Piazzolla: Tango Etude No. 3²
Grgin: Cappriccio for solo clarinet 3²
Kovacs: Hommage a Manuel De Falla²
Molnar: Haru No Umi³,ª
Debussy: Sytinxª
Hoover: Kokopelliª
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3 (Mvt. I)º
¹-Matthew Allen, cello; ²-Nikola Djurica, clarinet; ³-Joseph Rebman, harp; ª-Jeiran Hasan, flute; º-Veridian String Quartet (John Heffernan, Deborah Milburn, violin; Catherine Schilling, viola; Genevive Tabby, cello)
In the Reinberger Gallery, Gallery 212, 1916 Building at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
It's already been a loooong week, so while I was somewhat tempted to skip this month's free concert in The Cleveland Museum of Art's galleries and perhaps find a strong margarita. Instead, I met Rachel and her brother in Gallery 212 for bite-sized collection of classical music among classical art.
Since the series debuted last year I've been a fan -- bringing students from neighboring University Circle institutions The Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University into the beautiful galleries of The Cleveland Museum of Art for a collection of relatively short pieces for solo instruments and small ensembles.
Acoustically, Gallery 212 is rather live and rather reverberant (echo-y, if you will) which I think helped to draw out the sounds, particularly in the strings, while not being as complimentary to the woodwinds and occasionally muddying the quartet's otherwise delightful performance.
The program set off to a rousing start with cellist Matthew Allen playing the lively third movement (Allegro molto vivace) of Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello. Early on the piece caught my ear with layered sounds that reminded me a little bit of a gallop before taking on a more marine feeling.
Nikola Djurica was next up with three pieces for solo clarinet each having very different sounds -- ranging from fluttering and airy in Pizazolla's Tango Etude No. 3 to Grgin's Cappriccio for Solo Clarinet, a piece that seemed to pull in the jazzy, swinging enthusiasm of the roaring 20s tempered with a hint of the depression. Mr. Djurica's final piece was a clarinet homage to Manuel De Falla, and while I picked up a bit of the Spanish sound, I think the room's acoustics diminished the effect.
My favorite piece from the evening was a collaboration between harpist Joseph Rebman (who I've heard perform in a bar as well as a proper recital hall) and flutist Jeiran Hasan, Harau No Umi by composer Josef Molnar which was just several minutes of meditative bliss with a distinctively Japanese sound that reminded me of gently falling water.
Ms. Hasan followed up with two pieces for solo flute -- Debussy's Syrinx and Hoover's Kokopelli which were enjoyable, but the room acoustics did not flatter the performance.
Last on the program, the Veridian String Quartet preformed the first (allegro vivace) movement from Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E-flat Major, was again warm -- assisted by the room -- and captivating with a hint of sorrow.
After the concert had ended the three of us paid Martin Creed's Half the Air in a Given Space (in the Glass Box gallery through Thanksgiving) a visit -- it was a unique experience, and a separate post on that will be forthcoming.
Lincoln
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