by Daniel Hathaway
Today’s entries:
• Cleveland Orchestra matinee, piano concerts at Fine Arts Willoughby and U. of Akron, Chinese traditional music for sheng at CMA
• Touching announcement by Michael Tilson Thomas, controversial cancellation in Montréal
• A single summer concert brings today’s Almanac celebrations of Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, Bobby McFerrin — and a large outdoor crowd — together in the Marketplace in Leipzig
TODAY’S EVENTS:
Orchestral events: Conductor Franz Welser-Möst and violinist Peter Otto join The Cleveland Orchestra for an 11 am Matinee featuring William Walton’s Violin Concerto (premiered by the orchestra in 1939), and guest conductor Naomi Wu (assistant in Winnipeg) leads the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in works by Vivian Fung, Sebastian Fagerlund, Isang Yun, and Samy Moussa on the Fridays at Finney Series.
Pianists: Andrew Focks performs on the guest artist series of the Fine Arts Association of Willoughby tonight at 7, and duo pianists George Lopez (Bowdoin College) and Gulimina Mahamuti (formerly of Ohio Wesleyan University), play in Guzzetta Hall at the University of Akron at 7:30.
Sheng virtuoso: Wu Wei brings the 4,000 year-old wind instrument — but in a modern model — to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art tonight at 7:30 for traditional and contemporary Chinese music, as well as music from the European Baroque period.
Details in our Concert Listings.
IN THE NEWS:
In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Montréal Symphony has created a furor by canceling a forthcoming guest appearance by the 20-year-old Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev, who was scheduled to play three performances of Prokofiev’s Third Concerto next week under the direction of guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. “The fact that the work was from a Russian composer born in present-day eastern Ukraine may have also played a role in the cancellation,” writes Michael Vincent in the Toronto Blog Ludwig van.
Tilson Thomas is also in the news for another reason, having announced in a letter to friends in the music industry that he will step down as artistic director of the New World Symphony to become its artistic director laureate.
Earlier this season, the celebrated conductor had surgery for brain cancer. In the letter he writes, “Currently, the cancer is in check. But the future is uncertain as Glioblastoma is a stealthy adversary. Its recurrence is, unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception. I’m taking stock of my life and will be reducing my administrative responsibilities.”
The conductor, who recently retired from the San Francisco Symphony, will make a guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra in four concerts from April 28 through May 1, joining cellist Gautier Capuçon in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, and music by Fauré and Britten.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
To celebrate the first performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Matthew-Passion since the composer’s death — led by 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig on this date in 1829 — as well as to mark the birthday of American conductor and vocalist Bobby McFerrin in 1950, let’s visit an extraordinary concert by McFerrin and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the Marktplatz in Leipzig on the Summer Night Music series in 2002. The video will also make you nostalgic for large outdoor gatherings of humanity who formerly came together to enjoy rich but relaxed menus of summer music. Click here to access the playlist of 32 videos.
McFerrin leads off with the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, English violinist Nigel Kennedy joins oboist Uwe Kleinsorge (who plays the vocal line) in Erbarme dich from the Matthew-Passion, and McFerrin joins Veronika Wilhelm in Vivaldi’s G-minor Concerto for Two Cellos. McFerrin takes the second solo part, demonstrating only one of his multiple vocal talents — can you tell that both of his parents were opera singers? Bach’s Thomaskirche looks fondly down on the proceedings, which include a wide variety of music. It would have been great fun to be there.
