by Stephanie Manning
LOOKING AHEAD:
This holiday week is, unsurprisingly, pretty quiet. But be on the lookout for the upcoming offerings from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio, West Shore Chorale and Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Cleveland Pops.
For details on these and more, visit our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Musical America has revealed the 2024 winners of its annual “of the year” awards, which includes some faces familiar to Clevelanders.
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (pictured) earned Instrumentalist of the Year. He’s performed with The Cleveland Orchestra on multiple occasions — most recently at Blossom in August — and will return to Severance Hall in February for a duo recital with fellow pianist Yuja Wang.
Barbara Hannigan — who made her Cleveland Orchestra conducting debut in 2023 — was honored as Artist of the Year, while Jake Heggie was named Composer of the Year. Nightingale Opera Theater staged Heggie’s operas If I Were You in 2022 and Two Remain in 2024. Read more about all the winners here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
On November 25, 1731, J.S. Bach’s cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme was first performed in Leipzig on the 27th Sunday after Trinity as part of a series of chorale-based cantatas. A near-perfect marriage of text and music, the work draws on the parable of the Wise Virgins, the characterization of Christ as the Bridegroom coming to meet his bride, and the work’s title chorale by Otto Nicolai.
There are numerous performances, but I’ve always been drawn to one on an old 1964 Nonesuch recording by the Chamber Orchestra of the Sarre, Karl Ristenpart, conductor, with the Chorus of the Conservatory of Sarrebruck Herbert Schmolzi, director. It’s worth a search for the complete recording.
