Mark Suter Archives - Cleveland Classical

Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble at Blossom Music Center (August 13)

August 23, 2016 by Alexandra A. Vago

by Alexandra Vago

Bad weather was no deterrent for concertgoers at the Blossom Music Center on Saturday, August 13. The audience in a nearly-packed pavilion and on an umbrella-laden lawn gave The Silk Road Ensemble two standing ovations, one at intermission and one at the conclusion of their stellar performance. [Read more…]

No Exit: New Season, New Sounds at SPACES Gallery (Oct. 19)

by Daniel Hathaway

No Exit New Music’s events are like carefully curated art shows, and come complete with printed programs that more resemble exhibition catalogs than what you’d normally be handed at the door of a concert venue.

It takes some space to present the often complex back stories of contemporary works, and the ensemble’s triad of October programs, simply titled “New Season, New Sounds” was accompanied by a colorful, artsy, 39-page booklet that could become a collector’s item.

I joined a good-sized and enthusiastic audience to attend the third performance at SPACES Gallery on Saturday evening, October 19. [Read on…]

Apollo’s Fire opens Bach-focused season with Brandenburgs (Oct. 18)

by Peter Feher

If it weren’t for J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, there might not be period-instrument ensembles like Apollo’s Fire. Cleveland’s Baroque orchestra, now in its 33rd season, opened its concert year with a solid program built around these staple pieces.

A lively performance of four of the concertos at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights on Friday, October 18 was the first of half a dozen outings for Apollo’s Fire this month (with slight changes in repertoire and personnel along the way).

Bach’s music, in all its consolations and complexities, could easily fill an ensemble’s entire schedule. In fact, that’s sort of what Apollo’s Fire has planned for 2024–25, with artistic director Jeannette Sorrell conceiving of the composer as a “guide star” for the season. The yearlong focus on Bach is set to conclude this spring in a “Bachanalia,” a full month of concerts and workshops around Northeast Ohio. [Read on…]

Les Délices conjures Arcadia in high quality (Oct. 20)

by Stephanie Manning

Arcadia: that mythological Eden, that utopian natural paradise. The members of Italy’s Arcadian Academy, established in the late 17th century, aimed to replicate that pastoral life via the arts. And on October 20, Les Délices sought to do the same, by performing the music of composers from the Academy and beyond.

“Arcadian Dreams,” a program featuring soprano Hannah De Priest, gave the Harkness Chapel audience a taste of the early music group’s next recording. In fact, the musicians were gearing up to get in the studio the very next day — and they delivered a suitably high-quality performance in the process. [Read on…]

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