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Archives for October 2022

DIARY: Weekend, October 14-16, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway with Mike Telin

IN THIS EDITION:

. The weekend concert calendar gives you a multiplicity of options.

. CIM ventures outside University Circle in an expanded series of community concerts.

. Hamilton C. MacDougall and William Barclay Squire (who?) make their debuts while Leonard Bernstein and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (pictured above on a Dutch 25 guilder banknote) exit the scene.

WEEKEND EVENTS: 

On Friday, October 14 at 11:00 am Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads The Cleveland Orchestra with cello soloist Mark Kosower in Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand’s timely Lamentation On The Disasters of War, Ernst Bloch’s Schelomo (Solomon, Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra) & Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) at Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. Tickets are available online for this program, which will be repeated Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Read our preview article here.

On Friday at 7 pm, The Singers’ Club of Cleveland reprises a concert of reflective choral music in recognition of the global impact of the COVID pandemic. The featured work is British composer David Briggs’ Requiem for men’s voices and organ.. First Baptist Church, 3630 Fairmount Boulevard, Cleveland Heights. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

From Trafalgar Square to Shaker Square: CCMS presents St. Martin’s Chamber Ensemble

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Tuesday, October 18, London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble will return to the Cleveland Chamber Music Series at Plymouth Church in Shaker Square to play works by Purcell, Brahms, and Enesco.

Not many musical groups are so closely associated in spirit and substance with a building as is the Academy of St. Martin with the grand parish church built to the plans of architect James Gibbs in 1720.

Only the second church to occupy its central London site on Trafalgar Square, St. Martin’s, inspired by Greek and Roman temples, established a style that was widely applied to ecclesiastical buildings during the restoration of the City churches after the Great Fire of 1666 by such architects as Christopher Wren. And made its mark on American Protestant church buildings like Plymouth UCC in Shaker Heights (below).

St. Martin’s has shared its real estate with the monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1808, with the National Gallery of Art, completed in 1838, and until their eviction at the turn of the 21st century, with a flock of 35,000 feral pigeons, not to mention protesters demonstrating en masse for multiple causes (like the 100,000 Pakistanis who poured into Trafalgar Square one Sunday in the 1970s when I decided to visit St. Martin’s for the first time).

Determined to serve as a cultural center as well as an organization dedicated to religious, societal, and justice issues, St. Martin’s became a thoroughly modern Anglican organization in the mid-20th century. As its website notes, “ From London’s first free lending library to the first religious broadcast, St. Martin’s has broken new ground in defining what it means to be a church.” [Read more…]

Tri-C Piano: Alexandre Dossin plays George Walker (Oct. 9)

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by Jacob Strauss

It is the composer George Walker’s centennial this year, and on October 9, pianist Alexandre Dossin — performing in Cleveland for the first time — gave a concert featuring the composer’s work through six decades at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The performance was part of the Tri-C Classical Piano series.

As a Black musician of the 20th century, Walker experienced a life of firsts. Among many other distinguished accomplishments throughout his career, he was the first Black musician to perform as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first Black tenured professor at Smith College, and in 1996 became the first Black composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize In Music.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire: Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (Oct. 8)

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by Peter Feher

Apollo’s Fire can’t help returning to the music of Claudio Monteverdi. Cleveland’s period orchestra revived its thrilling take on the composer’s Vespers of 1610 to start the season, and you couldn’t ask for a better beginning. The 40-odd singers and instrumentalists who filled First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, October 8 had musical riches to spare, and a distinctive creative vision united it all.

The unifying thread wasn’t Monteverdi, however, but artistic director Jeannette Sorrell, who’s made a focused project out of this sometimes sprawling piece. Part of the challenge lies in the work’s sheer scope, which is emblematic of the composer’s career. The music looks back on older Renaissance and Medieval styles while also anticipating the innovations of the Baroque era.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, October 13, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Tonight: Kosower plays Bloch’s Schelomo with Cleveland Orchestra, YSU presents a faculty/alumnus guitar duo, and Oberlin combines orchestra and choir for music by R. Nathaniel Dett

•Interesting reads: digging deeper into Dett, and praise for Lawrence Brownlee

•Almanac: the Medieval-influenced contemporary music of Zana Clarke

HAPPENING TODAY:

Three events, all at 7:30.

At Severance Music Center, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a concert that features Mark Kosower as soloist, in Ernst Bloch’s Schelomo – Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra. (Kosower and Mike Telin discuss the work here.) Also on the program: Karim Al-Zand’s Lamentation On The Disasters of War and Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. Tickets are available online. (Photo of Kosower by Roger Mastroianni.)

At Youngstown State’s Bliss Recital Hall, a faculty member (François Fowler) and an alumnus (Christopher Mrofchak) join forces as the Fowler/Mrofchak Guitar Duo. They’ll play works by J.S. Bach, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Fowler himself — namely, his latest composition, Four Letters to Wormwood (after C.S. Lewis) for 2 guitars. Attendance is free.

And at Oberlin Conservatory’s Finney Chapel, another teaming-up will take place. As a preview for a performance at Carnegie Hall in January, Raphael Jiménez will lead The Oberlin Orchestra and three of the school’s choral ensembles — Gospel Choir, Musical Union, and Oberlin College Choir — in R. Nathaniel Dett’s oratorio The Ordering of Moses.

