by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•The latest from the Cooper Competition
•Tickets on sale for Tuesday Musical’s 2022-23 season
•Registration open for Summit Choral Society’s Children’s Choir Program
•Almanac — Antonio Salieri, Amadeus, and Amadeus 2: Requiem for the Undead
COOPER NEWS — TOMORROW’S CONCERTOS, TONIGHT’S RECITAL, YESTERDAY’S PRIZES:
With Round Two of the Cooper International Competition now in the books, three violinists have earned the right to perform with the Canton Symphony and music director Gerhardt Zimmermann in the Concerto Finals, which will take place on Friday, August 19 at 7:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall.
Sameer Agrawal (17, Chicago, Illinois) and Calvin Alexander (17, Shreveport, Louisiana) have chosen the Tchaikovsky Concerto, while Seohyun Kim (13, Seoul, South Korea) will play the Brahms. Admission is free. You can also watch via stream from Oberlin or The Violin Channel.
Thursday isn’t without fireworks either. The free Cooper Honors Recital will take place tonight in Warner at 7:30, featuring selections of programs from outstanding Round One performers, and that too will be streamed by Oberlin.
A few prizes were already handed out after yesterday’s Recital Round. Audrey Goodner (16, Reston, Virginia) placed fourth, and earned special prizes for best performances of Mozart and of this year’s required work, Jessie Montgomery’s Rhapsody No. 1. Bianca Ciubancan (16, Chicago) placed fifth, and was honored with the prize for best Bach. And Kento Hong (16, Edgemont, New York) took home sixth place, along with the Audience Prize. Video recordings of Wednesday’s recitals will be viewable on YouTube later this week.
Photo by Joshua Reinier
NEWS BRIEFS:
Tickets are now on sale for Tuesday Musical’s 2022-23 season. The six-concert lineup includes the Soweto Gospel Choir (October 2), Scottish Chamber Orchestra with violinist Nicola Benedetti (October 20), Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass (December 13), the Black History Month concert “Our Song, Our Story” (February 2), pianist Martín García García (March 7), and “An Evening with Itzhak Perlman” (April 27).
Summit Choral Society has opened registration for its Children’s Choir Program, open to students in grades K-12.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
There is no doubt that Italian-born composer and conductor Antonio Salieri, who was born on this date in 1750, has had his legacy affected by pop culture. His resume includes 37 operas — a genre in which he was particularly influential — and 36 years as the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister in Vienna. Not bad.
But after the 1979 play and the 1984 film Amadeus played loose with history, Salieri is often thought of as little other than the archrival of Mozart. In fact, their relationship was likely one of mutual respect, though I wouldn’t be surprised if after this whole mess, Salieri’s ghost now harbors quite a beef with that of Mozart. (The perfect story for Amadeus 2: Requiem for the Undead — a title that I give my blessing to any screenwriter to use, pending an agreement for royalties.)
But in a cruel way, Salieri actually owes his legacy to how entertaining that falsehood has proven to be. By 1868, his music had nearly vanished from the repertoire, only to be revisited due to — you guessed it, Amadeus.
One example of his partially revitalized stature in the 20th and 21st centuries is 2003’s The Salieri Album from the excellent coloratura mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli. It contains thirteen arias from his extensive operatic output, and is available on her YouTube Channel.
Salieri was also active in sacred music, and his funeral was in fact the setting for the premiere of his own Requiem. (The opening scene of Amadeus 2? Get hyped.) Click here to listen to the Agnus Dei in a performance by the late J.D. Goddard and the Mastersingers Inc. Chorale and Orchestra.