Jane Eaglen Archives - Cleveland Classical

Review: Blue Water Chamber Orchestra with Jane Eaglen at Plymouth Church (March 2)

March 12, 2013 by Special to ClevelandClassical.com

by J.D. Goddard

On Saturday evening, March 2 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, conductor Carlton Woods and the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra presented a program entitled “Jane and Ludwig.” (i.e. Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen and composer Ludwig van Beethoven), a somewhat misleading title because Ms. Eaglen was performing Wagner and not Beethoven.

The orchestra opened with a crisp and efficient “teaser,” Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, which immediately set the tone for the evening’s fare.

The Egmont Overture was a commissioned work intended as incidental music for Goethe’s play of the same name. The Overture has survived as an independent concert piece and is now mostly performed without the rest of the incidental music. [Read more…]

Preview: Blue Water Chamber Orchestra: Jane Eaglen to sing Wagner on March 2

February 26, 2013 by Special to ClevelandClassical.com

by Mike Telin

“The Wesendonck Lieder are beautiful and I just love to sing these songs any chance I get,” exclaims renowned dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen. “I learned them with my teacher when I first went to college at eighteen, and I have performed them many, many times, and every time I do I find something new and different about them.” On Saturday, March 2 beginning at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church, Jane Eaglen will perform Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Blue Water Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Carlton Woods. The concert, titled Jane & Ludwig, also includes Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Symphony No. 8.

The five songs that comprise the Wesendonck Lieder, Der Engel (The Angel), Stehe still! (Stand still!), Im Treibhaus (In the Greenhouse), Schmerzen (Sorrows) and Träume (Dreams) were composed while Wagner was working on his opera Tristan und Isolde. “Of course he was trying things out for Tristan when he was writing them, so I suppose it was a bit of writing the songs before the opera.” In fact Wagner sub-titled two of the songs Träume and Treibhaus, as studies for Tristan und Isolde. [Read more…]

Les Délices welcomes the festive season with “Noel, Noel” (Dec. 7)

by Stephanie Manning

Once December kicks in, an almost overwhelming number of holiday programs pop up around Northeast Ohio. But Les Délices’ offering should draw your attention.

While other festive concerts may create the atmosphere of a bustling party by the fireplace, “Noel, Noel” is like observing a snowy evening from the warmth of the indoors. This is music best enjoyed in quiet contentment, and especially live — so it’s no surprise that the early music ensemble brought back this signature program for three performances this month.

On December 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the six-member group presented a lovely ninety-minute program, which is also available on CD and via streaming until the end of the year. [Read on…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: In Four Voices (Dec. 3)

by Kevin McLaughlin

Renaissance polyphony can bloom in resonant spaces, but the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art presents particular challenges: hard surfaces and a long reverb tend to blur consonants into watercolor. The Cleveland Chamber Choir’s four-voice ensemble met those conditions head-on during its “In Four Voices” program on December 3. What emerged was an evening of consistently beautiful vocal timbre shaped by a group navigating the sonic characteristics of the room.

The concert, to be followed in January and March by appearances of various-sized ensembles, is part of a new development for the Cleveland Chamber Choir, called the Camerata Series — more information here.

To improve their chances of hearing one another, the quartet — soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck, mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr, tenor Joel Kincannon, and bass Dominic Aragon — stood in a traditional “part book” formation, like a diamond, facing inward. This meant that their sound was directed toward each other, rather than outward to the listeners around them. [Read on…]

Labadie leads fresh-sounding performance of Messiah with Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and solo quartet (Dec. 4)

by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – On Thursday evening at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Bernard Labadie did far more than just hold the performance of Messiah by the Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and solo quartet together, he led a surgically clean account of George Frideric Handel’s 1741 oratorio.

Like a London cabbie, Labadie knew all the available highways and byways for the two-hour musical journey and pointed out interesting sights we might otherwise have missed.

And to change metaphors, like a skilled restorer he gently removed layers of interpretive grime that has accumulated over the years from Handel’s score, allowing us to hear it with fresh ears. He also tucked in some surprises of his own for those of us who thought we knew the piece and how it should go. [Read on…]

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