Archives for September 2021

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S PERFORMANCES:

There’s only one event on today’s calendar, but it’s a significant one. Oberlin cello professor Darrett Adkins opens Lorain County Community College’s Signature Series in Elyria with a recital of contemporary solo works “narrated by” J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 6. The format is what Adkins calls a “hypersuite,” an existing work conflated with pieces by Jeffrey Mumford, Elliott Carter, Philip Cashian, Su Lian Tan, and Mistislav Weinberg. It’s free in the Cirigliano Studio Theatre at 7:30 pm.

NEW OBERLIN MUSIC CD:

On September 17, Oberlin Music released a new recording featuring faculty composers and musicians in three concertos: Jesse Jones’ Persona Mechanica for solo piano and chamber orchestra that envisions a piano coming to life in a workshop, Steven Hartke’s Ship of State for piano and 20 players that likens a government to a storm-tossed vessel at sea, drawing on poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Elizabeth Ogonek’s where we are now for six male voices, four percussionists, and piano. The featured pianist is Xak Bjerken, performing with Timothy Weiss and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Two American musical scholars and three contemporary composers share birthdates on September 28, and a British musical humorist bade adieu to the world of classical music, leaving it a bit less serious about itself than before.

Donald J. Grout, born in 1902 in Rock Rapids, Iowa, and H. Wiley Hitchcock, who wrote the first entry in his own bio in 1923 in Detroit, left indelible marks on classical music as author and editor, respectively, of A History of Western Music (known to generations of students simply as “Grout”), and The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.

American composers Vivian Fine and Laura Kaminsky came onto the scene in 1913 in Chicago, and 1956 in New York City, and Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo followed in 1976 on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China.

Kaminsky was featured by Jarrett Hoffman in the Diary one year ago, so we’ll zoom in on the other two composers this time around. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

ON TONIGHT:

At 7:30 pm, Les Délices’ SalonEra explores “Performer-Composers,” in particular the recent work, compositional viewpoints, and creative processes of three guest artists. Nicola Canzano introduces the 18th-century compositional practice of Partimento, Doug Balliett follows Bach’s legacy in composing a full year’s worth of cantatas, and Jonathan Woody previews his new commission for Les Délices. Watch a preview video here, and register here to view online and on demand for 48 hours after the debut.

THE CANON:

Three recent articles provide a snapshot into the grappling that is taking place over the idea of the classical music canon.

Joshua Kosman thoughtfully confronts the question of “which composers get one-name treatment” here in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Violinist Nigel Kennedy has withdrawn from a concert with the Chineke! Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall over disagreements that include programming: he says that the radio station Classic FM insisted that he and the ensemble perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons rather than the intended tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Read more here from The Guardian.

And the Metropolitan Opera reopens today with Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first presentation of a work by a Black composer in the organization’s 138-year history, as Zachary Woolfe writes in The New York Times.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we zero in on Hänsel und Gretel, the most famous opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who died on this date in 1921. The work has a humble backstory: it originated as four songs accompanying a puppet show put on by the composer’s nieces. It then expanded to a Singspiel with sixteen songs, and later to an opera. Stylistically, it’s notable for synthesizing two distinct sides of German music: one part Wagnerian influence, one part German folk songs.

YouTube contains several performances of the entire work, and many also of the famous and beautiful Abendsegen (“Evening Benediction”). Here’s a particularly lovely rendition of that excerpt, sung by Anna Lucia Richter and Fiona Lang, accompanied by a string quartet from the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne in an arrangement by Martin Richter.

It’s fun to reminisce about some of the many local performances of Hansel and Gretel that have taken place over the past decade.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Presenters seem to be taking Saturday off, but there are five varied concerts to choose from on Sunday afternoon: Tuesday Musical’s Al Fresco Passport series (Zydeco on the lawn of Akron’s Historic Barder House both at 1 and 3 pm), Divinity Lutheran’s Parma Heights recital by Cleveland Orchestra musicians Elanya Duitman, violin, and Carolyn Warner, piano at 3 pm, an American Guild of Organists, Cleveland Chapter retrospective of Music by H. Leslie Adams (pictured) for piano, voice, violin and trumpet in Rocky River, and Spanish Renaissance music performed by Duo Mignarda with EnsAmble Ad-Hoc and baritone José Gotera at St. John’s Cathedral, both at 3 pm, followed by the Cavani String Quartet’s latest “Beyond Beethoven” episode on the Music From the Western Reserve Series in Hudson at 5 pm (LvB’s Op. 18, No. 5 and Op. 59, No. 3 plus Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout.

Details in our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READS:

In a September 22 entry on his blog, Unanswered Question, musical scholar and concert promoter Joe Horowitz discusses two examples of “Buried Treasure,” works by Black composers that he argues need to come into the mainstream.

