2023 in review

2023 was an active year which included adventures, challenges, and triumphs.

I continued with my quest for fitness and, although I still have a bit of a belly, my weight is at its lowest level since the late 1990s and my waist is six inches smaller than in 2020.   I've also become a bit more muscular although I have no desire to become overly pumped.  

Since 2020, my life has been increasingly centered at home, as I’ve been a remote worker since then.  Daniel and I celebrated 17 years as a couple and 15 years in our South Euclid home.  What we’ve learned in the last decade and a half is that the work on our 83-year-old house never ends.  This year we had new storm windows installed – the previous ones were probably about 50 years old and rattled whenever a large truck or music blasting car drove by.  Our primary reason for replacing the storm windows was for better protection from the extremes of hot and cold one encounters in our region.  It will take several more months before we can gauge the impact on our utility bills, but the reduction in street noise was immediately noticeable and most welcome.

A new storm window being installed.

The storm windows held up well against the massive storm that struck in August, which left us without electricity for 86 hours.    

No review of 2023 in Northeast Ohio is complete without the state’s voters resounding endorsement of Issues 1 and 2, which guaranteed reproductive rights and allowed recreational cannabis, respectively.  Although Issue 1 is a constitutional amendment, Issue 2 was a ballot issue and state Republicans have been trying to restrict its impact.  It will be interesting to see how Ohio voters react to political interference in 2024.    

Sadly, 2023 also saw the resurgence of the odious Donald Trump, to which I can only respond: Have the American people forgotten the non-stop issuance of virtual diarrhea during the four years he was in the White House?  Have they forgotten how badly he mishandled COVID?  How the economy suffered?  How the Federal deficit exploded?  How he enabled and even encouraged the most flagrant racism and even insurrection?  How many times must people hit their own heads with a hammer before they realize that they’d feel better if they stopped?  Sure, the last two years have had a few challenges, mostly due to the emergence from the COVID crisis and the revival of our supply lines.  The biggest challenge was inflation, which slowed throughout 2023.  The economy is strong, unemployment is low, and the Fed has indicated they are about to start cutting interest rates.  Life is not perfect, but it’s arguably better.  Even the problems at our Southern border are largely because America is the land of hope and opportunity – and it would be even better if right-wing obstructionists would just get out of the way.  

Cleveland’s Classical music scene has now fully recovered from COVID, and in some ways is even stronger than before 2020.  The Cleveland Orchestra continued with its savvy programming approach which included plenty of newer and unfamiliar older music alongside Classical favorites.  I went to too many concerts to go into detail here, but a highlight included Michael Sachs playing Wynton Marsalis’ new Concerto for Trumpet.   

Local business developments included the long overdue demolition of the Richmond Mall, to be replaced by Belle Oaks, a mixed-use development. 

Danny and I traveled to Palm Springs in the winter and New Mexico in the autumn, along with quick trips to Saugatuck in the spring and New England over Labor Day weekend.  The New Mexico trip was in part to scope out a potential winter home for when we retire, but the more I travel, the more I feel centered in Cleveland.  Life is so affordable here; everything we need – high culture, sports, cuisine, medical care – is within easy access; even the winters are becoming easier to manage.

Enjoying Maple Creemees in Vermont

I also made four solo trips: one trip to London which was, to be honest, not very enjoyable; and three trips to see family members from which I brought home happy memories.

In Florida with my niece and her son

With my sister and her husband.

This year also saw the continued evolution of a meaningful relationship with someone who had been in the periphery of my life until about two years ago.  We had some ups and downs in 2023, but the year ended on a high note and my friendship with this person has had a profound impact on my life – and I hope it has a positive impact on this person’s life.

On to 2024!

My review of Cleveland Quartet - the Complete RCA Album Collection

 Amazon has published my latest review, of the Cleveland Quartet's complete RCA recordings - which includes a very fine performance of Beethoven's complete String Quartets.  Click here to read it. 

My review of Artur Rodziński's Cleveland Orchestra recordings

My review of Artur Rodziński & The Cleveland Orchestra - The Complete Columbia Album Collection has been published.  The 13CD set provides much musical food for thought for those interested in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra.  Click here to read the complete review.

Anderson, Martinů, and Tchaikovsky at Severance

This weekend’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Severance Hall combined a US premiere, a local premiere, and a repertoire favorite for a most satisfying program.  The guest conductor was Semyon Bychkov.

The US Premiere was the Symphony No. 2, titled “Prague Panoramas,” by British composer Julian Anderson.  The work was not so much inspired by the city itself, which the composer didn’t visit until after the symphony was completed, but by a series of panoramic photographs taken by Josef Sudek.  The photos are of remarkable clarity, and so is Anderson’s comprehensive orchestration, which featured extensive percussion including a tuned Thai gong, ocean drum, vibraphone, marimba, and numerous types of bells – the latter a poignant reminder that during their occupation of Prague, the Nazis stripped the city of every bell they could find and sent them to Germany to be melted down for ammunition.  The work is more a series of textures and sonorities than a development of themes, and the composer’s approach is too cosmopolitan to confine the work’s inspiration to one city or nation.  It bears further hearing, particularly the central movement in which a desolate sensuality pervaded.  Bychkov, who premiered the symphony in London last year, led an assured, polished performance.  I've never seen Bychkov conduct before; it was a pleasure to observe how he conducted the orchestra and not the audience. 

Josef Sudek's panorama of Prague's Charles Bridge.

