by Daniel Hathaway
R.I.P. Michel Debost
Oberlin College and Conservatory have announced the passing of Michel Debost, the internationally celebrated flutist who taught at Oberlin from 1989 until his retirement in 2011. He died on May 2 in his native France at the age of 92.
“He was the longtime principal flutist of the Orchestre de Paris from its founding in 1967 until 1989, a legendary soloist, and a revered professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he succeeded fellow luminary Jean-Pierre Rampal. He recorded a wealth of flute repertoire for EMI and a variety of other labels.”
HAPPENING TODAY:
Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Sergei Prokofiev’s First Symphony, the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Zones of Blue with clarinetist Jörg Widmann, and excerpts from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On May 7, 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach paid a visit to King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia at his palace in Potsdam — where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel was a court musician. The King, a keen amateur flutist, knew about the elder Bach’s prowess as a contrapuntalist and improviser, and challenged him to create a fugue on a theme created by the royal hand. Bach complied with a three-voice ricercar, using a fortepiano, and some time after returning to Leipzig, sent Frederick Ein musikalisches Opfer, a collection of fugues and canons, some of them in the form of puzzles to be solved, based on Frederick’s tune.
Here’s the entire work as performed by Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations. Or enjoy the six-voice Ricercar played by The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi.
On this date in 1824, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was first performed at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. Beethoven was reported to be so deaf by this time that he couldn’t hear the noisy ovation — but check out our article for another opinion from Kent State University musicology professor Theodore Albrecht.
Recordings abound. The work is so popular that it gave rise to the myth that the duration of Beethoven 9 determined the capacity of Sony’s newly-invented compact disc. Here’s a community-oriented performance of the fourth movement from 2014 in Severance Hall by the CIM Orchestra, Cleveland School of the Arts Chorus, Singers’ Club of Cleveland, and Antioch Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, led by CIM president Joel Smirnoff.
Also light birthday candles today for Johannes Brahms (born in Hamburg in 1833), and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (in Votkinsk, 1840).
And another one for American conductor Robert Spano, born in 1961. The Oberlin grad went on to lead the Atlanta Symphony and teach conducting at the Aspen Festival. Listen here to his 2012 talk at TEDxAtlanta, “The Universal Role of Music.” He explores history to show the connection of music and community, and reveals his ability to merge classical with contemporary by playing an original composition.
