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CCMS at the Maltz: Ehnes & Armstrong in first of three Beethoven recitals (Sept. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong are celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with performances of his ten sonatas for violin and piano. It’s a big undertaking, and performances can come in different configurations: the duo will sometimes play the whole lot over two or three adjacent evenings, or space them out over three widely-spread performances. The Cleveland Chamber Music Society has opted for the latter. The opening concert of the set took place at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on September 17, with others to follow on January 14 and April 21. [Read more…]

Ehnes & Armstrong to play complete
Beethoven violin sonatas
on CCMS Series

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society will take a bit of a different tack for its 70th Anniversary Season in 2019-2020. Violinist James Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong will appear in three of the nine concerts, performing Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for violin and piano, a series that will be presented at the Maltz Performing Arts Center in University Circle on September 17, January 14, and April 21.

Concerts at the Society’s customary venue, Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, will include the Jerusalem Quartet (October 22), the Dover Quartet (December 3), the Apollon Musagète Quartet (February 4), and Chanticleer (March 3).

Other exceptions to the Plymouth Church location: pianist Till Fellner will play a recital in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on November 12, and the series will end back at the Maltz Center on May 5 with a performance by violinist David Bowlin and the Albers Trio.

I reached James Ehnes at his home in Florida last week and began by asking how the idea of performing all of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas originated. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: end of season concerts by the Takács Quartet & hornist William Caballero (Apr. 9 & 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The 69th season of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society culminated in performances that saw both a reunion with old friends and the introduction of new ones. Concerts by the Takács Quartet and by hornist William Caballero — joined by his Pittsburgh Symphony colleagues Rodrigo Ojeda and Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida — brought expert performances of both familiar and unusual repertoire to Plymouth and Forest Hills Presbyterian churches. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society closes 69th season with hornist William Caballero

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by Daniel Hathaway

Although string quartets normally dominate its guest list, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society will take a different tack for the finale of its 69th season. William Caballero, principal horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony for the last 29 seasons, will bring two of his orchestra colleagues along to Forest Hills Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, April 30 for an unusual program of chamber music.

The 7:30 pm concert will feature Caballero and pianist Rodrigo Ojeda in Eugène Bozza’s En Foret, Anthony Plog’s Three Miniatures, Oliver Knussen’s Horn Concerto, and an arrangement of Johannes Brahms’ Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No. 2. Pittsburgh Symphony principal oboe Cynthia DeAlmeida will join the party for Carl Reinecke’s Trio for Piano, Oboe and Horn in a, Op. 188.

In a recent phone interview, Caballero said, “My last full recital was in 2002 — I usually only play half recitals for workshops, or split recitals with colleagues. So I wanted to choose some repertoire for Cleveland that I hadn’t played before.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Cuarteto Casals (March 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Barcelona-based Cuarteto Casals seems to have a standing invitation from the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, having visited its series every other year in at least the past decade — and for good reason. Abel Tomàs, Vera Martínez Mehner, Jonathan Brown, and Arnau Tomàs bring an engaging Iberian intensity to their repertoire — along with the kind of inquisitive spirit that leads them to experiment with different styles of bows, collaborate with living composers, and commission new works. [Read more…]

Cuarteto Casals returns to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society

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by Mike Telin

“To live with this piece is to imagine a genius at the absolute height of his powers, yet virtually isolated from the world,” Cuarteto Casals violist Jonathan Brown said. “Beethoven was deaf in his disorderly room in Vienna where few people wanted to be associated with him. There he was struggling with his artistic demons. He wrote, and rewrote this quartet extensively, but he was working with his own criteria — there’s no other model, there’s no other work like this.”  

On Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, Jonathan Brown will join his Cuarteto Casals colleagues (Abel Tomàs and Vera Martínez, violins, and Arnau Tomàs, cello) for a performance of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in c-sharp, Op. 131.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Juilliard String Quartet (Nov. 27)

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by David Kulma

The standard chamber music concert format is so unremarkable to a regular concertgoer that it becomes like water to a fish. Three works in a row, one intermission; masterpieces, and every now and again a new piece. After a while, it’s easy to forget that other formats are possible. But sometimes a well-executed, no-frills concert with the usual shape comes along, and the reason all of that became the norm makes sense again. The Juilliard String Quartet’s performance at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Tuesday, November 27 was such an evening. [Read more…]

New violinist, new piece: Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents the Juilliard String Quartet

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Armed with both a new first violinist, Areta Zhulla, and a new piece by Lembit Beecher, the Juilliard String Quartet will head to Plymouth Church on Tuesday, November 27 for a 7:30 pm concert presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.

Zhulla joined her new colleagues — violinist Ronald Copes, cellist Astrid Schween, and violist Roger Tapping — in September. That same month, the Quartet premiered Beecher’s One Hundred Years Grows Shorter Over Time, commissioned for them to honor the centennial of the South Mountain Concerts series in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Born in Greece, Zhulla went on to study at the Juilliard School and join CMS Two of Lincoln Center, making her name as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician performing across multiple continents. She’s been named “Young Artist of the Year” by the National Critics Association in Greece, and is a recipient of the Triandi Career Grant and the Tassos Prassopoulos Foundation Award.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: The Ehnes Quartet at Plymouth (Nov. 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Fans of Canadian violinist James Ehnes recently got to enjoy his artistry twice in one month — first on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series with pianist Andrew Armstrong, then with his string quartet on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series. And ChamberFest Cleveland admirers of violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti didn’t have to wait until next summer to hear her play again. The two joined violist Richard O’Neill and cellist Edward Arron in ravishing performances of quartets by Beethoven, Elgar, and Bartók on November 13 at Plymouth Church. [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Holger Falk & Julius Drake (Oct. 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Singers on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series never seem to attract the kind of audiences who turn out for string quartets, but anyone who stayed away from the remarkable recital presented by German baritone Holger Falk and British pianist Julius Drake at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church on October 23 missed out on a special evening. [Read more…]

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