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Alisa Weilerstein talks about FRAGMENTS

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by Mike Telin

When faced with the realities of the pandemic, like many cellists, Alisa Weilerstein found refuge on social media, streaming movements of Bach’s cello suites. “I just want to have a kind of outpouring of music, of thoughts, and everything else,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “Right now all I really want to do is give.”

Little did she know that spending time with her thoughts would eventually lead to the creation of FRAGMENTS. The multi-year project weaves together movements of Bach’s six solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works.

On Thursday, May 11 at Severance Music Center Weilerstein will present FRAGMENTS 1, in which Bach’s first cello suite will be combined with selections from the commissioned pieces. The hour-long program is enhanced by theatrical elements including responsive lighting and set designs.

The music will be performed without pause and without printed programs. Following the performance, audiences can attend a post-concert discussion with Weilerstein and the FRAGMENTS creative team. Tickets are available online. The evening is presented as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s American Dream Festival.

[Read more…]

Three perspectives on Americanness with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 27)

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by Stephanie Manning

Maybe it was the enduring popularity of Dvořák’s “New World.” Or the excitement of a world premiere. Or the chance to see three contrabass clarinets, three contrabassoons, and three tubas on stage. Whatever the reason, Mandel Concert Hall was packed to the gills on April 27 for an exciting concert by The Cleveland Orchestra.

With one Cleveland Orchestra premiere and one world premiere on the program, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 almost seemed like the odd one out — yet it drew the evening together in some compelling ways. Though “New World” is familiar to many, the orchestra’s sparkling performance often made it feel just as exciting as a first listen. Every brass chorale was suitably grand, and the ensemble capped off the jaunty third movement with a stunningly rich last chord.

Some uncharacteristic cracks did show through in the second, with an ill-articulated opening, and a too-brisk tempo from music director Franz Welser-Möst. The whole symphony received this speedier interpretation, but it was this movement that was most affected, with the usually calm aura left feeling slightly on edge. Still, this was the exception and not the norm. The first movement, for example, was virtually recording-quality, with some impeccable playing all around.

[Read more…]

Allison Loggins-Hull is named next Cleveland Orchestra Composer Fellow

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by Mike Telin

When Allison Loggins-Hull’s manager reached out to say that The Cleveland Orchestra was curious to see some of her scores, the composer/flutist thought they might be interested in programming some of her music  in the future. Then, several weeks later, when he called back and asked Loggins-Hull if she was interested in being the Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, at first she didn’t take him seriously.

“I thought ‘Okay, Greg, what do you really want?’ But when he said no, this is real,  I was like wow, because this was not something that I saw coming.”

On Thursday, May 4 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in the world premiere of Loggins-Hull’s Can You See? The concert will also include Barber’s Cello Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein as soloist and the revised 1947 version of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8 pm. Tickets are available online.

One hour before each performance, a Prelude program in Reinberger Chamber Hall curated by Loggins-Hull will feature excerpts from her full-length program Honoring Black Composers, which will be presented at Karamu House on May 21.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Rafael Payare excites with Shostakovich & Bernstein (Apr. 6)

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by Peter Feher

The Russians won the Cold War, judging by The Cleveland Orchestra’s stirring and subversive program at Severance Music Center earlier this month.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety”) went head-to-head in an exciting evening shot through with creative uncertainty. The fact that both pieces could have coexisted on a concert 60 years ago — specifically, the sort of concert Bernstein would have conducted with the New York Philharmonic during their 1959 tour of the Soviet Union — didn’t ease the tension.

Still, The Cleveland Orchestra made an admirable effort at diplomacy, giving stellar performances of both works on Thursday, April 6. Guest conductor Rafael Payare whipped up the conflict, however, creating a sense of real stakes with a program that could have ended predictably.

Every interpretation of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony has made a point of hammering home the finale. Following the piece’s 1937 premiere, the official Soviet line was that those repetitive final measures represented tragedy over triumph, effectively dispelling the darkness that had come in the movements before. The dissenting view, which has become the standard today, is to read the ending as brutal and coercive, and conductors typically communicate this by slowing the tempo to an unbearable degree, leaving little room to doubt what the composer “really meant.”

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MTT makes magic with The Cleveland Orchestra (Apr. 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

Both long-time listeners and recent fans likely found something to enjoy at Severance on April 13. The Cleveland Orchestra’s program that weekend not only included a symphony that could win over many a first-time audience member, but also a work that hadn’t been heard from the ensemble since 1930. In either case, the result was fantastic.

At the podium was conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who brought a charming and nuanced interpretation to two lesser-known works by Debussy. Jeux; poème dansé, originally written for the Ballets Russes, is lush yet perpetually unsettled. The orchestra responded well to the music’s indecisive shifts, flitting easily from one thing to the next — all underscored by some precise tamborine work from principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis.

