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The Cleveland Orchestra

Long considered one of America’s great orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra stands today among the world’s most-revered symphonic ensembles. In concerts at home in Severance Hall, at Blossom Music Center, and on tour, The Cleveland Orchestra continues to set standards of performing excellence and imaginative programming that serve as models for audiences and performers alike.

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Appassionato

No one since Leonard Bernstein has personified the joy – or the passion – of music as has Yo-Yo Ma. That passion is obvious in the romantic themes of Appassionato. These selections, recorded between 1978 and 2006 and including 4 never-before-released tracks, tell a musical autobiography. And in a new interview with critic Ed Siegel, Ma discusses

his relationships with other musicians, the value he places on family and community, and his desire to understand other cultures. Here, as in his concerts and other recordings, one can hear all those passions blending into a luminous whole.

Glenn Gould - A Personal Appreciation

by Unknown author

I hate Glenn Gould!

I have hated him ever since I heard his recording of Bach's Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier. The opening piece, the Prelude in C, should be smooth, liquid, effortless.

Instead Glenn Gould plays it with a bizarre phrasing that transforms it into a robotic, affected work that bears no resemblance to Bach's intention. I hate Gould because he could have played it beautifully...

Getting to Know Soprano Jessica RiveSubmitted by Paula Tsurutani Soprano Jessica RiveraSoprano Jessica Riverwill be in Chicago for three months, making her debu in The ChicagoSymphony Orchestra in November in Poulenc's Gloria, and going cross-town to appear in Lyric Opera's production of Doctor Atomic in December and January. She returns to rform with the CSO in Golijov's Ainadamar in February. She talks about her Fall/Winter residence in Chicago, her tourist plans, and playing two roles in Ainadamar. in taking up residence in Chicago I would highly encourage Chicago music lovers to experience all the amazing works that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has to offer! I am especially proud to share in the return of Poulenc's Gloria to the repertoire as well as introduce Chicago to Ainadamar. In the Gloria, I personally hope the listener will hear the presence of God - His majesty and mystery. I think that is what Poulenc was striving for when he wrote...

Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bete) is a traditional fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson classification). The first published version of the fairy tale was a meandering rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune americaine, et les contes marins in 1740. The best-known written version was an abridgement of Mme Villeneuve's work published in 1756 by Mme Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses eleves; an English translation appeared in 1757.

Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zemire et Azor is an operatic version of the story of Beauty and the Beast written by Marmontel and composed by Gretry in 1771. It had enormous success well into the 19th century[3]. It is based on Mme Leprince de Beaumont's version of the tale.

Young, beautiful, modern and immensely talented!

by Gerson Borges

Janine Jansen, Dutch born violin performer, is spreading her mastery, her sympathy and her brilliant talent all over the world. And the world is drinking it all voluptuously. While performing in concert, she keeps the audience under a magic spell from the first note that comes out of her 1927 Antoni Stradivari "Barrere" violin until the very last sound. People just stare at her in awe, listening to the celestial music produced by that angel from heaven, through the mind, body, and fingers of Janine Jansen, this contemporary goddess of the violin.