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Simone Lamsma brings Saint-Saëns violin concerto to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

Time is running out to catch The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center this summer. On Saturday, August 26 at 7:00 pm, guest conductor Fabien Gabel will lead The Orchestra in a program titled “Impressions of France and Spain.” The program will include Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloé, and De Falla’s Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat.

This is the final Classical concert at Blossom in 2023. Bring young people along and take advantage of the Under 18s for free on the lawn program. Click here for more information. Tickets are available online.

The concert will feature Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, with Simone Lamsma as soloist. Lamsma made her Cleveland Orchestra debut at Severance Music Center in May of 2014 and her Blossom debut in August of 2015. “I’m so happy to be coming back. The Cleveland Orchestra is so refined — there’s an exquisite nobility in the way that they play,” the Dutch violinist said during a telephone conversation from the Netherlands.

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Pianist Mao Fujita leads Cleveland Orchestra in bold performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Aug 19)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

By Peter Feher

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — The Cleveland Orchestra went into Saturday’s concert at Blossom Music Center with more than a few unknowns. It’s not every week that this ensemble tackles a pair of new pieces, welcomes both a debuting conductor and soloist, and even takes a risk with the order of the evening’s program.

Still, for all the novelty, the Orchestra’s performance on Aug. 19 followed the same satisfying arc of any conventional symphonic concert. In classical music, the formula for success — and one surefire way to get a crowd on its feet — is to save the best for last.

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Audra McDonald teams up with The Cleveland Orchestra for a glorious tour of the Great American Songbook (Aug 13)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

(Photo by Roger Mastroianni)

by Kevin McLaughlin

If there is a more complete singing-and-acting talent than Audra McDonald, I can’t think of one. For a generation she has poured her heart out and done so with such vocal and dramatic authority it is difficult to imagine what we did before she came along. The near-capacity crowd at Blossom Music Center on Sunday was treated to a delightful program of Broadway standards and unguarded reflections on life and living.   [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra delivers charming resourceful spin on Mozart at Blossom Music Center (Aug 12)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

(Photo: Roger Mastroianni)

By Peter Feher

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — In a playful twist, this summer’s all-Mozart program at Blossom Music Center featured a couple of pieces that weren’t by Mozart.

Call it counterintuitive, but The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert on Saturday, Aug. 12 stayed true to the spirit of this singular composer. The traits that typify Mozart’s style — a combination of instant charm and endless resourcefulness — were also the qualities that brought together the entire evening.

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After the Cooper Competition: thoughts from Pyotr Akulov (age 16)

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by Mike Telin

History was made on August 4, when for the first time in the history of the Cooper Competition for Piano, the top prize was awarded to two participants. Pyotr Akulov and Sophia Shuya Liu were named co-champions following their concerto performances with David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra that Friday evening.

I reached Pyotr Akulov by Zoom outside of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Mike Telin: Good afternoon and thank you for taking the time to talk.

Pyotr Akulov: Thank you for your invitation.

MT: You’re in Germany right now — are you performing?

PA: No, I am just recovering from the competition, resting, and preparing to fly home to Moscow.MT: I’m glad you’re resting. You deserve it, which brings me to say congratulations, you played wonderfully.

PA: Thank you very much for your kind words.

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Audra McDonald and Andy Einhorn bring Broadway favorites to Blossom

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by Mike Telin

“I love Blossom and I love the Cleveland Orchestra and I know Audra feels the same way,” conductor Andy Einhorn said. “Every time we’re there it’s such a warm and welcoming experience, not only working with the orchestra, but also with the audiences because they’re wonderful and hungry for great entertainment.”

On Sunday, August 13 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Einhorn will lead Grammy and Tony Award–winning vocalist Audra McDonald and The Cleveland Orchestra in an evening of Broadway favorites. The program will include music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin, and others. Tickets are available online.

I reached Einhorn by phone in Aspen, Colorado.

