Cleveland Classical

Time 2020-10-07 21:12:11

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About usAdvertiseContact Us• Front Page• Previews• Reviews• Concert Listings• Donate• Local Resources• Diary Inside This IssuePre•Views & FeaturesRocky River Chamber Music Society opens season with Diamond Brass Quintetby Jarrett HoffmanAfter COVID struck, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society was one of the area’s first organizations to set up a live-streamed concert, the Society’s season finale in May.One of the performers that night was trumpeter and board member Amanda Bekeny, who now brings her Diamond Brass Quintet colleagues to West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church to open the series’ 62nd season on Monday, October 12.Joining Bekeny will be trumpeter Nina Bell, hornist Greg Hills, trombonist David Mitchell, and tubist J.c. Sherman. Their program, live-streamed only, will include works by J.S. Bach, Victor Ewald, Stravinsky, Eric Ewazen, and Anthony DiLorenzo, and can be accessed on Facebook or YouTube.Phenomenal player, great teacher, superstar freelancer: those are the words that RRCMS music director Dan McKelway used to describe Bekeny back in May.I’ll add to that a few adjectives of my own. First, humble — the trumpeter gave a hearty laugh after I shared McKelway’s “superstar” compliment. And second, down-to-earth — after a very short delay at the start of our Zoom call, she explained that she hadn’t had the right TV show on for her 3-year-old. (Apparently, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood wasn’t good enough.) [Read on ]Three reunions — family, Maryland, and horn — with Nathaniel Silberschlag and MFTWRby Jarrett HoffmanYou don’t need a deerstalker hat and a pipe to make some interesting observations about Sunday’s program from Music From The Western Reserve, which airs online at 5:00 pm.First, there are a number of Silberschlags. Second, there are several people from the state of Maryland. Third, there are a lot of horns.As for those first two points, Cleveland Orchestra principal horn Nathaniel Silberschlag has put together a roster that makes good use of both his family and his hometown. He’s joined by his brother Zachary (principal trumpet in the Hawaii Symphony), their father Jeffrey (a trumpeter who chairs the music department at St. Mary’s College of Maryland), and other musicians from St. Mary’s County, as well as Baltimore.Then, Silberschlag went a step further and rounded up a gang of fellow horn players from the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, National Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as a way to highlight their particular brand of horns, and to provide a potentially mesmerizing send-off. [Read on ]Apollo’s Fire offers “Resilience” both In-Person and On-Demandby Daniel HathawayAfter the novel coronavirus stopped the concert world in its tracks last March, Apollo’s Fire was among the first performing organizations to offer its constituents a choice about how to engage with the ensemble moving forward. On May 6, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra announced a 2020-2021 season titled “A Pilgrimage of Hope” that allowed subscribers to choose between attending performances In-Person, or receiving a password to watch an exclusive concert video one week later.“They expressed an overwhelming preference for edited videos,” Founder and Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell said in a Zoom conversation last week. “That gives us the opportunity to tweak audio quality and change up camera angles. My media team and I will be extremely busy the week after each concert this year. It’s going to be an adventure.”That adventure begins this week, when Apollo’s Fire presents five live performances of “Resilience” in Akron, Shaker Heights, and Bay Village from October 8-11. “Three of the concerts sold out immediately through subscriptions,” Sorrell said, but under Ohio guidelines, the Orchestra can sell only 15% of a venue’s capacity. [Read on ]Organist Christa Rakich talks about her Akron programby Daniel HathawayThe second concert in the Arts at Holy Trinity series in Akron will be an organ recital by Oberlin Visiting Professor Christa Rakich on Sunday, October 4 at 4:00 pm. It’s a hybrid event that you can either attend in person — following the usual health protocols — or watch on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church’s live stream.I caught up with the jovial recitalist in her Oberlin studio to talk about her wide-ranging selection of pieces, each of which comes with a story or a personal connection attached. Noting that she’s going to be playing settings of Vom Himmel hoch, In dulci jubilo, and Puer natus in Bethlehem, I suggested that she’s getting ready to celebrate Christmas early.