Thomas Adès Archives - Cleveland Classical

Cleveland Orchestra: Gerstein plays new Adès Concerto (Oct. 11)

October 22, 2019 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

Pianist Kirill Gerstein brought the resplendent new concerto that Thomas Adès has written for him to Severance Hall on October 11. Debuted by the Boston Symphony earlier this year when it was led by Adès himself, the simply titled Piano Concerto formed the torso of a topsy-turvy Cleveland Orchestra program guest conducted by Alan Gilbert that began with a symphony, and ended with an overture. In 25 eventful minutes, Adès creates a sendup of the Romantic piano concerto, clothing a traditional body in the latest fashion. [Read more…]

Kirill Gerstein to give Cleveland premiere of Thomas Adès Piano Concerto

October 8, 2019 by Mike Telin

by Mike Telin

A new piano concerto is always an occasion, but the premiere of Thomas Adès’ Concerto, performed by pianist Kirill Gerstein and the Boston Symphony under the direction of the composer, has caused critics and audiences to sit up and take note. Following the New York premiere of the work, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote that the Concerto was

written for Gerstein, who exhilaratingly dispatched this joyous and audacious piece’s formidable solo part… This breathless, 20-minute concerto, structured in three essentially traditional movements (fast, slow, fast), comes across as zesty and accessible. But don’t be fooled. Just below the surface, the music sizzles with modernist harmonies, fractured phrases, gaggles of counterpoint and lyrical strands that keep breaking into skittish bits. The finale is a riotous, clattering, assaultive romp. I can’t wait to hear it again.

This weekend Kirill Gerstein will play the Cleveland premiere of Adès’ Piano Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Alan Gilbert. The program also includes J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 3 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. The Severance Hall concerts take place on Friday, October 11 at 11:00 am (no Bach) and 8:00 pm, and Saturday, October 12 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

CD Review
The Cleveland Orchestra: A New Century, Vol. 3

by Jarrett Hoffman

A shared sense of the epic ties together the final two works of A New Century, the three-part live album from Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra that is also the ensemble’s inaugural release on its own record label.

We begin with the world premiere recording of Okeanos, Bernd Richard Deutsch’s concerto for organ and orchestra, featuring Paul Jacobs as soloist. The title refers not only to the Titan of Greek mythology, but also “to an idea of immense (and sometimes unfathomable) greatness and breadth, which conjures up in my mind the thought of the organ,” as Deutsch writes in his notes. [Read on…]

CD Review — Jory Vinikour
L’Unique: Harpsichord Music of François Couperin (Cedille)

by Daniel Hathaway

If you haven’t already warmed up to French Baroque clavecin music, Chicago-based keyboardist Jory Vinikour’s L’Unique: Harpsichord Music of François Couperin should make a strong impression on your musical tastes. The most prominent member of a musical dynasty second only to the German Bachs, François Couperin left a large treasure trove of keyboard works, 234 in all, arranged in 24 suites or Ordres. [Read on…]

Colin Davin & Jason Vieaux in a live online recital (June 6)

by Daniel Hathaway

After weeks of watching online streams of archived concerts and ad hoc performances from quarantined musicians’ living rooms and bedrooms, it was thrilling to be able to advertise, preview, and report on two real-time webcasts last Friday and Saturday that embraced high production values and addressed the persistent issue of how to compensate musicians for online services. Saturday afternoon’s joint recital by Colin Davin and Jason Vieaux was sponsored by the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, whose 2020 iteration, scheduled for that weekend at the Cleveland Institute of Music, vanished in the wake of the pandemic. [Read on…]

Mark Kosower begins Trinity livestream series with Bach cello suites (June 5)

by Jarrett Hoffman

Cellist Mark Kosower has long believed that the music of J.S. Bach can bring people together. His live-streamed performance from Trinity Cathedral on Friday, June 5, revealed how deeply he feels about that: perhaps what was most healing was his passion itself. This was the first in a pair of concerts that Kosower will give at Trinity this summer with no audience present, covering all six of the composer’s solo cello suites under the banner of his project “Bach for Humanity.” On Saturday, he brought the odd-numbered works, playing from memory and starting with No. 5. Full of agony and desperation, its Prelude was a fitting way to begin. The Allemande stood out for its poetic flexibility, while the second Gavotte ran smooth, Kosower’s technique flowing easily.

[Read on…]

Stephanie Lamprea’s Unaccompanied: Tiny Works for Quarantine, Vols. I & II

by Nicholas Stevens

“I am sitting in a room,” intones the composer Alvin Lucier, announcing the title of the composition he is recording before clarifying: “…different from the one you are sitting in now.” As stay-at-home orders arose in March 2020, music-lovers on social media noted that Lucier’s half century-old audio piece could serve as an unlikely quarantine anthem.

Enter the soprano Stephanie Lamprea, last heard in Cleveland during the 2019 Re:Sound Festival, making some of the lockdown era’s most vivid new music through an approach that inverts everything that defines Lucier’s piece — except, of course, for the isolation.

[Read on…]

See all reviews

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us