Originally posted on Cleveland.com
by Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical
CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s become fashionable to blame COVID for everything that didn’t happen in the past few years, but in the case of Oded Zehavi’s piccolo concerto, the pandemic truly kept the work waiting in the wings of Severance Music Center for four long years past its originally scheduled premiere in April of 2020.
On Thursday evening, Cleveland Orchestra principal piccolo Mary Kay Fink finally unveiled the 14-minute work in a performance led by guest conductor Fabio Luisi that was as glistering as the soloist’s silver concert gown.
Titled Aurora after the classical goddess of the dawn, the time of day Zehavi set aside for composition after young children came into his domestic life, the piece is an extended aria for the smallest but by no means the least expressive instrument in the orchestra. In the hands of a player like Fink, who completely unlocks the potential of the piccolo, the instrument can sing like the best of divas. [Read more…]
Composer Erwin Schulhoff, who perished in the Holocaust, wrote in his 1919 avant-garde music manifesto: The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades…This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and deeply — the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.