“Most organists do. Our heads are in the coming season and not really in the present. We’re all thinking about how we’re going to handle Advent and Christmas during the pandemic.”Rakich said that her discovery of a piece by David Arcus, an Oberlin grad who went on to teach at Duke, was the springboard for the opening set of the program. [Read on ]An interview about interviewing: Debra Nagy on SalonEra Episodes 4-6by Jarrett HoffmanSalonEra is off and running, continuing into its fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes over the next several weeks with “Strike The Viol” (October 5), “Latin Baroque” (October 19), and “Schubertiade” (November 2).I reached out to Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy to learn more about these three very different programs, but also to talk about the new role she’s taken on for this series: interviewer. And whether you’re Conan O’Brien or Debra Nagy, there’s a lot that goes into that.For Nagy, it starts with a “discovery call” with someone she’d like to bring on the show: “a very open phone call that is maybe as much as an hour long,” she said during our own recent call over Zoom. Of course, she’ll already know in advance what someone’s specialty is, “but also, people surprise me,” she said. From there, and sometimes with a second phone call to further refine a topic, she can begin to weave a web that ties together different discussions and performances (all to be pre-recorded).During the final taping of each episode, Nagy has enjoyed the challenge inherent in any interview: steering a conversation so that it’s both substantive and concise. The interviewee, of course, plays a part in that as well: both sides have to come together in a sort of dance that’s simultaneously organic and prepared. [Read on ]No Exit launches new season online October 2by Mike TelinThe show must go on! Although the 19th-century phrase was originally associated with circuses, its spirit lives on to this day as performing arts groups across Northeast Ohio and around the world figure out how to bring their shows to the public.On Friday, October 2 at 7:00 pm, the area’s premier new music ensemble, No Exit, will present the debut performance of their 12th season online. The program will feature William Grant Still’s mystical Seven Traceries (solo piano), Villa-Lobos’ Deux Chôros (violin and piano), Harald Genzmar’s Sonata (solo flute), Adam Roberts’ Bell Threads (solo viola), and the world premiere of Downfall by No Exit percussionist Luke Rinderknecht. Listeners can access the free, pre-recorded concert and download the concert program by visiting the ensemble’s website or Facebook page.“COVID-19 has forced us all to rethink how we live, work, and go about our lives,” No Exit artistic director Tim Beyer said during a recent telephone conversation. “At the moment, the members don’t feel comfortable playing together as a group, and since I am one to err on the side of safety, that’s where the idea for solo pieces came from.”  Although a program of mostly solo works is a little out of the ordinary, Beyer sees it as the perfect opportunity to showcase each of the ensemble’s musicians. “About mid-summer we commissioned some talented composers to write solo works for all of the members of the group. So as we move forward, we’ll have a healthy supply of new music to present.” [Read on ]See all previews Re•ViewsArts at Holy Trinity, Akron: organist Christa Rakich (Oct. 4)by Timothy RobsonChrista Rakich, currently Visiting Professor of Organ at Oberlin Conservatory, played an intriguing and unusual program on Sunday afternoon at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron. The concert was presented in a “hybrid” format for an in-person as well as an at-home audience. [Read on ]Cleveland Composers Guild joins area music students in 28th “Creativity: Learning Through Experience” (Sept. 27)by Jarrett HoffmanThe Cleveland Composers Guild’s annual collaboration with music students in the area couldn’t go ahead as usual this year (I’ll let you guess why). But that didn’t stop the Guild and these young players from putting together something virtual. [Read on ]CD Review Harpist Parker Ramsay plays Goldbergs in King’s College Chapelby Daniel HathawayJohann Sebastian Bach’s Aria with Thirty Variations, nicknamed (not by the composer) after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the