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

LA Phil celebrates the California spirit with Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Cameron Kelsall, 3rd May

The program features Maria Dueñas in Korngold's Violin Concerto and a moving tribute to LA native Michael Tilson Thomas

****1

Denis Kozhukhin: captivating storytelling with the London Symphony

Clare Varney, 1st May

At the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO are joined by Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin to plunge into the depths of despair in Bernstein’s melancholic The Age of Anxiety.

***11

Eric Lu brings scintillating Chopin to Singapore

Chang Tou Liang, 1st May

A world premiere by Wang Chenwei, familiar Chopin and a rare outing for Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta make for satisfying fare in Jahcun Wong’s Singapore Symphony programme.

****1

Yuja Wang with the Mahler CO: between lyricism and volatility

Edward Sava-Segal, 1st May

Yuja Wang and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra frame Chopin’s E minor concerto with two Prokofiev works, the First Symphony and Second Piano Concerto.

****1

BBC Philharmonic’s bold but unbalanced Stravinsky and Adams

Leighton Jones, 1st May

Balance issues mar an otherwise compelling programme from John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

***11

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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.