest Cleveland launches its 2024 season — three weeks’ worth of concerts inspired by the theme of “Sacred and Profane” — on Wednesday, June 12 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall.
Opening night marks the ChamberFest debut of harpist Bridget Kibbey, who will be featured in Claude Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane — and throughout the first week of the festival. Tickets for all performances are available online.
I caught up with the Findlay, Ohio native on Zoom and began our delightful conversation by asking her if it was true that she first heard the harp in a church.
Bridget Kibbey: That’s true. It was a small country Mennonite church. I was taking piano lessons at the time and one of my Suzuki piano kid mates’ mother was a harpist. I saw her play and was just floored, so I started lessons with her right away at age nine. That’s what makes Ohio so special, there’s so many local music studios. I think that’s why Ohio produces great musicians, great music teachers, and music lovers.