harpsichordist who was retained to play them on command for an insomniac patron, have been adapted by performers for many other instruments — most notably for the piano and most famously by Glenn Gould.Joining a long list of arrangers, Parker Ramsay has now transcribed the Variations for the modern pedal harp, an instrument for which he holds a master’s degree from Juilliard, in addition to a degree in history from Cambridge University, plus a master’s in historical performance (organ and harpsichord) and an artist diploma (organ) from Oberlin. [Read on ]Virtual performances from Hudson, Cleveland, and Akron launch seasonby Daniel HathawayMusic From the Western Reserve, Music and Art at Trinity Cathedral, and Arts at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church all streamed concerts online in September, all without audiences present.As organizations gingerly take steps to open up for business, it’s refreshing to have new content to listen to and write about after a solid six months of archival footage. [Read on ]Les Délices’ SalonEra: “Recovering Roots” (Sept. 21)by Jarrett HoffmanCreated remotely and shared virtually, Les Délices’ SalonEra has the capability of presenting musicians and thinkers who are not only far afield from Northeast Ohio, but who bring especially unique musical interests to the table, perhaps based on where they’re from.That was the case yesterday, September 21, in the third program of the series. Through pre-recorded performances and conversation, “Recovering Roots” explored Indigenous Métis music as well as the 17th- and 18th-century cultural exchange with white settlers in what was known as New France. [Read on ]CD Review: a lad’s love, tenor Brian Gieblerby Jarrett HoffmanOver the past few years, Brian Giebler has visited Northeast Ohio in settings both orchestral and choral, and with repertoire as diverse as Stravinsky, Bach, and the local premiere of a new work. In his impressive solo recording debut a lad’s love, released on Bridge Records, the New York City-based tenor turns his focus to British songs from the first half of the 20th century — a mix of cycles and individual works — and tops off the playlist with a touch of the modern. [Read on ]CD ReviewSergei Babayan: Rachmaninoffby Daniel HathawayTo steal a phrase from the third-century Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, the mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. The same goes for Deutsche Grammophon. It’s been a dozen years since they were recorded in Hamburg in 2009, but the German company has now issued fifteen Rachmaninoff piano pieces magnificently and poetically played by Sergei Babayan. [Read on ]See all reviews To•Day DIARY: Tuesday, October 6, 2020by Daniel HathawayNEW CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PODCAST:Released today, “Legendary,”  the fifth episode in the current series of Cleveland Orchestra On A Personal Note podcasts, features Trustee Clara Rankin with President and CEO André Gremillet. Rankin reminisces about conductors, visiting artists, her own family ties, and “the people and performances that define The Cleveland Orchestra. Listen here.CMA’S  “BEHIND THE BEAT” EPISODE 7:Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, one of the most widely respected contemporary classical composers, talks from Helsinki with Director of Performing Arts Tom Welsh about her large orchestra work, Orion, which has “a unique link to the Cleveland Museum of Art—not publicly known until now.” Watch the video here.HAPPENING TODAY:Christopher Houlihan’s “Virtual Vierne at 150 Festival features an interview with Olivier Latry, since 1985 one of the three “titulares” or tenured organists of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral (along with Philippe Lefebvre and Vincent Dubois). Latry, who was guest professor at Oberlin in the fall of 2010, will talk about the devastating fire in 2019 and the reconstruction of the Great Organ, which escaped major damage, but needed to be removed for cleaning. Latry is a successor of Louis Vierne, who famously presided over the instrument for 37 years until his death in 1937 —  in the saddle, so to speak. He collapsed at the console during his 1,750th recital on June 2 of that year.The MET Opera has Wagner on its mind all of this week, and a 2015 production of Tannhäuser is waiting in the wings for streaming tonight.Details in the Concert Listings.HEADS UP FOR THURSDAY:Former Akron Symphony Assistant Conductor Levi Hammer, now living in Berlin, spent his lockdown time during the pandemic learning all of J.S. Bach’s First Book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and will stream those 24 preludes and fugues on Wednesday, October 7 at 3:15 pm EDT from Berlin’s Norwegian Church. Join the stream here.Hammer writes, “The first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, completed in 1722, already contains an encyclopedic summary of all music that came before and after it – even a 12-tone theme! It is a compendium of Bach’s expressive vastness, his musical science, and his pedagogy. For the performer it is an emotional, intellectual, and technical challenge like no other.