by Peter Feher
Even the best pianists only share a keyboard in performance with someone they trust. Fortunately for Cleveland audiences, the bond between two players doesn’t get much deeper than the duo of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni.
The husband-and-wife piano team gave a spectacular four-hands recital at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson on November 14, part of Music From The Western Reserve’s 2021–2022 concert series.
You could see the relationship at work on a practical level. Repertoire for two players at the same piano requires a certain choreography. There’s just one of each pedal to share, and the hand crossings left and right — which can be so fun to watch a soloist pull off — get more complicated when another person’s involved. At times, Pompa-Baldi drew a hand away from the keyboard and into his body, making room for Friscioni, and at the close of a few delicate phrases, the two were crouched together over the same final notes at one end of the instrument. [Read more…]
A bit of jazz, and even some rock crept onto saxophonist Gabriel Piqué’s program at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson on October 31. Although he stuck to mostly classical repertoire in his Music From The Western Reserve recital, those occasional flashes of other genres didn’t seem out of place.
Many pianists win prizes in international piano competitions but few return to the scenes of their triumphs to run them.
As the classical music community knows, wind instruments have been fairly quiet over the past year. But knowing is different from feeling, and a pre-recorded concert by the Black Squirrel Winds on Sunday, April 11 turned out to be even more welcome than expected. Not only was it a rare showcase these days of the beautiful, colorful combination of sounds that make up the wind quintet, but it was played in an impressive fashion that’s far less common than a black squirrel sighting in Kent.
Although black squirrels can be spotted around Northeast Ohio, they are prolific in the city of Kent. “At our first rehearsal we talked about choosing a name for the group, so we threw out some ideas,” bassoonist Mark DeMio recalled during a recent telephone conversation. “Our horn player said that since there were so many black squirrels in the area he always liked the idea of playing in a group called the black squirrel — something. And that’s how we became the Black Squirrel Winds.” 
Music From The Western Reserve concerts always fall on Sunday, even as streams. December 13 was therefore as close to Beethoven’s likely birthdate on the 16th as the presenters could come to throwing a virtual party. Debuting their stream before that occasion made little difference in the concert’s power: over a week later, pianist Daniel Shapiro’s stunning interpretations remained lodged in this reviewer’s mind. As social media lit up with tributes and music-lovers around the world raised a glass, Shapiro’s MFTWR video remains on YouTube, where those interested can still listen and learn what it means to truly engage with Beethoven.
You don’t need a deerstalker hat and a pipe to make some interesting observations about Sunday’s program from Music From The Western Reserve, which airs 