Archives for December 2021

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, stop by Trinity Cathedral or hop online for a Brownbag Concert featuring Britten’s seasonal masterpiece A Ceremony of Carols (freewill offering).

Then at 7:30, head over to St. Bernard Catholic Church in Akron to catch conductor Nic McGegan’s debut with Apollo’s Fire in Handel’s Messiah — the first of five area performances. Read Mike Telin’s conversation with McGegan here, and get tickets here.

TODAY’S ALMA-NEWS:

Today we pair a musical anniversary with a recent piece of musical news, and with an event on this weekend’s calendar.

On December 8, 1978, The Deer Hunter had its premiere in Los Angeles. An epic war drama set in both Vietnam and in the town of Clairton, PA (some of it was shot in Cleveland), the film is remembered today for several reasons. Those include the performances by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep, the direction by Michael Cimino, and the honors it hauled in for all involved: five Oscars, a place on several best-films-ever list, and preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Then there’s the soundtrack, highlighted by Stanley Myers’ Cavatina in a performance by guitarist John Williams (above, right). For many, it’s inseparable from the film, and is often referred to as simply its theme: a lyrical line unfolding gently over unhurried arpeggios, against a backdrop of strings (and a lovely appearance from the wind section about three-quarters through), and with an emotional palette of pure wistfulness. Listen here as you watch “the deer-hunting scene.”

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON TODAY’S AGENDA:

The free, Noon Advent Series at the Church of the Covenant continues today with an organ recital by Adam Chlebek, an Oberlin organ major and music director of Lakewood’s St. James Church. Both organs will be featured in music by Nicolaus Bruhns, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Olivier Latry.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents The Cavani Quartet in its next-to-last performance in its Beyond Beethoven series. This event, a free, community concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, features Beethoven’s Op. 95 and Op. 127 string quartets, and the “beyond” work is Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae. (Photo: an earlier performance at the Music Settlement).

And in case you haven’t already heard, don’t go to the Akron Civic tonight — the Tuesday Musical performance by Rodney Marsalis and Philadelphia Big Brass has been cancelled.

INTERESTING READ:

Israeli-born cellist and conductor Amit Peled is featured in a Baltimore Sun article about The Mount Vernon Virtuosi, his chamber orchestra, and his vision of free classical music for all. (Peled was named music director of CityMusic Cleveland in 2019, when the organization was still presenting chamber orchestra concerts.) Read the article here.

CHANGES OF VENUE:

Two events previously scheduled at the Cleveland Institute of Music have been moved to other venues. The Cleveland Art Song Festival’s Winter Minifestival, including a recital on December 10 by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn, and master classes with Wagorn on the 9th, and Costanzo on the 11th, will now be held in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, same dates and times.

And a joint concert by Margaret Brouwer’s Blue Streak Ensemble and Burning River Baroque scheduled at CIM on December 15 will now take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music announced today that applications are now being received for the second annual Emerging Black Composers Project. Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead the San Francisco Symphony in the first performance of a new work commissioned from the winner of the Project, who will also receive a $15,000 cash award. Read a press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we celebrate two inaugurations and a premiere that took place on December 7 in classical music history. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

From 2 to 4, Eric Charnofsky (above) hosts “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” which you can hear on WRUW or via stream. This week’s edition pays tribute to a late great icon of American musical theater. Hint: first name Stephen.

The broadcast includes selections from Symphonic Sondheim (performed by the London Symphony Orchestra) and from Liaisons – Reimagining Sondheim (featuring pianist Anthony de Mare in music by Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, Ethan Iverson, and Mark-Anthony Turnage).

Also on the broadcast: works by Beethoven, Frank Bridge, Augusta Read Thomas, and Camille Saint-Saëns — some of those pieces appearing in the form of interesting arrangements and transcriptions.

