by Peter Feher
Apollo’s Fire is making the most of the summer. Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra is easing audiences back into live performances this month with a program, “Bach, Vivaldi, and Friends,” that satisfies all musical expectations. The group followed up a terrific first concert on Saturday, July 10, at the Avon Lake United Church of Christ with two more local performances and one on tour at Tanglewood.
by Daniel Hathaway
When Chanticleer sings a concert on the Tuesday Musical series at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron on July 27, it won’t just be business as usual for the twelve male singers of San Francisco’s “orchestra of voices.”
The ensemble, which normally spends much of the year on the road, has been becalmed by the pandemic for more than a year. Akron will be the next-to-last stop on its current, eight-concert tour, the first since the shutdown.
“We’ve had to reinvent everything for each venue,” Music Director Tim Keeler said in a telephone call from Chicago. “We’re grateful to each presenter for helping us figure everything out. There’s no rulebook for how to sing choral music at the end of a pandemic.”
by Jarrett Hoffman (Almanac) & Stephanie Manning (Events & News)
EVENTS TODAY:
The Kent Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concert Series continues tonight at 7:30 pm with a performance by Demarre McGill, flute (pictured), and Rodolfo Leone, piano. The Kulas Visiting Artists will present works by Valerie Coleman, Lowell Liebermann, William Grant Still, and Yuko Uebayashi from Ludwig Recital Hall. Click here for tickets & here for a link to the free live stream.
Two concerts from the Ohio Light Opera are on today’s calendar. The 2:00 pm performance of the comic opera Trial by Jury is sold out, but you can reserve $20 tickets here for the 8:30 pm live stream of The Daring of Diane (American premiere of the Viennese operetta).
Other events today include the Stars in the Classics Summer Garden Concert, “From Beethoven to Bernstein,” at 6:30 pm in a garden in Orange Village. This performance is sold out, but you can order tickets here for the second concert on July 24. And at 7:00 pm, Dominico Boyagian will conduct the Suburban Symphony in a program of Rossini, Schubert, and Dvořák. This concert comes with a freewill offering and will take place on the lawn of the Church of the Western Reserve.
IN THE NEWS:
Oberlin Conservatory has published an obituary for Richard Hoffman, professor of composition emeritus, who died June 24 at the age of 96. A native of Vienna, Hoffman worked as Arnold Schoenberg’s secretary, then became an assistant professor of composition and music theory at Oberlin in 1954 and remained there for 50 years — tied for the longest tenure in the Conservatory’s history. Read the obituary by Erich Burnett here.
The Birmingham Opera Company has also announced a recent death — artistic director Sir Graham Vick died on July 17 from Covid complications at the age of 67. Vick founded the Company in 1987, which has become well-known for its community engagement programs focused on non-traditional opera audiences. Read the obituary in The Guardian here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
One virtuoso and two inventions arrive on the shores of our almanac today.
Violinist Isaac Stern was born on this date in 1920 in Kremenets, Poland (now Ukraine), though he didn’t stay there long — his family moved to San Francisco when he was only 14 months old. After making his public debut at age 15 as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Stern went on to achieve great success in just about every way you can measure.
Onstage, he was a national and international presence, performing frequently in Israel, and making groundbreaking tours of China and the Soviet Union.
In the studio, he recorded a long list of famous concertos and contemporary music, in addition to dubbing the violin playing of actors in many films, including Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
His trophy case was certainly not lacking, from his Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by George H.W. Bush, to his six Grammys — four as a concerto soloist and two as a chamber musician.
by Mike Telin
It’s fascinating how many people can recall the event that planted a career bug inside of them. For Rafael Payare, that event occurred while on tour in Italy as a member of the horn section of the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela. “This Italian maestro, Giuseppe Sinopoli, came. He spoke no Spanish and communicated only with his energy,” Payare recalled during a recent telephone conversation. “But he changed the sound of the orchestra in the first minute of rehearsal and that really impressed me. I thought, wow, when I am old and my hair is all white, I would love to be a conductor. So that is how the conducting bug got into me.”
