by Guytano Parks

“Perhaps you’ve noticed: this is an orchestral concert without a conductor. That gives the performance a ‘chamber music’ quality, with the musicians working together as partners rather than looking to a single leader. So it’s appropriate that the ‘concerto’ on the program is really a piece of chamber music.”

The preceding description of this particular performance of Weber’s Clarinet Quintet (performed in an expanded chamber orchestra arrangement) in CityMusic Cleveland’s program notes for their March 6 concert could apply to the entire program, which also included symphonies by Mozart and Haydn. Soloist on this occasion was Daniel Gilbert, CityMusic Cleveland’s principal clarinet since 2010 and previously second clarinet in The Cleveland Orchestra (1995-2007). For the past eight years, opening night of CityMusic Cleveland’s string of concerts on consecutive nights throughout the area has been at Fairmount Presbyterian Church. This setting proved to be acoustically very satisfactory as the sound of the ensemble was extremely rich and resonant. [Read more…]