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Soloists shine in Cleveland Orchestra’s Bach Easter Oratorio, Magnificat and more (Apr. 17)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Thursday, April 17, at Severance Music Center, Canadian guest conductor Bernard Labadie led The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and four splendid soloists in two of J.S. Bach’s most exultant sacred works — the dramatic Easter Oratorio, and his Magnificat. Bach’s festive Sinfonia from his Cantata 29 completed the program.

Reworked from a secular cantata for a patron’s birthday, Bach’s Easter Oratorio is a less overtly theatrical work than the composer’s Passions. Its uncomplicated story describes the moment that Mary Magdalene (mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet), Mary of Cleophas (soprano Joélle Harvey) and the apostles Peter (tenor Andrew Haji) and John (bass-baritone Gordon Bintner) come to the tomb of Jesus and find it empty.

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Thomas Adès leads Cleveland Orchestra in colorful concert of Sibelius, Saariaho, Ives & more (Feb. 20)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thomas Adès is obsessed with sound color, as he vividly demonstrated with the assistance of the unflappable Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (expertly prepared by Lisa Wong) in his guest appearance as curator, composer, and conductor at Severance Music Center on Thursday evening, February 20.

Works by Jan Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, Charles Ives and Adès himself visited a vast spectrum of choral and orchestral hues that can be heard by the ear. Some of them use those colors to make poignant social commentary at the same time.

Color is represented impressionistically in the inexorable ebbing and flowing of the sea in Sibelius’ The Oceanides and Saariaho’s Otra Mar, and through musical collisions in Charles Ives’ Orchestral Set No. 2. And in the third, recently added movement of Adès’s America: the Prophecy, in ominous musical proclamations.

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Inspired conducting and solos grace Cleveland Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (Oct. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio —  On Thursday evening at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra launched a trio of performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkëla at the helm and the assistance of mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson, the upper voices of the Cleveland Orchestra chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus.

Mahler 3 is a famously long piece — its first movement alone lasts as long as the following five. Paying close attention to the composer’s explicit instructions, and never letting things get too big too soon, Mäkëla expertly paced the work, creating an arch that gathered the 110-minute performance into a glorious whole rather than treating it as a continuous series of unrelated climaxes. [Read more…]

Klaus Mäkelä and Cleveland Orchestra treat listeners to a magical musical feast (Apr. 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical

Originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Music can transport you — not only emotionally, but physically — to another time and place.

Cleveland Orchestra fans who hopped on guest conductor Klaus Mäkelä’s magic carpet at Severance Music Center on Thursday evening were swept away to the streets of Lima to hear Peruvian street vendors hawking their goods, then to England for a ramble through the Malvern Hills, and finally to ancient Iraq to quaff wine with the king of Babylon and a thousand of his idol-worshiping lords. Although the evening didn’t turn out well for Belshazzar, Walton’s music raised the roof of Mandel Concert Hall by a yard or two with resplendent orchestral and choral sound.

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Cleveland Orchestra Chorus:
Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil (Oct. 20) 

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Sacred Veil, as one might expect from an hour-long work about death and grief, is not an easy listen. Eric Whitacre’s music, evocative and emotional, makes potent company with Charles Anthony Silvestri’s words, a chain of poems on the loss of his wife Julia Lawrence Silvestri (Julie), who died of ovarian cancer in 2005 at the age of 36. The inclusion of Julie’s own poetry, along with Whitacre’s, increases the impact.

On Friday, October 20 during a performance by The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, the Severance Music Center audience, perhaps expecting lighter fare, listened closely, though gloomily. Told through particularities — one couple’s experience of early love and childbirth, the young woman’s diagnosis, prognosis, and ultimately her death — Sacred Veil’s power lies in its wider applicability. The words, projected in supertitles above the stage, penetrated the heart; the music sealed the deal.

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The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus welcomes Eric Whitacre

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by Mike Telin

“What if our departed loved ones are not truly gone, but are closer than we think? How can we mourn those we have lost while still moving forward? We have all experienced the loss, in one way or another, of someone or something we have loved deeply. How do we know when it’s time to move forward?”

