ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

Tuesday Musical to present London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields  

by

by Mike Telin

Although it is common to hear performances of Baroque and some classical period orchestral repertoire performed without a conductor, you don’t often think of a Paganini violin concerto or a Brahms symphony being performed without one. Think again.

On Tuesday, February 25 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, violinist Joshua Bell will lead the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in performances of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. Presented by Akron’s Tuesday Musical, the evening will be preceded by a conversation with Academy musicians at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

The concert is part of the Ensemble’s 20-day, 16-concert North American tour. “We’re very excited to be coming back to Akron,” Academy violinist Harvey de Souza said by phone from Bethesda, Maryland. “This is probably the biggest group that we have toured. I think there are 54 of us, which for us is very large.”

De Souza, who joined the Academy in 1993, said the Brahms symphony is a lovely piece and a joy to play. It’s also the largest work they have ever taken on tour. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble (Oct. 19)

by

by Nicholas Stevens

AcademyStMartinChamberEnsIn the ten seconds that conclude the first movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Sextet in A, the world outside falls away. The players must sing out the first theme at full volume, slowing as though crossing a finish line—then, a moment of gut-wrenching tension gives way to a fading sunset of a chord. A merely excellent ensemble might pull out all the stops here. Yet the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, being the first-rate group of musicians they long have been, keep this moment incandescent while maintaining a sense of larger-scale trajectory. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical presents Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble October 19

by

by Mike Telin

AcademyStMartinChamberEnsCreated in 1967 to perform larger chamber works, the Chamber Ensemble of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performs in all shapes and sizes, from quintets to octets, drawn from the principal players of the orchestra. On Thursday, October 19 at 7:30 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present the venerable ensemble in a performance that will include music by Antonín Dvořák and George Enescu. Tickets available online.

Although the London-based Ensemble is celebrating its 50th year, “what many don’t know is that the Academy began as a chamber ensemble playing Baroque music in Neville Marriner’s living room,” violinist Harvey de Souza said by telephone from Northridge, California, where the Ensemble was in the middle of their North American tour. “At that time, people were into these huge massive forces performing Handel’s Messiah with a thousand-voice chorus and huge orchestras and I think he got tired of that. He wanted to get back to the purity of playing concerti grossi with a pair of violins, and that is how it all got started.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Chamber Music Society to launch Season 66 with the Academy of St. Martin Chamber Ensemble

by

by Daniel Hathaway

ASMF-Chamber-EnsembleThe Cleveland Chamber Music Society will welcome one of its largest groups of the season, the Chamber Ensemble of London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, to open its 66th season on Tuesday, October 6 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. The performers will include Tomo Keller and Harvey de Souza, violins, Robert Smissen, viola, Stephen Orton, cello, Lynda Houghton, double bass, Timothy Orpen, clarinet, Lawrence O’Donnell, bassoon, and Stephen Stirling, horn.

The ASMF chamber ensemble’s visit to Cleveland will be only the second stop on their current tour of North America. All told, the group will play fourteen concerts in nineteen days, beginning on October 5 in Dallas and ending on October 25 at Stanford University. In between, the musicians will perform in such far-flung cities as Clinton (NY), San Antonio, Houston, Memphis, Chicago, Columbus, Green Bay, Edmonton (Alberta), Reno, and Ashland (OR). [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Beyond Base Four — Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble (May 5)

by

by Nicholas Jones

ASMF-Ch-EnsEver since Haydn established the string quartet as the ensemble de rigueur, chamber music for strings has tended to operate in base four. There are many variants on the quartet (“4 ± n”, as a math teacher might write it), but even when you subtract a violin (Beethoven) or add a viola (Mozart), a cello (Schubert), or a double bass (Dvořák) — or, as in this concert, when you pump it up to a sextet (Brahms) or an octet (Mendelssohn, Shostakovich) — the quartet remains the norm. [Read more…]

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble to play Tuesday Musical Series finale on May 5

by

by Mike Telin

ASMF-Ch-EnsOn Tuesday, May, 5 beginning at 7:30 pm at E. J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in Akron, the Tuesday Musical Association’s 2014-2015 concert season will come to a close with a performance by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. The program will include works by Brahms, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn.

Announcing the concert, TMA Executive Director Jarrod Hartzler said “the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields is one of the most recognized names in the classical music world, and rightly so. Their performances continually wow audiences, and I know that their Akron performance will be no different.” [Read more…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us