A Celebration of English Opera in Cleveland

By Frank Kuznik, 03 March 2014

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Reviewed at Cleveland Institute of Music: Kulas Hall, Cleveland on 27 February 2014

Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea

Purcell, Dido and Aeneas

Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra

David Bamberger, Director

Harry Davidson, Conductor

Erika Rodden, Mezzo-soprano

Kate Kostopoulos, Soprano

Zoë Schumann, Soprano

Elizabeth Frey, Mezzo-soprano

Brian Skoog, Tenor

Jessica Hollick, Soprano

Beethoven's Ninth at Cleveland's Severance Hall

Frank Kuznik, 28th March

There are many ways to experience a piece of music. Hearing the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with a mammoth chorus of amateur singers drawn from the community offered a reminder that a masterwork need not be perfectly rendered to be aesthetically satisfying.

****1

Sumptuous Sheffield Chamber Music Festival finale

Phil Parker, 23rd May

Ensemble 360 and soprano Claire Booth test to the limits the definition of ‘chamber music’ in this richly orchestral closing concert of the 2026 Sheffield Chamber Music Festival.

****1

More gold than corn: María Dueñas plays Korngold at the Barbican

Mark Pullinger, 22nd May

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

****1

Memorable Mendelssohn from Marek Janowski and the New York Phil

Susan Stempleski, 21st May

Principal Trumpet Christopher Martin plays Haydn before the esteemed German maestro conducts a vibrant Scottish Symphony.

****1

The ears have it: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on the Cutty Sark

Mark Valencia, 21st May

Come away fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing! All board the Cutty Sark for a semi-staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

****1

Intimate colossus: Daniil Trifonov with the Rotterdam Philharmonic

Max Lima, 21st May

Late Brahms, early Schoenberg: under Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic draw tenderness from two monumental scores.

****1

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.