-Charles Anthony Silvestri

Written in 2018, The Sacred Veil — with music by Eric Whitacre (pictured left) and text by Charles Anthony Silvestri — tells a story of love, loss, and grief. Silvestri’s wife, Julie, died of ovarian cancer at age 36 in 2005, leaving behind two young children. “It’s an extensive, twelve-movement work that is just beautiful,” Lisa Wong, The Cleveland Orchestra’s Director of Choruses, said during a telephone conversation.

On Friday, October 20 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Whitacre will lead the 140-member Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and 14 singers from the College of Wooster in The Sacred Veil for SATB choir, solo cello, and piano — his most recent collaboration with Silvestri. The concert also includes Reena Esmail’s When the Violin for chorus and cello, based on a 14th-century text by Persian poet Hafiz, conducted by Wong. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Berg and Schubert intertwined (Jan. 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

Perhaps Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 is more complete than its “Unfinished” moniker implies. After all, the composer wrote and orchestrated two full movements, creating a kind of standalone half-symphony. But Severance Music Center audiences heard this work in a new way on January 13, when The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst interlaced Schubert’s two memorable movements with an unexpected partner: Alban Berg’s Three Pieces from Lyric Suite.

The strings-only work by Berg has made relatively frequent appearances on the Orchestra’s programs. In 2021, the musicians recorded it for the In Focus series, and it appeared again on last year’s European tour. Friday’s rendition maintained the group’s characteristic light and effortless playing, each section blending as much as possible to echo the work’s original form as a string quartet. At fifteen minutes total, the piece is quite short, but the dense encoded musical meanings require some extra-attentive listening. Splitting up the three movements ensured that each one could be appreciated on its own. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: power and passion at El Niño (Nov. 18)

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by Stephanie Manning

In the 22 years since it was written, John Adams’ El Niño has been programmed in all kinds of creative ways. The premiere of the oratorio was accompanied by a silent film, and the 2014 Spoleto Festival brought in a crew of puppeteers. But on November 18, The Cleveland Orchestra decided to keep it simple. The straightforward concert-style presentation, conducted by Adams, let the music speak for itself — and it had plenty to say.

El Niño, a modern retelling of the birth of Jesus, isn’t an easy work to explain. Commissioned at the turn of the millennium, the oratorio tells the Biblical story from new perspectives, primarily by centering women’s voices in the narrative. It combines traditional texts with the Wakefield Mystery Plays, Haggai, and ancient and contemporary Latin American poetry. Essentially, Adams set out to write his own Messiah — but while Handel’s work is unquestionably a celebration, Adams takes a more nuanced approach, tackling big questions about the nature of miracles, pregnancy, and motherhood. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Verdi’s Otello (May 21)

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by Peter Feher

Franz Welser-Möst led the final bows on Saturday night at Severance, like the star of any show should. The Cleveland Orchestra’s music director is in his element presiding over the ensemble’s annual opera production, which this season packs the drama. Verdi’s Otello — in a concert staging that opened May 21 and runs for two more performances (May 26 and 29) — demands big voices, instrumental forces to match, and a conductor who can give it all shape and direction. [Read more…]

Celebrate the holidays with The Cleveland Orchestra

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by Mike Telin

“What gets me excited about holiday concerts? Honestly, everything about them,” conductor Brett Mitchell said during a telephone conversation. “Every performance is for the audience, but these concerts really are for them. There’s so much opportunity for banter, and every crowd feels different.”

Mitchell pointed out a favorite quote of his from the late Stephen Sondheim, who said, the audience is the final collaborator. “And that is what we have been missing for the last two years in general, but particularly for this kind of program.”

Beginning on Thursday, December 9 at 7:30 pm, Brett Mitchell returns to Mandel Hall at Severance to lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in a holiday program devoted to music of the season. The concert also features director of choruses Lisa Wong as well as vocalist and Northeast Ohio favorite Capathia Jenkins. Performances continue through December 19. See our Concert Listings page for dates, times, and guest choirs. Tickets are available online.

Mitchell noted that the concerts are also a family affair where everyone in the audience gets dressed in their holiday finest. “It’s a special occasion for them, and to look out and see the kids and the magic in their eyes when ‘you know who’ makes his special entrance is so heartwarming.” [Read more…]

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