Fairmount Spanish Dancers Archives

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Grisha Goryachev plays Flamenco (November 12)

December 1, 2015 by Daniel Hathaway

by Mike Telin

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society took a different approach to the term “Classical” on Saturday, November 12 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights when they presented their first concert featuring Flamenco music. And as we have come to expect from CCGS, their choice of artist could not have been better. From first note to last, Russian guitarist Grisha Goryachev performed with brilliant technique and musical passion during his program that could have easily been subtitled “Homage to Paco de Lucía.” [Read more…]

Flamenco from Russia: fifteen minutes with guitarist Grisha Goryachev

November 17, 2015 by Daniel Hathaway

by Mike Telin

“Why did I choose Flamenco? It’s just like love — you can’t explain it, you just feel it in your heart,” Russian-born guitarist Grisha Goryachev told us by phone. “When I listen to Flamenco I feel that it is my music. I don’t know why I feel this way because I am in no way a Gypsy, and I’m not Spanish. But it boils my blood and I feel love for this music.”

On Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, Grisha Goryachev will present a concert of Flamenco music as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. A demonstration of Flamenco dancing by the Fairmount Spanish Dancers, led by Saundra Bohl with live guitar accompaniment, will begin at 7:05.

“I really look forward to Saturday. I’m going to play some of my all-time favorite pieces. During the first part I’ll play some of the older, more traditional Flamenco numbers, and during the second part I’ll include some modern pieces. The concert will be about an hour.” [Read more…]

CIM Opera’s engaging Puccini double bill prompts both laughs and tears (Nov. 7)

by Stephanie Manning

The three one-act operas that make up Giacomo Puccini’s Il trittico (The Triptych) are typically connected by theme, rather than location. Although the trio of works take place in 13th-century Paris, 17th-century Siena, and 20th-century Florence respectively, they all deal with keeping someone’s death a secret — whether tragically or comedically.

CIM Opera Theater’s recent production of two-thirds of the triptych brought the action into one particular place and time, as director Dean Southern moved both Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi into 1918’s New York City. What stood out more, however, were the impressive performances from across the large cast, which I heard on November 7 in Kulas Hall.

[Read on…]

Oberlin Orchestra with the Poiesis Quartet in Finney (Oct. 31)

by Daniel Hathaway

Fresh from winning the grand prize at the prestigious Banff Competition on the last day of August, the Poiesis Quartet (Sarah Ying Ma & Max Ball, violins, Jasper de Boor, viola, and Drew Dansby, cello) took a late October victory lap at the Oberlin Conservatory, returning to their place of birth as an ensemble to give master classes and solo with the Oberlin Orchestra.

Judging from the turnout in Finney Chapel on Friday, it might not have been a prizewinning idea to schedule a major orchestra concert on a college campus on Halloween, but there was nothing slim about the sound that the stage full of musicians produced. Brilliantly scored works by Carlos Simon, John Adams, Angélica Negrón, and Zhou Tian, were conducted with precision by Rafael Jiménez.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra makes a sinister showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (Nov. 5)

by Peter Feher

A violin bow is an unlikely murder weapon. But in the hands of composer Bernard Herrmann, the slashing motion of a string instrument seems almost one and the same with the stabbing knife onscreen in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho.

The infamous soundtrack to secretary Marion Crane’s final moments in the shower — and also to private investigator Milton Arbogast’s stumbling death down the stairs later in the film — is horrifyingly simple. A series of screeching down-bows begins in the first violins and then stacks in dissonant intervals as the remaining string sections join in. The gesture is more like a Foley effect than music per se, evoking something between a human scream and the shriek of metal against metal.

[Read on…]

See all reviews

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us