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The Cleveland Orchestra celebrates the Holidays

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by Mike Telin

MacMaster-NatalieIt’s all about the holidays this week at Severance Hall. On Wednesday, December 17 at 7:30 pm, Brett Mitchell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and renowned Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster in “Christmas in Cape Breton,” a special show that mixes folk and Celtic styles with Holiday favorites and Nova-Scotian jigs.

“We’re really excited about it,” MacMaster said during a telephone conversation. “I love playing music with symphony orchestras. It’s such a nice change for us. We do about a dozen shows with orchestra each year, out of our one hundred shows a year. And this is even more special because it is Christmas time.”

If you’ve had the privilege of hearing Natalie MacMaster perform live, you know she is one of the most versatile and exciting musicians on the folk and Celtic scenes. You also know that Christmas is a special time for her. “I’m a fiddler and at Christmas time in Cape Breton there are a ton of house parties. It’s a time to get together and play our traditional music, so there will be a lot of that on the program as well.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with James Gaffigan and Yulia Van Doren (October 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

VANDOREN-YuliaPietism and fatalism inspired the disquieting poetic images that soprano Yulia Van Doren and the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus presented in works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms last Thursday night in Severance Hall. Those depressing thoughts might have put a damper on the proceedings, had not the music in both cases been so appealing. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus J.S. Bach’s Missa at St. John’s Cathedral (Oct. 17)

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by J.D. Goddard

TCO-COC-Oct-17On Friday evening, October 17, a standing-room only crowd gathered in the sanctuary of Saint John’s Cathedral to hear the magnificent Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst in a free concert that featured Bach’s Missa Brevis, BWV 232. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus & Youth Chorus: Bach’s Grand Mass at Severance Hall (October 16)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO-Bach-Mass-101614-MastroianniAs Johann Sebastian Bach neared the end of his career, he took care to put his musical legacy in order, making archival-quality copies of Passions and completing what his son, C.P.E. Bach, called his “grosse catholische Messe.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra to present “Bach in Focus” (October 15-25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO&COCIn conjunction with performances of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor (October 16 and 18) and one of his solo cantatas by soprano Yulia van Doren (October 23, 24 & 24), The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Youth Chorus will offer a free concert of the Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland on Friday, October 17 at 8:00 pm, and a “Make Music! Marathon” at Severance Hall on Saturday afternoon, October 18. [Read more…]

Link to Review: Piccolo Concerto Takes Soloist To Fetching Heights (May 1)

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Fink-&-RobertsonDaniel Hathaway’s review of Thursday’s Cleveland Orchestra concert is now posted on Classical Voice North America (the national website of the Music Critics Association). The concert will be repeated tonight (Saturday, May 3 at 8) and broadcast live on WCLV 104.9 FM (streamed at wclv.com). >>read the article

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra Chorus looks ahead to Mozart’s Requiem and looks back on a distinguished history

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by Mike Telin

TCO&COCThis week at Severance Hall conductor David Robertson will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in four performances of Mozart’s beloved Requiem with guest soloists Jessica Rivera, soprano, Elizabeth DeShong, mezzo-soprano, Garrett Sorenson, tenor and John Relyea, bass-baritone.

The origins of the Chorus can be traced back to the Orchestra’s third season when, in October of 1920, founding Manager Adella Prentiss Hughes issued the following invitation: “A Chorus is now being organized, to be known as The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. As the name implies, this new organization is designed primarily as an adjunct to the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, for the purpose of enlarging its activities and enriching its repertoire.”

The invitation went on to note that works such as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Liszt’s Faust Symphony, and Mahler’s 8th Symphony all call for a chorus, and continued, “The opportunity to join this chorus is now open to all who are interested in choral singing and who wish to be identified with the performance of great masterpieces in conjunction with our splendid Symphony Orchestra. Rehearsals will be held at regular intervals in the Ballroom of the Hotel Winton.” The Chorus, led by then Orchestra Assistant Conductor Arthur Shepherd, lasted less then one year. [Read more…]

Review: Cleveland Orchestra & Choruses with Franz Welser-Möst & Rudolf Buchbinder (March 6)

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by Guytano Parks

BuchbinderSpringtime was heralded in at Severance Hall last Thursday evening when music director Franz Welser-Möst led The Cleveland Orchestra, soprano Kate Royal, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor John Tessier and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Children’s Chorus (prepared by Robert Porco and Ann Usher) in Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony. Earlier on the program came Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, Sibelius’s Lemminkainen’s Return, and Ryan Wigglesworth’s Locke’s Theatre.

Welser-Möstled a bold and sweeping account of the Sibelius (No. 4, from Legends, Op. 22) to begin the program. Emphasizing the dark, serious nature of its opening bars, he coaxed expressive, colorful sounds from the orchestra, full of rhythmic vigor and effective dynamic contrasts.

Buchbinder played Rachmaninoff’s popular Rhapsody in a straightforward manner, but still full of interest and excitement. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra Chorus Benefit set for February 9 at Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

TCO&COCFormed in 1952, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is one of the few professionally trained, all-volunteer choruses sponsored by a major American orchestra.

In addition to performing with The Cleveland Orchestra in concerts at Severance Hall each season, the Chorus has appeared with the Orchestra on tour in North America and abroad. The 150 members contribute more than 50,000 hours annually, through rehearsals and performances. They also raise money for their tours through a variety of projects and events.

On Sunday February 9 beginning at 7:00 pm in Severance Hall, audiences are invited to attend a benefit concert titled Songs, Dances, and Romances: A Valentine Tribute to the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. The evening features the Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus under the direction of Robert Porco in a performance of Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes.

Additionally dances by Dvorak, Borodin & Piazzolla, arias by Rossini, Dvorak & Mozart, and romances by Clara Schumann will be performed by members of the Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]

Preview: Beethoven’s Mass in C at Severance Hall — a conversation with Cleveland Orchestra Choruses director Robert Porco

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by Mike Telin

PORCO-Robert“Beethoven’s Mass in C is a wonderful piece and under-performed in my opinion — at least in this country,” Cleveland Orchestra Director of Choruses Robert Porco told us by telephone. “And I don’t know exactly why that is. People like to do the Missa Solemnis, which is an entirely different kind of piece and was written some fifteen years later.”

On Thursday, October 31 and Saturday, November 2 in Severance Hall, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in performances of Beethoven’s Mass in C and Messiaen’s Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine. Also included on the program is Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue.

The Mass in C was commissioned by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II. “He was the same person for whom Haydn wrote his wonderful masses. I only mention this because the late Haydn masses are not performed that often either.”

According to history, Esterházy did not like the work — which caused Beethoven to leave abruptly. “Esterházy wrote letters about how much the piece embarrassed him. People have asked me why he thought that and I can’t really answer that either except that he was very accustomed to hearing what Haydn had written.” In his The Life of Beethoven, (1998) musicologist David Wyn Jones recounts, “Nikolaus later wrote to Countess Henriette Zielinska, ‘Beethoven’s music is unbearably ridiculous and detestable; I am not convinced it can ever be performed properly. I am angry and ashamed.'” [Read more…]

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