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Itzhak Perlman’s celebratory visit turns Severance Music Center into a ‘Fiddler’s House’ (Apr. 8)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — There’s a Yiddish saying that goes, “In the fiddler’s house, everyone dances.” Admittedly, in Severance Music Center on Tuesday night, April 8, it took some coaxing before a small but joyful group of people stood up, joined hands, and began snaking through the aisles.

Getting the audience on their feet is a trademark of Itzhak Perlman’s touring program “In the Fiddler’s House,” a celebration of traditional Jewish klezmer music. [Read more…]

A hero’s score: Cleveland Orchestra’s ‘Black Panther’ concert reigns at Severance (Mar. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The weather gods weren’t kindly disposed to Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor Anthony Parnther last August for his Blossom debut with John Legend. As he reminded his social media followers earlier this month, “We were yanked off the stage a third of the way through the concert because of a storm! This time, we’re in the storm-proof majesty of Severance Hall.”

“This time” came on Friday, when Parnther presided over Black Panther (2018), the first-ever screening of a Marvel Studios film at Severance Music Center. He led a masterful performance of Ludwig’s Göransson’s Grammy and Oscar-winning score, enhanced by Senegalese talking drum guru Massamba Diop.

Among its many credits, Black Panther was the first Marvel Studios film to feature a Black director and a predominantly Black cast. It was nominated for seven awards at the 91st Academy Awards, winning three. It was also the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination, and the first Marvel film to win an Academy Award.

[Read more…]

Pianist Yuja Wang, Cleveland Orchestra do Tchaikovsky justice, despite pre-concert surprise (Mar. 22)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Pianist Yuja Wang is a dazzler. She has a way of dressing, of taking the stage, and of bowing that bespeaks confidence and star quality. Add to those a suspenseful entrance (a few minutes overdue), apparent nonchalance at a last-minute conductor change — assistant conductor Daniel Reith in for music director Franz Welser-Möst — and an astonishing keyboard technique, and you get excitement.

The audience was buzzing with anticipation on Saturday evening March 22 at Severance Music Center for Wang’s appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

To be fair, the delayed entrance likely had more to do with a needed meeting between pianist and conductor before performing the work together. Reith, who received word of the change only two hours before the concert, deserves much of the glory for what followed.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra delivers powerful performances of Beethoven, Janáček (Mar. 13)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — This week’s Cleveland Orchestra programs were to have featured soprano Asmik Grigorian in Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. But when Grigorian withdrew last week for personal reasons, the focus changed to works by Beethoven while keeping intact the original theme of darkness into light.

On Thursday, March 13, music director Franz Welser-Möst wasted no time arriving at what would usually be a concert’s main event. The very first notes that rang out in Severance Music Center formed the iconic four-note motif known around the world — the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Yes, one of the most famous classical music pieces ever written opened the program instead of closing it. It’s an unconventional programming choice — but after all, Beethoven’s Fifth is a piece that needs little introduction. At least not today.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra marks Ravel’s 150th birthday with masterful performance (Mar. 6)

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by Peter Feher

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When Maurice Ravel visited Northeast Ohio in 1928, not everything went according to plan. The French composer had a reputation for being far more brilliant on paper than in person. Nikolai Sokoloff, then music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, would recount afterward how Ravel came late to rehearsal, conducted his pieces clumsily, and left listeners somewhat confused.

So, it’s entirely fitting that this weekend’s concerts at Severance Music Center, which mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, should be entrusted to more polished hands.

Music director Franz Welser-Möst was back on the podium in Mandel Concert Hall on Thursday, March 6, presiding over a masterful performance that made a virtue of restraint. Tasteful extravagance may be more typical of Ravel’s style, but The Cleveland Orchestra has a way with refinement. And so does Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, the evening’s soloist, who gave a sensitive, at times subdued account of the composer’s Concerto in G Major.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra brings the “Wild” inside (Mar. 2)

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by Kate MacKenzie

On Sunday, March 2, animal print was à la mode at Severance Music Center, as concertgoers donned masks of leopards, crocodiles, and other creatures for Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony. The program was presented as part of The Cleveland Orchestra Family Concert Series.

Conductor Daniel Reith led the ensemble, but the star of the stage was Wild Symphony’s author and composer. Although best known for his novel The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown recently made his debut in the genre of juvenile fiction. A life-long lover of classical music, Brown was inspired by works like Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals to write his own introduction to the orchestra. A marshland walk prompted the first composition: a poem and short piece modeled after the chorus of frogs he’d heard. Over the years, the project expanded to more than twenty poems and brief orchestral works representing different animals. Wild Symphony was published as a picture book in 2020, along with an app designed to play each movement as the pages are turned.

[Read more…]

Welser-Möst leads lyrical, hyper-charged Beethoven “Eroica” in Cleveland (Feb. 27)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Franz Welser-Möst was greeted with a hero’s welcome at Severance Music Center on Thursday, February 27, by the large and appreciative audience — even before a note of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony had been played. He acknowledged the genuine warmth in the room, and the occasion of his return to the podium after a medical leave.

Opening the program was Shostakovich’s wintery Violin Concerto No. 2, with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist. It’s a mostly gloomy work not easily shaken from its brooding until the Finale — and even then, the raucous dancing is more crazed than jubilant.

[Read more…]

Thomas Adès leads Cleveland Orchestra in colorful concert of Sibelius, Saariaho, Ives & more (Feb. 20)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thomas Adès is obsessed with sound color, as he vividly demonstrated with the assistance of the unflappable Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (expertly prepared by Lisa Wong) in his guest appearance as curator, composer, and conductor at Severance Music Center on Thursday evening, February 20.

Works by Jan Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, Charles Ives and Adès himself visited a vast spectrum of choral and orchestral hues that can be heard by the ear. Some of them use those colors to make poignant social commentary at the same time.

Color is represented impressionistically in the inexorable ebbing and flowing of the sea in Sibelius’ The Oceanides and Saariaho’s Otra Mar, and through musical collisions in Charles Ives’ Orchestral Set No. 2. And in the third, recently added movement of Adès’s America: the Prophecy, in ominous musical proclamations.

[Read more…]

Fabio Luisi leads Cleveland Orchestra in fascinating pairing of works by Colasanti and Bruckner (Feb. 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — An odd but fascinating pairing brought the U.S. premiere of Italian composer Silvia Colasanti’s Time’s Cruel Hand and the 1888 version of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 together on the same program in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Thursday, February 13. Fabio Luisi, music director of the Dallas Symphony, led resplendent performances of both works.

In addition to the striking contrast between their musical styles, the two pieces clock in at 20 and 65 minutes respectively — a conundrum for program planners, whose tasks would be much easier if composers would just format their orchestral works in neat, 30-minute packages.

[Read more…]

From “Jaws” to “Harry Potter,” Cleveland Orchestra performs John Williams’ iconic film scores (Feb. 14)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Valentine’s Day evening, Keith Lockhart ignited the Cleveland Orchestra and wooed the packed house at Severance Music Center in a retrospective, The Music of John Williams.

Friday evening was an indulgence — a trip down movie lane and performances by an orchestra at its most vivid, thanks to Williams’ ingenious scoring and Lockhart’s energized conducting.

Lockhart’s close link to Williams through the Boston Pops Orchestra, having succeeded him there as music director 30 years ago, showed in his innate understanding of the music and sure-handedness on the podium. Excerpts from “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “E.T.” and “Harry Potter,” along with lesser-known Williams scores, made for an impressive showcase. Lockhart also engaged the audience with several amusing stories he had in his back pocket about Williams’ early days as a film composer.

[Read more…]

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