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Cleveland Orchestra In Focus 2: Bronfman & Beethoven (Oct. 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Severance Hall team made just a few tweaks to the video production of Episode 2 in its In Focus Series that debuted on October 29. Instead of the colorful lighting that gave a bluish tint to Respighi and bathed Tchaikovsky in red for Episode 1, the walls of the stage were washed in a subtle peach hue. And instead of standing for a silent ovation from an empty hall, players remained in their seats for a fadeout at the end of both works on the program. What remained the same was the high level of playing from the well-distanced string section, and the superb quality of the sound. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra returns to Severance Hall — via Adella (Oct. 15)

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by Daniel Hathaway

When the pandemic arrived on our shores and in-person performances were banned, musical organizations scrambled to preserve some sense of normalcy either by raiding their archives or by creating content in novel ways under the strictures of physical distancing. These efforts have resulted in a quantity of online offerings of wildly varying quality.

Though it had amassed a vast trove of audio over the decades, The Cleveland Orchestra has come late to the game in the video department. Even so, the organization wasn’t about to rush to produce the equivalent of home movies to keep its patrons engaged while live events were on hold. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra introduces streaming platform “Adella”

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by Daniel Hathaway

First came Apple’s Siri (if she didn’t know the answer to a question, she’d helpfully reply, “I can look that up for you on the internet”). Then Amazon’s Alexa offered hands-free connections to the web (“Alexa, play NPR”) — while perhaps also listening in on our conversations.

Now, The Cleveland Orchestra has introduced Adella, named after its founder and first general manager, Adella Prentiss Hugues. She will knowledgeably serve as curator for all of the Orchestra’s digital content. That includes premium items — the In Focus Concert Series and Cleveland Orchestra Showcase — as well as free video from the Orchestra’s archives, expeditions behind the scenes, and “On A Personal Note” podcasts.

Central to Adella’s mission is bringing musicians back to Severance Hall to make music for the Orchestra’s patrons for the first time since the pandemic threw a spanner into the works in March. The In Focus series, which begins this Thursday, October 15, will comprise five, one-hour programs recorded mostly by the Orchestra’s strings, masked and physically distanced on the Severance stage. Wind players will be used sparingly. A few souls will be invited to attend, but most will watch via the stream. [Read more…]

CD Review:
Rands at Oberlin

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by Mike Telin

To say that the music of Bernard Rands is tinged with Ravel and Debussy doesn’t tell the whole story. In reality, his music extends beyond that into a post-modern, impressionistic world. On the recently-released CD, Rands at Oberlin, the composer’s engaging musical voice is brought to life in stellar performances by Robert Walters of the Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (2015) and by tenor Magnus Staveland of the Pulitzer prize-winning Canti del Sole (1983). [Read more…]

Sun Valley Music Festival: Conversations with Marc Damoulakis and Si-Yan Darren Li 

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by Mike Telin

With the absence of Northeast Ohio’s annual feast of live summertime classical music offerings, I’m thankful that we live in a time when technology can help fill the void in the artistic soul. That technology can also take you to far-off festivals that you’ve always wished you could attend, but never have had the opportunity.

From Monday, July 27, to Wednesday, August 19, you can attend the 36th annual Sun Valley Music Festival Summer Season for free from the comfort of your own home, or backyard. The free, one-time-only webcasts were developed by Festival Music Director Alasdair Neale in collaboration with Creative Director James Darrah, who served as stage director for The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2015 production of Richard Strauss’ Daphne.

