by Nicholas Stevens
Utter the phrase “brass quintet” to the average listener, and expect a reply that references particular kinds of music, from Renaissance church polyphony and Bach fugues to modernist movements and jazz arrangements. The instrumentation remains common enough to come with such associations, but rare enough that many audiences only get to experience its core repertoire.
by Nicholas Stevens
As any brass, woodwind, or low-string player in an orchestra may confess under mild pressure, it can feel profoundly liberating to play music that draws the spotlight away from their colleagues in the violin section, especially for extended periods. Rare though this repertoire may be — Stravinsky favored winds and percussion, and Glass wrote a whole opera without violins — pieces that foreground these parts of the classical instrumentarium do appear at the heart of the canon. Filling the stage for its 60th-Anniversary Gala concert, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society placed conductor James Feddeck at the helm for an event featuring 21 musicians — violists, cellists, bassists, and wind players.
by Mike Telin
“A lot of people say the Dvořák Wind Serenade is his best work,” conductor James Feddeck said during a telephone conversation. “I think the same is true for the Brahms Serenade No. 2. It’s one of his best works. And I think it’s wonderful that this concert is free for Northeast Ohio. When I heard that I said I want to be part of it.”
On Monday, November 19 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present a concert titled Gala Serenade Evening featuring these exquisite works by Dvořák and Brahms. James Feddeck conducts members of The Cleveland Orchestra and friends — Saeran St. Christopher and Jessica Sindel, flutes, Sally Sherwin, piccolo, Jeffrey Rathbun and Corbin Stair, oboes, Daniel McKelway and Benjamin Freimuth, clarinets, Barrick Stees and Jonathan Sherwin, bassoons, Richard King, David Brockett, and Meghan Guegold, horns, Wesley Collins, Lembi Veskimets, Eliesha Nelson and Jessica Pasternak, violas, Charles Bernard, Linda Atherton, and Julie King, cellos, and Mark Atherton and Scott Dixon, double bass. And yes, the concert is free.
by Jarrett Hoffman
A return to a concerto that brought with it a solo debut. The celebration of a long chamber music partnership and friendship. And one final concerto in a 22-year orchestral tenure.
Those landmarks in the careers of three clarinetists — Randy Klein, Richard Hawkins, and Allan Ware — can be heard across two days, March 3 and 5, in Canton, Oberlin, and Rocky River. On the docket are concertos by John Corigliano and Aaron Copland, and clarinet quintets by Carl Maria von Weber and Johannes Brahms.
The clarinet show begins on Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 pm in Umstattd Hall. Randy Klein will join his Canton Symphony colleagues and music director Gerhardt Zimmermann for the Copland Concerto, in between performances of Stephen Montague’s Snakebite and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.
“This is my last season in Canton,” Klein said in a recent conversation. “I’m retiring from the orchestra.”
by Daniel Hathaway
“We don’t often play all-Czech programs,” Bennewitz Quartet second violinist Štěpán Ježek said from the stage of West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church on Monday evening, February 12. But the Rocky River Chamber Music Society audience can be glad they did on that occasion. Ježek joined his colleagues Jakub Fišer, violin, Jiří Pinkas, viola, and Štěpán Doležal, cello, in white-hot performances of works by Leoš Janáček, Bedřich Smetana, and Antonín Dvořák, playing with the pure intensity that only native Czechs could have achieved.
by Mike Telin
On Monday, February 12 at 7:30 pm, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society will present the Bennewitz Quartet — Jakub Fišer and Štěpán Ježek, violins, Jiří Pinkas, viola, and Štěpán Doležal, cello — at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The free concert will include music by Janáček, Smetana, and Dvorák.
Due to the ensemble’s travel schedule and time zone differences we were unable to schedule a telephone interview, but violinist Štěpán Ježek graciously agreed to answer questions by email.
Mike Telin: The Quartet will be presenting a wonderful program. Could you please share some brief thoughts about each of the works?
by Mike Telin
While there is no shortage of string quartets touring the world, the same does not hold true for wind quintets. However, there must be something going on in Northeast Ohio as the year 2017 has already brought the Imani Winds and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet to the area.
On Monday, November 13 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the hat-trick will be scored when Rocky River Chamber Music Society plays host to the legendary Dorian Wind Quintet — Gretchen Pusch, flute, Gerard Reuter, oboe, Benjamin Fingland, clarinet, Adrian Morejon, bassoon, and Karl Kremer-Johansen, horn. The free concert will feature works by Bach, Dvořák, and Harberg.
Formed at Tanglewood in 1961, the Dorian is one of chamber music’s longest continuously active ensembles. [Read more…]
by Hannah Schoepe
The Rocky River Chamber Music Society opens its 59th season with a free concert by the Green Mountain Chamber Players on Monday, October 9 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The program of piano trios will include Beethoven’s Fourteen Variations in E-flat, Op. 44, the Cleveland premiere of Evan Chambers’ A Hundred Ways, and Brahms’ Trio No. 1.
Made up of violinist Kevin Lawrence, cellist Brooks Whitehouse, and pianist Clara Young, the Green Mountain Chamber Players include members of the faculty from the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, held each summer in Burlington, Vermont, where they work with today’s top string students from the United States and across the globe. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Ohio is one of the few states to harbor more than one major symphony orchestra within its borders. Three members of the Cincinnati Symphony joined bows, keys, and valves with a trio from The Cleveland Orchestra on Monday evening, May 8 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. The program, featuring some unusual music by Carl Reinecke, Franz Strauss, and Ernst von Dohnányi, as well as a not-so-often-heard version of Romances by Robert Schumann, made a gradual crescendo of sophistication. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Founded in 2005 in Columbus, Ohio, the Carpe Diem String Quartet is a shining example of a 21st-century chamber ensemble. Known for its eclectic programming, diverse outreach activities, and forward-thinking definition of “classical” music, Carpe Diem is true to its name, seizing every opportunity no matter what obstacles stand in the way.
On Monday, March 20 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, Carpe Diem String Quartet will return to Cleveland for a performance on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series. The program will include music by Schubert, Taneyev, and the quartet’s own Korine Fujiwara. [Read more…]