Soloists include members of the faculty (soprano Mathilda Edge, baritone Timothy LeFebvre), guest artists (mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann), and an alum (tenor Limmie Pulliam). The program also includes Brahms’ Tragic Overture and Iván Enrique Rodríguez’s A Metaphor for Power. It’s free, and there’s a livestream.

Speaking of that concert…

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 12, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. An engaging ritual celebrated nightly since 1549

. Contemporary  music at Oberlin

. Revisiting the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams

TODAY’S EVENTS: 

At 6pm, Trinity Chamber Choir will sing the traditional Anglican service of Choral Evensong commemorating Edith Cavell +1915, nurse and martyr. with Jeremy Jackman’s responses, William Byrd’s Fauxbourdon Service, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Valiant-for-Truth. The Rev. Peter Faass officiates and Todd Wilson conducts.

This 45-minute service will be sung by Trinity’s resident choirs and guests every Wednesday from October through May at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. On his blog, concert pianist and polymath Stephen Hough (himself a Roman Catholic), wrote about the engaging British ritual, which has been sung nightly around the world sinc 1549:

Evensong hangs on the wall of life like an old, familiar cloak passed through the generations. Rich with prayer and scripture, it is nevertheless totally nonthreatening. It is a service into which all can stumble without censure – a rambling old house where everyone can find some corner to sit and think, to listen with half-attention, trailing a few absentminded fingers of faith or doubt in its passing stream. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, October 11, 2022

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THIS EDITION:

•Dear Diary: an encounter with the Great Stalacpipe Organ, in a cave

•Bulletin Board: Next Jazz Legacy apprenticeship deadline, George Walker album from Cleveland Orchestra

•Almanac: R. Nathaniel Dett & Anton Bruckner

DEAR DIARY,

This past weekend I heard the biggest musical instrument in the world. It’s inside a cave in Virginia.

The cave is called Luray Caverns. It has high ceilings and big open spaces, but it feels very close-up in the dim lighting and with stalactites stretching down right in front of you.

Partway through the cave, you find the Great Stalacpipe Organ. Armed with four manuals, it was invented in the ‘50s by Leland W. Sprinkle (a real name), a mathematician and scientist who was involved in electronics and worked at the Pentagon.

Back then, Luray tour guides would tap on stalactites with a mallet to make sounds, even playing well-known tunes. That might’ve been what gave Mr. Sprinkle his idea. Or maybe it was his son smacking his head on a stalactite — another kind of percussion, and another version of the story.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, October 10, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Tatsuya Nakatani CUSP concert, Charnofsky playlist

. Why orchestras flourish in the American Midwest, and a few births, deaths, and premieres for the record

TODAY’S EVENTS: 

8:00 pm – Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project presents Tatsuya Nakatani, avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound, with CUSP Improvisation Orchestra in “a spatially presented, structured improvisation.” Convivium 33 Gallery, 1433 E. 33 St,, Cleveland. $15 recommended ticket price or pay what you can. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Eric Charnofsky’s playlist for Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music today from 2-4 pm: Charles Wakefield Cadman’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Henri Dutilleux’s: Mystère de l’instant (string orchestra, cimbalom, and percussion), Jules Massenet’s Poème d’Octobre (baritone voice and piano), Paul Creston’s Symphony No. 4 (in celebration of his birth anniversary), Nicolas Flagello’s Electra (piano, celesta, harp, and percussion) & Erik Satie’s: solo piano selections. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, October 7-9, 2022

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Something for everyone to enjoy in this weekend’s concert listings

. The guest list for this weekend’s birthday anniversaries could spin off some fascinating conversations (about that missing opera, Herr Schütz…)

WEEKEND EVENTS: 

On Friday, October 7, three intriguing concerts all begin at 7:30 pm. 

An Evening of Czech Vocal Music features students preparing to compete at the 10th annual American International Czech and Slovak Voice Competition in Wisconsin. Guzzetta Recital Hall at the University of Akron. Free.

Conductor Thierry Fischer leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Boulez’s Notations, Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, violin (replacing Vilde Frang, who will not appear due to travel complications), and Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) with Todd Wilson at Severance Music Center. The program is repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets available online.

The third is a guest recital by The Unheard of Ensemble, Ford Fourqurean, clarinet, Matheus Souza & Erica Dicker, violins, Iva Casian-Lakoš, cello & Daniel Anastasio, piano, who plan an adventurous, free program of music using technology and interactive multimedia at Oberlin’s Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Mark Kosower talks Schelomo

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by Mike Telin

Since joining The Cleveland Orchestra as principal cello in 2010, Mark Kosower has thrilled audiences with his performances of concertos by Ginastera, Haydn, Dvořák, Barber, and Tchaikovsky.

On Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Kosower will once again move to the front of the stage. The work: Bloch’s Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody. Under the direction of Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, the concert also includes Al-Zand’s  Lamentation On The Disasters of War and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”). The program will be repeated on Friday at 11:00 am, Saturday at 8:00 pm, and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with the Wisconsin native by phone and began our conversation by asking him when he first encountered the Rhapsody.

Mark Kosower: I’ve known about it since I was a boy. My father’s a cellist, although I don’t think he performed it very much. My first time performing it was in 2007 when I had the chance to play it with the Spokane Symphony in Washington with Gunther Schuller conducting. It was a wonderful and interesting experience.

[Read more…]

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