by David Kulma
On the night of Good Friday, as the Brentano Quartet filled Oberlin’s Finney Chapel with shimmering sound, a question came to mind: what is the essence of a madrigal? Put simply, a madrigal is an Italian Renaissance form for voices full of musical effects that paint clear tonal pictures of the words being sung. More complexly, a madrigal is so shaped by its text that it constantly molds itself into new forms like Descartes’ philosophical ball of wax.
by Jarrett Hoffman
The Brentano String Quartet has an affinity for both the standard repertoire and music very old and very new. Their program on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series at Finney Chapel on Friday, March 30 at 8:00 pm covers all those bases. Beginning with arrangements of madrigals by Monteverdi and Gesualdo, they’ll jump 400 years to the music of Oberlin Conservatory composition chair Stephen Hartke, then close with Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 12 in D-flat.
Among the Brentano’s many honors, violinists Serena Canin and Mark Steinberg, violist Misha Amory, and cellist Nina Lee celebrated the Quartet’s “silver anniversary” — 25 years — in 2017.
“Our friendship has been the real sine qua non for continuing as a long-term quartet,” Amory wrote in an email while the Quartet was in Spain. “It is possible that we spend as much time with each other as we do with our own families, which without our love and esteem for one another would be a tough proposition. We are not a group that would thrive well on a business-based type of arrangement, where we would meet for rehearsals and concerts but otherwise have nothing to do with each other.”
by Mike Telin
Bass-baritone Dashon Burton is no stranger to Northeast Ohio audiences — he has appeared with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra on three occasions over the last two seasons. This past fall Burton reprised his role as the Parson and Badger in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen and will return in May for Beethoven’s Ninth as part of the Orchestra’s Prometheus Project.
You can hear another side of the Oberlin alum’s vocal skills this week when he and his Roomful of Teeth colleagues perform on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series on Friday, February 16 at 8:00 pm in Finney Chapel. Tickets are available online.
“I’m so excited to be going back to Oberlin. It played a huge part in feeding my vast curiosity about what music can be,” Burton said during a telephone conversation. “Without the people in the TIMARA program and the composition and vocal departments, I wouldn’t be the professional that I am today. And I want everyone to come to the show and see what Roomful of Teeth is all about.”
by Mike Telin
“It’s amazing how professional choral singing has changed in the past 10 to 15 years,” Gregory Ristow, director of vocal ensembles at the Oberlin Conservatory, said during a recent conversation. “And the singers in Roomful of Teeth are the perfect model for our students because their careers are multi-faceted.”
On Friday, February 16 at 8:00 pm in Finney Chapel, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present Roomful of Teeth under the direction of Brad Wells. The program will include Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices, Missy Mazzoli’s Vesper Sparrow, Judd Greenstein’s Run Away, and Toby Twining’s Dumas’ Riposte. The Grammy Award-winning ensemble will be joined by the Oberlin College Choir for William Brittelle’s Psychedelics and Merrill Garbus’ Quizassa. Tickets are available online.
by Mike Telin
In October of this year, the brilliant young violinist Tessa Lark wowed audiences and critics with her commanding performances of John Corigliano’s ‘Red Violin’ Concerto with CityMusic Cleveland. On Sunday, November 19 the Avery Fisher Career Grant winner returned to the area, this time showing her skill as a recitalist during a captivating program as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital series. She and the superb pianist Andrew Armstrong brought an abundance of musical prowess to the Finney Chapel stage. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
OBERLIN – At 25, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is a deep thinker whose touring recital program this season highlights historical-stylistic contrasts between composers such as Ravel and Berg, Brahms and Brett Dean. Click here to read the article on Classical Voice North America, the website of the Music Critics Association of North America.
by Jarrett Hoffman
After playing John Corigliano’s ‘The Red Violin’ Concerto last month with CityMusic Cleveland, violinist Tessa Lark returns to the area to make her Oberlin Artist Recital Series debut, replacing violist Lawrence Power.
On Sunday, November 19 at 4:00 pm at Finney Chapel, she’ll join pianist Andrew Armstrong in Igor Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, Martín Rojas’ En la Orilla del Mundo, Maurice Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in G, Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56, and Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E-flat. Previously purchased tickets for Lawrence Power will be honored at the door.
During our October conversation, Tessa Lark said that she and Armstrong met and collaborated only a few weeks before the call from Oberlin. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Like many musicians, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor’s career received a jump start after winning a competition. “I won the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician in 2004, and this began my performing career,” Grosvenor said in an email. “Obviously I was very young at that point and did not play very much, but the attention from the competition brought me concerts.” The pianist later became part of BBC’s Radio 3 New Generation Artist Scheme, which he said was “particularly important for my career, leading to opportunities such as performing at the BBC Proms as well as giving vital recording experience and the possibility to develop relationships with the BBC orchestras.”
On Sunday, November 12 at 4:00 pm, in Finney Chapel, Benjamin Grosvenor will make his debut performance on the Oberlin Artist Recital Series.
by Mike Telin
This week The Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Andrew Davis, will feature three of its principal players as soloists — one in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Oboe Concerto and two in Richard Strauss’s epic tone poem Don Quixote. Concerts at Severance Hall are scheduled for Thursday, April 20 at 7:30 pm, Friday, April 21 at 11:00 am (without the Vaughan Williams), and Saturday, April 22 at 8:00 pm.
The program, which begins with Frederick Delius’s Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody, will also be presented in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel on Friday, April 21 at 8:00 pm as part of the school’s Artist Recital Series.
TCO principal oboe Frank Rosenwein said that Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings, written in 1944, is both pastoral and nostalgic. “He lived through the first world war, and this Concerto was written near the end of the second world war. The piece does cultivate a kinder, gentler world.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
American Pianist Richard Goode is a celebrated interpreter of the music of Beethoven, and was the first American-born pianist to record all 32 sonatas (for Nonesuch in 1991). Earlier, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1961, took first prize in the Clara Haskil Competition in 1973, and won the Avery Fisher Prize in 1980. He recently completed a 14-year tenure as co-director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Vermont summer retreat where he spent a total of 22 summers beginning at the age of 14.
On Sunday, April 9 at 4:00 pm in Finney Chapel, Richard Goode will return to Northeast Ohio as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. His program will include J.S. Bach’s Partita in e, BWV 830, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28 in A, Op. 101 and Sonata No. 31 in A-flat, Op. 110, as well as Chopin’s Nocturne in B, Op. 62, No. 1, Polonaise in f-sharp, Op. 44 and three Mazurkas: Op. 41 No. 2 in B, No. 3 in A-flat and Op. 50 No. 3 in c-sharp. [Read more…]