by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
We have two anniversaries to mark today. The first is that of Swiss American composer Ernest Bloch (pictured), who died on this date in 1959 in Portland, Oregon. Bloch served as founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920-1925 before moving on to the San Francisco Conservatory. After a hiatus back in Switzerland, he helped found the Music Academy of the West, and taught in the summers at the University of California, Berkeley.Among Bloch’s music based on Jewish themes is his tone poem about King Solomon, Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque. Listen here to a live Blossom Festival performance in 1980 by cellist Janós Starker with The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Eduardo Mata. Or click here to listen to a January, 2019 performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music by Lydia Rhea, with pianist Evan Solomon.
Another CIM performance, this one by Cleveland Orchestra first assistant cello Richard Weiss, features the first of Bloch’s trio of solo suites, inspired by Bach and composed between 1955 and 1957. Click here to watch the video from September, 2009.
The second is that of English composer Harrison Birtwistle, born on this date in 1934 in Accrington, Lancashire. His 1986 Earth Dances have been compared to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Christoph von Dohnányi recorded the work in 1996 with The Cleveland Orchestra for Decca (listen here), but there’s also a video of a performance by Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra led by Marcus Stenz.
