by Nicholas Jones
I’ve just returned from a trip to Germany, where I encountered three fine conductors, two superb orchestras (in two extraordinary halls), and one stellar opera. My visit was arranged by Road Scholar, a company that offers educational travel, mostly for retirees. I was travelling with twelve other classical music fans, and much of what I am writing here was developed in discussions over dinner or beer. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The lawn and pavilion of Blossom Music Center hosted an immense crowd on the evening of July 29 for The Cleveland Orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with pianist David Fray, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, skillfully conducted by Vasily Petrenko. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“It’s my first time in Wyoming and there’s some spectacular nature — I’m looking at the Teton Mountain from my window now,” the very friendly Vasily Petrenko said as we began our telephone conversation last Friday afternoon. The conductor said he was relaxing before leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in a concert later in the evening that would feature works by Brahms and Bartók.
On Saturday, July 29, at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Petrenko will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c with David Fray as soloist, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in e. “I’m really looking forward this concert, and please tell everyone that I want them to come,” the 41-year old St. Petersburg, Russia native said in his ever-present upbeat style. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Two of the three works that Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop brought along for her guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra last week were strongly related through birth.
Both Samuel Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra and Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 were written at the behest of Serge Koussevitsky, the Barber a suggestion, the Copland an actual commission in memory of the conductor’s wife. Both date from the World War II years when American composers were writing confidently in their own independent voices.
As American composers, Barber and Copland were natural choices for Thanksgiving weekend concerts. The third work, Schumann’s piano concerto featuring French pianist David Fray, seemed at first to make an odd middle panel of this triptych, but ultimately served as a refreshing entremet between two heavily-scored works that could not escape echoing the thunder and heroism of a nation at war. [Read more…]