by Samantha Spaccasi
The lawn and pavilion of Blossom Music Center hosted an immense crowd on the evening of July 29 for The Cleveland Orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with pianist David Fray, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, skillfully conducted by Vasily Petrenko. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced the Perfect Blossom Picnic contest to take place on Saturday, August 5 at Blossom Music Center before the ensemble’s performance of the “Tchaikovsky’s Favorites” program. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Friday evening, July 21, Severance Hall was the final destination for Christina Jihee Nam, Qing Yu Chen, and Johan Dalene, the three young violinists left standing in Oberlin’s Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition. Their efforts over the last week won them the signal honor of playing concertos with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“It’s my first time in Wyoming and there’s some spectacular nature — I’m looking at the Teton Mountain from my window now,” the very friendly Vasily Petrenko said as we began our telephone conversation last Friday afternoon. The conductor said he was relaxing before leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in a concert later in the evening that would feature works by Brahms and Bartók.
On Saturday, July 29, at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Petrenko will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c with David Fray as soloist, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in e. “I’m really looking forward this concert, and please tell everyone that I want them to come,” the 41-year old St. Petersburg, Russia native said in his ever-present upbeat style. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
It was hot and humid on the evening of July 22, but that didn’t stop concertgoers from flocking to Blossom Music Center to hear the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When Cleveland Orchestra first assistant principal second violin Eli Matthews performs Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 this weekend, he will be revisiting a work that has been an important part of his life since he was seven years old. “When I was a wee child my mother took me to the symphony in Memphis, where I grew up, to hear Eugene Fodor play Paganini’s First Violin Concerto,” Matthews recalled during a telephone conversation. “After hearing it, I asked her to get me a violin and she did. From the time I first picked up the instrument, playing that was a big goal of mine and I did many times when I was a teenager — I won some competitions with it, and I’ve played it with orchestras.” [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
Severance Hall, home of The Cleveland Orchestra, has announced a call for volunteer ushers and tour guides for its 2017-2018 event and concert season, which will include performances by TCO, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and many other ensembles, as well as non-musical events. [Read more…]
by Samantha Spaccasi
The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual Summers@Severance series will begin on July 14 at 7:00 pm, when the ensemble will perform three works by Beethoven — Overture to Egmont, Symphony No. 5, and Symphony No.1 — under the baton of music director Franz Welser-Möst. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
After jazz pianist and composer Aaron Diehl made his New York Philharmonic debut in September of 2016 performing George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote: “Mr. Diehl played magnificently. He had brilliance when called for during jazz-tinged passages of Lisztian runs and octaves. The roomy freedom of Mr. Diehl’s playing in bluesy episodes was especially affecting. He also folded short improvised sections into the score, and it’s hard to imagine that Gershwin would not have been impressed.”
On Saturday, July 1 and Sunday, July 2 at Blossom Music Center, the Columbus, Ohio native will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing that same Concerto under the baton of Jahja Ling. The 8:00 pm concerts will also include Shostakovich’s Tahiti Trot, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture, and Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture. [Read more…]
by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com
‘Legacy’ might be the most overused word in the English language. But no word is more appropriate to describe American conductor Robert Page, who passed away at his home in Pittsburgh on Sunday, August 7. He was 89.
Born in Abilene, Texas on April 27, 1927, Page went on to become a beloved figure in Cleveland. He served as director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra from 1971 to 1989; assistant conductor of the Orchestra for 12 of those years; and chorus master of Cleveland Opera for 6 years. His work with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus on their recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana won him a Grammy Award — one of his two.