by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY (OR NOT):

This is the time of year when concerts thin out after the holidays, creating an annual lacuna complicated this time around by the recrudescence of COVID-19 and the first snow event of the season.

It’s also the time when people begin looking ahead to more agreeable times — when gardeners haul out the seed catalogues and classical music fans begin filling out their must-hear calendars with intriguing events to come.

Even the latter activity has become dicey this year, with events that pop up and just as quickly disappear as reality trumps planning. It’s difficult to keep track — and in our case, to keep the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings up to date.

For example, we just received word from The Cleveland Orchestra of a COVID-related change to its March 3-5 concerts that were to have featured the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony and two Psalms by Alexander Zemlinsky. Those will be replaced by George Walker’s Lilacs featuring soprano Latonia Moore, and a suite from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier compiled by Franz Welser-Möst. Imagine the challenges of running a symphony orchestra these days!

Since there are no events to list for today, Wednesday, January 19, let’s flag a few things that are about to happen and burrow a bit deeper into plans for two of the major festivals of the summer in Northeast Ohio.

Coming up on Thursday: A Highland Lassie, the latest event in Les Délices’ Concert Series will become available on demand at 12:01 am. The program visits the fascinating world of Scottish traditional music that celebrates “the permeable borders between folk song and art song, between country dance and cotillion. Truly, the tunes crossed social boundaries — being sung and played by folks from every walk of life from the fields to the tavern to the well-heeled salon. With their haunting melodies, budding romanticism, and nostalgic sentimentality, these traditional Scots songs speak powerfully to us today.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

You’re reading this after noon on Friday, so the 12:15 pm McGaffin Carillon concert is already old news. But you can still enjoy George Leggiero’s performance (including a Beatles tune) via YouTube, on demand here.

The Cleveland Orchestra is on duty at Severance Music Center Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8 with two symphonic standards (Mozart’s No. 40 and Dvořák’s No. 8) separated by Bern Richard Deutsch’s Intensity. Franz Welser-Möst is at the helm.

On Saturday at 1, the MET Opera — who have yet to cancel a performance since the house reopened — bring you Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro over WCLV.

This is Martin Luther King Jr, weekend, but thanks to COVID-19, Saturday’s annual MLK Memorial Concert by musicians from the Music Settlement and The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual MLK Celebration Concert will be presented online. The Settlement event will be streamed live from the Bop Stop, while the Cleveland Orchestra will make its 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration concert available for free on Adella from January 17 through February 28. The Orchestra’s annual Community Day won’t happen this year. And Apollo’s Fire has created a six-video playlist to celebrate MLK Day.

At 4 pm Sunday, Cleveland Orchestra assistant concertmaster Stephen Tavani will be featured in the Brahms Concerto with the Youngstown Symphony. Guest conductor Miriam Burns will lead Bartók’s Roumanian Folk Dances and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 to fill out the program in the Ford Family Recital Hall at Youngstown’s DeYor Center.

Details in our Concert Listings.

COVID UPDATES:

Apollo’s Fire has decided to reschedule its cycle of “Lift Every Voice” concerts from February 4-6 to August 5-7. Ticket holders have been contacted with rebooking directions.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Multiple sources report that Nuremburg instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner invented a new instrument called the clarinet on January 14, 1690 — a claim that recalls that Irish Archbishop’s assertion that God created the earth on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o’clock in the morning. In fact, Denner essentially added two keys to the chalmeau,  launching one of the most versatile instrument families to be incorporated into the developing symphony orchestra, and making possible such pieces as Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

Speaking of Mozart, a century and a decade later, Ludwig Köchel, who created the first chronological catalogue of Mozart’s works and assigned them KV (“Köchel Verzeichnis”) numbers, was born in Lower Austria on January 14, 1800. He was also a skilled botanist — not a bad hobby for someone who sorts musical works out into categories. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA

Today’s Tuesday Noon online-only concert from the Church of the Covenant features violist Christopher Jenkins and organist Christa Rakich of the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in music by Adolphus Hailstork, William Grant Still, and Paul Hindemith. The video will remain available for viewing on demand.