Of the first, he writes, “It’s finally become inevitable that William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, premiered by Leopold Stokowski in 1934, will become known as a galvanizing achievement in American symphonic music. Incredibly, our major orchestras still haven’t gotten around to it – but they will.”

The second work, Arthur Farwell’s 1922 Hako String Quartet, will be released in October on Naxos in a performance by the Dakota String Quartet. Horowitz writes, “Farwell isn’t played for reasons political, not musical. As the leader of our Indianist movement in music, he’s today condemned as a cultural appropriator…He believed it was a democratic obligation of Americans of European descent to try to understand the indigenous Americans they displaced and oppressed — to preserve something of their civilization; to find a path toward reconciliation. His Indianist compositions attempt to mediate between Native American ritual and the Western concert tradition.” Read his article here.

And in an NPR story, Eleanor Beardsley writes about French pianist Colette Maze, who has just released her sixth album at the age of 107 (she records on Sundays in her 14th floor apartment overlooking the Seine, “when the neighbors are likely to be out and the building is quieter.”) Read or listen to the six-minute broadcast here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Two musicians born on September 26 figure in other entries in the weekend’s Diary. American composer and trombonist William Levi Dawson (1898 in Anniston, Alabama) is the composer of the Negro Folk Symphony mentioned in Joe Horowitz’s blog, and American composer Gabriela Lena Frank (1972, Berkeley, Caifornia) is the author of Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, to be played on Sunday by the Cavani Quartet.

Why not spend some time today visiting recordings of those two works. Click here for Leopold Stokowski’s performance of the Dawson Symphony with the American Symphony Orchestra, and here for a performance of the string orchestra version of Frank’s Leyendas by Lina Gonzaléz-Granados and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia live streamed on October 17, 2020 from NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston.

Other notables to acknowledge this weekend include Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (born on September 25, 1932, Toronto), and on September 26, French conductor Charles Munch (Strasbourg, 1891), and American composer George Gershwin (Brooklyn, New York, 1898. Those who left us on September 26 include colonial New England composer William Billings (Boston, 1800), and Bela Bartók (New York, 1945).

Archival recordings can put us directly in touch with these musical personalities. Click here to revisit the famous incident of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto involving Gould and Leonard Bernstein, here to watch Munch conduct Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique with the Boston Symphony, here to listen to Gershwin play excerpts from the F-Major Piano Concerto, and here to enjoy Bartók’s own interpretations of excerpts from Music for Children.

Billings departed the scene too early for recordings, but Ross W. Duffin and Quire Cleveland brought his infectious motet I Am the Rose of Sharon to life in a concert at Historic St. Peter’s Church in April, 2014. Watch here.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

CIM violin professor Jaime Laredo celebrates his 80th birthday tonight at 7 by conducting the CIM Orchestra in works by Prokofiev, Mozart, and Brahms in a hybrid concert you can attend in person (free reservation required) or watch online.

CityMusic Cleveland’s Pantheon Ensemble goes live at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus tonight at 7 with a program featuring the world premiere of Denise Ondishko’s A More Perfect Union: Reflections on American Equality, Justice and Hope, along with pieces by Gershwin, Lili Boulanger, and Dvorák.

Pianist Gerardo Teissonnière joins the belated LvB 250th celebrations with a concert of Beethoven’s last three sonatas tonight at 7 in the Church of the Western Reserve.

More world premieres are on the docket for the first of three fall concerts by No Exit tonight at 8 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, including works by Derrik Balogh,  Giuseppe Desiato, and Jiří Trtík that share the program with pieces by No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer and Agata Zubel. (Catch later performances at SPACES on October 1 and Heights Arts on October 2 — all are free.)

JOELA JONES TO BE HONORED ON HER RETIREMENT:

The Cleveland Orchestra announced on Thursday that principal keyboard player Joela Jones (pictured above) will retire after performing Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony with the ensemble on October 17. At the performance on October 14,  she will be honored with the Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award. Its longest-serving principal player, Jones joined The Cleveland Orchestra 45 seasons ago in 1967.

In the announcement, the Orchestra noted that “her contributions go well beyond the countless notes played on stage. These were decades filled with Monday night rehearsals, accompanying the remarkable volunteers of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, afternoons or mornings in coaching sessions interacting with conductors and guest vocalists, countless chamber music rehearsals, and many Orchestra committee meetings, working tirelessly for the sake of her fellow musicians and the ensemble.”

Click here to watch a video about Joela Jones’s Distinguished Service Award, and here for more information about the keyboardist who has played piano, organ, harpsichord, celesta, synthesizer, and even accordion when required for nearly a half century.

