by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Sessions 3 & 4 of the Quarter-Finals of the Cleveland International Piano Competition will take place today in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center.
At 2 pm, performers include Jacopo Giovannini, Antonio Chen Guang, and Michelle Candotti, and at 7 pm, Leo de Maria, Arisa Onoda, and Maxim Lando will play 35 to 40-minute recitals of works of their choice. Attend in person or watch a live stream (tickets and details here.)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Marc Weagraff, Baldwin Wallace professor of voice and choral studies has been named artistic director of the Master Singers Chorale of Northeast Ohio. Now in its 23rd year, MSC has performed an annual series of classical choral concerts since its founding by J.D. Goddard in June, 2001. The Chorale welcomes, without audition, singers of all ages from high school through adulthood. Interested singers are invited to visit any of MSC’s weekly rehearsals on Mondays at 7 pm beginning on September 9 at the First Christian Church of Stow. More information here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra music director for 24 years, died on this date in 1970 in Hannah House at University Hospitals — during a Blossom concert conducted by Pierre Boulez, who had the task of informing the players following the performance.
(Pictured above: Szell surveying the future site of the Blossom Pavilion by helicopter. Read a 2018 ClevelandClasssical.com article by Alice Koeninger on the occasion of the summer festival’s 50th anniversary.)
And read an obituary for Szell by Donal Henahan published the day after his passing in The New York Times (the article has been automatically digitized and is full of misreadings of the original, but it’s worth reading for the collection of anecdotes that Henahan has included).
On July 30, 1921, American pianist Grant Johanneson was born in Salt Lake City. President of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1974 to 1985, he was a frequent guest performer with The Cleveland Orchestra. Click here to listen to a live performance of de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Johanneson and The Cleveland Orchestra under Loren Maazel ca. 1978.
And back in 1899, English pianist and celebrated accompanist Gerald Moore was born on this date in Watford. During his long career, he appeared on stage and in recordings with most of the eminent singers of his time, and did much to elevate the role of the pianist in recitals. As humorous as he was accomplished as a performer, Moore wrote a number of books: The Unashamed Accompanist, Am I Too Loud? and Furthermoore — Interludes in an accompanist’s life.
Listen here to his witty recorded version of The Unashamed Accompanist from 1955. And click here to listen to his recording of six Richard Strauss songs with Janet Baker, recorded in 1968.
