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Summers@Severance: Osmo Vänskä leads The Cleveland Orchestra (Aug. 16)

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by David Kulma

As classical concerts have become more reverential in the past century or so, the seasoned concertgoer has been trained to applaud only at the end of a multi-movement work, usually accompanied by a hearty standing ovation and hollers of “Bravo!” Based on the applause that followed each movement of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony on the Cleveland Orchestra’s intermissionless program with guest conductor Osmo Vänskä on Friday, August 16, the Summers@Severance series is definitely bringing new listeners in to hear The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]

Summers@Severance: Mozart’s C-Minor Mass with Matthew Halls (Aug. 2)

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by David Kulma

There is a certain je ne sais quoi about minor-key Mozart. The dark, brooding colors that rarely appear in his more plentiful major-key works give his wonderfully inevitable music a grand power and solemnity few other composers have ever matched. His Symphony No. 40 in g and Requiem in d are only the two most famous examples. Their major-key sections take on a new, heavenly meaning in contrast with the overall somberness. The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers@Severance concert on Friday, August 2 was a great opportunity to hear another of Mozart’s minor-key marvels: the Great Mass in c, K. 427, with four excellent vocal soloists and the Blossom Festival Chorus, all conducted with flair by Matthew Halls. [Read more…]

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.”

[Read more…]

Classical music events to catch during the rest of the summer

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by Daniel Hathaway

Classical music events begin spiraling down into the Dog Days of August this week, beginning with Ohio Light Opera, which will present final performances of Perchance to Dream (above) and Girl Crazy on Wednesday the 7th at 2:00 and 7:30 pm, The Devil’s Rider and Music in the Air on Thursday the 8th at 2:00 and 7:30 pm, South Pacific and Into the Woods on Friday the 9th at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm, and Pirates of Penzance on Saturday the 10th at 2:00. Hurry to Freedlander Theater on the campus of The College of Wooster before the company packs it in for 2019. Tickets here.

The Cleveland Orchestra will be busy in several modes through the end of the month. Its Star-Spangled Spectacular — postponed from Independence Day because of the All-Star Game — takes place on Mall B downtown on Wednesday the 7th at 9:00 pm (catch it, if not in person, on the stream at ideastream.org). [Read more…]

Mozart’s “Great” Mass: A conversation with Lisa Wong

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by Rory O’Donoghue

This Friday, August 2 at 7:00 pm in Severance Hall, the Blossom Festival Chorus will join The Cleveland Orchestra for a one-off performance of Mozart’s “Great” Mass in c-minor. Last Sunday, the Chorus and Orchestra brought the house down at Blossom in their Aretha Franklin tribute concert, with vocalists Capathia Jenkins and Ryan Shaw in the spotlight.

“It’s a busy summer in Cleveland,” Director of Choruses Lisa Wong said over the phone last week, “but it’s a fun one.” I got the chance to talk with Wong by telephone about her work with The Cleveland Orchestra Choruses in anticipation of this Friday’s concert, the latest installment of their Summers@Severance Series.

Rory O’Donoghue: How did you get started in choral music?

Lisa Wong: Interestingly, the very first choral and orchestral piece that I ever encountered was this Friday’s selection, Mozart’s Mass in c-minor. I sang it as an undergraduate music student, and we had a guest conductor who came to our university and worked with our choruses for that concert. It was a singularly influential moment in my life — I was so inspired by this wonderful conductor. As it turned out, that was the late Robert Page, who was director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra at the time. I didn’t know what that title meant, exactly, but I knew how inspired I was by the way this music bubbles up with emotion.  [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Summers@Severance: a conversation with conductor Matthew Halls

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Friday, August 2 as part of the Summers@Severance Series, guest conductor Matthew Halls will lead The Cleveland Orchestra, soloists, and the Blossom Festival Chorus in Mozart’s “Great” Mass in c-minor. 

In the United States, where the subscription concert format is the norm, single performances of major works are rare. But in a telephone conversation from Toronto, where he lives with his family for part of each season (his wife plays in the Toronto Symphony), Halls said he rather likes one-off events.

“The subscription series is lovely, especially if you’re a young conductor who’s learning a piece for the first time. It gives you the possibility to solidify your ideas over three or four nights. But there’s also a special energy in a one-off, the most common format in Europe, because it means that you only have one chance. All of the intensity of a week-long rehearsal period is focused on that single moment, and there’s no sense that you can always get it right tomorrow night.” [Read more…]

Summers@Severance: Mahler & Beethoven (July 12)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Making his only summer appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra, music director Franz Welser-Möst led the ensemble in an eventful hour-long program on Friday evening, July 12 in Severance Hall. The first concert in the Summers@Severance series, preceded and followed by drinks and food on the terrace, was a festive occasion that attracted a large audience, some got up as if headed for an English garden party, others dressing down for the steamy weather. Once inside the hall, they were so enthusiastic about the music that applause was ubiquitous and hearty. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra summer season launches on June 29

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by Daniel Hathaway

When the gates open for this summer’s Blossom Music Festival on June 29, patrons will enjoy some new guest amenities.

A new bar space, The Tasting Room, will make its debut near the Lot A entrance and will be open before and after each performance. Post- concert dessert service will offer guests an opportunity to linger and avoid the rush to the parking lots.

Remember the Image Magnification technology that projected onstage activity onto huge LED screens in the Pavilion last summer? That was a test run for this summer’s IMAG feed that will enhance all performances, many produced in partnership with ideastream, the public service organization that operates WVIZ/PBS, WCPN 90.3, and WCLV 104.9.

Gourmet picnic packages can be pre-ordered and picked up in the Special Events Center for all events and save concertgoers the trouble of self-catering. Speaking of edibles, subscribers and donors will have access to special refreshments and light bites in Kulas Plaza before certain concerts. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra
announces summer plans

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by Daniel Hathaway

As The Cleveland Orchestra prepares to launch its seven-city Asia Tour from March 28 through April 13, and now that the days are beginning to grow longer and brighter, it’s time to have a look at the Orchestra’s concerts for the summer, single tickets for which go on sale on April 1.

Once again, the Orchestra will hold down two fronts — at the Blossom Music Center and at Severance Hall. The Blossom season, which begins on June 29 and ends on September 1, will be bookended by screenings of big hit movies with live performances of John Williams film scores. Blossom begins with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and ends two months later with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

In between its al fresco concerts in Cuyahoga Falls, The Cleveland Orchestra will put its Severance Hall air conditioning to good use in four “Summers at Severance” events — plus two screenings of the 1989 Batman film with a live performance of Danny Elfman’s score. There’s an outdoor component to the in-town concerts as well: the Severance audiences can spill out onto the front patios for food and drink before and after the performances.

The complete summer schedule follows. [Read more…]

Summers@Severance: Cleveland Orchestra with Cohen & Bezuidenhout (August 24)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Any concert that features a first-rate ensemble, with a respected and rising conductor at the helm and a renowned soloist as a guest, will make for a great evening’s worth of music-making. However, some events seem to invite the audience to levitate in their seats, absorbed and enchanted. Jonathan Cohen drew extraordinary sounds from The Cleveland Orchestra in one such concert last week. When pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout joined in, the assembled musicians achieved something like transcendence.

[Read more…]

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