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Pianist Lang Lang brings boyish exuberance, introspection to Severance recital (Sept. 12)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lang Lang returned to Severance Music Center on Saturday, September 12 to open the fourth season of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series, two years after playing Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto with the Orchestra. This time he had Mandel Concert Hall all to himself, with a program of Mozart, Beethoven, Albéniz, Granados, and Liszt.

At 44, the pianist has lost little of his boyish exuberance. He can still amaze with bursts of extraordinary velocity and smile while doing it. But some of the evening’s best playing came when virtuosity meant something quieter and more reflective. The program itself encouraged such contrast, moving from early Mozart and late-Beethoven introspection toward Spanish color and Lisztian display.

[Read more…]

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin traces ‘thoughtful evolution’ of piano at Severance (May 5)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Franz Joseph Haydn was one of the first composers to recognize the untapped potential in a promising new keyboard instrument called the fortepiano, which, as the name suggested, could play both loud and soft.

By the time that Sergei Rachmaninoff was writing his most virtuosic piano works some 150 years later, he had exploited the full sweep of the instrument, from crashing bass chords to glassy high notes of exquisite fragility.

The technical breakthroughs made at the keyboard over this period can all too easily be taken for granted in the 21st century, with many of today’s leading soloists achieving correctness at the cost of artistic expression.

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Marc-André Hamelin returns to Severance Music Center

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by Mike Telin

“I’m looking forward to being back in Cleveland, It’s almost like a second home,” pianist Marc-André Hamelin said during a telephone conversation. “I believe my first visit was at the Art Museum. I played the complete Iberia — that was a little over 20 years ago.

“But it’s always a joy to be back in Severance. The combination of the atmosphere and acoustics — there’s hardly anything better. And I’ll be experiencing it for the first time as a solo recitalist, which I’m very excited about.”

On Tuesday, May 5 at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall, Marc-André Hamelin will present the final concert of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series with a program featuring music by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mieczysław Weinberg, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Tickets are available online.

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Pianist Alexander Kantorow’s thoughtful artistry defines his Cleveland debut (Apr. 16)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On the cover of the Severance Music Center’s April 16 program book, Alexandre Kantorow stares at the viewer from one end of the piano keyboard, his face mirrored in the glossy fallboard. That stylistic presentation felt quite fitting for the French pianist, a musician who brings out the contrasting sides in every piece and whose playing often produces a reflective, translucent quality.

Currently on a multi-week tour of the U.S., Kantorow made his Cleveland debut on Thursday night at Severance Music Center. Dressed in all black, he initially cut an unassuming figure, an impression that quickly dissolved with the intense opening chords of Franz Liszt’s Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen after J.S. Bach.

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Pianist Alexandre Kantorow to make Cleveland debut

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by Mike Telin

In 2019 at the age of 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to be awarded the Gold Medal at Tchaikovsky Competition, along with the Grand Prix, something that has happened only three times in the competition’s history. In 2024, he received the Gilmore Artist Award.

On Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 pm, Alexandre Kantorow will make his Severance Music Center debut as part of The Cleveland Orchestra Recital series. His program will feature works by Liszt, Chopin, Medtner, Alkan, Scriabin, and Beethoven. Tickets are available online.

Answering his phone in Paris, he told me he was taking care of real-life things like renewing his passport before heading back into the music world. His American tour begins on Tuesday, April 14 and continues until May 2.

[Read more…]

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason stuns at Severance Music Center (Mar. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Isata Kanneh-Mason, at 29, the eldest of the seven siblings who constitute one of England’s most distinguished musical families, walked onstage at Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center promptly at 7:30 on Tuesday evening to begin her Cleveland solo recital with an immaculate performance of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata.

Like the program’s theme of darkness moving into light — an attractive forward motion coursed just underneath the surface in everything she played. She began Sonata No. 14 deliberately, with hauntingly beautiful long lines, well-balanced voicing, and subtle dynamics, all of which contributed to a hypnotic effect.

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Evgeny Kissin mesmerizes with Bach, Chopin, and Shostakovich at Severance (May 7)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Few pianists today elicit the kind of eager expectation, borne of star-power and reputation, that Evgeny Kissin does the moment he takes the stage. There is a quality to his presence — austere and shy yet fully possessed — that electrifies a listener before a single note sounds. In Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Wednesday evening, May 7, Kissin’s program of J.S. Bach, Chopin, and Shostakovich, plus encores, had something to satisfy every fan’s wish.

Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor began the evening on low heat, with an understated approach to the Sinfonia‘s long, elegant lines. But it wasn’t until the final Capriccio that the pianist’s rhythmic and technical polish fully enlivened Bach’s polyphony without diminishing its architectural integrity.

[Read more…]

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes champions Norwegian composers in Cleveland recital (Mar. 27)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Touring musicians have been making some difficult decisions about whether to proceed with their U.S. engagements lately, and Leif Ove Andsnes is no exception.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I arrived in the U.S. yesterday,” the Norwegian pianist wrote in a statement on his social media. “Music cannot solve global problems, but I hope my program can at least inspire some of the emotions we so badly need right now: compassion, empathy, generosity, understanding, and an appreciation of diversity.”

Forging ahead with his recital tour, Andsnes took the stage at Severance Music Center on Thursday, March 27 as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Recital Series. The pianist gracefully represented his home country with music by Edvard Grieg and Geirr Tveitt, along with Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Preludes.

[Read more…]

Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson dazzle Severance crowd with piano virtuosity (Feb. 23)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rock stars are known to make certain demands on tour, stipulating everything they expect to find in their dressing rooms and onstage.

Pianists Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson — two of the biggest names in classical music today — have one request that’s absolutely essential. In order to team up in recital and tackle the virtuosic repertoire they want to play together, Wang and Ólafsson each need a separate piano.

And so a pair of Steinways sat carefully arranged in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 23. Both instruments had their lids off, and their keyboards were lined up center stage, the players side by side but facing in opposite directions. [Read more…]

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