On Sunday, July 25 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Rafael Payare will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut with a program that features Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Stefan Jackiw as soloist and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”). Tickets are available online.
by Daniel Hathaway
EVENTS TODAY:
Just one local performance to plug: the BlueWater Chamber Ensemble (Stephen Tavani, Rachel Englander, Maria Monday, and Nancy Patterson, violins, Laura Shuster and James Rhodes, violas, and Linda Atherton and Derek Snyder, cellos), will play Mozart’s Divertimento in F, K. 138, Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, and Mendelssohn’s Octet, Op. 20 in Evans Amphitheatre at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. It’s free.
NEWS BRIEFS:
In addition to its forthcoming concert by Chanticleer on July 27, Tuesday Musical is resuming its “Music al fresco: Passport 2021” series of world music performances on the front lawn of West Akron’s historic Barder House. Three Sunday afternoons will feature “Irish Fiddle with Opus 216” (August 29), the Moises Borges Quartet in Brazilian samba and bossa nova (September 12), and Zydeco with Mo’ Mojo (September 26). Click here for details and tickets.
Opera Western Reserve announces local actor auditions for its November 12 production of Romeo and Juliet at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, which will combine text from Shakespeare’s play with orchestral and vocal music from Gounod’s opera, sung in French. “We are auditioning specifically for the roles of: Paris and Abram (stage combat experience preferred), Capulet, Lady Capulet, Montague, Lady Montague, Nurse, and Friar, who will be performing Shakespeare monologue and dialogue in English.” Auditions will be held on Monday, August 9 from 7-9 pm, and Tuesday, August 10 from 4-6 pm, at Stambaugh Auditorium. Contracts are paid. Rehearsals begin in October. Advanced audition appointment not necessary. For more information, email Lynn Ohle.
FEATURED VIDEO:
Erie, Pennsylvania’s Warner Theater, home to the Erie Philharmonic, in which a number of Cleveland musicians play and whose music director, Daniel Meyer, also leads BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, is being renovated for a grand re-opening in December. The orchestra has released a fun video of its brass section playing Copland’s Fanfare on the construction site, suitably decked out for the occasion. Thanks to timpanist Andrew Pongracz for the link.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Let’s celebrate the natal days of three avant-garde composers who burst onto the scene on July 20: Nam June Paik (1932, in Seoul, South Korea), Gernot Wolfgang (1957 in Bad Gastein, Austria), and Michael Gordon (1958 in Miami).
Paik, also a mixed media and video artist, was a student of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, whose moment of notoriety came in 1967 when cellist Charlotte Moorman was arrested for performing his Opera Sextronique topless — although other works of his, like his hommage à john cage, which calls for the destruction of two pianos, stick in the collective memory. Click here to watch a collage of his film and music, selected by musicians who worked with him. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
It was a nice change of pace when Zhi Chao Juli Jia (29, China) opened her second round program with Rameau’s Les Tendres Plaintes. Her lovely performance of the short work was light and full of sensitive ornamentation. The pianist brought clean scales and articulations along with dynamic contrasts and well-shaped phrases to Beethoven’s Sonata No. 18 in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3. The recurring theme in the scherzo was playful and the Menuetto graceful — the concluding Presto full of fire.
She concluded her program with a dramatic performance of Saint-Saëns Etude en forme de valse, Op. 52, No. 6. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
2021-2022 SEASON ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Cleveland Chamber Music Society will present a full season of eight live, in-person concerts in 2021-2022. The Imani Winds (pictured) will open the Tuesday evening series on October 5, followed by cellist Edgar Moreau and pianist Jérémie Moreau on October 26, the Cavani Quartet on December 7 (an episode in its “Beyond Beethoven” cycle), the Danish String Quartet on January 25, Cuarteto Casals on February 22, the Rosamunde String Quartet on March 15, tenor Lawrence Brownlee on April 26, and the Takács Quartet with cellist David Requiro on May 3. Performances will take place at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights with the exception of October 5 (Kulas Hall at CIM), and October 26 and April 26 (Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case).
Summit Choral Society’s 32nd season, titled “Forward,” reflects its return to live performances, although the organization notes that it is “proud to have provided in-person singing throughout the COVID19 pandemic with no instances of transmission.” Summit’s programs include the Metropolitan Chorus, which will give three concerts during the year in Akron’s St. Bernard Church and Greystone Hall, community sing sessions with the Akron City Gospel Singers, its extensive Children’s Choir Program, “Drumming,” a hybrid experience for high schoolers and young adults, the early childhood program “Sing With Me” for children up to 5 years of age and their caregivers, and its one-week Summer Music Camps for children of school age. Read a press release here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On the 173rd anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention — the first women’s rights convention in the U.S. — we’ll begin by celebrating an underrecognized female American composer and conductor.
