by Daniel Hathaway
No events are scheduled for today. Enjoy a couple of interesting reads and celebrate some classical music milestones in the past.
For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Tuesday Musical’s 2025 Annual Scholarship Competition — to be held in Akron on Saturday, March 22 and on Saturday, March 15 for organists — is now receiving online applications through February 1. Click here for eligibility criteria, repertory, and other details.
INTERESTING READS:
What Accounts For Those New Year’s Music Traditions?
“For old time’s sake, we sing Auld Lang Syne. We embrace the waltz to remember and ward off depression. Everywhere in the world there are New Year’s concerts featuring Strauss waltzes.” — Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times
How Lutherans Saved The Organ For (And From) The Reformation
“Early on, many in the Protestant movement saw organ music as just another Popish frippery; even Luther disapproved of it at first. He changed his mind, of course, and the presence of the organ in church became a major point of conflict, and even identity, between Lutherans and Calvinists.” –Anna Steppler in History Today
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1747, French composer, violinist and conductor Jean-Fery Rebel wrote finis to a distinguished career in Paris, where he was born on 18 April 1666. After a sojourn in Spain, Rebel joined the 24 Violons du Roy in 1705 and directed the Concert spirituel. His symphonies were frequently choreographed. Among his more striking works is Les élémens (1737), in which Rebel, like Haydn in The Creation, attempted to represent chaos through music in the opening movement.
Anything but chaotic is this performance by Cleveland’s Les Délices, recorded at Plymouth Church in April 2019 (pictured above) where Rebel’s iconic ballet takes center stage along with a world premiere companion piece commissioned from Oberlin graduate Theo Chandler. Performers include Kathie Stewart, flute, Debra Nagy, baroque oboe, Anna Marsh, baroque bassoon, Julie Andrijeski & Jessica Park, violins, Steuart Pincombe & Jaap ter Linden, violas da gamba, and Mark Edwards, harpsichord. Watch here. The other movements are to be found nearby.
