By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Bach at noon
. Liu at Oberlin, Apple finally speaks classical music
. Remembering Margaret Bonds
HAPPENING TODAY:
Trinity Cathedral’s BachFest continues at noon today with violinist Andrew Sords performing the B-Minor Partita, and organist Todd Wilson playing the E-minor Trio Sonata. It’s free and you can enjoy it both in person and as a live stream. Details in our Concert Listings.
INTERESTING READ:
San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman writes about Apple’s new classical streaming service, which finally speaks the language of classical musicians and solves many of the search problems that the latter have found so frustrating when using other sources of streaming music.
Kosman writes, “What it provides is the interface that classical music aficionados have long wanted for easier access to the world of J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky and Florence Price. Perhaps just as important, it offers a gateway for newbies who want to explore that world but aren’t sure where or how to begin.”
Read “Apple’s new classical-music-only app is just what fans have been waiting for” here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
By Jarrett Hoffman
Chicago-born composer and pianist Margaret Bonds (pictured above) passed away on this date in 1972. The first Black musician to solo with the Chicago Symphony, Bonds was an important artistic partner of both Florence Price and Langston Hughes, a supporter of Black musicians and composers more broadly through the Margaret Bonds Chamber Music Society, and a popular arranger of spirituals including He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, created in 1963 for soprano Leontyne Price, who sings it here.
Among Bonds’ settings of texts by Hughes is the song cycle Three Dream Portraits. Listen to a recording by baritone Will Liverman and pianist Paul Sánchez on the album Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers (movements one, two, and three).