Peggy Stuart Coolidge, born on this date in 1913 in Swampscott, Massachusetts, is known for her distinctly American compositional voice influenced by popular and folk music.
Despite that, she’s better known abroad. Significant performances overseas during her lifetime included a 1967 concert of American music in Tokyo (she was also received by the Crown Prince of Japan) and, in 1970, a program presented in the Soviet Union that was devoted entirely to her music — a first for any American composer. [Read more…]
by Stephanie Manning
During the second round, the pianists are given thirty minutes to present their recitals. This is the last chance for the 26 contestants to make an impression before the group will be whittled down to just eight for the semi-finals.
Lin Ye (28, China) introduced the second round with one of Beethoven’s most famous works: Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, “Waldstein.” The pianist combined a beautiful light touch with sensitive phrasing to keep the piece in constant motion, preventing the repetitive chordal figures from sounding stagnant. Ye took his time in the slow and expressive opening of the second movement, fully focused on listening and responding to the music. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner (24, United States) began with Meredith Monk’s 2015 Ellis Island, capturing the smooth continuity of her unique brand of minimalism, but with enjoyable accents protruding from the texture just the right amount. His relaxation of tempo and dynamics near the end was compelling. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:
Ohio Light Opera is busy this weekend, with afternoon performances of Trial by Jury and The Fantasticks as well as an evening edition of “The Musical Magic of OLO.” All planned for the great outdoors, but with rain plans at the ready.
Online piano events include the beginning of the second round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the continuation of the Oberlin-Como Piano Festival (with an interview featuring conductor Robert Spano).
Encore Chamber Music Institute hosts its Blooming Artist Marathon online all afternoon and into the evening on Saturday.
And on the Blossom stage Sunday evening, vocalist Capathia Jenkins (pictured) opens that mythical volume, “The Great American Songbook,” joining The Cleveland Orchestra for American standards by Gershwin, Ellington, and others.
Details in our Concert Listings
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
A year ago today, July 17, we highlighted the birth in 1935 in Ames, Iowa of American composer Peter Schickele (whose alter ego was the fictional P.D.Q. Bach), and the death of French composer, conductor, and organist Gabriel Pierné in Ploujean, Brittany in 1937.
This weekend, we’ll celebrate the birth of British pianist, scholar, and composer Sir Donald Francis Tovey in Eaton (July 17, 1875), and mark the demise of American harpsichordist and pianist Rosalyn Tureck in New York City (July 17, 2003).
Tovey, who held a professorship in music at the University of Edinburgh from 1914, is best known for his scholarly writings about music — his Essays in Musical Analysis were published by Oxford in six volumes from 1935 to 1939. But he contributed some impressive works to the British canon of orchestral and chamber works as well. Based on those pieces and on his scholarly editions of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and The Art of Fugue, Elgar is said to have recommended him for a knighthood in 1935.
Listen here to Tovey’s 1913 Symphony in D, Op. 32 performed by the Malmö Opera Orchestra under George Vass, and here to a scratchy archive recording by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony of his Cello Concerto, Op. 40, dedicated to Pablo Casals, who is the soloist.
As part of his editorial work on Bach’s great fugal textbook, Tovey wrote a completion to Contrapunctus XVI, which he plays here on the piano.
And for a sample of Tovey’s chamber music, listen here and follow along with the score to his Op. 1 Piano Trio, which he dedicated to his mentor, Sir Hubert Parry.
Rosalyn Tureck’s early and lifelong advocacy of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach survived her training at the Juilliard School which she entered at the age of 16. She found the faculty unencouraging about her favorite composer, a situation that she also encountered elsewhere. In his New York Times obituary, Alan Kozin wrote,
When she entered the Naumburg Competition, she made it to the finals and presented an all-Bach program as her closing recital. As she told the story years later, the members of the jury said they could not give her the award “because they were sure that nobody could make a career in Bach.”
Well, she did, as you can learn from the video Rosalyn Tureck: Remembering a Legend, produced for what would have been her 100th birthday in 2014, and featuring a number of interviews with those who knew her best, including former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor Michael Charry. Watch here.
There’s also a video of her all-Bach recital in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1995 that includes the Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.