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Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Petrenko & Trpčeski (Aug. 11)

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by Nicholas Stevens

For all its diversity, Russian music often seems to boil down to a few key figures when it comes to concert programming. Statistics confirm this: in the 2016-2017 season, most of the music written between 1850 and 1969 that American orchestras played was Russian in origin. When Vasily Petrenko appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra last weekend at Blossom, the iconic works on the program by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev fit that pattern. The power and freshness of the August 11 concert came from its rarity of an opener, its sparkling solo performance, eloquent encore, and shattering symphonic moments. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with Simon Trpčeski

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by Mike Telin

The sounds of Russian music will fill Blossom Music Center on Saturday, August 11 at 8:00 pm when Vasily Petrenko leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Liadov’s Baba-Yaga, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online.

The concert also marks the return visit to the Blossom stage by pianist Simon Trpčeski. “I made my Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom playing Rachmaninoff’s second concerto and it was an honor to be asked to perform that same piece the following year on the subscription series at Severance Hall,” the pianist said by telephone from California, where he was premiering a new concerto at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

“It’s not just my opinion, but Cleveland is one of the top orchestras in the world, and Blossom is such a beautiful venue. This time I am playing a different concerto, but it is by the same composer,” the Macedonian pianist said. “And to play it with my good friend Vasily — we’ve played and recorded all of the Rachmaninoff concertos — is going to be a fantastic musical journey.”

[Read more…]

Got summer plans, Cleveland Orchestra? Blossom + Summers@Severance + a few extra notables

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Clevelanders haven’t heard their orchestra live since mid-May. In the interim, The Cleveland Orchestra has been on the road, finishing off their centennial-capping Prometheus Project with performances at Vienna’s Musikverein and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Oh, how we miss them.

We’ll get reacquainted with TCO soon, thanks to their schedule at this year’s 50th anniversary season of Blossom Music Festival, plus their fourth Summers@Severance series.

The Cleveland Orchestra marks the unofficial beginning of summer when they open their Blossom season on Saturday, July 7 at 8:00 pm. At the helm will be music director Franz Welser-Möst, leading the Orchestra in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in its orchestration by Ravel, Reznicek’s Overture to Donna Diana, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, featuring TCO’s own soloists –– pianist Joela Jones, violinist Stephen Rose, and cellist Mark Kosower. At this concert and two others, check out the Image Magnification system, which displays live video of the performers on LED screens in the Blossom Pavilion. Fingers crossed for the weather — a firework show is planned for afterwards.

[Read more…]

Conductor Vasily Petrenko to make his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

Petrenko-Vasily-Mark-McNulty-IMG-Artists“It’s my first time in Wyoming and there’s some spectacular nature — I’m looking at the Teton Mountain from my window now,” the very friendly Vasily Petrenko said as we began our telephone conversation last Friday afternoon. The conductor said he was relaxing before leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in a concert later in the evening that would feature works by Brahms and Bartók.  

On Saturday, July 29, at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Petrenko will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c with David Fray as soloist, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in e. “I’m really looking forward this concert, and please tell everyone that I want them to come,” the 41-year old St. Petersburg, Russia native said in his ever-present upbeat style.      [Read more…]

Rachmaninoff revealed: a visit to the Cleveland Orchestra Archives and a conversation with Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski

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by Mike Telin

This week at Severance Hall, Robin Ticciati will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in concerts that feature Liadov’s Enhanted Lake and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. The program also includes one of the most popular piano concertos in the repertoire, the Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, with Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski as soloist.

Given the popularity of this concerto, we took the opportunity to once again visit the Orchestra archives to see what archivist Deborah Hefting could tell us about Rachmaninoff’s personal appearance and performance of the piece with the orchestra in 1942. We also spoke to Simon Trpčeski and asked him about the challenges of playing such a well-known piece.

“I need to say that it is a great challenge, as I think it is for any pianist who is playing such a popular piece like the Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto”, Trpčeski told by telephone from his home in The Republic of Macedonia. “One always tries to find something, even if it is a little thing [to do differently] in each performance, since it has been played millions of times.” [Read more…]

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