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Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with principal trumpet Michael Sachs

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by Mike Telin

“It’s always wonderful when I get to stand up front,” Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs said during a telephone conversation. “I’m usually at the back, so I’m hearing all these wonderful sounds in front of me. But to have those sounds converging upon you is a completely different perspective that I’m always amazed and humbled by. I have a renewed respect for the people that I am lucky enough to work with.”  

On Thursday, November 21 at 7:30 pm, Friday the 22nd at 7:00 pm, and Saturday the 23rd at 8:00 pm, Michael Sachs will return to the front of the Severance Hall stage playing Hummel’s Concerto in E. The program, under the direction of Nicholas McGegan, also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”) and selections from Schubert’s Rosamunde.

Friday’s performance is part of the Fridays@7 Series. The straight-through concert will be followed by a royal cocktail party in the Lotus Club with British-themed appetizers and cocktails, including bangers and mash, fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, and a selection of English beers. Tickets are available online.

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Uchida plays Schubert at Severance Hall (Nov. 3)

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by David Kulma

It is always a delight to hear Mitsuko Uchida play the piano. In many ways, she’s the Platonic ideal of a classical musician. Focusing on Viennese classics and other heavyweights, she plays with finesse and precision. Her touch is always beautiful, never veering into the bombastic or straying into the muffled. Everything is in good taste.

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Cleveland POPS with The Texas Tenors (Oct. 4)

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by David Kulma

Celebrating their tenth anniversary as a trio, The Texas Tenors starred in the captivating and wholesome opening concert of the Cleveland POPS Orchestra’s 24th season, led by music director Carl Topilow on Friday, October 4 at Severance Hall.

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Kirill Gerstein to give Cleveland premiere of Thomas Adès Piano Concerto

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by Mike Telin 

A new piano concerto is always an occasion, but the premiere of Thomas Adès’ Concerto, performed by pianist Kirill Gerstein and the Boston Symphony under the direction of the composer, has caused critics and audiences to sit up and take note. Following the New York premiere of the work, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote that the Concerto was

written for Gerstein, who exhilaratingly dispatched this joyous and audacious piece’s formidable solo part… This breathless, 20-minute concerto, structured in three essentially traditional movements (fast, slow, fast), comes across as zesty and accessible. But don’t be fooled. Just below the surface, the music sizzles with modernist harmonies, fractured phrases, gaggles of counterpoint and lyrical strands that keep breaking into skittish bits. The finale is a riotous, clattering, assaultive romp. I can’t wait to hear it again.

This weekend Kirill Gerstein will play the Cleveland premiere of Adès’ Piano Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Alan Gilbert. The program also includes J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 3 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. The Severance Hall concerts take place on Friday, October 11 at 11:00 am (no Bach) and 8:00 pm, and Saturday, October 12 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available here.

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The Cleveland POPS opens season with The Texas Tenors on October 4

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by Mike Telin 

Since their debut on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, The Texas Tenors have amassed a list of awards including three Emmys for their PBS special You Should Dream. On Friday, October 4 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, opera singer John Hagen, country music singer JC Fisher, and pop singer Marcus Collins will open The Cleveland POPS’ season under the direction of Carl Topilow. The program will feature selections from their latest album, THE TEXAS TENORS: A Collection of Broadway & American Classics. Tickets are available online.

Prior to the Trio’s October 2017 performance at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, we spoke with tenor John Hagen. The following article has been edited for content.

“It’s fun to see people stretch their musical tastes in opposite directions,” Hagen said. “You take the fan who’s at one end of the spectrum, either classical or country, and hear how they have come to appreciate other genres of music that they haven’t listened to very often, if at all.”

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CIPC Concert Series culminates in Wosner-Weiss piano duo (Sept. 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

In the last event in its concert series before it turns its attention to the 2020 contest, the Cleveland International Piano Competition presented duo-pianists Shai Wosner and Orion Weiss in a viscerally thrilling and intellectually stimulating recital on Saturday evening, September 14 in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

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Summers@Severance: Osmo Vänskä and The Cleveland Orchestra

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by Jarrett Hoffman

August is when the end of summer comes into sight, a blues for which Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony might be the antidote. The composer himself called it “the jolliest work I have so far written” — and the first movement really is bottled joy.

That symphony, known as the “Italian,” will sit side by side with Samuel Barber’s lesser-known Symphony in One Movement this Friday, August 16 at 7:00 pm, when guest conductor Osmo Vänskä pays a visit to Severance Hall to close out The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers@Severance series.

“I have to say that I am so happy about the Barber,” Vänskä said during a telephone interview. “Even three years ago, let’s say, I didn’t know anything about this first symphony of his. Now I have done it twice during the last season. I really love the piece, and I think that it might be a good surprise for many people to hear it.”

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COYO’s European tour send-off concert (June 7)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Before heading out of town on their summer tour, on June 7 Vinay Parameswaran and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra gave locals at Severance Hall a send-off performance that included all the music they would carry with them to four European cities.

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Simon Keenlyside two ways at Severance Hall (May 19 & 23)

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by Daniel Hathaway

British baritone Simon Keenlyside made the most of his recent visit to Severance Hall, offering an impassioned odyssey through Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Natalia Katyukova on May 19 in Reinberger Chamber Hall, and bringing revelatory performances of eight Sibelius songs to his guest appearance with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday evening, May 23.

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Violinist Vadim Gluzman returns to Severance Hall

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by Mike Telin

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto has been part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s repertoire since its founding in 1918. Mishel Piastro soloed in the first Cleveland Orchestra performance of the work on February 13, 1921 under the direction of Nikolai Sokoloff at the Hippodrome in New York City. Mischa Elman gave the first performance at a Subscription Concert on October 23, 1924 at Masonic Auditorium under Sokoloff — who also conducted the first Severance Hall performance on October 20, 1932 with Jascha Heifetz as soloist. Artur Rodzinski first conducted the work on March 29, 1934 with Nathan Milstein as soloist, and Erich Leinsdorf first led the concerto on January 6, 1944 with Efrem Zimbalist.

What did these soloists have in common? They were all students of the great violin pedagogue Leopold Auer, to whom Tchaikovsky originally dedicated the concerto.

Vadim Gluzman will continue the Auer legacy when he performs the work on Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 pm in Severance Hall on the legendary Auer Stradivarius from 1690, the instrument for which Tchaikovsky wrote his famous concerto. The concert, under the direction of Michail Jurowski, also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 (“The Year 1905”). The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

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