by Stephanie Manning
IN THE NEWS:
The Sphinx Organization has announced pianist Michelle Cann, violinist Randall Goosby, and soprano Karen Slack as the recipients of the 2022 Sphinx Medals of Excellence. These three acclaimed musicians will receive a career grant of $50,000. Cann, who recently performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, said that “With this award, I hope to inspire and motivate new generations of musicians by celebrating and advancing works by great Black composers.” Read more here.
EVENTS TODAY:
The Kent Blossom Music Festival concludes tonight at 7:30 pm with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, who will present an evening of chamber music in Ludwig Recital Hall. The first half of the concert will feature Joela Jones (accordion), Yun-Ting Lee (violin), and Richard Weiss (cello) in arrangements of works by Handel, Puccini, Seiber, Morricone, and Piazzolla. In the second half, an eight-piece wind ensemble will perform Mozart’s Serenade in c, K. 388. Click here for tickets & here for link to the free live stream.
INTERESTING READS:
Ever wonder why “moon” and “book” don’t rhyme? Or why we say “unhappy,” but not “unsad”? Check out these two articles on the oddities of the English language from Literary Hub and Aeon.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
July 28 marks the death of a titan of Baroque music: Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in Leipzig, Germany in 1750.
A prolific composer, Bach left behind more than a thousand surviving works, many of them staples in both modern and historical performances. As his eyesight declined in the late 1740s, the composer put the finishing touches on one of his most famous pieces — one he had started working on decades earlier.
In 1724, Bach wrote the first piece that would later become a part of the Mass in b minor, but he didn’t complete the work until the last few years of his life. Though parts of it were performed in Bach’s lifetime, it was not until 1859 — more than a century after his death — that the complete work was first performed in Leipzig. Enjoy this Grammy-winning recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra here.
Sir Georg Solti conducted that performance in 1990, but since 2010, the Chicago Symphony has been led by Riccardo Muti (pictured), who turns 80 today. Before his current appointment with Chicago, the acclaimed Italian conductor was music director at La Scala and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Muti is a specialist in the music of Verdi. “Each of Verdi’s operas expresses human nature in such a profound way that we often recognize ourselves in Verdi’s characters,” he said in an interview. “That’s why Verdi will always be of the moment, and he will never become old-fashioned.” Listen to him conduct the CSO in Act 2, Scene 2 of Aida on YouTube.
And on July 28, 1951, the film with the most songs of any Disney feature was released — Alice in Wonderland. Though now regarded as a classic, the film was initially met with a lackluster reception, leading Decca Records to decide against releasing a soundtrack album.
Five years later, the newly formed Disneyland Records and producer Tutti Camarata set out to record a new, non-soundtrack version of the score. Camarata, who arranged and conducted the music, assembled an orchestra and chorus to create this recording (pictured), which was released in 1957. The 13-song album stars child actress Darlene Gillespie, who gives a wonderful performance as Alice. Learn more about that story here, and listen to the album on Spotify.
