by Nicholas Stevens
At performances by CityMusic Cleveland last week, principal guest conductor Stefan Willich began his comments with a terse observation: “Love is a complicated thing.” It served as a wry introduction to Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, five settings of poems by the married Mathilde Wesendonck, written as Wagner (also married) pursued an affair with her. However, the statement could have served as a motto for each of the pieces on the program. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
The temperature outside was a balmy 60 degrees when CityMusic Cleveland presented its December program. I attended the last of five concerts, on Sunday, December 13 in Lakewood; others were scattered around the area from Elyria to Willoughby Hills. While it was a pleasure not to have to negotiate a Polar Vortex in getting to the concert, once inside, I was happy to experience winter in the milder form of Antonio Vivaldi’s brilliant program music from The Four Seasons. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
A great thing about chamber music is that it can be performed in any space that can accommodate a small number of musicians while leaving room to comfortably seat an audience. Since 2005, Heights Arts’ Close Encounters Chamber Music Series has found its niche in Cleveland’s vibrant chamber music scene by presenting concerts in intriguing and inviting spaces around the city. The series, coordinated by artistic director Isabel Trautwein, presented its first concert of the season on Sunday afternoon, November 22 at Dunham Tavern Museum in Midtown. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
If you’re not quite ready to immerse yourself in concerts totally dedicated to music of the holiday season, you’re in luck. Beginning on Wednesday, December 9 at 7:30 pm at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills, guest conductor Stefan Willich will lead CityMusic Cleveland in the first of five concerts that will feature Cleveland Orchestra first violinist Miho Hashizume as soloist in both Piazzolla’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons. Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, K. 551 (“Jupiter”) will round out the performances. Check our concert listings page for additional days and times.
The concerts will also include Haydn’s joyful Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 84 for violin, cello, oboe, and bassoon. “I’m looking forward to playing the Haydn,” CityMusic’s principal cello Sophie Benn said during a telephone conversation. “I’ve played both of his cello concertos, but this piece is very different from either one.” [Read more…]
Mike Telin
Is there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than listening to great classical chamber music performed by fantastic musicians— who are also donating their talents on behalf of a humanitarian cause? On Sunday, April 19 beginning at 3:00 pm in the Meeting House of First Church Oberlin, the Amici String Quartet will perform a benefit concert for Family Promise of Lorain County. The concert will include music by Beethoven and Schubert. The event is free and open to the public, although donations to support Family Promise are encouraged.
The Amici Quartet, Takako Masame and Miho Hashizume, violins, Lynne Ramsey, viola, and Ralph Curry, cello, all of whom are members of The Cleveland Orchestra, will begin the afternoon with Beethoven’s Quartet No. 2 in G major, op. 18. During intermission, Family Promise Executive Director Lois Pozega will speak about the agency’s important mission, and former clients will share their own inspirational stories about how the assistance they have received from the agency impacted their lives. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
This month’s Arts Renaissance Tremont concert brought the Amici String Quartet to the auditorium of Pilgrim UCC Church on Sunday afternoon, February 15, for the second performance in the group’s complete cycle of Beethoven quartets. A quick calculation suggests that this project will play out over five or six seasons (16 quartets, average of three quartets per performance), depending on how the Große Fuge figures in. [Read more…]