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Cleveland Orchestra In Focus 11: Intimate Mozart, Complex Berg

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by Daniel Hathaway

Much had changed in the 130-some years that separate Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Vienna from that of Alban Berg. The Cleveland Orchestra titled episode 11 of its In Focus digital series “Order and Disorder,” presumably to contrast Mozart’s well-behaved, Enlightenment-inspired Clarinet Quintet from 1789 with the societal chaos reflected musically in Berg’s Lyric Suite, three of the six movements from the composer’s 1925-1926 String Quartet that he arranged for full string orchestra in 1928.

Music director Franz Welser-Möst set the stage in his introductory video remarks, describing the Berg era as “the ‘Roaring 20s’ aftershock of World War I, a blooming of musical styles never experienced before or since.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra In Focus 4 with Nicholas McGegan (debut Dec. 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

British-born conductor Nicholas McGegan made what he reckoned was his third Thanksgiving weekend appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra a few weeks ago, but this time the event was recorded in an empty Severance Hall for later release on the Orchestra’s Adella streaming platform beginning December 10.

His agenda is his specialty: Baroque music, which he characterizes in his remarks as “over the top, what I like in music. It’s as if you take the front of the Supreme Court Building — very symmetrical, nice columns — and put all the frou-frou of fancy violin parts on top of the rough and tumble and fun part of the music.” Comparing it to jazz, he notes “in this music you have to do a lot of it for yourself.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Musicians’ “Summer Salute to Healthcare Workers”

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by Mike Telin

Never has it been more important to thank a healthcare worker than the present. And for the past four-plus months, people have expressed their gratitude to workers on the frontline of the Coronavirus Pandemic in a multitude of ways, from banging on pots to flyovers by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

For the past six weeks, more than 40 members of The Cleveland Orchestra have shown their appreciation with a “Summer Salute to Healthcare Workers.” The idea for the concerts came from Lynne Ramsey, the Orchestra’s first assistant principal viola.

“During the early part of the shutdown, Lynne saw military planes doing flybys over hospitals as a salute to healthcare workers,” violinist Isabel Trautwein said during a telephone conversation. “So she thought, what if musicians would do ‘playbys’?” [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Amici Quartet (Jan. 31)

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by Nicholas Stevens

As the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth sweeps classical music audiences along a twelve-month, field-wide festival of heroics, experiments, rhapsodizing, and apocalyptic drive, a challenge arises for performers who plan to acknowledge the occasion. In a season peppered with all-Beethoven programs, how does one stand out? Of the many approaches that could thrill an audience and do justice to the composer, which ones serve the ensemble just as well? On a late January evening, the Amici Quartet offered their answer: impeccable playing and utter unity. [Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont turns twenty-nine this season

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by Mike Telin 

Since its founding in 1991, Arts Renaissance Tremont (ART) has been a cultural pillar in that West Side Cleveland neighborhood. And from the beginning, the organization has made its home at the historic Pilgrim Congregational UCC. Under the tireless direction of its founder and director Chris Haff-Paluck (left, with Jinjoo Cho), with assistance from a group of dedicated board members and volunteers, ART has remained true to its vision of keeping concerts free of charge.

On Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 pm, ART will kick off its 29th season with a recital by cellist Darrett Adkins and pianist Cicilia Yudha. Their program will feature works by Janáček, Kodály, Messiaen, and Chopin.

“Twenty-nine years — who knows where all the time has gone?” Haff-Paluck said during an interview, noting that the Tremont neighborhood was very different in the early ‘90s. “There are so many restaurants and galleries now, but it wasn’t that way back then. People wanted arts programs to be happening in the neighborhood.”

[Read more…]

Arts Renaissance Tremont: Amici Quartet continue their Beethoven series (Feb. 10)

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by David Kulma

It’s February, and that means another lovely installment in the Amici Quartet’s multi-year Beethoven cycle for Arts Renaissance Tremont at Pilgrim Congregational Church. This year’s program on Sunday, February 10 included two quartets in the key of A that span the composer’s career. The Op. 18, No. 5 quartet is a jovial work with dark undercurrents from Beethoven’s first collection of six quartets published in 1800, while the late Heiliger Dankgesang quartet, Op. 132 from 1825, features a profound and patiently unfolding slow movement. [Read more…]

Amici Quartet continue Beethoven cycle on Arts Renaissance Tremont (Feb. 18)

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by David Kulma

Amici-String-Quartet-newSunday afternoon, February 18 was a time for chamber music at Pilgrim Church. As a part of the Arts Renaissance Tremont concert series, the Amici Quartet played their fourth concert in a series of six that will survey all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s string quartets over several years. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Women’s Committee hosts luncheon & conversation with Robert Vernon

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by Daniel Hathaway

VERNON-Robert-TCOThis summer, Cleveland Orchestra principal viola Robert Vernon will retire after serving in that position since 1976. Before he steps down from his illustrious career in the ensemble, The Cleveland Orchestra Women’s Committee will honor him with a luncheon at Westwood Country Club in Rocky River on Friday, April 15 at 12 Noon.

On that occasion, a conversation with Vernon, the longest-tenured string principal in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra, will be moderated by one of the newest members of its staff. [Read more…]

Amici Quartet to perform Benefit Concert for Family Promise Lorain County

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Mike Telin

Amici-SQIs there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than listening to great classical chamber music performed by fantastic musicians— who are also donating their talents on behalf of a humanitarian cause? On Sunday, April 19 beginning at 3:00 pm in the Meeting House of First Church Oberlin, the Amici String Quartet will perform a benefit concert for Family Promise of Lorain County. The concert will include music by Beethoven and Schubert. The event is free and open to the public, although donations to support Family Promise are encouraged.

The Amici Quartet, Takako Masame and Miho Hashizume, violins, Lynne Ramsey, viola, and Ralph Curry, cello, all of whom are members of The Cleveland Orchestra, will begin the afternoon with Beethoven’s Quartet No. 2 in G major, op. 18. During intermission, Family Promise Executive Director Lois Pozega will speak about the agency’s important mission, and former clients will share their own inspirational stories about how the assistance they have received from the agency impacted their lives. [Read more…]

NEOSonicFest: Concert No. 4 to feature CCS, CYO, Young Composers & an Ed London tribute

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by Mike Telin

London-EdWhen NEOSonicFest presents its fourth concert on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30pm in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (CCS) will pay tribute to its founder, the late Edwin London. The two-part musical evening will feature pieces by CCS’s 2015 Young and Emerging Composers competition winners, as well as a side-by-side performance with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) of Bernard Rands’ London Serenade.

“We’re very excited about this concert,” said CCS’s conductor and Festival music director Steven Smith. “For the first time we will join forces with CYO for a side-by-side performance. This will be one of the highlights of the Festival, because Bernard wrote his London Serenade for the Chamber Symphony. We’ve played it several times over the years, and, I think there’s something poignant about bringing the piece back to life alongside a new generation of players.” [Read more…]

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