Leif Ove Andsnes Archives - Cleveland Classical

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes champions Norwegian composers in Cleveland recital (Mar. 27)

April 3, 2025 by Stephanie Manning

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Touring musicians have been making some difficult decisions about whether to proceed with their U.S. engagements lately, and Leif Ove Andsnes is no exception.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I arrived in the U.S. yesterday,” the Norwegian pianist wrote in a statement on his social media. “Music cannot solve global problems, but I hope my program can at least inspire some of the emotions we so badly need right now: compassion, empathy, generosity, understanding, and an appreciation of diversity.”

Forging ahead with his recital tour, Andsnes took the stage at Severance Music Center on Thursday, March 27 as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series. The pianist gracefully represented his home country with music by Edvard Grieg and Geirr Tveitt, along with Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes.

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MTT makes magic with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 13)

April 17, 2023 by Stephanie Manning

by Stephanie Manning

Both long-time listeners and recent fans likely found something to enjoy at Severance on April 13. The Cleveland Orchestra’s program that weekend not only included a symphony that could win over many a first-time audience member, but also a work that hadn’t been heard from the ensemble since 1930. In either case, the result was fantastic.

At the podium was conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who brought a charming and nuanced interpretation to two lesser-known works by Debussy. Jeux; poème dansé, originally written for the Ballets Russes, is lush yet perpetually unsettled. The orchestra responded well to the music’s indecisive shifts, flitting easily from one thing to the next — all underscored by some precise tamborine work from principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis.

With Jeux’s inclusion of a number of auxiliary instruments came the opportunity for featuring moments across the wind and brass sections, a quality also present in the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra that followed. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra wraps up season with emotional performances (May 4)

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Spring is always the season of farewells for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO). Twenty-nine of the middle- and high school musicians who performed in Mandel Concert Hall on Sunday pinned a white flower to their black attire — signifying that as graduating seniors, their time with the group would shortly come to a bittersweet end.

The May 4 concert at Severance Music Center also bid farewell to COYO’s music director Daniel Reith, who has led the ensemble since the fall of 2022. Sunday’s event left both students and conductor with plenty to be proud of.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Duo Chinoiserie (Apr. 26)

by Kevin McLaughlin

Sometimes a concert surprises and disorients its audience so completely that you have to be reminded of what you signed up to hear. Duo Chinoiserie, pairing guitarist Bin Hu and guzheng virtuoso Jing Xia, had that effect on Saturday evening, April 26, at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

Presented by Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, the duo’s program of works — some written and others arranged for them — traced an imaginative arc across centuries, continents, and traditions, in a marvelous comingling of sonic possibilities.

[Read on…]

CIM Opera Theater: Don Giovanni (Apr. 23)

by Peter Feher

It’s hard not to be enamored with Don Giovanni, Mozart’s supreme realization of passion, danger, and desire in music. And CIM Opera Theater made falling in love with this 1787 masterpiece the most natural thing thanks to a splendid production at Playhouse Square last week.

Taking the stage of the Mimi Ohio Theatre on Wednesday, April 23, for the first of two performances, the largely student cast seemed to be discovering the drama afresh. The story of the cad and lecher Don Juan has been told countless times, but the Italianate version that Mozart crafted with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte remains the most viscerally immediate, even centuries later.

[Read on…]

Cleveland Orchestra brass and percussion celebrate Akron’s 200th in ambitious Tuesday Musical program (Apr. 22)

by Stephanie Manning

There are very few American cities who can count themselves as having an official fanfare. But now, Akron is one of them.

To celebrate the city’s 200th anniversary, Tuesday Musical commissioned composer Peter Boyer to write Festive Fanfare (For Akron’s Bicentennial). More than a concert piece, a recording of the four-minute fanfare will soon be made available for open-access use at Akron civic events. On April 22, a packed house heard it live for the first time as part of a wide-ranging program by the brass and percussion players of The Cleveland Orchestra.

“Kid — candy store,” Boyer said from the stage at E.J. Thomas Hall, gesturing to himself and then the musicians to describe his excitement. [Read on…]

Conductor Kazuki Yamada’s stylish Cleveland Orchestra debut features Elgar, Mozart, and pianist Francesco Piemontesi (Apr. 24)

by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Edward Elgar’s first symphony was a long time coming. But once the British composer finally put pen to paper at age 51, audiences at the time simply couldn’t get enough. But tastes change, and that rapturous response in 1908 couldn’t guarantee eternal success. The piece has now settled into relative obscurity for many American orchestras.

Today, Britain is still the most likely place to hear Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 — so it made sense that The Cleveland Orchestra’s performance on April 24 should be led by the conductor of a British ensemble. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra music director Kazuki Yamada ascended the Severance Music Center podium, making his assured and elegant Cleveland Orchestra debut.

Elgar’s symphony is unconcerned with quaint, pastoral English scenes — instead, it’s often stormy, celebratory, and in-your-face, sometimes all at once. On Thursday, Yamada confirmed his reputation for passion and expressivity as a conductor in his interpretation of the symphony.

[Read on…]

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