by Daniel Hathaway
The Canadian soprano Erin Wall made only one costume change on Sunday evening at Blossom — from a burgundy to a sparkling black gown — but she brought winning vocal versatility and theatrical savvy to her portrayal of five different divas, brilliantly supported by Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday evening, May 27, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra presented an excellent and amazingly varied program at Severance Hall. Though combining Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Varèse might seem incongruous, the result made for a lively and fascinating evening. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Thursday evening’s Cleveland Orchestra program at Severance Hall cozied two ear-stretching modern works by Anthony Cheung and György Ligeti between a pair of Haydn Symphonies — No. 39 from the composer’s “Storm and Stress” period, and No. 96 from his late, mature period. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
When the 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream with his sister, he ran right home to write a piano duet on the subject that turned into an overture and later a whole suite of incidental music. Did he have any idea that his music would be inextricably bound to Shakespeare’s play — or its march appropriated for countless wedding recessionals? [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Claude Debussy’s journey to writing an opera had many false starts. Then he happened across the symbolist plays of Maurice Maeterlinck. After discovering that the author had given Vincent d’Indy permission to to set his La princesse Maleine to music, Debussy turned his attention to Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
On May 2nd, 4th, and 6th at 7:30 pm at Severance Hall, The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst will present three performances of the new fully-staged production by Yuval Sharon of Debussy’s only completed opera. The cast will include Elliot Madore (as Pelléas), Martina Janková (Mélisande), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Golaud), Nancy Maultsby (Genevieve), Peter Rose (Arkel), Julie Mathevet (Yniold), and David Castillo (Doctor/Shepherd). [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Some 1,200 patrons gathered at Severance Hall on Friday evening, March 17 to hear details of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 100th-anniversary season in 2017-2018. The evening began with a sumptuous reception in the lobbies accompanied by string music from members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra playing alongside Cleveland Orchestra musicians.
Moving to the main auditorium, the crowd heard remarks from executive director André Gremillet and newly-elected Musical Arts Association president Richard K. Smucker, and reflections from Orchestra musicians Massimo La Rosa, Martha Baldwin, and Joshua Smith on their experiences. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Those who say they like or don’t like the music of Igor Stravinsky risk being detained for further questioning: which of the different styles the composer took on and discarded during his long 20th-century career are you referring to? There were several to be heard on The Cleveland Orchestra’s all-Stravinsky program on Thursday evening, all masterfully performed under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst with the help of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Miami’s Seraphic Fire. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This week’s pair of Cleveland Orchestra concerts led by music director Franz Welser-Möst will be devoted to works in a variety of styles by Igor Stravinsky. One of the most challenging is Threni: Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, a piece the composer premiered at the Venice Biennale in September 1958. Threni will be performed on Thursday, March 16 and Saturday, March 18 by The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus and the Miami-based chamber chorus Seraphic Fire, now in its fifteenth season.
We spoke by telephone last week with Seraphic Fire’s founder and artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley, who was already in Cleveland on another assignment with the Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst on Thursday evening, members of The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus and an excellent team of soloists made a strong case for a not-so-historically informed approach to Bach’s sacred vocal works. The quality of Welser-Möst’s interpretation and the excellence of its execution got right to the heart of the composer’s Passion According to St. John and left a powerful emotional impression. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Of Johann Sebastian Bach’s two extant Passion settings, the St. John is the more dramatic, an excursion in a speedboat compared to the ocean liner-like progress of the St. Matthew.
This weekend, music director Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Chamber Chorus in three performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, with tenor Maximilian Schmitt as the Evangelist, bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams as Christus, and soprano Lauren Snouffer, countertenor Iestyn Davies, tenor Nicholas Phan, and bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as soloists.
As part of Bach’s plan to establish a “well-regulated church music” after his arrival in Leipzig in 1723, he initiated a five-year cycle of weekly cantatas, and planned an elaborate setting of the Passion according to the Gospel of John for performance on Good Friday afternoon of 1724. [Read more…]