by Timothy Robson
The seventh season of Chamberfest Cleveland opened on Thursday, June 14 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall. The festival, brainchild of Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet emeritus Franklin Cohen and his daughter, violinist Diana Cohen, concertmaster of the Calgary Symphony, has become an imaginative and well-attended fixture of June in Cleveland. The opening program typified the festival by combining familiar works with the more unusual. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
“When a father-in-law asks, it’s the law,” Roman Rabinovich said during a recent conversation. As fans of ChamberFest Cleveland know, that father-in-law is co-artistic director Franklin Cohen. His request? An arrangement of Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel to be performed at the Festival — and his son-in-law happily obliged.
Rabinovich’s nonet version of that solo piano work will receive its premiere on Saturday, June 23 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. And the web of connections in that program, titled “Forging New Paths,” is worth spending an evening on itself. There’s the Handel-to-Brahms thread: on one end of the program is the Baroque composer’s Trio Sonata in c, HWV 386a, while on the other end are Brahms’ Handel Variations — in their new clothes picked out by Rabinovich. And in between is Ligeti’s homage to Brahms: the Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano — a rare instrumentation for which the big B also composed.
You’ll see Rabinovich at the harpsichord in the Handel sonata, but our conversation focused on his arrangement of the Brahms for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon, string quartet, and double bass. [Read more…]
by Hannah Schoepe
Whisking the listener away on a diverse journey of sounds, the AHA! Festival will present a piano trio from a fellow local summer series, ChamberFest Cleveland. Pianist Roman Rabinovich, cellist Oliver Herbert, and violinist David Bowlin will come together to play gems of the chamber music repertoire by Brahms, Kodály, and Janáček on Friday, June 8 at 2:00 pm in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University.
Friday’s program will feature Brahms’ effervescent Piano Trio No. 1 in B, completed in 1854 and revised throughout the composer’s life. One of the most popular trios of all time, it reflects both the vivaciousness of Brahms’ youth and the emotional depth of his maturity. We recently spoke with David Bowlin, who admitted that the work is his favorite on the program. “I love the whole B-major trio,” he said. “Everyone loves the B-major trio!”
The concert also includes a modern twist: the Kodály Duo for Violin and Cello, and Janáček’s Pohádka (“Fairytale”) for piano and cello.
by Mike Telin
Since ChamberFest Cleveland’s inaugural season in 2012, Festival co-artist directors Diana and Franklin Cohen have taken the concept of thematic programming to new heights. (It’s) About Time (2013) explored elements of time as related to the musical experience. Last season’s theme, Cycles: Phases! reflected on the complexity of the human experience at each stage of life.
This season ChamberFest will consider the concept of freedom — an essential ingredient to the creative process. Beginning of June 14 and continuing through June 30, In Search of Freedom will explore the range of freedom in music, with nine concerts in a variety of venues.
In addition to violinist Diana Cohen and clarinetist Franklin Cohen, this year’s roster of returning artists will include violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley, Alexi Kenney, and Amy Schwartz-Moretti, violinist/violist Yura Lee, cellists Julie Albers, Clive Greensmith, and Oliver Herbert, bassist Nathan Farrington, and pianists Zoltán Fejérvári, Roman Rabinovich, and Orion Weiss. Making their ChamberFest debuts are violinist Noah Geller, violists Matthew Lipman and Tanner Menees, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, flutist Lorna McGhee, and singer Amanda Powell.
by Mike Telin
Last weekend ChamberFest Cleveland presented the final three concerts of its 2017 edition. I attended two of the performances which exemplified why the Festival has become a crown jewel in the area’s rich classical music scene. The inventive programming ranged from the almost never heard, to the seldom heard, to music by giants of the repertoire. Above all, the performances of the five works were beyond reproach. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
Dunham Tavern Museum is a perfect venue for an afternoon of chamber music. On Sunday afternoon, June 25, the seventh installment of this year’s ChamberFest explored the theme of “Youth” and featured early works by Beethoven and Bartók. The concert began with Wilhelm Popp’s Rigoletto Variations, performed by flutist Demarre McGill and pianist Zoltán Fejérvári. McGill gave a nuanced performance of this flashy piece, bringing it to light with impeccable phrasing. [Read more…]
by Joshua Rosner
On June 23, as beautiful light poured through Mixon Hall’s many windows, ChamberFest Cleveland presented “Hommage,” a program showcasing composers paying tribute to J.S. Bach. The concert began with the final two movements of Bach’s Suite No. 2 in b, replacing the originally programmed Cantata BWV 209 due to the withdrawal of mezzo-soprano Lauren Eberwein. [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
With the theme of Cycles: Phases, the sixth ChamberFest Cleveland opened Thursday evening, June 15, in Mixon Hall, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The theme reflects on “the complexity of the human experience at each stage of life, and ultimately circles around all types of musical, political and emotional phases.”
The concert showed off the qualities we have come to expect from ChamberFest: brilliantly imaginative programming, with a mix of old, new, familiar, and unfamiliar works, in superior performances by (mostly young) musicians hand-picked by festival directors Franklin and Diana Cohen. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
ChamberFest Cleveland has done it again and come up with eleven intriguing programs for their sixth season, which will run from June 15 through July 1.
This year, co-artistic directors Franklin and Diana Cohen have put a new spin on the Festival. Cycles: Phases! reflects on the complexity of the human experience at each stage of life.
There will be many familiar faces onstage, as well as a number of performers who are new to the ChamberFest family. As always, programs will be presented in a variety of venues, from the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall and CWRU’s Harkness Chapel to modern, urban settings such as Hingetown’s Transformer Station and the Bop Stop, and Midtown’s Dunham Tavern Museum. Tickets are now on sale. Click here for further information.
by Mike Telin
Over the course of three concerts, the outstanding pianist Roman Rabinovich performed fifteen of Haydn’s keyboard sonatas as part of ChamberFest Cleveland’s Winter Mini Festival. I heard the final recital at Dunham Tavern Museum on Friday, December 16. [Read more…]