by Nicholas Jones
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society presented the Dover Quartet on Tuesday, May 10 in the final concert of its 2015-16 season at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. The program ranged from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, unified by a Romantic palette that perfectly matched the expressive playing of this distinguished young ensemble. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Since winning the grand prize and three special prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Dover Quartet — Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violins, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola, and Camden Shaw, cello — have quickly risen to the forefront of young internationally touring string quartets. Their 2015-16 season includes more than 120 dates around the world, including debuts at Carnegie Hall, Yale University, the Lucerne Festival, and on the Lincoln Center Great Performers series.
On Tuesday, May 10 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the Dover Quartet will make their Cleveland Chamber Music Society debut with a program featuring works by Mieczysław Weinberg, Leoš Janáček, and Robert Schumann. A Pre-concert lecture by Francesca Brittan will begin at 6:30 pm. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Chamber music societies are big on presenting string quartets — they’re portable, capable of a wide range of musical expression, and they control most of the repertory. But every now and again, programming differently-sized ensembles provides a welcome change. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center gave the Cleveland Chamber Music Society that opportunity on Tuesday, April 19, when it served up a program of string sextets by Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, and Johannes Brahms to a large audience at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 67th season in 2016-2017 at Plymouth UCC Church in Shaker Heights will include seven performances, all on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm. Pre-concert lectures will take place each evening at 6:30 pm in Herr Chapel at Plymouth. Subscriptions will be available soon on the society’s website. Here are the details:
September 27, 2016 — Montrose Piano Trio. Turina’s Trio No. 2 in b, Op. 76, Beethoven’s Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1, and Brahms’s Trio No. 1 in B, Op. 8. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“It doesn’t get much better than this,” cellist Nicholas Canellakis said during a recent telephone interview. “There’s something about the sonority that you can get from a string sextet that is so satisfying. Obviously the composers who wrote for that combination felt the same way, because they seem to luxuriate in every possible sound.”
On Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm, Canellakis will join violinists Ani Kavafian and Erin Keef, violists Yura Lee and Matthew Lipman, and fellow cellist David Finckel, in a program of string sextets by Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák, and Johannes Brahms on the next Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
In an era when most pianists memorize their recital repertoire, it was refreshing to see Richard Goode using scores for all of his insightful performances on Tuesday, March 8 on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Rather than forming a barrier between pianist and audience, the presence of printed music seemed to reflect a deeper immersion in each piece on the part of the artist. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
American pianist Richard Goode will play music by J.S. Bach, Arnold Schoenberg, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert on the next Cleveland Chamber Music Society concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Tuesday, March 8 at 7:30 pm.
Goode is a celebrated interpreter of the music of Beethoven, and was the first American-born pianist to record all 32 sonatas (for Nonesuch in 1991). Earlier, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1961, took first prize in the Clara Haskil Competition in 1973, and won the Avery Fisher Prize in 1980. He recently completed a 14-year tenure as co-director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Vermont summer retreat where he spent a total of 22 summers beginning at the age of 14. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The cool thing to do these days is to perform classical music in unconventional venues like bars and taverns. On Tuesday, February 2, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and pianist Warren Jones flipped that concept on its head by smuggling a program of cabaret and popular songs onto a classical chamber music series. The results were delightful. At the end of their disarming performance for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Plymouth Church, Blythe and Jones even had the audience singing along to an Irving Berlin tune. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
In the grand scheme of chamber music, a group that is only beginning its 14th season as an ensemble is still in its adolescence. Young though the Jupiter Quartet may be, their energy, enthusiasm, and technical prowess put them head to head with established chamber music groups who have developed the fine patina that only many years of playing together can buff to a fine sheen. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Since their founding thirteen years ago, the Jupiter Quartet (violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel, and cellist Daniel McDonough) has presented concerts across North America, Europe, and Asia, and have garnered numerous chamber music awards including the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, first prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, and grand prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2008 they were awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
The Jupiter Quartet will return to Cleveland on Tuesday, December 1 at 7:30 pm for a concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. The program will feature works by Joseph Haydn, Henri Dutilleux, and Ludwig van Beethoven. A pre-concert lecture by Rabbi Roger Klein will begin at 6:30 pm. [Read more…]