And at 7:30 pm, Matthew C. Saunders leads the Lakeland Civic Orchestra in Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 2, Florence Price’s Adoration, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, and some seasonal favorites at Painesville United Methodist Church (freewill offering).

LOOKING AHEAD:

Two things new, one thing changed.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 1:30 pm at the Hay-McKinney Mansion of the Western Reserve Historical Society, members of The Cleveland Orchestra will play music by winners of the Cleveland Arts Prize in conjunction with the exhibit “Honoring Our Past Masters: The Golden Age of Cleveland Art, 1900-1945.” And at 8:00 pm, the Oberlin College Black Musicians Guild hosts the Nicholas Payton Trio in Finney Chapel.

On Sunday at 1:00 pm, Finney Chapel will be the site of the inaugural Peter Takács Beethoven Prize in Piano competition, named for the longtime Oberlin piano professor for whom Beethoven’s music has been a lifelong inspiration. (You can watch a webcast as well as attend in person.) A few blocks away at 5 pm, the Sacred Heart Concert Series presents the Orb Quartet and other Oberlin Conservatory musicians in “Chillin’ with Contemporary Composers.”

Otherwise, a long list of Advent and Christmas concerts fills this weekend’s calendar.

On Saturday, performers include the Lake Effect Concert Band, the Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra with vocalists Vanessa Rubin, Evelyn Wright, and Ava Presto, and Quire Cleveland’s third and last “Mary’s Song” program.

On Sunday, seasonal music continues with Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas, the Euclid Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops, Western Reserve Chorale, Advent Lessons and Carols with Trinity Cathedral Choir, Singers Companye in Fairlawn, the University of Akron Choral Ensembles and Brass Choir (pictured above), and the West Shore Chorale.

Visit our Concert Listings page for details.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov was born on December 5, 1960 in La Plata, but departures far outnumber arrivals on these two dates in history. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S HAPPENING:

The vocal and instrumental musicians of Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Sebastian Catholic Church join forces at 7:30 pm for An Advent Procession of Lessons and Carols at Holy Trinity. You can attend in person or watch the live stream, which will be available for the next week.

Oberlin’s Fridays@Finney tonight at 7:30 pm hews to an avian theme with performances of Ottorino Respighi’s The Birds, Shulamit Ran’s Grand Rounds & Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques by the Oberlin Orchestra & Contemporary Music Ensemble led by Rafael Jiménez and Timothy Weiss. Attend in-person, or join the live stream.

Guest vocalists Vanessa Rubin, Evelyn Wright, and Ava Preston will be featured with Cleveland Jazz Orchestra at 8:00 pm at BLUE Jazz+ in Akron. If that’s not convenient, “Sing a Song for the Holidays” repeats on Saturday at the Maltz PAC in University Circle.

And Quire Cleveland makes the second stop on its three-concert tour of “Carols for Quire XI: Mary’s Song” tonight at 8 pm at Our Lady of Peace Church on Buckingham Ave. in Cleveland. It’s free. Read a preview here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On December 3, 1883, Oberlin College began classes as the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to admit both women and men.

And on this date in 1978, composer William Grant Still (pictured above), one of Oberlin’s first Black students, passed in Los Angeles at the age of 83. (He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the school in 1947.) Still has recently received long-overdue attention for his extensive catalogue of works that includes symphonies, ballets, operas, choral works, art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments. A good reason to go exploring! Start here to access a web site maintained by his family and click away!

Let’s continue our December list of premieres with a look at the first performance of Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony on this date in 1954.

Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1942, the gestation of Barber’s one-movement piece for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, was prolonged by a few interruptions — notably World War II.

Barber chose to set words by the 19th-century Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard, whose writings had always appealed to him, but the composer avoided Kierkegaard’s complicated philosophy, turning to some simple and beautiful prayers instead,

Although it’s difficult to imagine in today’s media world, Time Magazine devoted an unsigned editorial to Barber’s new work, beginning with a description of the piece: [Read more…]