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Pianist Garrick Ohlsson, conductor Daniel Reith lead Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven concert (Nov. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A relaxed understanding born of a long career helped pianist Garrick Ohlsson bring easy grace and Proto-Romantic sensibility to Beethoven’s Second and Fourth Piano Concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra.

The program on Saturday at Severance Music Center featured early and middle works, the second set of concerts in the Orchestra’s cycle of Beethoven piano concertos.

Despite its number, the Second Concerto is actually the composer’s first, begun in 1790. Ohlsson treated this early Beethoven work expressively, with sinuous rubato, keeping his rhythms precise, his touch light, and his rhetoric clear. Nothing, not even Beethoven’s many technical snares, seemed to faze him.

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Cleveland Orchestra’s Beethoven concerto cycle: a mini festival of virtuosity (Nov. 6)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — There’s never been a better time to buy a couple of extra tickets to The Cleveland Orchestra.

Not one but four stellar soloists took the stage at Severance Music Center on Wednesday, Nov. 6 — representing about half of the star-studded lineup coming to Cleveland over the next two weeks. The big event of the Orchestra’s fall season, a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano concertos, is set to feature a different headliner for almost every piece.

This wasn’t the original plan, but with music director Franz Welser-Möst undergoing medical treatment and unable to conduct — and the scheduled soloist for the entire cycle, Igor Levit, withdrawing as a result — the Orchestra had to adapt. The personnel changes were announced on Monday, Nov. 4, including associate conductor Daniel Reith’s stepping in to lead all the performances, which run through Nov. 17.

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Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: Concerto Competition winner Elena Ziegler

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by Mike Telin

For a young musician, winning a concerto competition is always an honor. And performing that concerto with an orchestra is a moment to cherish. “I’ve played many concertos before with piano, but this is my first time with an orchestra and I’m enjoying it a lot,” Elena Ziegler said.

On Friday, May 3 at 8:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Ziegler will perform Lalo’s Cello Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Under the direction of Daniel Reith, the program also includes Valerie Coleman’s Umoja and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Tickets are available online.

I reached the Copley High School junior by telephone and began our conversation by congratulating her on winning the competition and asking how she came to choose the Lalo.

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Daniel Singer: falling in love
with Fauré’s Requiem

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by Mike Telin

“The first time I heard the Fauré Requiem was during my freshman year in college,” Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus director Daniel Singer recalled in an interview, adding that he instantly fell in love with the work. “It’s just a beautiful piece of choral music. It’s so melodic, and Fauré knew how to spin a tuneful melody.”

On Sunday, February 18 at 7:00 pm at Severance Music Center, the Chorus will join forces with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra for a performance of Fauré’s beloved work. The program, under the direction of Daniel Reith, also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra offers diverse program celebrating civil rights (Jan.14)

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Originally published on Cleveland.com

Photo by Roger Mastroianni

by Kevin McLaughlin, Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Orchestra hosted a varied program Sunday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and commemorating the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The 44th annual concert, held in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, marked the landmark law that prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin.

Former longtime WEWS news anchor Danita Harris emceed with panache; Daniel Reith, the orchestra’s assistant conductor, was an effective presence on the podium, and Dr. William Henry Caldwell directed the all-volunteer Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus with grace and poise. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra MLK Celebration Concert: a conversation with violinist Amaryn Olmeda

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by Mike Telin

It’s always fun to ask someone how it feels to be making their debut performance with The Cleveland Orchestra. And while all the responses come with excitement, there was a bit of extra enthusiasm in the voice of Amaryn Olmeda.

“I can’t wait,” the 15-year-old violinist said during a recent interview. “It’s just so crazy to me because I grew up listening to all their recordings — putting them on my playlist and playing along with them. Then all of a sudden I’m performing with them. So I’m very excited for this opportunity and I’m very honored that they chose me to play with them at their Martin Luther King concert.”

On Sunday, January 14 at 7:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Daniel Reith and William Henry Caldwell will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and The Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus in a program that commemorates 60 years since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. The concert will feature works by J. Rosamond Johnson, Adolphus Hailstork, Jame P. Johnson, and the Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, Allison Loggins-Hull. Click here for free tickets.

The program will also include Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane with soloist Amaryn Olmeda, winner of first prize and the audience choice award at the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition. I reached the violinist by phone and began by asking her how she came to choose the piece.

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Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra features Beethoven 5 at Severance (Nov. 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Sooner or later, every orchestra has to come to terms with the Most Famous Symphony of Them All — Beethoven’s Fifth — and for Daniel Reith and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, that moment arrived at Severance Music Center on Sunday afternoon, November 12.

The challenges begin right at the beginning with the famous four-note motive that sounds so straightforward, but getting a stage full of musicians to play it together with the precise stops and starts that the composer writes into the score is anything but easy. “Just make any gesture at the beginning,” one conductor counseled a student, advice that works like magic the first time around, but then things get complicated. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: a new season of discoveries

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by Mike Telin

A challenge in programming for a young orchestra as talented as the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is choosing repertoire that teaches them how to be a better 21st century ensemble while also being enjoyable to play.

On Sunday, November 12 at 3:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Daniel Reith will lead the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in two well-known works, and two of Reith’s recent discoveries. Tickets are available online.

The concert will open with Johannes Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture. The work was written as a tribute to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate in philosophy. And like all good students, Reith said he was happy that the young musicians of  COYO are such a curious group.

“Telling them about the origins of the piece really caught their attention,” the conductor said during a Skype conversation. “ I thought it would be fun to do a piece that contains themes of famous student songs of Brahms’ time. And explaining the background to the song about a little fox who is annoying his parents by his curiosity, really fascinated them.”

The afternoon will continue with María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir’s Oceans, a work Reith said he discovered through lucky coincidence. “I was searching for pieces on the topic of water for one of our educational concerts last season. Sadly it didn’t fit that program, but it was a wonderful discovery that I thought would be a great piece for COYO.”

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The Cleveland Orchestra presents Ellis Island: The Dream of America

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by Mike Telin

When writing a new orchestral work, the composer hopes that the piece will have a life after the initial premiere performances. Then you have Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America. Since its premiere in 2002, the work has been performed 216 times by 114 orchestras.

On Tuesday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Daniel Reith will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Boyer’s multimedia work that honors the immigrant experience by combining music, narration, and historic images. Directed by Donald Carrier, Ellis Island: The Dream of America features seven actors who portray the journeys of immigrants from seven countries on their way to America, beginning in the early parts of the past century. The concert is a prelude to the inaugural Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream. Click here for free tickets (required). Following Tuesday’s performance, the work will be performed on the Orchestra’s educational concerts.

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Daniel Reith: a busy month for the assistant conductor at Severance 

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by Daniel Hathaway

In addition to being a pair of ears out in the house during rehearsals, the principal duties of the assistant conductor of a symphony orchestra include taking over the podium when the music director or guest conductor is indisposed. If the orchestra runs a youth orchestra, the assistant may function as its music director (with other duties to be assigned, of course!)

Midway through his first season with The Cleveland Orchestra, Daniel Reith found himself doing both jobs in a matter of days.

On the weekend of February 5, Reith covered for the ailing Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who withdrew after the first of a four-concert set, leading works by Andrew Norman, Debussy, and Ravel on short notice (the podium change was announced from the stage by Musical Arts Association president André Gremillet) and without the benefit of rehearsal. Then on February 24, he led the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus in the second concert of their season, which included a Wagner overture, a Schubert mass, and a Brahms symphony. [Read more…]

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