by Jarrett Hoffman
NEWS FROM THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA:
As a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, The Cleveland Orchestra has announced sweeping changes to its 2020-21 season, replacing the concert schedule that was announced in the spring.
As the Orchestra’s president and CEO André Gremillet wrote by email on Wednesday, the newly designed season will occur in two phases: fall and winter-spring.
Fall concerts, beginning in October, will take place without audiences at Severance Hall. Five different concert programs will be recorded and digitally-streamed, free for subscribers and donors of $300 and more, and otherwise available for purchase. The musicians will be spaced apart onstage at Severance, performing chamber orchestra works by composers such as Mozart, Haydn, and John Adams — more details about repertoire, guest artists, and broadcasting to come in September.
There is optimism that the winter-spring schedule, starting in January of 2021, will allow for concerts at Severance to be attended in person, by subscribers only. That will begin with “socially-distanced audiences in limited numbers,” with the potential for larger audiences as safety guidelines permit. Meanwhile, the streaming of concerts will continue throughout the season.
Gremillet also offers a frank assessment of how COVID-19 is impacting The Cleveland Orchestra as an institution. “This is, without question, the most significant crisis in the Orchestra’s 100-plus year history.”
In a separate news release Wednesday, the Orchestra announced the cancellation of its 2021 Miami residency at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. The ensemble plans to return to Miami in January 2022.
TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
At noon, have lunch with The Cleveland Orchestra over WCLV 104.9 Ideastream and on the web. Franz Welser-Möst leads the ensemble in two works by Beethoven: the Symphony No. 8, and the Adagio from Symphony No. 9.
Oberlin Stage Left honors the class of 2020 with a virtual performance of Julius Eastman’s Stay On It at 7:30 pm. Preceding that: a discussion on the making of the video — both “highs and lows” — and what the concept of ensemble means in 2020.
At 2:00 from New York City’s 92ndt Street Y, pianist Robert Levin plays popular works by Mozart in a way that promises to be particularly up that composer’s alley — with embellishments, flights of fancy, and improvisations on themes submitted by the audience.
Staying in New York for the evening, and moving to a more serious topic, Lincoln Center and WQXR present “Mostly Mozart: Black Experience in the Concert Hall” at 7:00. Host Terrance McKnight is joined by violinist Sanford Allen, vocalist Julia Bullock, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, cellist Alvin McCall, and vocalist Bobby McFerrin.
At 7:30, the Met Opera flips through its archives back to December 15, 1981 for a performance of Puccini’s Turandot, starring Nina Stemme, Anita Hartig, Marco Berti, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk, conducted by Paolo Carignani.
And moving up the coast to Maine, the Portland Chamber Music Festival presents “Songs & Stories” at 7:00, featuring baritone Thomas Meglioranza and pianist Shai Wosner in songs by Schubert.
For more details of these performances, check our Concert Listings.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On August 13, 1912, French composer Jules Massenet died in Paris at age 70. Around the turn of the century, he became known as the leading composer of opera in all of France. And though his reputation had begun to wane by the time of his passing (very nice of critics to time it that way!), his work is now well-respected, and his two best-known operas — Manon and Werther — are performed regularly.
Another of his operas, Thaïs, is often referenced for its beautiful “Meditation” for solo violin and orchestra that separates the two scenes of the second act. It’s now common as a solo or encore piece, has been transcribed for many instruments, and can even be heard in the 1997 movie Titanic.
Listen to the “Meditation” from Thaïs in a recent virtual concert from the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra featuring its frequent soloist, violinist Isabelle Durrenberger. A native of Upper Arlington, Ohio, she studied with Jaime Laredo at the Cleveland Institute of Music and currently attends the New England Conservatory. Her performance with her father Christopher Durrenberger, piano professor at Wittenberg University, begins at the 18:10 mark.
The concert also includes conversation between the Durrenbergers and Daniel Meyer — Lakeside music director, Cleveland native, and artistic director of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra.