The Severance stage, 

showing the extensive orchestration for Anderson's Symphony.

Following intermission, conductor and orchestra were joined by duo pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque – the latter of whom is Bychkov’s wife – for Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos.  The work is dissimilar to other works in the genre.  Instead of contrasting passagework, the opening movement features the pianists doubling each other – a considerable challenge in coordination.  The central movement begins with some arresting runs on the pianos before settling into a narcoleptic spell – the sense of disorientation is enhanced by the fact that much of the piano part is written without bar lines.  The finale has an upbeat appeal, and the performance elicited an enthusiastic audience response.  The pianists offered an encore: a new rag-like work by Phillip Glass.

The Labèque sisters following the concerto.

What struck this listener most about Bychkov’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy was its musicality.  The conductor paid unusual attention to the lower levels of dynamics at the beginning – the little crescendos and decrescendos that bring music to life.  This was doubly effective as the fortissimos further into the piece seemed truly shocking.  Juliet’s theme was given an expansive, yet non-schmaltzy treatment.  Tchaikovsky revised the work over a decade’s time until he was satisfied with it.  It was a rare pleasure to hear the work played not as a well-worn warhorse, but as music worthy of respect.    

My review of Rudolf Serkin, The Lost Tapes

My review of Deutsche Grammophon's new issue, a previously unpublished recording of Rudolf Serkin playing Beethoven's Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas, has been posted.  Click here to read it. 

Willful Dvořák and stunning Tchaikovsky with Inkinen and Hadelich at Severance

Saturday evening’s concert at Severance featured guest conductor Pietari Inkinen making his Cleveland Orchestra debut, along with returning violinist Augustin Hadelich. 

The concert opened with Dvořák’s Othello Overture, Op. 93.  It’s not one of the composer’s well-known works, despite the familiar subject matter of Shakespeare’s play. Composed in 1892, it wasn’t performed in Cleveland until a century later – a noteworthy omission for an orchestra that has long championed the unfamiliar.  The chief problem is an overabundance of ideas, intended to depict specific scenarios within the plot, which are presented but not developed.  I was left with no desire to investigate this music more fully.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Op. 35 is, of course, another matter.  It’s a work which combines Tchaikovsky’s knack for memorable tunes, great passion, a dramatic through-line, secure architecture, and idiomatic writing which tests the limits of instrument and instrumentalist.  The composer was assisted by his probable lover Iosif Kotek, a gifted violinist who advised the composer on aspects of the violin part.  He was the initial dedicatee of the work until Tchaikovsky, cautious about his personal reputation, switched the dedication to Leopold Auer – who was initially uninterested in the piece.  Eduard Hanslick’s notoriously hostile review, in which he ranted that the music “stinks to the ear” and that “the violin was not played but beaten black and blue” has gone down as one of the most wrong-headed musical criticisms of all time.  Soloist Hadelich is no stranger to Cleveland.  He turned in a memorable performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto six years ago.  Hadelich has everything needed for Tchaikovsky: an immaculately superlative technique, a vocal – almost throaty – tone, plenty of temperament, and the inherent taste to know just how much to stretch a melody or push the dynamics.  All these gifts were put into the service of musical virtuosity and a bona-fide masterpiece – no doubt the finest of Tchaikovsky’s four concertos.  Hadelich was ably assisted by Inkinen and the orchestra, but one felt this was mostly the soloist’s conception.  A rousing ovation followed, and Hadelich gifted the audience with an encore – the name of the work was not announced, but it sounded like it was composed by Fritz Kreisler. 

Iosif Kotek with Tchaikovsky in 1877.

Following intermission, Inkinen returned to lead the orchestra in Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 – and this performance was problematic indeed.  First was the issue of tempo relationships.  The opening movement was overdriven so the merriment of the music sounded hard driven – as if the music was on cocaine.  The second movement adagio dragged, while the allegretto was missing the Mendelssohnian lightness inherent in the writing.  The finale featured a general pulling apart of the structure so that the final accelerando was anti-climactic.  Further, there was little of the transparency and attention to balance one is accustomed to hearing from this orchestra.  I was far from the only person to feel this way.  An unusually large number of patrons left after the second and third movements.

Still, the concert was worth attending for the Tchaikovsky. 

Ohio’s terrible politicians can’t keep it from moving forward

 

Yesterday, Ohio’s voters handed a decisive victory to those who believe that individual humans should have the right to control their own bodies. 

Both Issue 1 (guaranteeing reproductive rights) and Issue 2 (legalizing Cannabis) passed with 57% voting in the affirmative.  Doubtless most who voted “Yes” on Issue 1 voted the same on Issue 2; and there were some who split their vote.  But the issues both passed by a substantial margin, in the face of misleading claims from the opposition that bordered on hysteria.

The anti-Issue 1 group even resorted to illegal tactics, including placing their signs on polling center property, as shown in this video I captured Tuesday morning.

Ohio Republicans from Governor Mike DeWine to Secretary of State Frank LaRose (likely a candidate for Senate next year) to scandal-beleaguered Lake County commissioner John Plecnik beat the drums against these issues.  They lost. 

Ohio’s Democratic and unaffiliated voters must now band together to free Ohio from the iron-grip Republicans have inflicted upon our state.  DeWine is term-limited out.  We must not allow LaRose to defeat Senator Sherrod Brown in November.  LaRose would try to implement the same policies nationally as he was trying to do in Ohio. 

We can celebrate our victory for now.  But the fight is not over, and it never will be.