COVID CANCELLATIONS AND CHANGES:

Citing concerns for the health of its musicians and staff, The Cleveland Orchestra has withdrawn from its late January residency in South Florida, including concerts and education activities at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Kravis Center, and Artis—Naples. Read the press release here.

The Operas in Place series co-sponsored by Baldwin Wallace, Cleveland Opera Theater, and On-Site Opera, that was to have presented nine micro-operas online over three days from January 14-16, has now been postponed to February.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition is now receiving applications for both the senior and junior divisions of its 2022 competition, to be held in South Bend, Indiana in May. A new feature this year is the “Lift Every Voice Prize,” focusing on works by Black and/or Hispanic/Latino/a composers. Read a Violin Channel press release here.

INTERESTING READ:

Writing in yesterday’s issue of The Gramophone, Tim Ashley makes a case for re-evaluating the puzzling career and legacy of Camille Saint-Saëns a month after the centenary of the composer’s death in 1921. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Two opportunities remain to hear The Cleveland Orchestra perform Hans Abrahamsen’s Vers le silence and Igor Levit (pictured) as soloist in Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto. Franz Welser-Möst gives the downbeat in Mandel Concert Hall at the Severance Music Center on Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Photo: Roger Mastroianni. You’ll need proof of full vaccination — including a booster shot — to attend, and tickets can be ordered online.

Organist Nicole Keller will give a recital on the rarely-heard-these-days Holtkamp instrument in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday at 2:30 pm. The menu includes works by J.S. Bach, Calvin Hampton, Rayner Brown, Paul Hindemith, Mozart & Florence Price. It’s free.  (NOTE: this recital has been postponed until spring due to the COVID surge.)

NEWS BRIEFS:

Aronson Cello Festival comes to Cleveland this summer

Cleveland Orchestra cellist Brian Thornton, one of the last students of Lev Aronson, who survived the atrocities of the Nazis to become principal of the Dallas Symphony and a beloved mentor to young cellists, founded a festival in Aronson’s honor. Thornton writes,

We are holding our next festival in Cleveland between June 6-12, 2022, at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at Severance Music Center. The events will span seven days and will include special programming filled with memorable performances and world class artists — in addition to innovative and interactive speakers and sessions called “LevTalks” that will inspire, inform, reflect upon, provoke, challenge and confirm the modern world of classical music around us. In this time of rapid change with the arts under siege, we must find ways to connect and embrace our community. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:.

Because of the recent COVID surge, today’s noontime concert from the Church of the Covenant will be presented online only. At 12 Noon, organist Jonathan Moyer will play music for the Epiphany by Buxtehude, Lefébure-Wély, Jongen, Messiaen, and Tournemire. Click here to view a pdf of the program, and here to view the live streamed performance.

ANDREA ANELLI, 60

Jonah Schulz has written to inform us of the passing of his mother on January 1.

“Andrea Anelli (pictured), the beloved soprano and founder of Cleveland Opera Theater (originally Opera Per Tutti) and ContempOpera Cleveland, passed away at the age of 60.

“Andrea’s passion for opera kept the art form alive and thriving in Northeast Ohio. After founding Opera Per Tutti in 2006, Andrea performed many of Opera’s most classic roles making world class productions accessible to audiences in Gordon Square’s Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland’s Masonic Auditorium and as the creator of The Italian Cultural Garden’s annual “Opera in the Garden” concert.

“Her talent and work ethic was honored at Cleveland’s City Hall when she was presented with the Italian-American Heritage Award by Mayor Frank Jackson.

“After leaving Cleveland Opera Theater, Andrea founded ContempOpera Cleveland where she performed and produced the works of modern composers and brought opera into classrooms around Cleveland.”

Click here to read a statement from Cleveland Opera Theater, and here to view Anelli’s greeting to the audience before an Opera Per Tutti al fresco performance.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Apollo’s Fire has announced a job opening for full-time general manager of Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra. Read about the position and download a detailed job description here.

