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Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Garrick Ohlsson at Disciples (May 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland audiences have recently enjoyed a double dose of Garrick Ohlsson’s piano wizardry. After stepping in for Igor Levit with The Cleveland Orchestra in March, Ohlsson returned to close out the Cleveland Chamber Music Society season with a predictably wonderful recital at Disciples Christian Church on Tuesday, May 7. The four works on his program — a Beethoven sonata, a Schubert fantasy, a contemporary Australian piece, and a Chopin triptych gave the large audience plenty to rave about.

Beethoven’s Sixth Sonata is something of an entremet among the three works of his Opus 10. Shorter and lighter in spirit than its siblings, it made a delightful curtain raiser. Ohlsson played the opening movement with an elegant clarity, inviting his listeners to join in the fun he was obviously having. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society concludes season with Garrick Ohlsson

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by Mike Telin

“This is going to sound like a commercial, but coming to Cleveland — and the wider area — is always one of the high points of my artistic life,” Garrick Ohlsson recently said by telephone. And the pianist has performed in Northeast Ohio enough times to make that claim. He has been a regular soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra for some time and has performed on Akron’s Tuesday Musical and Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series. And he has already been to the area twice this calendar year — first making a return engagement with the Canton Symphony, then replacing Igor Levit with The Cleveland Orchestra..

One Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 pm at Disciples Christian Church, Ohlsson will revisit the Cleveland Chamber Music Society with a program that features the music of Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Polenzani & Drake
on Chamber Music Society (Apr. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin 

I’ve been enjoying watching the tenor Matthew Polenzani’s masterclasses on YouTube. There’s one at Ravinia from a few years ago where he approaches students like a shy visitor, then gently teaches like he performs — guilelessly and penetratingly.

It was this sort of unaffected honesty that Polenzani brought to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Disciples Christian Church on Tuesday, April 9, in a recital program of Schubert, Schumann, Finzi, and Ives. Out of keeping with the series’ regular fare of string quartets and instrumental chamber music, the freshness was doubly felt.

[Read more…]

Dover Quartet at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Mar. 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

On March 12, near the beginning of their 14-city North American tour, the Dover Quartet returned to Cleveland to plumb the depths of a rich selection of programmatic pieces on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.

The audience was swelled by a large contingent of students from the Elyria High School Orchestra, who listened attentively from the church’s balconies and received a first-class lesson in ensemble playing from one of the finest string quartets in the business.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society Welcomes The Dover Quartet

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by Mike Telin

Part of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s mission is to present ensembles who are at the beginning of their careers. “We’re always looking at young ensembles that have gotten management and have won chamber music competitions,” Steve Somach, the head of CCMS’s program committee said in an interview with this publication.

One example is The Dover Quartet, who, after having won the grand prize and three special prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, made their debut on the series in May of 2016. On Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, The Dovers — Joel Link and Bryan Lee (violins), Julianne Lee (viola), and Camden Shaw (cello) — will make their fourth appearance on the Chamber Music Society’s series with a program of music by Joaquín Turina, Leoš Janáček, and Franz Schubert. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Isserlis & Shih dazzle at Disciples (Feb. 27)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Rarely has a recital program packed Disciples Christian Church with as much excitement or as many people as on Tuesday, February 27. Happily, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih more than lived up to expectations.

The program, presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, included highlights of 20th-century Russian cello repertoire — sonatas of Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, and Rachmaninoff, plus one unsung gem by the cellist’s grandfather. Mstislav Rostropovich — the late-great cellist-progenitor for a large swath of modern cello works, including the Kabalevsky — seemed to hover as inspiration and patron saint.

Isserlis, who adopts the posture and breathing habits of a singer, produced a voluptuous tone, a range of colors, and a princely demeanor from the start. Shih was the ideal collaborator, an eloquent and graceful player in her own right, with a massive technique.

[Read more…]

Takács Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Jan. 23)

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By Peter Feher

The Takács Quartet and pianist Marc-André Hamelin put pleasure first in their January 23 performance for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. In a program that could have been bogged down by questions of national pride and identity, these players instead chose to convey all the charm and character of their repertoire from a cosmopolitan perspective.

Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, the first piece on Tuesday’s concert at Disciples Christian Church, set the tone for the evening. After some initial stiffness, the Takács players warmed up to the romantic atmosphere imagined by this Austrian composer who, in his short life, would never actually visit the Mediterranean.

[Read more…]

Danish String Quartet at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Nov. 14)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Could the prodigiously talented players of the Danish String Quartet all be drinking from some magic source? By now among the world’s finest quartets — perhaps taking the top rung left by the Emerson Quartet after their recent retirement — they perform with such easy excellence and intuitive musical consensus that you wonder: is this the product of hard work and long hours of rehearsal, or some magic potion?

Neither strain nor sweat were visible in the program for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society on November 14 at Disciples Christian Church, which included works by Mozart, Britten, Adès, and their own folk arrangements.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Belcea Quartet at Disciples (Oct. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Patrons of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society attending the season opener with the Belcea Quartet at Disciples Church on October 17 found Schubert’s E-flat Quartet stickered over with Beethoven’s Op. l8, No. 4 in their printed programs.

The reason? The Belcea were welcoming Suyeon Kang as their new second violinist this season, and wanted to take the Beethoven out for a final spin before playing it in New York’s Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall two days later.

Last Tuesday’s performance also introduced Disciples as the default venue for CCMS’s 74th season, and the space gets high marks for its accessibility and clear, transparent acoustic — as well as for its comfortable seating (no pews).

That acoustic supported the Belcea’s outstanding playing. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: solving an annual programming puzzle

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s concert brochure presents information about its seven-concert season, neatly organized to include one concert each month, and all of them scheduled for Tuesday evenings.

This season, the Society has invited the Belcea Quartet, the Danish String Quartet, the Takács Quartet with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, cellist Steven Isserlis with pianist Connie Shih, the Pavel Haas Quartet, tenor Matthew Polenzani with pianist Julius Drake, and solo pianist Garrick Ohlsson to perform at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

How did this series of concerts come together? We went right to the source, programming committee chair Steve Somach, for insights into the selection process. We spoke this week by phone.

Daniel Hathaway: I thought it would be interesting to write an article about how CCMS puts a season together, especially since you’ve got over twenty people on your board. 

Steve Somach: That’s for sure.

DH: It’s always like solving a jigsaw puzzle, but I think in your case, it’s kind of a special one.  [Read more…]

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