Mike Telin: I understand you and Audra were out hiking.

Andy Einhorn: Yes, we’re trying to spend as much time in nature as possible.

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Marriage, divorce, musical tourism, and a bit of mystery: a conversation with Nic McGegan

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by Mike Telin

Although conductor Nic McGegan has only worked with Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet Afendi Yusuf on one occasion, he said it was pure heaven. “It was a couple of years ago when we did the suite from Schubert’s Rosamunde, which has a wonderful clarinet part and he just blew me away. You don’t hear clarinet playing that classy everyday. I’m thrilled that he’s going to play this concerto and I’m just so happy to be able to stand next to him.”

On Saturday, August 12, at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, McGegan will lead Afendi Yusuf and The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. The program also includes Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Elena Langer’s Suite from Figaro Gets a Divorce, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian.” Tickets are available online.

Saturday’s concert also marks Yusuf’s debut as a concerto soloist with his Cleveland colleagues. “That’s an extra treat for me,” McGegan said during a recent phone conversation. “And it’s one of those pieces which an audience always warms to, so it’s going to be great fun.”

Unlike a lot of Mozart’s music — which McGegan said was often written for a performance “next week” — this is not true of the clarinet concerto. “Obviously it dates from the last month he was alive, but it appears that he may have been thinking about it at least two years earlier.”

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Cleveland Orchestra partners with pianist Conrad Tao for a sublime, noteworthy performance of John Adams’ ‘Century Rolls’ (Aug 5)

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com  

by Daniel Hathaway

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — If Conrad Tao and The Cleveland Orchestra were being paid by the note for their mind-boggling performance of John Adams’ “Century Rolls” at Blossom Music Center on Saturday evening, the Musical Arts Association might well have flirted with bankruptcy.

The centerpiece of a program that included Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Something for the Dark” and Jan Sibelius’s “First Symphony,” Adams’ 1997 work was inspired by the 20th-century technology that fueled player pianos and other musical devices, from street organs to mechanically bowed violins.

Slots punched onto long rolls of heavy paper fed through a playing mechanism, pneumatically activating levers that produced notes. While pianists have only ten digits at their disposal, you can punch as many slots into a paper roll as you have notes to play them, and superhuman feats become possible.

Not only possible but astonishing in such a live performance by human musicians as this one — perfectly coordinated by the cool-headed conductor David Robertson. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with composer Sarah Kirkland Snider

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by Mike Telin

“I’m thrilled to be able to make it out for the performance of Something for the Dark,” Sarah Kirkland Snider said during a recent interview. “And to have it played by The Cleveland Orchestra with David Robertson conducting, I mean, that’s just the best kind of performance a composer could ask for.”

On Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Robertson will lead Snider’s work along with John Adams’ Century Rolls featuring pianist Conrad Tao as soloist, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1. At 6:00 pm, Daniel Reith will lead the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical.” Tickets are available online.

I reached the composer by phone at her home in Princeton, New Jersey and began by asking her if she ever thought Something for the Dark would acquire the legs that it has.

Sarah Kirkland Snider: No, of course not — many new pieces get performed once or twice, and then that’s it. That’s sort of the fate of most orchestral music being written these days, because orchestras feel a tremendous pressure to cater to the pieces that audiences know.

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Pianist Conrad Tao returns to Blossom with Century Rolls

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by Mike Telin

Although Conrad Tao first performed John Adams’ Century Rolls in 2015 when he was 21, the pianist said that his history with the concerto goes back to when he was 11 — when, on the advice of his composition teacher Christopher Theofanidis, he listened to the Nonesuch recording with Emanuel Ax and The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. “I was like, ‘Wow, Adams wrote a piano concerto.’ I was so excited to discover that as a child, so this piece is quite special to me.”

On Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Tao will perform Century Rolls with David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra. The program also includes Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1. At 6:00 pm, Daniel Reith will lead the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical.” Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

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