Video applications are now being received through February 15 for the 2022 James Stroud National Classical Guitar Youth Competition, open to students ages 14-18. Semi-final and final rounds will be held in person at the Cleveland Institute of Music from June 2 through 5. The competition will award prize money totalling US$ 25,000. Click here for details.

Looking ahead, the Vienna Philharmonic has announced that frequent guest conductor Franz Welser-Möst will lead its New Year’s Concert for the third time on January 1, 2023.

And looking back to its December “Carols for Quire XI” programs, Quire Cleveland has made ten “videos” created from photos and a live audio recording of its December 4, 2021 concert at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church available here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One important development to celebrate today in classical music history. In 1950, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) announced that it would produce LPs — 33 1/3 rpm long playing records — following the lead established by Columbia Records in 1948.

These records would replace 78 rpm discs — made of an abrasive shellac compound and limited to about five minutes of recording time per side — with vinyl, and formerly wide grooves with “microgrooves,” extending playing time to 22 minutes per side.

The history of this development gets a bit complicated (RCA had attempted to bring out an earlier version in 1931 that failed), but suffice to say that the change from shellac to vinyl — with all the attendant technical details — was a boon for classical music.

RCA has produced two films about “The History of Vinyl.” Click here to watch a 1946 film narrated by longtime Metropolitan Opera commentator Milton Cross that includes a tour of RCA’s Camden, New Jersey plant, and here to watch Part II, which followed ten years later. Part III, which followed in 1958, introduced stereo recording.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Organist Jonathan Moyer devotes his Tuesday Noon Advent Series recital at the Church of the Covenant to music by J.S. Bach: the Six “Schubler” Chorales — all arrangements by the composer of his own cantata movements, plus the little Duetto II that found its way along with three other two-part pieces into the Clavierübung III, and the C-Major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 545. It’s free. (Lunchtime Holiday Carillon concerts resume on Wednesday at 12:15.)

Burning River Brass takes its Holiday program to the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls tonight at 7. Tickets are available online.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Earlier this month, the finals of the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition were held at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Among the eight semifinalists was Cleveland native Samuel Rosenthal (pictured), who eventually took home second prize in the prestigious contest established in 1979 and named for viola virtuoso William Primrose. He currently studies with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang at the Juilliard School.

The San Francisco Conservatory has announced a new collaborative project with the National Brass Ensemble, whose artistic director is Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs. The ensemble, which draws brass and percussion players from major American orchestras, last came together in 2014. Part of the NBE’s Summer Academy for students, scheduled for June 13-20, events will include a live concert on June 20 in Davies Symphony Hall.

Sachs said, “We’ll be performing and recording new works written especially for us by Aaron Jay Kernis, Jonathan Bingham, and Arturo Sandoval, and a new Richard Wagner Ring compilation arrangement.

“In addition to these performed works, this time we will be interacting with a group of brass, percussion, and timpani students especially chosen through auditions to participate in a comprehensive menu of educational events including panel discussions, lectures, intimate masterclass settings, instrument specific subject matter classes, as well as interactive readings of chamber music, music of Giovanni Gabrieli, and standard orchestral repertoire.” Read a press release here.

LIVE AT CMA:

Trinity Cathedral associate organist and Baldwin Wallace faculty member Nicole Keller will bring live concerts back to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday, January 9 at 2:00 pm with a free recital of music by J.S. Bach, Calvin Hampton, Rayner Brown, Hindemith, Mozart, and Florence Price.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The Winter Solstice is scheduled for today at 10:58 am in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite a recent run of blazingly sunny days, this moment marks the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Tuesday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest episode of the COVID-19 saga unfolds.

Given no alternative, we might as well enjoy our mutual planetary experience today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.

Click here to listen to the carol commissioned for the 1998 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. Gile Swayne set his own English text in his Winter Solstice Carol (it alternates with familiar Latin phrases from the Christmas Day antiphon to the Magnificat): [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:

First, an update: the No Exit concert announced for this evening at Praxis Fiber Workshop has been cancelled due to COVID concerns.