ClevelandClassical.com’s Mike Telin interviewed Joela Jones in January, 2015 in conjunction with the 90th birthday celebrations for Pierre Boulez. Read that article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

British conductor and musical scholar Christopher Hogwood died of a brain tumor in Cambridge on this date in 2014. One of the forerunners in the early music revival movement, Hogwood relaunched the 18th-century Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, clearing a pathway for such later conductors as Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and Trevor Pinnock. The AAM eventually outgrew its concentration on Baroque music and recorded the complete symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as all of Mozart’s piano concertos with Robert Levin.

Hogwood was also noted for transforming Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society into a period instrument ensemble, along with his influential guest conducting appearances with a number of symphony orchestras. His career is detailed in Barry Millington’s obituary in The Guardian.

Click here to watch Hogwood’s performance of Haydn’s last symphony with the NHK Symphony Orchestra (misidentified as the AAM!), and here to watch a performance he led of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 with Robert Levin, who provided his own improvised cadenzas.

To see Christopher Hogwood in action as a musical scholar who served on the faculty of London’s Gresham College, here are two lecture-concerts: London: Music Under the Shadow of Handel, and an analysis of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps.

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At ​​7:30 pm it’s the Vanessa Rubin Quintet. Presented in partnership with Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, Rubin will sing classics, ballads and blues on the Maiden Lane Stage, 51 E. Market St. in downtown Akron. In case of rain, the concert moves next door into the Musica Club. The event is free.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cuyahoga Arts and Culture reports that while the wider economy is reopening, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to be devastating for local nonprofit arts organizations and creative workers.

According to a survey of 65 of General Operating Support grant recipients, steady job loss and revenue loss has continued in 2021. The organizations reported 1,636 total people laid off, furloughed or with reduced hours between January and June 2021.

And that after more than 15 months, 65 Cuyahoga County-based arts and culture nonprofits funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture continue to report layoffs as organizations operate with less capacity.

The survey finds that Federal funding is helping to make up some lost revenues and helping groups to adapt programming and connect with residents. But overall, the pandemic continues to negatively impact the creative economy and community quality of life.

From March 2020, when the 65 CAC-funded organizations began tracking, through June 30, 2021, the organizations reported:

• Total people laid off, furloughed, or hours reduced: 4,793
• Total revenue loss: $146,025,012
• Total federal funds (CARES Act, Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, etc.) received: $81,294,617
• Total revenue loss not recouped: $64,730,395

“The hard truth is that the creative economy will be one of the last to recover from the pandemic,” executive director of CAC, Jill M. Paulsen said. “Ohio’s creative industry continues to suffer from the highest unemployment rate among all sectors. CAC has accelerated payment of our grants and worked with Cuyahoga County to secure CARES Act funding, but it may not be enough for some organizations.”

Read the full report here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

INTERESTING READ:

Frequent Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor Jakub Hrůša (pictured left in a 2019 performance of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with soprano Joelle Harvey) is the subject of a New York Times interview this week in conjunction with the release of his recordings of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony with the Bamberg Symphony.

Obsessed with the piece, the composer left three distinct versions of the symphony, and Hrůša, unable to decide which he preferred, chose to commit all three to disc. The article also reveals some interesting facts about the Bamberg orchestra, which Hrusa regards as the “flagship” of its small Bavarian City, where one in ten of its residents holds season tickets for its concerts. (Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower was solo cellist in Bamberg before his translation to Ohio.) Read the article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

British composer Gustav Holst was born on September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham. Prolific and inspired by such diverse influences as Hindu music and English folksong, he left a large catalogue of music, much of which has been overshadowed by works like The Planets that made his name famous.

Holst’s daughter Imogen recalls her father in a charming documentary, and this restored 1926 recording of The Planets with the composer conducting has been described as revelatory and surprising.

Explore some of Holst’s less familiar choral works with these recordings: His Two Psalms, sung by the Estudio Coral de Buenos Aires in 1981, his Hymn to Jesus, based on the Apocryphal Gospels and performed by the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus in 2012, and — continuing the metaphor of sacred dance — his folklike but sophisticated setting of the old Cornysh carol, This have I done for my true love, performed by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with scrolling score.

Or take a taste of his settings of hymns from the Rig Veda, with the Hymn of the Travellers, sung by the children’s choir and youth ensemble of the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris with harp accompaniment.

And English art song composer Roger Quilter took leave of this life on September 21, 1953, leaving a legacy of over a hundred songs, many setting texts by Shakespere, that still figure importantly in vocal recitals. His Three Shakespeare Songs of 1905 are probably at the top of the list, and composer Peter Warlock wrote that O Mistress Mine is “one of the very few things that very simply send me into ecstasies every time I play it.” This performance of the set is by baritone Zak Kariithi and pianist Lemuel Grave.