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CityMusic Cleveland: Three Eras, One Conversation (Dec. 5)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

“We love coming here!” CityMusic Cleveland’s managing director Henry Peyrebrune said in his opening remarks on Friday at St. Noel Catholic Church. Open and modern and warmly lit, St. Noel proved a welcoming setting for December 5th’s  well-attended concert. Many pews had been claimed early, and finding a seat required a bit of roaming. As always with CityMusic, admission was free, with only a suggested ticket price and friendly greeters at the door.

The program, titled Three Eras, One Conversation (although I only counted two) traced a through-line from Mozart to Haydn to Stravinsky, with conductor James Feddeck clarifying the connections across style and time. [Read more…]

CityMusic: Vivaldi recomposed at St. Stan’s (Mar. 16)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

By the end of violinist Laura Hamilton’s and CityMusic Cleveland’s convincing performance of Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposed (after A. Vivaldi) on Saturday, March 16 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, you had the uncanny feeling that what you were hearing was not so much a new piece but an old piece in a dream.

In each of the twelve movements Richter brings Vivaldi in and out of focus by isolating and repeating melodic fragments against an attenuated accompaniment. In the slow movements more of the melody is preserved — the Largo in “Winter” for example — but the original harmonic framework is altered. [Read more…]

CityMusic Cleveland: Laura Hamilton plays Four Seasons Recomposed

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by Mike Telin

Without a doubt, The Four Seasons — that group of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi — is one of the most recognizable works in the classical music canon. And like many, composer Max Richter fell in love with it as a child, as he told NPR’s Audie Cornish in an interview.

“It’s beautiful, charming music with a great melody and wonderful colors. Then, later on, as I became more musically aware — literate, studied music and listened to a lot of music — I found it more difficult to love it. We hear it everywhere — when you’re on hold, you hear it in the shopping center, in advertising; it’s everywhere. For me, the record and the project are trying to reclaim the piece, to fall in love with it again.”

That project he’s referring to is his The Four Seasons Recomposed (after A. Vivaldi). On Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, violinist Laura Hamilton (pictured) will join CityMusic Cleveland in Richter’s inventive re-imagining of Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Under the direction of guest conductor Annunziata Tomaro, the program, “Rediscovered Classics,” will also include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. The program will be repeated on Friday at 7:30 at Lakewood Congregational Church, Saturday at 7:30 at Shrine of St. Stanislaus, and Sunday at 4:00 at St. Noel Catholic Church. All performances are free.

[Read more…]

Klezmer and Kreutzer 
with CityMusic (Mar. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

Most clarinetists are no strangers to playing on all the different varieties of their instrument. But using three of them over the course of just one piece? That’s a little more unusual.

On March 16, Daniel Gilbert sat facing a packed crowd at the Temple Tifereth-Israel with a B-flat, A, and bass clarinet all laid out in front of him. The work he was about to embark on with conductor Joel Smirnoff and the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra was also a little unusual — but in a very intriguing way.

[Read more…]

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