by Nicholas Stevens
Most musicians and music history buffs recount Beethoven’s life as a three-part story of artistic progress, from early indebtedness to precedent, through the heroic rupturing of tradition, then on to strange yet sublime experiments. However, smart concert programming can remind us that this central figure of the classical pantheon, like most artists, tended to zigzag. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Stevens
E.J. Thomas Hall looms and soars, cradling audiences in a colossal yet cozy acoustic shell. The mechanism that allows for adjustments in the ceiling height — a system of suspended counterweights — dominates one lobby like a giant’s carillon. The hall hosts performances of all sizes, but truly comes alive when a given theatrical or musical production offers art of comparable scale, scope, and solidity, spanning the spectrum from soft speech to symphonic swells. The Akron Symphony offered just such a program earlier this month. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
“Verdi and Wagner together represent the pinnacle of the high Romantic age in music, and both were masters of drama,” Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins says in a video on the ASO’s YouTube channel.
Those two composers will find themselves paired in a program titled “Verdi and Valkyries,” to be performed by the Akron Symphony and Chorus on Friday, November 16 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.
Another pairing: Wilkins and chorus director Marie Bucoy-Calavan, who will trade off conducting duties throughout the evening. Bucoy-Calavan will handle much of the first half, comprising Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, the Overture and “Va, pensiero” from Nabucco, the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, and the Ballet and Triumphal March from Aïda.
by Daniel Hathaway
There are two varieties of concert Requiems — the comforting, consoling type (Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé) and the fiery Day of Judgment kind (Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi). The Akron Symphony chose one of the latter to close its season on Saturday, May 5. Led by music director Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony Chorus and the Masterworks Chorale of the Summit Choral Society joined the Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem, a thrilling choral conflagration that lit up E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“It’s been nineteen years since the Verdi Requiem has been performed in Akron, and we’re pulling out all of the stops, which is the only way to do it,” Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins said during a telephone interview. On Saturday, May 5 at 8:00 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, Wilkins will lead the ASO, the Akron Symphony Chorus, and the Summit Choral Society Masterworks Chorale along with soprano Dina Kuznetsova, mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, tenor John Pickle, and bass Adam Cioffari in Verdi’s masterpiece. Tickets are available online.
Saturday’s performance will mark the sixth time that the ASO has performed the work since its inaugural season in 1953 — the first was in 1961 under the direction of Evan Whallon. Subsequent performances were led by John MacDonald (1968), Robert Shaw (1978), Alan Balter (1987), and Paul Polivnick (1999).
by Jarrett Hoffman
A cave on the Scottish island of Staffa, the city of Rome, birdsong from Finnish bogs, and the vast landscapes of Antarctica provided key inspiration for four works — two of them among classical music’s Top 40, the other two rarely performed.
The Akron Symphony and music director Christopher Wilkins will bundle together those nature-themed compositions by Mendelssohn, Respighi, Rautavaara, and Vaughan Williams for “Planet Earth” on Friday, March 23 at 8:00 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall.
Projected visuals will join one of those composers’ sonic paintings. Thanks to Natural History New Zealand, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia antartica will be accompanied by a film created specifically for that symphony, focusing on the icy, mysterious, southernmost continent. The symphony, Vaughan Williams’ seventh, will also feature guest soprano Katherine Swift and the women of the Akron Symphony Chorus, directed by Marie Bucoy-Calavan.
by Mike Telin
“If you delve into the choral works of Brahms, you will see that everything culminates in his Requiem. It’s what most people think of when you mention his works for chorus and orchestra,” conductor Marie Bucoy-Calavan said during a telephone conversation. “What I like about Gesang der Parzen (‘Song of the Fates’) is that you get the darker side of Brahms along with a little bit of heavy metal. It is very passionate and there are places where it’s harsh and heavy. I enjoy that aspect of it, and I think the chorus does too.”
On Friday, October 6 at 8:00 pm at The University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, Marie Bucoy-Calavan, who serves as director of the Akron Symphony Chorus and artistic director of the Summit Chorale Society’s Masterworks Chorale, will make her Akron Symphony Orchestra conducting debut when she leads all three ensembles in Brahms’ Gesang der Parzen. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
A critical mass of nearly 200 singers joined Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony, and a first-rate quartet of soloists for a resounding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah on Saturday evening, May 5 in E.J. Thomas Hall. Commissioned for the 1846 Birmingham Festival following the success of his earlier oratorio St. Paul, Mendelssohn’s concert-length work presents the life of the Hebrew prophet in several dramatic scenes.
by Daniel Hathaway
At least one scholar has pointed out that the British entered the 19th century as a nation of folk singers, but emerged as a nation of oratorio singers. The Birmingham Triennial Festival, founded in 1787, became one of the principal commissioners of new works for large choruses and orchestras, and one of that festival’s favorite composers was Felix Mendelssohn.
Also a favorite of Queen Victoria and her Prince Consort Albert, Mendelssohn wrote and conducted St. Paul and his Second Piano Concerto for the 1837 Festival, and composed Elijah for the 1846 event, the year before he died. Elijah became so popular that it was performed at every successive festival until the series ended in 1912.
On Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 pm, Christopher Wilkins will conduct the Akron Symphony and the combined voices of the Akron Symphony Chorus, the Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale, and the University of Akron choruses, prepared by Marie Bucoy-Calavan, in Mendelssohn’s famous oratorio. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Charismatic conductor and motivational speaker Benjamin Zander made the most recent of his periodic appearances with the Akron Symphony Orchestra on January 21 at E.J. Thomas Hall. The all-Beethoven program featured the Ninth Symphony and the Third Piano Concerto with soloist HaeSun Paik.