by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. City Music & No Exit along with a load of holiday-themed concerts
. Remembering Franck and Messiaen (pictured) on their birth anniversaries
TODAYS EVENTS:
On Friday the 9th at 7:30 at Lakewood Congregational Church, CityMusic Orchestra, led by guest conductor Stefan Willich, and featuring trumpeter Jack Sutte and soprano Chabrelle Williams, will perform Mozart’s Overture and “Deh vieni non tardar” from The Marriage of Figaro and Symphony No. 40 along with Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, Verdi’s “Caro nome” from Rigoletto, and Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicchi. The program will be repeated on Saturday the 10th at 7:30 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, and Sunday the 11th at 3 at Federated Church. All performances are free.
Also on Friday. No Exit New Music will present a 7:30 concert at Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall that includes three world premieres: David Glaser’s Aurora II, Max Friedman’s Butter-Iider, and Frank Wiley’s The Dream of Sisyphus, along with Henry Cowell’s The Banshee and Tiger, and Ladislav Kubik’s Nocturnes. Read a preview article here. The concert is free.
Those Holiday concerts continue: At 7:00 on Friday the 9th at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights, Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrrell continue their run of performances of Handel’s Messiah. Sopranos Sonya Headlam and Erica Schuller, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Crider and Kim Leeds, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, and baritone Edward Vogel are the soloists. The program will be repeated on Saturday the 10th at 8, and Sunday the 11th at 5 at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. Tickets are available online.
At 7:30 on the 9th, The Cleveland Orchestra continues their series of holiday concerts at Severance Music Center under the direction of Brett Mitchell, featuring Mikaela Bennett, soprano, The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and members of the Blossom Music Festival Chorus. The program will be repeated on the 10th and 11th at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Can’t make it this week? Performances run through the 18th. Read a preview article here. Tickets available online.
But wait, there are more holiday concerts this weekend. Visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for information.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The December 10 honors list tilts toward Francophones, including the birth anniversaries of composers César Franck (1822 in Liége — he was actually a Belgian by birth) and Olivier Messiaen (1908 in Avignon).
Franck’s parents vied with Mozart’s in supplying their offspring with a rich choice of baptismal names. In Franck’s case, César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert, and in Mozart’s, Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. Imagine what their mothers yelled out to call them in for tongue-lashings!
We’ll ignore Franck’s organ music — he wrote a lot of it — and note that his only Symphony received a rare performance by The Cleveland Orchestra last year. Brooding and dark when not triumphant, the piece seems only to inspire strong emotional responses both for and against. If you missed it, click here to watch a performance by Kurt Mazur and the New York Philharmonic.
One of Franck’s most-performed chamber works is the Violin Sonata. I have two Cleveland performances to recommend: one from a CIM faculty recital by Ivan Ženaty and Antonio Pompa-Baldi in 2018, and another from a ChamberFest Cleveland concert by rising stars Nathan Meltzer and Evren Ozel.
Ornithology meets theology in Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques, a riveting work that won the Cleveland Chamber Symphony an Emmy Award for a performance led by John McLaughlin Williams with pianist Angelin Chang. Listen here.
Continuing with the French theme, on this date in 1854, Hector Berlioz’ only oratorio, l’Enfance du Christ, received its first performance in Paris. A luminous account of the Birth of Christ that confronts anti-Semitic attitudes and ends with a gorgeous unaccompanied chorus, it’s a perfect piece to get to know during this season.
Click here to watch and listen to the “Shepherds’ Farewell” in a performance by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony with the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society from 1966 (memorable, not only because I sang in the chorus!) And click here for the charming trio for two flutes and harp with which the Egyptian Jewish family entertain Mary, Joseph, and Jesus when they welcome the Holy Family into their home.