by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: Amethyst Quartet concludes Trinity Brownbag season, CMA presents cinematic concert “A Season on the Wind: Music for Migratory Birds” (pictured), and Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival presents keynote event
•Announcements: Center for Arts-Inspired Learning names new CEO and announces free summer music camp, and Cleveland Orchestra announces return of Summers at Severance series
•Interesting reads: a new ending for Turandot premieres at Washington National Opera
•Almanac: Monteverdi with Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire
HAPPENING TODAY:
At noon, the Amethyst String Quartet will play “Music of the British Isles” at Trinity Cathedral in the season finale of the Brownbag Concert series. A freewill offering will be taken up.
At 7 at Transformer Station, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents Majel Connery and the Bowerbird Collective in the Cleveland premiere of “A Season on the Wind: Music for Migratory Birds,” a cinematic concert based on author, ornithologist, and conservationist Kenn Kaufman’s book of the same name. Ticket information and more details here.
Also at 7, at Mandel Concert Hall, The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2024 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival presents its keynote event, “An Evening with Kai Bird,” in which the biographer will explore the festival’s theme of power. The event also includes a panel with Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst, president & CEO André Gremillet, and festival curator Elena Dubinets — as well as some music. Violinist Jung-Min Amy Lee, bass-baritone Dashon Burton, and pianists Christina Dahl and Miloš Repický will perform Sarasate’s Fantasy on “The Magic Flute” and John Adams’ “Batter my heart” from Doctor Atomic. Tickets are available here.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Two announcements from the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning. First, dancer and arts educator Emma Parker (right) has been appointed as CEO — read an article by Steven Litt at cleveland.com.
Second, the organization will host a free summer music camp for rising 4th-8th graders who live in Cleveland or attend school within the city limits. The camp will be held at Studio 105 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday with three options for the particular week: June 10-14, 17-21 (no camp on the 19th), or 24-28. Instruments, lunch, and snacks are provided. Learn more here and register here.
Yesterday, The Cleveland Orchestra announced the return of its Summers at Severance series, which will include three Thursday night, 7:00 concerts — along with pre-concert cocktails on the front terrace.
On July 11, conductor Oksana Lyniv will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut in a program that includes Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Inon Barnatan as soloist, as well as Janáček’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen, Liatoshynsky’s Grazhyna, and Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird.
Also making his debut with the Orchestra will be conductor Petr Popelka, who will lead the July 25 program that brings together Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6, Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit, and Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring James Ehnes as soloist.
And on August 15, Franz Welser-Möst takes the podium for a pairing of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”) and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”).
Tickets are available here.
INTERESTING READS:
This past weekend, Washington National Opera premiered a new ending for Puccini’s Turandot, replacing what many consider to be an unconvincing finish — one that was completed by another composer after Puccini died having left only sketches of the ending.
Aiming to give the title character a more empowered conclusion and to rectify some of the Chinese stereotypes depicted in the work, WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello commissioned this new ending from composer Christopher Tin and playwright Susan Soon He Stanton.
Read more about the project here in an article from NPR’s Nina Totenberg, and read a review here from Washington Classical Review’s Andrew Lindemann Malone.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was born either on May 15 or 14, 1567 in Cremona, later serving the household of the Duke of Mantua and the “most serene republic” of Venice, and launching the early Baroque period with a flurry of inventive works including opera, church music, and madrigals.
Jeannette Sorrell and Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, have programmed much of Monteverdi’s music in various halls in Northeast Ohio as well as across the U.S. and Europe. Here are a few videos from their archives:
We’ll start with a collection of secular works from the 2020 program, “L’AMORE — Love and Rejection in Old Italy,” performed at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Heights. It begins with a piece by Barbara Strozzi, then goes on to selections from L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and the Scherzi musicali. Watch here.
One of the composer’s monuments is the Vespers of 1610, written for the Mantuan court, and which has required some reassembly, having been published as individual pieces. One of the motets that editors haven’t quite known what to do with but has to be included because of its powerful declamation, Duo Seraphim was sung by tenors Jacob Perry, Nathan Hodgson and Nathan Dougherty at First Baptist Church in October, 2019. Watch here.
Like all Vespers services, Monteverdi’s setting concludes with the “Magnificat.” His bravura setting covers many of the stylistic bases available to the composer, including wonderful echo effects. (I heard a performance years ago in an 18th century church at the Edinburgh Festival where the conductor had the echo tenor sing his part from the Gents’ just off the balcony — a perfect location.)
Apollo’s Fire performed the “Magnificat” in Trinity Cathedral in November of 2014 (video here), and opened their 31st season with a complete performance of the Vespers in the fall.
Finally, here’s an exquisite performance by tenor Karim Sulayman of Monteverdi’s Si dolce è il tormento (How sweet the torment) from an Apollo’s Fire “Blues Café 1610” performance on Valentine’s Day of 2015 at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland.