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Cleveland Orchestra brings Tolkien’s world to life in performance of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ movie score (July 28)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com  

The Cleveland Orchestra performs The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers on Friday at the Blossom Music Center.Roger Mastroianni

by Daniel Hathaway

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — News flash! War broke out here on Friday night as a vast coalition of enemy forces assembled on the Plains of Rohan, surrounded, then stormed the Hornburg, breaching the Deeping Wall during a fierce battle, and forcing its defenders and residents to retreat. The tide finally turned when an army of trees marched into the fray, hurling boulders at the attackers and flooding the battlefield with water from the river Isengard.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra delivers magical night of American song with help from pianists Michael Feinstein, Jean-Yves Thibaudet (July 23)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com  

by Daniel Hathaway

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Michael Feinstein joined their four hands and Feinstein’s engaging vocals in a newly-minted cabaret show at Blossom on Sunday evening, July 23. “Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?” explores well-known and rediscovered music by George Gershwin and other selections from The Great American Songbook, along with works by 20th-century classical composers interleaved with anecdotes and engaging chit-chat.

The show, now making the rounds of summer festivals, can either be performed with just two artists on a pair of grand pianos or with a full symphony orchestra. [Read more…]

Kahchun Wong brings Akutagawa, Shostakovich, and Debussy to Blossom this weekend

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by Mike Telin

The opportunity for conductor Kahchun Wong to make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in April of 2022 came when visa issues prevented François-Xavier Roth from leading that week’s concerts. On Saturday, July 22 at 7:00 pm, Wong will return to the podium, this time at Blossom Music Center, to lead a program that includes Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Zlatomir Fung as soloist, and Debussy’s La mer. Tickets are available online.

“I’m so excited to be returning to Cleveland, especially with this program,” Wong said during a telephone call from his home near Kanagawa, Japan. He added that it was fitting for us to be talking on Monday, July 17. “Today is Sea Day — it’s a public holiday and there are a lot of festivals.” He noted that the holiday is a time for people to give thanks for the sea. “Where I live — on the coast — I can see Mt. Fuji. It always gives me inspiration. And today it, and the sea, are beautiful.”

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Cellist Zlatomir Fung brings Shostakovich for his July 22 Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Mike Telin

If asked, many musicians can tell you exactly when they heard a piece of music that changed their lives. For Zlatomir Fung that piece was Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. “I must have been eleven years old,” Fung recalled during a recent interview. “I believe it was the debut recording that Rostropovich made with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it was one of the first cello videos that was on YouTube. I came across it and I was just blown away. And that was the recording that made me want to be a cellist.”

On Saturday, July 22 at 7:00 pm, Fung will bring that concerto to the Blossom Music Center stage when he makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut. The program, under the direction of Kahchun Wong, also includes Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra and Debussy’s La mer. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with the celebrated young cellist by phone and began by asking him to share his thoughts about playing with The Cleveland Orchestra for the first time.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus (July 1)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Undeterred by clouds in the sky, The Cleveland Orchestra let joy prevail on opening night of the 2023 Blossom Music Festival on Saturday, July 1. Somehow the weather held, families gathered, blankets came out, and Beethoven’s jubilant message issued forth.

Susanna Mälkki was a persuasive presence on the podium, leading the orchestra, the Blossom Festival Chorus, and soloists in music by William Grant Still, Samuel Barber, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Still’s “Mother and Child,” a slow movement from his 1943 Suite for Violin and Piano here arranged by the composer for string orchestra, is a soft and sincere work alluding to folk song. Under Mälkki’s direction, the strings gave a beautifully timbred, reverential reading.

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Stanislav Kochanovsky brings Rachmaninoff for his Cleveland Orchestra debut

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by Mike Telin

“Every debut with a new orchestra is a special moment you never forget. But the famous Cleveland Orchestra is definitely one of the most extraordinary musical institutions in the world,” Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky wrote in an email. “I have so many of their historical recordings with Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Lorin Maazel in my private collection and I can’t wait to hear the unique voice of the orchestra with my own ears.”