With Jeux’s inclusion of a number of auxiliary instruments came the opportunity for featuring moments across the wind and brass sections, a quality also present in the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra that followed. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra presents Ellis Island: The Dream of America

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by Mike Telin

When writing a new orchestral work, the composer hopes that the piece will have a life after the initial premiere performances. Then you have Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America. Since its premiere in 2002, the work has been performed 216 times by 114 orchestras.

On Tuesday, April 18 at 7:30 pm, Daniel Reith will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in Boyer’s multimedia work that honors the immigrant experience by combining music, narration, and historic images. Directed by Donald Carrier, Ellis Island: The Dream of America features seven actors who portray the journeys of immigrants from seven countries on their way to America, beginning in the early parts of the past century. The concert is a prelude to the inaugural Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream. Click here for free tickets (required). Following Tuesday’s performance, the work will be performed on the Orchestra’s educational concerts.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Five Questions for Leif Ove Andsnes

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by Mike Telin

This weekend, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes the return of Michael Tilson Thomas to the Severance Music Center podium to lead a program that includes Debussy’s Jeux (“Games”) and Mahler’s  Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”). The concerts,  presented on Thursday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 8:00 pm, and Sunday at 3:00 pm, will also include Debussy’s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra with Leif Ove Andsnes as soloist.

Andsnes has been a Cleveland audience favorite since making his debut at Blossom in 1990, and although his schedule didn’t permit a telephone interview, the pianist agreed to answer questions by email.

Mike Telin: The Debussy is a beautiful piece, and I don’t believe it has been performed in Cleveland for many years. Please share your thoughts on the work.

Leif Ove Andsnes: It is indeed very beautiful, very sensuous, with wonderful waves of sound. The piano goes in and out of being the soloist, other times accompanying solos in the orchestra, or simply being part of the orchestra colour. It has a three-part structure like a normal concerto. It is a monothematic work, meaning that a lot of the material is being drawn from the very first theme presented, an oboe solo at the introduction of the first movement.

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The Cleveland Orchestra:
Blomstedt & Ax (Feb. 16)

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by Peter Feher

There are few music directors who know Beethoven better than Herbert Blomstedt. Now 95 years old, the Swedish-American conductor has a lifetime of serious study and performing experience to draw on, but this isn’t to say his interpretations are set in stone.

The mix of curiosity and thoroughness that’s sustained Blomstedt throughout his career was just as apparent in his program with The Cleveland Orchestra on February 16. If he’s slowed down somewhat since his last appearance here — the biggest change is that he now conducts seated at the podium — there was nonetheless a sense of coming full circle as he led Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

[Read more…]

Mahler and Chin play to The Cleveland Orchestra’s strengths (Feb. 9)

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by Stephanie Manning

On February 9, concertgoers approaching Severance Music Center likely noticed the dramatic lighting choices — the building had been lit up in a deep red. With Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on the program, it felt fitting. The composer’s intense and passionate works are popular with both musicians and audiences, and an unsurprisingly crowded house packed Mandel Concert Hall for the occasion. Not only was the music guaranteed to generate interest, but so was the conductor: young Finnish phenom Klaus Mäkelä, in his second consecutive week this season with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Audiences did not see much of Mäkelä the previous week, as illness forced him to bow out of three of four performances. But on Thursday evening, he was back and characteristically full of energy. With fluid, yet bouncy movements that make his style easily identifiable, the conductor is a fascinating watch on the podium. Frequent changes in stance and an unabashed expressiveness create the feeling that the beats are echoing through his body.

The musicians were responsive to Mäkelä’s every move. [Read more…]

Week 2: Klaus Mäkelä returns to The Cleveland Orchestra podium

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by Mike Telin

After an illness forced Klaus Mäkelä to withdraw from three of the four scheduled performances last week, the Finnish conductor will return to The Cleveland Orchestra podium on Thursday, February 9 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center.  The program will include Unsuk Chin’s SPIRA – Concerto for Orchestra and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and it will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Last week I caught up with the friendly conductor by phone for a brief chat while he was backstage at Severance.

Mike Telin: How did you come to pair the Unsuk Chin with the Mahler?

Klaus Mäkelä: The Mahler is a tough piece to program with because it is a bipolar symphony. It’s tragic and then dramatic and has some of the most beautiful music ever written. And it ends in contrapuntal joy. It’s a symphony where everybody has an opportunity to shine. And Unsuk Chin’s piece is a beautiful concerto for orchestra. She was a student of Ligeti, and she has an extremely detailed and careful way of writing for the orchestra. In a way she reminds me of Mahler in that she is precise down to the very last detail.

Of course the piece is a showcase for the orchestra but in a virtuosic way. The strings play fast and very high and the horn has a big solo. But everything blends together. It takes a group mentality to play, which is something about The Cleveland Orchestra that is very special for me. [Read more…]

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