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Polenzani & Drake
on Chamber Music Society (Apr. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin 

I’ve been enjoying watching the tenor Matthew Polenzani’s masterclasses on YouTube. There’s one at Ravinia from a few years ago where he approaches students like a shy visitor, then gently teaches like he performs — guilelessly and penetratingly.

It was this sort of unaffected honesty that Polenzani brought to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Disciples Christian Church on Tuesday, April 9, in a recital program of Schubert, Schumann, Finzi, and Ives. Out of keeping with the series’ regular fare of string quartets and instrumental chamber music, the freshness was doubly felt.

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Preview: Cleveland Chamber Music Society — fifteen minutes with soprano Susanna Phillips

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by Daniel Hathaway

PHILLIPS-SusannaTwo of the singers who joined James Levine in his triumphant return to the Metropolitan Opera for Mozart’s Così fan tutte on September 24 will find themselves in Cleveland on different missions during the next week. Tenor Matthew Polenzani will appear with The Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Britten’s Serenade, and soprano Susanna Phillips will bring two of her favorite chamber music collaborators to town for the opening concert of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 64th season on Tuesday, October 15 at Plymouth Church.

New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote that Phillips “had what could be a breakthrough night at the Met as Fiordiligi…She has the purity and bloom of a Mozart lyric soprano. Yet her voice can lift phrases with penetrating sound and deep richness.” Asked in a telephone conversation about that night, Susanna Phillips told us that Levine’s return was “an incredible experience — he’s an incredible guy. It was a night I won’t soon forget. It was great to see him back so full of joy and focus. Everybody was thrilled.”

Though Phillips is an international opera star, her feet are planted firmly on the ground, and she maintains a close relationship with Huntsville, the Alabama town where she grew up. When she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in La bohème in 2008, four hundred and fifty local fans flew up to New York to hear her sing. “It’s very rewarding to have the community rally behind you — and they keep showing up and sending me emails and notes,” she said. [Read more…]

Preview: Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with tenor Matthew Polenzani

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by Mike Telin
POLENZANI-MatthewAmerican lyric tenor Matthew Polenzani has been praised for the artistic versatility and fresh lyricism that he brings to concert and operatic appearances on leading international stages. Of his recent Metropolitan Opera performance as the young military officer Ferrando in Cosí Fan Tutte, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote, “[Polenzani’s] singing of Ferrando had Mozartean elegance along with exciting, tenorial ping. He brought honeyed sound and melting pianissimos to the sublime aria ‘Un’aura amorosa.’”

This weekend Matthew Polenzani returns to Severance Hall for three performances of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. I reached him on his cell phone in New York where he was experiencing a real life moment —yes, stars of the Metropolitan Opera do get stuck in traffic with their kids. But being the very down-to-earth and gracious Midwesterner that he is, when I ask him if he would prefer that I call at another time he responds, “No not really, now is as good a time as any.” I began by asking him when he first came to Britten’s Serenade.

Matthew Polenzani: I knew about it because I have enjoyed Britten’s music from the time I first became interested in classical music. And I was invited to sing it with Jeffrey Tate in Minnesota around 2000. That was the first time I performed the piece and I loved it. It’s great music, very descriptive and pictorial writing. It’s just beautiful and I’ve enjoyed it very much. [Read more…]

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