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The Cleveland Orchestra serves up another treasure in fan-favorite Rhapsody in Blue (Nov. 29)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s an all-American extravaganza this holiday weekend at Severance Music Center. With Thanksgiving now in the books and December approaching fast, The Cleveland Orchestra has wasted no time gearing up its next few programs, many of them headlined by fan-favorites, to finish the calendar year on a high note.

On Friday, the marquee piece was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, an orchestral staple — especially in 2024, which marks the work’s 100th anniversary. This isn’t the first time The Cleveland Orchestra has played it this year, as Béla Fleck performed his banjo-and-orchestra transcription at Blossom Music Center in July.

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David Robertson to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a program of Americana

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by Mike Telin

While many performing organizations take time off during the Thanksgiving weekend, The Cleveland Orchestra will continue its tradition of playing concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon at Severance Music Center. “I think this is a wonderful program to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday,” guest conductor David Robertson said during a Zoom call.

On Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm, Robertson will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in an All-American program that includes Aaron Copland’s Suites from Appalachian Spring and The Tender Land. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin will be the featured soloist in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Duke Ellington’s New World A-Comin’. A free concert preview with James O’Leary, Associate Professor of Musicology at Oberlin College and Conservatory, takes place in Reinberger Chamber Hall one hour before each performance. Tickets are available online.

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Takács Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin at Cleveland Chamber Music Society (Jan. 23)

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By Peter Feher

The Takács Quartet and pianist Marc-André Hamelin put pleasure first in their January 23 performance for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. In a program that could have been bogged down by questions of national pride and identity, these players instead chose to convey all the charm and character of their repertoire from a cosmopolitan perspective.

Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, the first piece on Tuesday’s concert at Disciples Christian Church, set the tone for the evening. After some initial stiffness, the Takács players warmed up to the romantic atmosphere imagined by this Austrian composer who, in his short life, would never actually visit the Mediterranean.

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Marc-André Hamelin at Severance (Nov. 19)

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by Peter Feher

If Marc-André Hamelin had never studied music, he might have become a great novelist instead. At least, that was the impression that the expert Canadian pianist gave during an engrossing solo performance in Reinberger Chamber Hall on November 19.

Hamelin’s program, perhaps the most ambitious entry in The Cleveland Orchestra’s recital series at Severance Music Center this season, offered a master class in sensitive storytelling.

And the narrative brilliance had everything to do with the alchemical mix of performer and repertoire. On Sunday, Hamelin tackled three multi-movement works whose composers shared a couple of important inclinations. They all were good, but not great pianists themselves, and they all wrote programmatic music, or pieces that tell a story. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra In Focus 5: Parameswaren leads “Musical Patterns”

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by Daniel Hathaway

The release of the fifth episode of The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus video series coincided with the elevation of Vinay Parameswaren from assistant to associate conductor of the ensemble and the extension of his contract. Of course, the concert had been pre-recorded a couple of weeks before it appeared on the Adella platform on January 28, but his leadership of the Orchestra on that occasion completely validated that promotion.

Episode 5 is subtitled “Musical Patterns,” a nod to the fact that three of the four works are examples of “minimalism,” or maybe more precisely, “repetitive music.” [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: In Focus: Episode 5 — Looks can be deceiving 

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by Mike Telin

While the music on the next installment of The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus series may appear uncomplicated in the score, assistant conductor Vinay Parameswaran cautions listeners that looks can be deceiving.

Debuting on Thursday, January 28 at 7:00 pm, “Musical Patterns” juxtaposes the magic of modern minimalism with Baroque splendor. The program, available only on the Adella app — click here for information — will include music by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, John Adams, and J.S. Bach, and will feature pianist Marc-André Hamelin and associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee. The stream will be accessible on demand until April 28, 2021.

Philip Glass said that Glassworks — released in 1982, originally as a six-movement chamber music work to be enjoyed on a Walkman — “was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.” It is the first movement, “Opening” (reworked by Christian Badzura for piano and strings), that will be performed during the In Focus concert.

“It’s only six or seven minutes long, and if you look at the piano part it is quite delicate,” Parameswaran said during a telephone conversation. “Only at the climax does it become loud and use the full range of the piano.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Slobodeniouk & Hamelin (Oct. 24)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Tell a classical fan that you recently heard an ensemble play a piece from the 1920s that features a solo snare drum, and their mind might snap to any of a number of dubious ultramodern experiments of that era. A late October program by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, at once offbeat and logical in its selection of delights, short-circuited stereotypical associations of the idiosyncratic with the avant-garde. Ovations for percussionist Marc Damoulakis and clarinetist Afendi Yusuf capped a concert devoted to Romanticism in all its strangeness. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Fridays@7 with McGegan & Hamelin (Nov. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

McGEGAN-NicholasDepending on which of the three Cleveland Orchestra concerts led by Nicholas McGegan you attended last weekend, you got a different combination of pieces. For the Fridays@7 iteration on November 17, there were only two works, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 (“Jeunehomme”) with Marc-André Hamelin, and Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”), both presented in spectacular, flawless performances. [Read more…]

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin
returns to Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

Hamelin-MarcAndre“This marks a major change in the evolution of his piano concertos,” Marc-André Hamelin said during a telephone conversation from St. Louis. He was referring to Mozart’s Concerto No. 9 (“Jeunehomme”), which he will perform with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas McGegan on Friday, November 17 at 7:00 pm and Saturday, November 18 at 8:00 pm.

“The concerto is such an incredible departure from what he did before. There’s an explosion of activity from the very beginning, and the way that he inserts a second slow movement in the middle of the rondo — that’s really quite exceptional.”

Hamelin said that he looks forward to working with Nicholas McGegan for the first time. “Nic is amazing, I was with him at the Van Cliburn back in May and June. He conducted all of the Mozart concerti during the competition, and just to see him at work told me a lot about what our rapport will be this weekend. I anticipate nothing but a delightful experience.”

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CIPC Concert Series: pianist Marc-André Hamelin at CMA (March 21)

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by Daniel Hathaway

HamelinFor the second recital in its 2017 Concert Series, the Cleveland International Piano Competition presented Marc-André Hamelin at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Tuesday evening, March 21. The Montréal-born pianist gave outstanding performances of works by Haydn, Feinberg, Beethoven, Scriabin, and Chopin that could teach future competition contestants a lot about how to prick up the ears of juries and audiences. [Read more…]

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