by David Kulma
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra entered an exciting second era with the final concert of its 9th season on Saturday, May 4 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Last month, conductor Daniel Meyer was named the orchestra’s artistic director, so now this important Northeast Ohio institution can chart a course into its second decade.
by Mike Telin
The decision to pursue the path of a professional musician came late for Judicaël Perroy. “I didn’t decide until I was in my twenties,” the French-born guitarist wrote in an email. Perroy, who serves on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory, said that although he learned to play the guitar early in life, he was always interested in other subjects while he was in school. “I was kind of a child prodigy and everybody thought that I would become a guitarist. So I decided late because I wanted it to be my decision.”
On Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church, Perroy will make his Cleveland debut with a concert featuring works by Bach, Sor, Mertz, Villa-Lobos, and Albéniz. The concert is presented as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. Tickets are available online.
by Mike Telin
Over the past ten years the music of Jean-Féry Rebel has become familiar to Les Délices audiences. The ensemble has performed several of the composer’s violin and trio sonatas, scenes from his opera L’Ulysse which highlighted the Odyssey-inspired program Myths & Allegories, and his early choreographed symphonies such as Caractères de la danse, which have become signature pieces for the group.
This week Les Délices will return to the music of Rebel when they present a program titled “The Elements” which is centered around Rebel’s 1737 masterpiece of the same name. The program also includes music of Rameau and the premiere of a new, nature-inspired piece for period instruments by Theo Chandler.
Concerts take place on Friday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Saturday the 6th at 8:00 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church, and Sunday the 7th at 4:00 pm in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church. Tickets are available online. On Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm at the Bop Stop, Les Délices will present “Mother Nature Makes Music,” a free 45-minute program designed for children ages 5-12.
by Mike Telin
“To live with this piece is to imagine a genius at the absolute height of his powers, yet virtually isolated from the world,” Cuarteto Casals violist Jonathan Brown said. “Beethoven was deaf in his disorderly room in Vienna where few people wanted to be associated with him. There he was struggling with his artistic demons. He wrote, and rewrote this quartet extensively, but he was working with his own criteria — there’s no other model, there’s no other work like this.”
On Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, Jonathan Brown will join his Cuarteto Casals colleagues (Abel Tomàs and Vera Martínez, violins, and Arnau Tomàs, cello) for a performance of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in c-sharp, Op. 131.
by Nicholas Stevens
Variety can be the salvation or the undoing of a concert. A century and a half ago, most Americans would have heard what we now think of as the bedrock repertoire of the classical tradition in bewildering shows that often included comedy and drama as well. In recent decades, however, even diversity of historical period and musical style — let alone type of entertainment — has become optional, rather than expected. In a recent concert led by Daniel Meyer, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra successfully embraced stylistic pluralism, mixing new music and a rarity with standard audience favorites.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Armed with both a new first violinist, Areta Zhulla, and a new piece by Lembit Beecher, the Juilliard String Quartet will head to Plymouth Church on Tuesday, November 27 for a 7:30 pm concert presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
Zhulla joined her new colleagues — violinist Ronald Copes, cellist Astrid Schween, and violist Roger Tapping — in September. That same month, the Quartet premiered Beecher’s One Hundred Years Grows Shorter Over Time, commissioned for them to honor the centennial of the South Mountain Concerts series in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Born in Greece, Zhulla went on to study at the Juilliard School and join CMS Two of Lincoln Center, making her name as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician performing across multiple continents. She’s been named “Young Artist of the Year” by the National Critics Association in Greece, and is a recipient of the Triandi Career Grant and the Tassos Prassopoulos Foundation Award.
by Mike Telin
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society will continue its season on Tuesday, November 13 when they welcome the Ehnes Quartet — James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violins, Richard O’Neill, viola, and Edward Arron, cello.
The 7:30 pm concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights will include Haydn’s Quartet in G, Op. 76, No. 1, Elgar’s Quartet in e, and Bartók’s Quartet No. 5. A pre-concert lecture by Richard Rodda will begin at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.
During an email exchange, Amy Schwartz Moretti said that as a proud graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, to be able to bring her colleagues to the place that was so formative in her life means a lot to her. She fondly remembers the “wonderful teaching and influence of the Weilersteins, Cavani Quartet, Peter Salaff, and all the amazing teachers who were there during that time. I love every opportunity to come back to Cleveland! It has been especially meaningful to come back for ChamberFest Cleveland each summer and I’m so thankful to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society for inviting my quartet.”
by Jarrett Hoffman
If you’ve been to an orchestra concert in the area over the last 26 years, you’ve probably heard Martin Neubert’s playing.
Since receiving his master’s from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1992, the oboist has become a mainstay of the region’s music scene. He’s principal of the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, Warren Philharmonic, and Opera Western Reserve, and second in the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Cleveland Chamber Symphony. On top of that, he’s substituted with The Cleveland Orchestra, and performed with the symphonies of Akron, Canton, and Youngstown.
In short, he’s been around.
This weekend, Neubert will step out from the BlueWater ranks to perform as soloist, joining guest conductor Tiffany Chang for her debut with the Orchestra. The program is titled “Opulent Oboe and Scintillating Symphony” — the opulence coming from German-American composer Lukas Foss’s Concerto, the scintillation from Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat, “Drumroll.” Apologies to Beethoven for missing out on the fun adjectives, but his Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43 should make for a strong opener.
by Jarrett Hoffman
With some performances, you can just tell that the player has a special relationship to the piece. But do you really know? During a recent phone call with Croatian guitarist Ana Vidović, I tested that theory: having heard her play Francisco Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra in a recording on YouTube, I asked her if there’s a reason it sounds so natural in her hands.
“Actually, it’s one of my favorite pieces,” she said. (Me: quiet fist pump.) “I’ve played it since I was very young — I love the melody. And no matter how many times I play it, it’s always interesting to me.”
On Saturday, October 20 at 7:30 pm, Vidović will return to Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series, armed with a program that begins with Bach and ends with Piazzola. In between: pieces by Giuliani, Tárrega, Mongore, and Scarlatti. Tickets can be purchased here.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Fortepianist Sylvia Berry will headline a series of performances with Les Délices as the period instrument ensemble gets down to business with its tenth-anniversary season. “Mozart in Paris–Part 2” will feature a surprising arrangement of Mozart’s Gran Partita, readings of his strange and humorous letters, and pieces by three of his contemporaries: Boccherini, Schobert, and Cambini.
Northeast Ohioans can catch Les Délices at Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Thursday, October 4 at 7:30 pm, Lakewood Congregational Church on Saturday, October 6 at 8:00 pm, or Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Sunday, October 7 at 4:00 pm — preceded by a talk at 3:00, and followed by a celebration of the ensemble’s anniversary at Edwins. Purchase tickets here.
Anyone with an extra ounce of curiosity is also welcome to drop into some rehearsal time on Wednesday, October 3 from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at Herr Chapel, free of charge as part of the LD@Work series.
I reached Sylvia Berry by telephone after she had recently finished moving to a new house in Weymouth, MA — near Boston. That’s hardly a great time to be interviewed, but she was gracious and fun, in addition to being a walking Grove Dictionary of Music.
