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The Cleveland Orchestra: Composer Oded Zehavi talks about his new piccolo concerto

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by Mike Telin

When Oded Zehavi heard Cleveland Orchestra principal piccolo Mary Kay Fink play during a program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, he knew he wanted to write a concerto for her. “I was so happy that she was open to it,” the Israeli composer said during a Zoom call.

Once Fink and Zehavi decided that a new concerto was something they wanted to pursue — and with The Cleveland Orchestra onboard for commissioning the piece — the creative process began. Everything went as planned, and the world premiere was set for April of 2020 — only to have it canceled due to COVID.

After a four-year wait, Zehavi will hear his concerto brought to life when Mary Kay Fink gives the world premiere of Aurora with The Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Mary Kay Fink to premiere new piccolo concerto

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by Mike Telin

When Oded Zehavi first heard Cleveland Orchestra principal piccolo Mary Kay Fink play during a program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Israeli composer knew he wanted to write a concerto for her. “The Violins of Hope were in residence and we were encouraged to put together programs featuring composers who perished during the Holocaust,” Fink, who serves on the CIM faculty, recalled during a telephone conversation. “I played in a trio by Erwin Schulhoff that has a fair amount of piccolo in it. And after the concert he found me and said, ‘I want to write you a piccolo concerto.’ That’s how it all started.”

Once Fink and Zehavi decided that a new concerto was something they wanted to pursue — and with The Cleveland Orchestra onboard for commissioning the piece — the creative process began. Everything went as planned, and the world premiere was set for April of 2020 — only to have it canceled due to COVID.

[Read more…]

Susanna Mälkki leads Cleveland Orchestra in brilliant performances of Bach, Hindemith & more

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Originally posted on Cleveland.com

Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki returned to Severance Music Center Thursday evening to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in brilliant performances of works by two masters of counterpoint — but not in their original formats— and joined guest pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason in a charming piano concerto by a young piano phenomenon who wasn’t yet known as a Schumann when she wrote it.

The evening began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six-voice Ricercare, a grand fugue that the Prussian King Frederick the Great challenged him to improvise on the spot when Bach paid a visit to his son C.P.E. at Potsdam in 1747. Papa Bach begged for more time to craft such a monumental fugue, and so it ended up in his Musical Offering, a collection of contrapuntal puzzle pieces based on Frederick’s Royal Theme that the Cantor of Leipzig gift-wrapped and sent to Frederick after returning home.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Delivers wonderful, Majestic spin on tradition in ‘Beethoven’s Pastoral program (Feb. 22)

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Originally posted on Cleveland.com

Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The four Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Severance Music Center this weekend are as traditional in form as orchestral programs can be. Although they follow the long-established formula of Overture – Concerto – Symphony and feature standard works by Beethoven, Haydn, and Beethoven again, the interpretation of those pieces on Thursday evening was anything but business as usual.

Making their Cleveland Orchestra debuts in this “Beethoven’s Pastoral” program on Thursday, guest conductor Philippe Herreweghe and cello soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras brought historical sensibility and a deep knowledge of the scores to their tasks. Performing to a large crowd, Herreweghe, Queyras, and the orchestra made sure that every note and phrase leapt off the page and into the ear with freshness and immediacy.

[Read more…]

George Benjamin and Cleveland Orchestra transform Severance into a realm of vivid imagery (Feb. 15)

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by Kevin McLaughlin | Cleveland Classical

Originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ballet scores may be the most evocative music. Play Ravel’s Mother Goose on a concert stage without dancers or scenery, and you will still imagine the dancing in your mind. On its own, as conducted by George Benjamin and played by The Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday, February 15, it was as full of vivid imagery as if we had spent a night in the theater.

Benjamin, who has described himself as “a composer who conducts,” showed to a nearly full house at Severance Music Center that he can do both equally well. In a challenging program including his own Dream of the Song, and scores by Dieter Ammann, Oliver Knussen, and Maurice Ravel, he also showed the ability to realize each composer’s imagination.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra, guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste earn three curtain calls for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: Review (Feb. 9)

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by Kevin McLaughlin | Cleveland Classical

Originally posted on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — That crackle you may have heard around 9 o’clock on Friday evening may not have been an atmospheric event or even static coming from the dryer. More likely it was The Cleveland Orchestra playing the jubilant fourth movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.

The program, in addition to Beethoven’s Fifth and the infrequently performed Schubert Sixth, was intended to be led by Herbert Blomstedt, the eminent 96-year-old Swedish maestro. But Blomstedt took a fall last December, and while he recovers, his engagements in Cleveland and other American cities have been canceled. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor and artistic director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, came heroically to the rescue, making his first appearance in Cleveland since October of 1995.

[Read more…]

George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song: a conversation with countertenor Tim Mead

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by Mike Telin

This week’s program from The Cleveland Orchestra includes George Benjamin’s mesmerizing Dream of the Song, featuring British countertenor Tim Mead as soloist.

The program, conducted by Benjamin, also includes Dieter Ammann’s glut, Oliver Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder, and Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye (complete ballet). Performances take place on Thursday, February 15 at 7:30 pm and Saturday the 17th at 8:00 pm at Severance Music Center. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with Mead over Zoom to discuss Benjamin’s song cycle, his passion for Purcell, and his quick transition from the choir to the opera stage. (Photo by Andy Staples) [Read more…]

Jukka-Pekka Saraste returns to Cleveland with “Beethoven’s Fateful Fifth”

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by Mike Telin

After presenting two concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall on the 20th and 21st of January, The Cleveland Orchestra then headed south for their Florida residency. And on Friday, February 9 at 7:30 pm, they will return to their home base of Severance Music Center to present the first of three performances of Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online. [ALL PERFORMANCES ARE SOLD OUT]

This week also marks the long-awaited return of Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. “It’s a pleasure to come back to Cleveland. It’s been a while — my last time was when I was in Toronto [as music director of the Toronto Symphony] — so it must have been about 20 years ago,” he said during a Zoom conversation from his home in Helsinki.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra revels in wild Weimar-era symphonies by Sergi Prokofiev and Anton Webern (Jan.17)

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Originally published on Cleveland.com

Photo by Roger Mastroianni

by Daniel Hathaway, Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In his Concert Overview for The Cleveland Orchestra performance at Severance Music Center on Wednesday evening, January 17, music director Franz Welser-Möst wrote:

“Tonight’s program was conceived as part of Carnegie Hall’s festival, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, which looks at the 15 years of the Weimar era (1918–33), some of the wildest and most innovative for the arts in history.”

The program, which will be repeated tonight (Thursday) before the Orchestra travels to New York for a two-day Carnegie residency, included brilliant performances of wildly contrasting, two-movement works by Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Webern that both bore the title of “Symphony,” though they couldn’t have been more divergent in intent and style.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra offers diverse program celebrating civil rights (Jan.14)

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Originally published on Cleveland.com

Photo by Roger Mastroianni

by Kevin McLaughlin, Cleveland Classical

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Orchestra hosted a varied program Sunday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and commemorating the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The 44th annual concert, held in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, marked the landmark law that prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin.

Former longtime WEWS news anchor Danita Harris emceed with panache; Daniel Reith, the orchestra’s assistant conductor, was an effective presence on the podium, and Dr. William Henry Caldwell directed the all-volunteer Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus with grace and poise. [Read more…]

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