The Cleveland Orchestra Launches Its New Season and Five More Classical Music Events Not to Miss This Week

From a wide selection of possibilities, here are five events around town that you should find very interesting in the next seven days.

The series of concerts at CIM honoring Pierre Boulez, the late French composer and conductor and frequent visitor to Cleveland, continues on Wednesday, September 8 in Mixon Hall with “Boulez the Friend and Teacher.” Pianists Carolyn Warner and Daniel Shapiro will be joined by clarinetist Franklin Cohen, saxophonist James Umble, violinists Steven Warner and Mari Sato, and cellist Brian Thornton. The program will include Warner’s arrangements of Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and the Adagio from the Piano Concerto in G. The program will also feature Gyorgy Kurtág’s reworking of chorales by J.S. Bach, Alban Berg’s Variations on Themes from Lulu, Claude Debussy’s Cello Sonata, and Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from A Soldier’s Tale. It’s free but you’ll need to reserve seating passes by calling 216.795.3211.

The Cleveland Orchestra is back in the office this weekend, opening its new season with Franz Welser-Möst on the podium and organ virtuoso Paul Jacobs at Severance Hall’s mighty E.M. Skinner instrument. There are three symphonies on the program: Aaron Copland’s rarely-heard Organ Symphony paired with another American work, Charles Ives’s quirky Symphony No. 3 (“The Camp Meeting”). Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 will complete the program. Those concerts are Thursday, September 29 at 7:30 pm and Friday, September 30 at 8:00 pm, and tickets can be reserved online.

“Sonic Landscapes” is the title for the new music ensemble No Exit’s opening set of concerts in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University on Thursday, September 29 and Saturday, October 1 at SPACES gallery, both at 8:00 pm. Director Tim Beyer has chosen Jefferson Friedman’s 78, Per Nørgård’s Spell, selections from Stephen Paulus’s Seven Miniatures, and world premieres of pieces by Hong-Da Chin, Greg D’Alessio, and Yuan-Keng Ling for the ensemble’s first outing this season. A third performance of this program will take place at Heights Arts on Saturday, October 8 at 8:00 pm. All concerts are free.

Members of The Cleveland Orchestra who teach at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory (and who are marked with an asterisk below) will be featured in what looks to be a thrilling program on Sunday, October 2 at 3:00 pm in Gamble Auditorium in Berea. BW’s Brendan Caldwell will conduct an ensemble in Igor Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale and Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer.
Performers include Julian Ross and Katherine Bormann*, violins, Lembi Veskimets*, viola, Regina Mushabac, cello, Charles Carleton*, double bass, Sean Gabriel, flute, Daniel McKelway*, clarinet, Jonathan Sherwin*, bassoon, Jack Sutte*, cornet, Richard Stout*, trombone, Josh Ryan, percussion, Nancy Maultsby, mezzo-soprano, Nicole Keller, harmonium, and Robert Mayerovitch, narrator. The Mahler piece, originally for a huge orchestra, was cleverly downsized by Arnold Schoenberg and his colleagues for a new music society in Vienna early in the 20th century. The concert’s free.

The Brazilian Guitar Quartet will open the excellent, free, Monday evening series of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society on Monday, October 3 at 7:30 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 20401 Hilliard Blvd. Everton Gloeden, Tadeu do Amaral, Luiz Mantovani, and Gustavo Costa will take on Manuel de Falla’s Cuatro Piezas Españolas, Enrique Granados’s “El pelele” from Goyescas, Isaac Albéniz’s Three Pieces from Iberia, Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Cirandas Quarteto No. 5, Camargo Guarnieri’s Dança Negra, Valsa No. 8, and Dança Brasileira, and Francisco Mignone’s Lundu.

For details of these and many other events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page.