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Belcea Quartet at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Oct. 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The complete Shostakovich cycle of quartets that the Jerusalem Quartet served up last May in five well-attended performances at the Cleveland Museum of Art to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society was a hard act to follow.

CCMS allowed its patrons some variety by opening its 76th season with a September concert for violin and piano, followed by a bracing program on October 21 from the Belcea Quartet that balanced extreme textures and dissonance with an abundance of sweetness and nuance, while also producing a rich blend and a vast array of articulations. [Read more…]

James Ehnes and Orion Weiss open Cleveland Chamber Music Society season (Sept. 16)

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by Peter Feher

If James Ehnes ever decided to launch a fan club, one of the first chapters would undoubtedly be formed in Northeast Ohio.

The esteemed Canadian violinist has made occasional concerto appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra over the years, but local audiences have come to know him best through chamber performances that offer an unparalleled experience of his artistry.

This feeling of intimate familiarity united Ehnes and an enthusiastic crowd at Disciples Christian Church on Tuesday, Sept. 16, for the opening concert of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 2025–26 season. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society opens 76th season with James Ehnes & Orion Weiss

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by Daniel Hathaway

After celebrating three quarters of a century in the concert presenting business with an extended season that drew large audiences to the Art Museum for the Jerusalem Quartet’s complete Shostakovich string quartet cycle — fifteen quartets in five concerts in April — the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will return to a more normal but equally enticing season in 2025-2026.

In addition to revisits by the Belcea and Takács Quartets, perennial favorites, the society will present some relatively new ensembles: the Leonkoro and Verona Quartets and the Isidore String Quartet, two of them with guest pianists. Yaron Kohlberg — head of Piano Cleveland, the driving force behind the Cleveland International Piano Competition — will join the Verona for the Dvořák Quintet, and Jeremy Denk will collaborate with the Isidore in the Brahms Quintet. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society Shostakovich Cycle: five concerts by the Jerusalem Quartet (Apr. 21–30)

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Reviews by Kevin McLaughlin, Daniel Hathaway, & Stephanie Manning

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society engaged the dauntless Jerusalem Quartet to play a complete cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets. The works were performed in chronological order over five evenings in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The performances were treated like an art exhibition accompanied by an elaborate, 45-page catalog full of documentation about the composer, whose life and career under the Soviet system left an indelible mark on his music. A timeline that runs along the bottom of the program pages helped put Shostakovich’s compositions in historical context. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 75th birthday party (Part 2)

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society will continue its 75th anniversary with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartets Nos. 10 through 12 on April 29, and Nos. 13 through 15 on April 30, performed by the Jerusalem Quartet —  violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violist Ori Kam, and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.

The 7:30 pm concerts will be held in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. James Wilding will give pre-concert lectures at 6:30 pm before each event. Tickets are available online. Click here for more information and to view a full schedule of events.

CCMS’s concerts would not be possible without the dedicated volunteers who have kept the well-oiled machine operating for 75 years. I had the pleasure of speaking to Board President Fern Jennings and Chair of the Programming Committee Steve Somach.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society celebrates 75th birthday with Shostakovich & the Jerusalem Quartet

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by Mike Telin

In 1948, when three faculty friends from Western Reserve University convinced the Budapest Quartet to come to Cleveland to perform a three-concert series, who could have predicted that the humble event would lead to the creation of one of the city’s venerable presenters of classical music. Since its founding in 1950, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society has gone on to create one of the most respected chamber music series in the country.

In honor of its 75th anniversary, CCMS has planned a five-concert celebration from April 21 through 30 featuring the complete Shostakovich quartet cycle performed by the Jerusalem Quartet —  violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violist Ori Kam, and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.

The performances will be held in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. James Wilding will give pre-concert lectures at 6:30pm before each event. Tickets are available online. On April 23 at 3:00 pm in the Museum’s Morley Lecture Hall, there will be a free screening of the 1964 Grigori Kozintsev adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring a searing score by Dmitri Shostakovich. Click here for more information and to view a full schedule of events.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: a multifaceted “Spanish Journey” (Feb. 11)

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by Stephanie Manning

Ever since Punxsutawney Phil popped his head out to predict six more weeks of winter, Clevelanders have seen no respite from the cold and snowy weather. So February 11 was as good a winter day as any to escape to sunny Spain, via the latest concert from the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center visited Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights for “Spanish Journey,” a program in collaboration with the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. While a celebration of Spanish music would not be complete without its characteristic dance styles, the evening’s focus on sensitive, romantic selections created a nicely balanced sampling of what that culture has to offer. [Read more…]

Chamber Music Societies Join To Celebrate Music from Spain

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By Mike Telin

Unlike other groups that the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is not a single standing ensemble but rather a collection of talented musicians who come together around a specific project or program.

On Tuesday, February 11 at 7:30 pm at The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church,  CCMS continues their 75th Anniversary season with the Lincoln Center ensemble’s “Spanish Journey.” The program features works by Fernando Obradors, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Fernández Arbós, Manuel de Falla, Pablo de Sarasate, Joaquín Rodrigo, and Joaquín Turina performed by guitarist Jason Vieaux, pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, violinist  Kristin Lee, soprano Vanessa Becerra, and cellist Clive Greensmith. Tickets are available online.

We caught up with violinist Kristin Lee by phone in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall after the group had just completed their dress rehearsal for the premiere performance of the program before taking it on tour.

[Read more…]

Pahud and Bax perform magnificently for Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Jan. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

At the latest Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s concert at Disciples Church on Tuesday evening January 21, flutist Emmanuel Pahud and pianist Alessio Bax, performed magnificently, but also made quite an impression on the young audience, perhaps for years to come.

Pahud, the longtime principal flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic and something of a rock star in the flute world, received a Beatles-like reception from the many flute students in attendance. There were shrieks of excitement and standing ovations, and at intermission an extended period of selfie-taking and high fives with the star.

Established and new works by J.S. Bach and Nicolas Bacri were featured, as well as transcriptions of violin pieces by Mozart, Clara Schumann, and César Franck by Pahud. [Read more…]

Cuarteto Casals pays a thrilling revisit to Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Nov. 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

In 2022, the Barcelona-based Cuarteto Casals was forced by a medical emergency to interrupt their rhythm of every-other-year performances on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series. Happily, they returned in fine fettle on November 12 at Disciples Church with a program of Mozart, Gubaidulina, and Brahms —  and with a new violist.

Cristina Cordero replaced Jonathan Brown at the beginning of the current season, seamlessly joining violinists Abel Tomàs and Vera Martinez Mehner and cellist Arnau Tomàs in the ensemble that was founded at the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid in 1997.

Blindfolded, you could almost convince yourself that you were hearing three different string quartets during this sensitively-played program, so masterfully did the Cuarteto adapt its tone and approach to suit the three works on the agenda. [Read more…]

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