Next week he will have just that opportunity. On Saturday, July 15 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Kochanovsky will lead an all-Rachmaninoff program featuring the Symphony No. 1 and the Piano Concerto No. 3 with Nikolai Lugansky as soloist. Tickets are available online.

Mike Telin: You’re bringing a wonderful program. Why did you choose these particular pieces?

Stanislav Kochanovsky: This year the whole world is celebrating Rachmaninoff’s 150th  anniversary. As I have almost all of his works in my repertoire, I proposed the rarely performed and not so well known First Symphony. Later I found out that The Cleveland Orchestra has never performed it in their history. This fact makes my debut even more exciting! As for the Piano Concerto, I think it was the soloist’s choice.

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“Honoring Black Composers” at Karamu House (May 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Sunday afternoon’s audience at Jelliffe Theatre at Karamu House was treated to a thoughtfully curated, well-performed program honoring several 20th- and 21st-century Black composers. Karamu House made for an especially congenial setting, and Allison Loggins-Hull, The Cleveland Orchestra’s 11th Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, was a gracious and thought-provoking host. This was the last event in The Cleveland Orchestra’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival.

Loggins-Hull periodically provided notes about the program. She is an elegant and compelling presence onstage, and a passionate spokesperson on behalf of her music as well as that of her fellow composers — notably through the lens of social justice.

Transcribed by the composer from her 2014 violin work, Jessie Montgomery’s Rhapsody No. 1 for solo viola felt like a slice of American fiddle tradition, enhanced by Eliesha Nelson’s sympathetic and sonorous performance. A plaintive six-note melody begins its journey, first in double stopped dialogue with itself, then as isolated accents over furious arpeggiation, before ending largely as it began.

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Many sides of Mozart with Labadie and The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 20)

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by Peter Feher

Mozart was the main event at Severance Music Center on April 20, but The Cleveland Orchestra gave only a teaser of what it can do with this great composer.

Chalk it up to the small and generally intimate scale of the performance. Guest conductor Bernard Labadie, a specialist in 18th-century repertoire, led the Orchestra — pared down to period-ensemble numbers — in half a dozen Mozart pieces, many of them excerpts from longer works. You could think of the program as a preview for next season here in Cleveland, which opens with a soundtrack of the composer’s greatest hits (accompanying the film Amadeus live in concert) and closes with a production of The Magic Flute.

On Thursday, everything was building to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”). [Read more…]

Orlando Watson to host United in Song at Severance

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by Mike Telin

“I’m working in Pittsburgh now, but I will forever be a Clevelander,” spoken word poet Orlando Watson said in a telephone conversation. “And coming home to partner with The Cleveland Orchestra and to be able to create in that glorious hall that has been around since 1931, is quite an honor.”

On Saturday, May 13 at 2:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Watson will host United In Song. The afternoon of vocal performances celebrates the rich diversity of the Greater Cleveland community. Performing ensembles include the  Humbly Submitted Gospel Chorus, Andy Andino and Voces Hispanas, Tri-C Vocal Arts Academy, The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, and ensembles from Cleveland’s immigrant community. The event is free.

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The Girl of the Golden West: A conversation with tenor Limmie Pulliam

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by Mike Telin

Perhaps no seven-year period in history epitomizes the American dream more than that of the California Gold Rush. Between 1848 and 1855 approximately 300,000 people made their way west in search of the fortunes that were there for the taking in the California goldfields.

Giacomo Puccini immortalized that period of U.S. history in his three-act opera, La Fanciulla del West. Based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco, the opera centers around Minnie, the owner of the Polka saloon, her love interest, the bandit Dick Johnson, and the jealous suitor, sheriff Jack Rance.

On Sunday, May 14 at 3:00 pm at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst will lead the first of three performances of Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West. Sung in Italian with English subtitles, the cast features soprano Emily Magee as Minnie, bass Roman Burdenko as Jack, and tenor Limmie Pulliam as Dick, along with a horde of gold miners. Performances continue at 7:30 pm on Wednesday May 17 and Saturday May 20. Tickets are available online. The opera is presented as part of The Orchestra’s American Dream Festival.

[Read more…]

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