by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Today belongs to classical guitarists. At 9:45 am & 1:30 pm, the semifinal round of the James Stroud Classical Youth Guitar Competition will bring young artists ages thirteen to eighteen to CIM’s Mixon Hall to perform before the public and a panel of internationally acclaimed judges. Free.
And at 7:30 pm, the 26th Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival gets underway in Mixon Hall with a recital by headliner Jason Vieaux (pictured) of works by Barrios, Morel, Orbon, Ponce, Pujol, and others. Jonathan Leathwood will give a free, pre-concert lecture at 6:00 pm.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Cleveland Chamber Choir will present four major concerts next season as well as performances by smaller ensembles. Gregory Ristow conducts Trinity Cathedral’s resident ensemble. Read the press release here.
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced performers for its 2026-2027 recital series in Mandel Concert hall at Severance Music Center. Performers include pianist Lang Lang Lang (September 12), Violinist Lisa Batiashvili, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (October 19), and pianists Stephen Hough (January 26), Garrick Ohlsson (March 16) and Nobuyuki Tujii (April 20).
In conjunction with the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists in August, Piano Cleveland will host a series of solo recitals at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History from July 21 through August 1. Read the Cleveland.com article here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On June 4, 1951, Russian-American conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who led the Boston Symphony for a quarter of a century, died in Boston. 
A double bassist by training, Koussevitzky launched a publishing house before he left Russia, and was responsible through his foundations for the commissioning of numerous important works, including Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.
Perhaps the most-performed work for which Koussevitzky was responsible is Randall Thompson’s Alleluia, commissioned for the opening of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1940 and designed to be sung by the multinational BMC Fellows at the opening ceremony after a brief rehearsal (it sets only two words). Thompson recalled that contemporary events in Europe influenced the piece, which he described as “a sad fanfare for the fall of France.” Here’s a rare, 1950 video of Koussevitzky conducting another Thompson work he commissioned for Tanglewood, The Last Words of David.
Click here to listen to Koussevitzky conducting the first recorded public performance of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra on December 30, 1944 — including the original ending.
Another historical recording of the Bartók was made at the Palace of Culture in Kyiv during The Cleveland Orchestra’s 1965 Russian tour. George Szell is on the podium for a concert that includes music by Mozart and Dvořák, as well as a rare performance of William Grant Still’s In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy. Listen here.
