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Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with piano soloist Kirill Gerstein

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by Mike Telin

gerstein-kirillThis week the Cleveland Orchestra will kick off 2017 with what is arguably one of the most varied and interesting programs of the season. On Thursday, January 5 at 7:30 pm conductor James Gaffigan and pianist Kirill Gerstein return to Severance Hall for a performance that will feature Arnold Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto and the original, jazz band version George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The program will also include Bernard Herrmann’s Suite from Psycho and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Performances continue through Saturday. Check our concert listings page for additional information.

“I think this is a fantastic program. It’s one of my favorite combinations of pieces,” Kirill Gerstein said during a recent telephone conversation, noting that although he had entertained the idea of pairing the two piano concertos for some time, James Gaffigan was the first conductor to pick up on the idea. “He liked it, and we’ve performed it a couple of times now,” the pianist said. “It is logical to put the two together. I think there are many who love Rhapsody in Blue but may not have explored the Schoenberg Piano Concerto. So they will get a chance to hear both and find out that the Schoenberg is a much more user-friendly piece then perhaps they imagine.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Pennsylvania Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Nov. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

tco-nutcracker-2016-mastroianniTchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet has been around since 1892, when it premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. But for more than half of its lifetime, the best-known version in this country is the one that George Balanchine choreographed for the New York City Ballet in 1954. Northeast Ohioans can enjoy that Nutcracker in a fine and colorful collaboration between the Pennsylvania Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra. The show opened on Wednesday, November 30 at the State Theater in Playhouse Square, and runs through Sunday, December 4. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Pennsylvania Ballet to perform George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

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by Mike Telin

penn-ballet-nutcrackerLike many great works of art, the first performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on December 18, 1892, was met with less than enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics. Describing the battle scene, Russian critic Alexandre Benois wrote, “One can not understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards — quite amateurish.”

Alexander Dumas’ libretto was criticized by some for being unfaithful to its source, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Some critics questioned the ballet’s prominent use of children, while others referred to the party scene as “ponderous” and to the Grand Pas de Deux as “insipid.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in Haydn & Duruflé with Matthew Halls (Nov. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO&COCMaurice Duruflé’s Requiem is probably one of the best-beloved and most-performed choral works of the 20th century, but for reasons of economy, it’s most frequently heard in the composer’s reduction for organ, strings, and optional trumpets, harp and timpani — or even in the version for voices and organ alone. On Thursday evening, November 17 at Severance Hall, a stage full of Cleveland Orchestra musicians joined the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus under the baton of Matthew Halls to bring the full tonal spectrum of Duruflé’s Gregorian-fueled masterpiece to life. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: a feast of Prokofiev with Stéphane Denève & James Ehnes (Oct. 27)

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by Daniel Hathaway

DENEVE-StefaneFrench conductor Stéphane Denève and Canadian violinist James Ehnes proposed a multi-course repast of the music of Sergei Prokofiev for Cleveland Orchestra audiences the weekend of October 27-29. Happily, that Russian composer’s music enjoys enough inner variety and contrast to make a well-balanced menu, especially when served up with equal measures of brilliance and nuance. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Friday@7 with Bartók and Brahms (Oct. 21)

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by Nicholas Jones

hrusa-wangThe superb young pianist Yuja Wang is a fiery presence. Recently named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year for 2017, the flamboyant, Chinese-born Wang has justly soared to fame for her gutsy performances of the most technically demanding solo and concerto literature for the piano. She plays with a formidable command of the finger-busting pieces of the Romantic and high modern, and she brings to them a sense of burning intensity. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra concert to mark Centenary of Rotary Foundation

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by Daniel Hathaway

arch-c-klumphA hundred years ago, Cleveland businessman, civic leader and accomplished flutist Arch C. Klumph founded the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, with a vision of “Doing Good in the World.” Rotarians from around the world will flock to Cleveland next weekend to celebrate the centenary of Klumph’s dream with a special concert by The Cleveland Orchestra on Sunday, October 23 at 3:00 pm in Severance Hall, followed by a Centennial Celebration Dinner that will see new members inducted into the Arch Klumph Society.

“This is a huge celebration, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Michael Johns of Rotary International said in a telephone conversation. “The Rotary Foundation is celebrating a hundred years of service to the community and to the world. We’re delighted to be partnering with The Cleveland Orchestra to bring this celebration to Cleveland, where Arch Klumpf was a member of the Cleveland Rotary Club.”

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Alain Altinoglu & violinist Baiba Skride (October 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

skride-babaDmitri Shostakovich permeated the first half of The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert at Severance Hall on October 14, which included his reorchestration of the placid prelude to Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera, Khovanshchina, and his dark and nervous Second Violin Concerto. But any residual gloom was dispelled after intermission by scintillating performances of Henri Dutilleux’s Métaboles and Maurice Ravel’s second Daphnis and Chloé suite, each radiant and colorful in its own way. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: a Roman triptych with Beethoven to open (Oct. 6)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Orchestra There would be lots of musical benefits if time travel ever became a reality. You could go back and ask J.S. Bach some pertinent questions, find out what really happened at the premiere of The Rite of Spring, and experience the music of Ottorino Respighi with fresh ears before his spectacular orchestral extravaganzas got appropriated by Hollywood. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Opening Night with organist Paul Jacobs (Sept. 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

tco-fwm-jacobs-092916The Norton Memorial Organ in Severance Hall — one of E.M. Skinner’s finest concert hall instruments — enjoyed a rare moment in the spotlight at The Cleveland Orchestra’s opening concert on September 29, led by music director Franz Welser-Möst. In the hands (and under the feet) of Paul Jacobs, it played a starring role both in Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony, and in a thrilling encore that brought the large audience spontaneously to its own feet. [Read more…]

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