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Elim Chan dials up the intensity in her second week with The Cleveland Orchestra (Mar. 19)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Few guest conductors have the luxury of back-to-back weeks with The Cleveland Orchestra. After setting the tone last week with one of classical music’s most famous pieces — Beethoven’s Fifth —Elim Chan turned up the heat on Thursday, March 19, at Severance Music Center with a program of bold 20th- and 21st-century music.

While some choices landed unevenly, what remained most memorable was the evening’s intensity — not just in emotion, but also in the sheer force of sound.

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Cleveland Orchestra tackles Beethoven’s ‘Fateful Fifth’ with conductor Elim Chan, trumpeter Michael Sachs (Mar. 12)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The art of conducting is a kind of alchemy — the transformation of inert notes on a page into something vividly alive. A conductor absorbs a composer’s intentions, reimagines them, and releases them again through that remarkable instrument, the symphony orchestra. On a good night the music feels less reproduced than re-created, and the listener senses the thrill of discovery.

In her appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center Thursday, March 12, conductor Elim Chan provided such an evening. She honored the distinct language of each score — Stravinsky’s refashioning of Baroque style in Pulcinella, Haydn’s elegant Trumpet Concerto with Michael Sachs as the eloquent soloist, and Beethoven’s enduring Fifth Symphony. But fidelity did not mean routine.

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Elim Chan directs Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center in Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (Aug. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday offered a summer evening of musical storytelling that was alluring and colorful without excess.

Under the elegant and incisive direction of Elim Chan at Blossom Music Center, the program paired Maurice Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in performances redolent of perfume and sonic splendor.

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth, the opener was Shéhérazade, a 1903 song cycle with words by Tristan Klingsor, the pen name of French poet, painter, and composer Léon Leclère.

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Conductor Elim Chan and Cleveland Orchestra thrill with impressive performances of Lutosławski and Brahms concertos (Jan. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally posted on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — “Witold Lutosławski Week” has come early this year, and what a treat it is.

When the Polish composer visited Cleveland in 1988, Mayor George Voinovich designated February 29 through March 6 “Witold Lutosławski Week” in his honor. And this week, The Cleveland Orchestra is revisiting his music at Severance Music Center. On Thursday, January 16, conductor Elim Chan led the ensemble in ambitious concertos by Lutosławski and Brahms, joined by violinist Augustin Hadelich.

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Elim Chan sculpts endless varieties of glorious sound from Yefim Bronfman, Cleveland Orchestra (Sept. 27)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the symphonic world, a change of conductor often means a change of repertoire as well. When Elim Chan stepped in to lead four Cleveland Orchestra concerts this weekend featuring Yefim Bronfman in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909), she swapped out Stravinsky’s Petrushka for another Rachmaninoff work, his Symphonic Dances (1940).

On paper, that looked like an overabundance of Rachmaninoff, but Chan and the Orchestra made the Russian super-melodist’s lavish scores sound freshly minted, transparent, and teeming with exquisite detail.

After hearing numerous performances of “Rach 3” by piano competition hopefuls, it was revelatory on Thursday evening, September 26, to experience the work interpreted by a mature artist who is fully in control of its musical content, and whose transitions can make sense of the composer’s mercurial changes of direction.

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Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Elim Chan & Benjamin Grosvenor (July 9)

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by Peter Feher

The Cleveland Orchestra told a familiar story, but with some unfamiliar faces, on July 9 at Blossom Music Center. The narrative sweep of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was the highlight of an all-Romantic program that let several excellent young musicians take center stage.

From the podium, Elim Chan set an ambitious tone for the evening. The rising star conductor, here in her Cleveland Orchestra debut, has a commanding style, and every twist and turn in Saturday’s performance tracked closely with her baton. [Read more…]

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