by Daniel Hathaway
CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND:
The calendar’s loaded this weekend —but there’s one cancellation: the Saturday concert at Oberlin by the Verona Quartet will be rescheduled, new date to be announced.
On Saturday, the MET Opera broadcasts Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones live in HD to area theaters at 12:55 pm, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents Turkish artist Celil Refik Kaya at 7:30 pm in Shaker Heights, Apollo’s Fire continues its Vivaldi peregrinations with an 8:00 pm performance at Bath Church, The Cleveland Orchestra plays Josef Strauss, George Walker, and Erich Korngold at Severance at 8:00 pm, and No Exit hosts the Ogni Suono saxophone duo at 8:00 pm at Spaces.
A mere seven events to choose from on Sunday. At 3:00 pm, the Warren Philharmonic with guitarist Jason Vieaux, at 4:00 pm, Apollo’s Fire at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cavani Quartet at Bop Stop, organist Peter Richard Conte improvising a score to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, the University of Akron Concert Choir in Fairlawn, and Westwinds in Rocky River. The day ends with a new event at Oberlin — a 7:30 performance by voice majors of Russian and Czech songs in Warner Concert Hall, the fruits of their Winter Term Project.
Details in our Concert Listings.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink, 92, longtime music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who also led orchestras in London, Chicago, and Boston, died at his home in London on Thursday. Read a New York Times obituary by Vivien Schweitzer here.
Following up on earlier stories, the University of Michigan has dropped its investigation of composition professor Bright Sheng. Some students in his seminar had declared Sheng a racist after he showed a 1965 film of Shakespeare’s Othello where Sir Laurence Olivier appeared in blackface.
And St. John’s College at Cambridge University has announced its plans to admit girls and women to its formerly all-male chapel choir of men and boys. “John’s,” founded in 1511, is the famous choral rival of “King’s,” founded in 1441 and located just down the road. Read a Musical America story here.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
There’s a long list of births and deaths to mark this weekend, but let’s choose just two composers who have come to mind recently.
English Renaissance composer Thomas Weelkes was born on October 24 in 1575. One of the most brilliant madrigalists of the era of Elizabeth I, his name appeared recently in the playlist of VOCES8, who sang his As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending on the Tuesday Musical Series.
That was one of 25 part-songs by 23 composers published in 1601 by Thomas Morley in The Triumphs of Oriana, apparently a tribute to “The Virgin Queen,” though its connection to Elizabeth has been disputed. In any case, the collection marshals the talents of British composers in its depiction of an idealized England where nymphs and shepherds cavort in the countryside. Each madrigal ends with the refrain, ““Thus sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: long live fair Oriana.”
Click here to listen to the entire collection, with some interpolated dance pieces, performed by the British ensemble i Fagiolini.
Centuries and worlds away, composer Sofia Gubaidulina was born on October 24, 1931 in the Tatar region of Russia. The New York Times took notice of the celebrations planned for her 90th birthday on Sunday in an article published online this week. Click here to read At 90, a Composer Is Still Sending Out Blasts. And click here to listen to Gidon Kremer play her Offertorium — Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, with Charles Dutoit and the Boston Symphony. “…the moving piece established Gubaidulina’s international reputation as something of a spiritualist.”