“It’s also the silver lining of my 2020. I offer it in the hopes that it brings joy and solace during uncertain times.”TODAY’S ALMANAC:On October 6, 1882, Polish modernist composer Karol Szymanowski was born in Tomoshovka, Ukraine. Influenced by Wagner, Strauss, Reger, Scriabin, Debussy, and Ravel, as well as by Chopin and the folk music of the Polish Highlanders, his works were popular in the 1920s and 1930s and are experiencing a recent revival.Szymanowski’s controversial opera Krol Roger was produced by Cleveland’s Opera Circle in October, 2011, and Frank Peter Zimmermann played his First Violin Concerto with Thomas Dausgaard and The Cleveland Orchestra in February, 2011.Watch a performance of the First Violin Concerto in May, 2019 by Christian Tetzlaff and the Helsinki Philharmonic led by Susanna Mälkki here, and view the second half of pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin’s 2002 recital in Tokyo, devoted to works by Szymanowski, including the Second Piano Sonata.And composer Joan Tower was born in New Rochelle, NY on this date in 1938. Tower celebrated her 80th birthday with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in March of 2019 (read a ClevelandClassical.com interview here), and her works appear frequently on Northeast Ohio concert programs.Among the videos of performances of Tower’s music by musicians with local connections: Tower’s Rising with flutist Carol Wincenc and the Escher Quartet, Wild Summer by the Jasper Quartet, and Wild Purple by solo violist Serena Hsu in Mixon Hall at CIM in April, 2019.DIARY: Monday, October 5, 2020by Jarrett HoffmanTODAY ON THE WEB:Two virtual events tonight are built at least in part around conversation. The virtual “Vierne at 150” festival begins at 7 with an interview with Phillip Truckenbrod, author of the recent memoir Organists and Me about his half-century career as organists’ manager.And at 7:30, Les Délices continues SalonEra with “Strike the Viol.” That series combines music and conversation — and perhaps as soon as tonight’s episode, some interesting visuals as well. (Nagy hinted during our recent conversation that interpretation will be one focus of the evening — audiences might see manuscript pages that require “some decoding” from the episode’s featured musicians, including Arnie Tanimoto, pictured above.)See our Concert Listings for details and links.LISTENING CHOICES DURING THE PANDEMIC:When classical music organizations began to venture online in mid to late March, the editors of ClevelandClassical.com held a roundtable discussing different questions around that transition. One issue we brought up: what repertoire is appropriate for this moment? Josh Terry explores a similar topic in his article “Is Pandemic Brain Changing Your Taste in Music? You’re Not Alone” in Vice.TODAY’S ALMANAC:German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach died on this date in 1880 in Paris. His most famous work was his last one, the opera Tales of Hoffmann, which he left unfinished — he died four months before the premiere. But providing a better snapshot of his career are his nearly 100 operettas, which would go on to influence composers such as Johann Strauss Jr., Arthur Sullivan, and Franz Lehar.That style is right up the alley of Ohio Light Opera, which in recent years has put on Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne and La Périchole, which Kelly Ferjutz described as “a screwball comedy disguised as an operetta” in her review of the production for ClevelandClassical.com. More recently, during OLO’s 2020 online season, members of the company came together virtually for performances of “Ne’er for a Trip” and “Love the Deceiver” from Offenbach’s Voyage to the Moon.See all diary entriesFollow ClevelandClassical.comFacebookRSSTwitterContact usEmail Copyright 2020 ClevelandClassical.com Website by aSimpleMachine.com Log in Copyright 2020 · Cleveland Classical on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

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