ENCORE Archives - Cleveland Classical

ENCORE delights with Mozart & Tchaikovsky (June 17)

June 28, 2018 by Delaney Meyers

by Delaney Meyers

ENCORE Chamber Music festival continued on Sunday, June 17 at Gilmour Academy’s Tudor House with Mozart’s String Quintet No. 3 in C and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. Festival director and violinist Jinjoo Cho and faculty artists violist Eric Wong and cellist Si-Yan Darren Li were joined by guest violist Mathieu Herzog, as well as two ENCORE Festival student artists, violinist Aaron Chan and cellist Tate Zawadiuk. [Read more…]

ENCORE Chamber Music: the Miró Quartet (June 8)

June 19, 2018 by Delaney Meyers

by Delaney Meyers

Miro2 After mixing up the start time, I arrived to the Miró Quartet concert on Friday evening, June 8 just in time to witness the aftermath of violist John Largess’ two broken strings. For their relatively short length and narrow width, those strings caused quite the wave of amused chatter in the Tudor House at Gilmour Academy. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Resilience, filmed at First Baptist, Oct. 20

by Daniel Hathaway

After the novel coronavirus brought live concerts to a standstill in March, Apollo’s Fire was among the first of Cleveland’s performing organizations to formulate a clear plan for 2020-2021. Cleveland’s Baroque orchestra proposed a hybrid subscription season that would permit in-person audiences at its various venues — at 15% of capacity — but alternatively, promised professionally-produced videos for viewing by subscribers about a week after the live performances.

The first such video, capturing the October 20 performance of Resilience at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights, delivered handsomely on that promise. Erica Brenner’s sensitive videography and audio mixing preserved brilliant performances of music that illuminated two troubled periods in history: the plague of London in 1665, and the outbreaks of cholera and dysentery that dampened but failed to defeat the human spirit at the end of the American Civil War two centuries later. [Read on…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: Diamond Brass streamed (Oct. 12)

by Daniel Hathaway

The Diamond Brass Quintet opened Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s new season on Monday, October 12 with nobody in the pews at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Like most performances these days, the concert was only attendable online. The players were widely-spaced on the stage, plexiglass shields were in place to cut down on aerosol transmissions, and the quintet took two intervals to go outdoors and let the air in the sanctuary refresh itself. (Rehearsals had been held outside as well.) [Read on…]

Les Délices’ Bewitched: “Sensational” Online Concert

by Timothy Robson

“Bewitched,” the first subscription concert of this season by Les Délices, can be summed up in one word: sensational. In her introductory remarks, director Debra Nagy talked about the “Embracing Change” theme of the season and completely rethinking the concert experience for streaming. The detailed planning was in evidence throughout the program. “Bewitched” was not just a concert; it was a carefully planned musical film, with elements of drama and music appreciation, all in support of the inspired program choices featuring Medea and Circe, two famous witches (or sorceresses, if you prefer) of classical antiquity. [Read on…]

CD Review
Gruca White Ensemble:
A Different Take

by Jarrett Hoffman

It’s one thing to create a varied setlist exploring one different genre after another, and quite another to pull it off as convincingly as the Gruca White Ensemble does on their latest CD, A Different Take, out on November 13 on the Big Round Records label.

[Read on…]

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

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 on…]

No Exit debuts new season (Oct. 2)

by Mike Telin

With the onslaught of streamed concerts, whether live or pre-recorded, ensembles are now faced with the task of deciding how to present themselves on-screen to an at-home audience.

On Friday, October 2, No Exit debuted their 12th season with a pre-recorded program featuring a winning variety of music that showcased each of the members performing from their homes. As we have come to expect from the ensemble, the playing was superb, and the sound and video were high quality. But it was the production’s “film noir” concept that seamlessly wove each portion of the show into 65 minutes of viewing pleasure.

[Read on…]

Stroud Competition Finals impress with high musical & production values (Oct. 16)

by Daniel Hathaway

Although it wasn’t the original plan to go online last weekend for the final round of the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition, moving to a digital format suited the event well. Young performers Aytahn Benavi, Patricia Hernandez, Ian Tubbs, and Eric Wang played in the intimate setting of their own homes, giving everyone who tuned in a front row seat. [Read on…]

See all reviews

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us