by Carlyn Kessler
On Friday, October 10, The Cleveland Orchestra presented its first Fridays@7 concert of the 2014-15 season. Creating a more informal concertgoing experience, these concerts feature an earlier start time and shorter duration bookended by pre- and post-concert non-classical music, organized by world percussion luminary Jamey Haddad. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The Cleveland Orchestra built its second subscription weekend around the phenomenal Chinese pianist, Lang Lang, who treated Severance Hall audiences to Richard Strauss’s Burleske on Thursday and Friday evenings and Sunday afternoon, Chopin’s Andante spianato & Grand Polonaise brillante on Thursday and Sunday, and no doubt blew the patrons of the Orchestra’s annual benefit evening away with the first Tchaikovsky concerto on Saturday. [Read more…]
Composers Connect, the last event in the Cleveland Orchestra’s current season on Saturday, June 6, features the music of four of the orchestra’s former Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellows, Marc-André Dalbavie (1998-2000), Matthias Pintscher, who will also be on the podium for the concert (2000-2002), Susan Botti, a Cleveland native who will also assume singing duties (2003-2005), and Johannes Maria Staud (2007-2009).
We reached Matthias Pintscher last week by phone to talk about how he finds conducting and composing to be complimentary, and how he defines himself as a composer.
Mike Telin: It is a pleasure to speak to you and we are looking forward to your return to Cleveland.
Matthias Pintscher: Thank you and I look forward to being back in Cleveland. I have many fond memories, and the people are so proud of their orchestra. I remember my very first trip; I landed at the airport and I told the taxi driver that I needed to go to Severance Hall. He asked me why, and I told him that I was a composer and they were playing one of my pieces, and he looked back at me and said, it is an honor to drive anyone who is connected to the Cleveland Orchestra. Yes, the people are so friendly and very proud of the orchestra.
MT: You have had a very non-traditional educational path, and I was reading that composers such as Hans Werner Henze and Luigi Nono recognized your ability at an early age.
MP: I was privileged to meet all these great people such as Henze, Nono, and lots of wonderful conductors at a very early age, Claudio Abbado was an early supporter of my work. He brought me into his room and said, Matthias, I had a look at your scores and this looks really difficult, but we want a piece from you. I was in my early twenties. So this is how it happened, people trusted me, but I also worked very hard. [Read more…]