by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally posted on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — You might think that an orchestra that excels in the Austro-German repertoire could prove to be the wrong tool for the special demands of French music. But think again.
On Thursday evening, January 9, at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Stéphane Denève and The Cleveland Orchestra gave elegant, witty, and transparent accounts of works by Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc, worked with soloist Steven Banks in Guillaume Connesson’s wildly virtuosic saxophone concerto honoring John Coltrane, and explored George Gershwin’s ebullient An American in Paris from the point of view of a Frenchman on the podium. [Read more…]
In one way, saxophonist-composer Steven Banks’ 
The Cleveland Orchestra transformed into the Los Angeles Philharmonic over the weekend. Even if a snowstorm outside suggested otherwise, the program on February 4 at Severance Music Center had the California spirit of experimentation at all costs. The Orchestra had postponed the performance by a day, and lingering bad weather plus the new date meant Friday’s sparse crowd was the committed, brave-it-out type.
Almost two years passed, with Jeremy Denk limited to thinking about the piece, playing around with the fingerings, and maybe emailing the composer a question or two. All while he had it solidly learned.
Live music brings risk, and when it comes to live-streamed concerts, that risk extends to technology. A recital on February 15 from the Rocky River Chamber Music Society hit a few snags in that area early on, but that didn’t steal the spotlight from the dazzling performances we heard from Steven Banks and Xak Bjerken in a compelling program of music for saxophone and piano.
Two roundtable discussions this month — one with strong local ties, another that was more nationally oriented — were centered around the black experience in music and how administrators, educators, and other individuals in the field can join the fight for equality.
