by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Two Finnish musicians — conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and cellist Senja Rummukainen — will be featured in tonight’s Cleveland Orchestra concert at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. The program includes Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Salonen’s Cello Concerto, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. Tickets available online. Read a preview interview with Rummukainen on this page.
SOME HEADLINES IN THE NEWS:
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra experiments with creative experiences for next-gen audiences — Cincinnati Business Courier
Decoding the Trend Busters: How Some Arts Organizations Are Increasing Participation as National Figures Decline — National Endowment for the Arts
In Salt Lake City, Sports Drive a New Vision for Downtown: A proposal to remake the area would please the owner of the city’s N.B.A. and N.H.L. teams. But others, including classical musicians, aren’t so thrilled. —New York Times
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On October 10 in classical music history
- in 1825, “Russian” composer Dimitri Bortniansky, who was actually Ukrainian, passed away at the age of 74 in St. Petersburg
- in 1935, the first Broadway performance of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess took place at the Alvin Theater in New York
- in 1938, prolific American composer Gloria Coates, who wrote 17 symphonies, was born in Wausau, Wisconsin (read her September, 2023 obituary in the New York Times here)
- in 1946, Jamaican bass Sir Willard White, who was featured in Berlioz’ Damnation of Faust with the Cleveland Orchestra under Charles Dutoit in May, 2015, was born in Kingston. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in November, 2004. Read an October, 2015 interview in The Guardian here
- in 1971, Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow. He returns to Severance Music Center on May 7 for a solo recital in Mandel Concert Hall
- in 2003, American pianist Eugene Istomin died in Washington D.C. He had a career-long tiff with Cleveland Orchestra music director George Szell which he related in detail on his website
- in 2010, Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland passed away in Geneva. Click here for a live recording of “Let the Bright Seraphim” from Handel’s Samson in January of 1959 at Covent Garden.
- Bring some of today’s honorees together by listening to The Cleveland Orchestra’s celebrated 1976 recording of Porgy & Bess led by Lorin Maazel, featuring Sir Willard White and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.