The performances, recorded in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Rochester, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Toronto, feature single-location, socially distanced performances and multi-location, video-synced performances which will also include commentary by Alasdair Neale and conversations with guest artists and Orchestra musicians. The free, one-time-only concerts will be broadcast at 8:30 pm Eastern time on the Idaho-based Festival’s website. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Musicians’ “Summer Salute to Healthcare Workers”

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by Mike Telin

Never has it been more important to thank a healthcare worker than the present. And for the past four-plus months, people have expressed their gratitude to workers on the frontline of the Coronavirus Pandemic in a multitude of ways, from banging on pots to flyovers by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

For the past six weeks, more than 40 members of The Cleveland Orchestra have shown their appreciation with a “Summer Salute to Healthcare Workers.” The idea for the concerts came from Lynne Ramsey, the Orchestra’s first assistant principal viola.

“During the early part of the shutdown, Lynne saw military planes doing flybys over hospitals as a salute to healthcare workers,” violinist Isabel Trautwein said during a telephone conversation. “So she thought, what if musicians would do ‘playbys’?” [Read more…]

CD Review
The Cleveland Orchestra: A New Century, Vol. 3

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by Jarrett Hoffman

A shared sense of the epic ties together the final two works of A New Century, the three-part live album from Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra that is also the ensemble’s inaugural release on its own record label.

We begin with the world premiere recording of Okeanos, Bernd Richard Deutsch’s concerto for organ and orchestra, featuring Paul Jacobs as soloist. The title refers not only to the Titan of Greek mythology, but also “to an idea of immense (and sometimes unfathomable) greatness and breadth, which conjures up in my mind the thought of the organ,” as Deutsch writes in his notes. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra to introduce weekly podcast, “On a Personal Note”

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A new weekly podcast series from Severance Hall will feature personal perspectives and illuminating views about Cleveland Orchestra recordings. Available beginning on Thursday, April 16, the first season of “On a Personal Note” will comprise ten episodes.

In the first program, “The Sound of Crisis,” Music Director Franz Welser-Möst recalls the conflicting emotions he experienced leading the last performance before Severance Hall was shuttered due to the pandemic. On Friday morning, March 13, under the first phase of restrictions ordered by the governor, he conducted Schubert’s “Great” Symphony in C for an audience of a few staff members who heard what was originally supposed to be a public concert. Further limitations on the number of people allowed to gather mandated the cancellation of the rest of the Orchestra’s season.

Welser-Möst described that morning as a surreal experience. “We played in that moment, very aware of the music’s meaning and with the beginning of our understanding about what was happening around us. The ability to share this story in the ‘On a Personal Note’ podcast is a moving opportunity, and a rare time to verbalize the emotions we feel as artists every time we perform.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra announces 2021-2022 Severance Hall Season

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by Daniel Hathaway

Although the rest of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2019-2020 season has been cancelled due to the pandemic, hope springs eternal. The Orchestra has now released details of its plans for Season 103 at Severance Hall, scheduled to begin in September. Here’s what patrons can look forward to.

The Cleveland Orchestra
2020-21 Season at Severance Hall

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, Yefim Bronfman, piano

STRAVINSKY  Concerto in D (for strings)
BEETHOVEN  Piano Concerto No. 2
SCRIABIN  Symphony No. 2 [Read more…]

Severance Hall dark, but Cleveland Orchestra plays on over WCLV

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by Daniel Hathaway

Continuing its long-time partnership with WCLV 104.9 Ideastream, The Cleveland Orchestra is launching a new series, “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra,” to be aired on weekdays from 12 Noon until 1:00 pm beginning on Monday, April 6. Listen at 104.9 FM or online. As Orchestra CEO André Gremillet wrote in a press release, “Music can lift spirits and inspire hope for the future…We hope these lunchtime presentations will provide you with some musical nourishment for your soul — and a respite from each day’s challenges.”

The April 6 program will include archive recordings of Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 28 in C, K. 200. Franz Welser-Möst conducts. The programs will be accompanied by a brief overview of the music as well as interviews with Welser-Möst and Orchestra musicians. See our Concert Listings on Monday for details of next week’s programs. WCLV will continue its 8:00 pm Saturday and 4:00 pm Sunday broadcasts featuring previous Cleveland Orchestra performances.

[Read more…]

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