Otherwise on Saturday, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts will begin at 2:30 and 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. 2:30 Oberlin events include the Oberlin Chamber Singers in Fairchild Chapel and the Verona Quartet in Kulas Recital Hall. Cleveland Opera Theater will take its Amahl production to Old Stone Church on Public Square at 7, and at the same hour, Local 4 of the Musicians Union will present “Classic, New, Borrowed & Blue II” at SPACES, and Summit Choral Society will sing by candlelight at St. Bernard’s Church in Akron.

On Sunday, you can catch repeat performances of Holiday Concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra at 2:30 and 7:30, and Cleveland Opera Theater’s Amahl at 3 in Rocky River. Also at 3, Oberlin faculty organist Mark Edwards will play Baroque Christmas from 17th and 18th century Germany, Italy, and France on the new Paul Fritts organ in First Lutheran, Lorain, and at 4, Arts Renaissance Tremont will host Burning River Brass (pictured) at St. Wendelin Church. The Oberlin Musical Union — the second oldest choral organization in the U.S. — will end the weekend with a collage of masterworks at 7:30 in Finney Chapel.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Oberlin Conservatory has named the winners of its inaugural Peter Takács Beethoven Prize in Piano competition, held on December 4 and 5 in Finney Chapel. They include second-year pianist Ho Ting (Kelvin) Tang, (first prize and an award of $5,000), fourth-year student Leo Choi (second prize and $1,000), and third-year student Guoanni (Annie) Qin (third prize and $500). Read the story by Erich Burnett here.

INTERESTING READS:

Did you know that in mid-career Charles Dickens wrote four other Christmas books besides A Christmas Carol? Click here to read a story in The Guardian about the others, including Cricket on the Hearth, now being promoted by London’s Dickens Museum in conjunction with a first-time display of John Leech’s sketches for the book. “It’s quite a lovely, homely romance story, that was also extremely popular. It’s quite fairytale-like,” said curator Emily Smith.

While acknowledging the popularity of A Christmas Carol due to the originality of its plot, Dickens’ great-great-great granddaughter and author Lucinda Hawksley said, “the others are also definitely worth reading – and they were written by Dickens to be celebrated in the same way…to be read with your family over the Christmas period, around the fire, and probably to be read out loud.”

Now that’s a lovely way to celebrate that doesn’t involve staring at a screen. But failing a family reading, the next best thing might be to hear the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral reading Cricket in front of his fire with a pot of tea nearby and the decanal cat at his feet. Click here.

CHRISTMAS JAZZ  FOR YOU:

Tri-C JazzFest has curated a playlist of 50 tracks that can enhance three hours and fourteen minutes worth of your holiday activities this Christmas. Among other jazz legends, the mix includes performances by Charlie Parker, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Vince Guaraldi, and Take 6. Access Christmas Jazz to Keep you Warm here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

We could raise a glass to several events in classical music history this weekend, but since it’s a busy time of year, let’s stick to one first performance that suggested itself  through the Oberlin Musical Union’s playlist for its Sunday evening concert of excerpts from choral  masterworks.

Although commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky for the Boston Symphony, Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms received its first performance in Belgium by the Société Philharmonique de Bruxelles on December 13, 1930, followed by the American premiere a week later on December 19 by the BSO and the chorus of the Cecilia Society (prepared by Arthur Fiedler!) Koussevitzky had an orchestral work in mind, but Stravinsky had long been contemplating a work for chorus and orchestra. The piece is remarkable for the predominance of wind instruments —  the only strings are cellos and basses.

Stravinsky was on the podium for a recording made in Paris with the Orchestre des Concerts Straram and the Alexis Vlassov Choir in February, 1931 (listen here), but there are a number of other recordings with different takes on the striking piece. Here’s one led by Riccardo Muti, obviously recorded in Italy but with no mention of who the performing forces are (La Scala?).