by David Kulma
There is a certain je ne sais quoi about minor-key Mozart. The dark, brooding colors that rarely appear in his more plentiful major-key works give his wonderfully inevitable music a grand power and solemnity few other composers have ever matched. His Symphony No. 40 in g and Requiem in d are only the two most famous examples. Their major-key sections take on a new, heavenly meaning in contrast with the overall somberness. The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers@Severance concert on Friday, August 2 was a great opportunity to hear another of Mozart’s minor-key marvels: the Great Mass in c, K. 427, with four excellent vocal soloists and the Blossom Festival Chorus, all conducted with flair by Matthew Halls. [Read more…]
A full evening devoted to the music of Joseph Haydn is sure to be filled with sophisticated musical rhetoric, and at least a good handful of surprises. Last Thursday evening at Severance Hall, visiting British conductor Matthew Halls and The Cleveland Orchestra dug deeply into the fabric of an overture and a symphony, and with the help of the fastidiously exciting pianist Marc-André Hamelin, into one of the Austrian master’s piano concertos. Though the fourth work was obviously not by Haydn, its performance by duo hornists Richard King and Jesse McCormick would have deeply impressed whoever actually wrote it. 
Mother Nature was apparently clued in – and ready – for the Saturday evening concert by the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Center on August 9. During the first half of the program, the birds and the frogs and the crickets started warming up. By the time the Orchestra took the stage for Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the sounds of nature were ready! And then came Supermoon! It really was spectacular. Those music lovers on the lawn had a better glimpse of it, perhaps, but once we were out in the parking lot, there it was in all its huge, luminous splendor. The weather was simply perfect for enjoying the moon and the music!