by Daniel Hathaway

PRIZES AWARDED IN VIRTU(AL)OSO COMPETITION:

In Sunday evening’s Award Ceremony, Piano Cleveland announced the winners of its 2020 all-online competition:

First Prize: Martin James Bartlett (U.K.)

Second Prize: Arseniy Gusev (Russia)

Third Prize and Audience Prize: Byeol Kim (South Korea).

Watch the Awards Ceremony video here, and read the press release here.

ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES TODAY:

On the Cleveland scene, WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra features the Scherzo from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, string orchestra version, and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony.

Two New York events of interest are in the calendar today: a 1pm stream from Trinity Church, Wall Street featuring its choir and baroque orchestra in two Bach cantatas led by Julian Wachner, and WQXR’s stream of the opening concert of the Mostly Mozart (mostly virtual) Festival. Plus, of course, the MET Opera’s nightly archive performance, this time a 2008 production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Details here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this August date, Michael Haydn (brother of Joseph) died in Salzburg in 1806, Russian composer Alexander Glazunov was born in St. Petersburg in 1865, French organist Marie-Claire Alain (sister of composer Jehan) was born in St. Germain-en-Laye in 1926, and American-Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow (known for his player piano works) died in Mexico City in 1997.

But also on August 10 of 1995, the first Henry Wood Promenade Concert was held in London’s Queen’s Hall, an event that blossomed into the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Renowned for its often unruly “promenaders” — purchasers of cheap standing-room spots on the main floor of the hall — the series has also given rise to the “Last Night at the Proms,” a traditional blowout that culminates in an effusion of British patriotism. The Proms go on this month in a reduced, pandemic version, but it’s probably a good time to remember them in their pre-Brexit prime. Click here to watch Last Night in 1994 (part two continues here.)

by Daniel Hathaway

THIS WEEKEND ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

Piano Cleveland streams the second session of the final round in its Virtu(al)oso online competition on Saturday at 7, with 30- to 35-minute pre-recorded programs by Byeol Kim, Martin James Bartlett, and Lovre Marušić. Find out who the winners are at Sunday’s 7 pm Awards Ceremony, which will also feature some encore performances.

Also on deck this weekend: Ohio Light Opera offers reflections from company veterans in “Taking Light Opera Seriously” (Saturday), the MET Opera pulls Handel’s Agrippina (Saturday) and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Sunday) out of its archives, WCLV’s Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio revisits Strauss’ Oboe Concerto with Frank Rosenwein (Saturday) and Matthias Pintscher’s Chute d’Étoiles with trumpeters Michael Sachs and Jack Sutte (Sunday), and Cleveland composer H. Leslie Adams’ Violin Sonata is featured in a program by violinist Igor Kalmin and pianist Rochelle Sennet (Sunday). The weekend ends with pianist Daniil Trifonov’s recital from the Sun Valley Music Festival, available free online.

Check our Concert Listings for more details, times, and access points.

NEW APOLLO’S FIRE VIDEOS POSTED:

Episode 16 of Apollo’s Fire’s “Music for the Soul” Video Series is now available. “Vivaldi Fireworks” includes three new videos of performances as well as three old favorites. Click here for the complete playlist.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On August 9, 1874, Venezuelan-French composer, conductor, and music critic Reynaldo Hahn was born in Caracas. Closely associated with Marcel Proust, Hahn is best known for his salon songs.

Click here to listen to Venezia, songs in the Venetian dialect sung by Matthew Polenzani with pianist Julius Drake. One of Hahn’s most-recorded pieces is A Cloris, sung here by Matthew Maisano in a 2016 Cleveland Institute of Music master’s recital, and here by Joyce DeDonato, accompanying herself from her home as part of last May’s  “Call to Unite” global initiative.

And on August 9, 1975, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich died in Moscow. His symphonies have figured in Cleveland Orchestra programs for decades. Artur Rodzinski recorded No. 1 in 1940 (it took up eight sides of 78 records), and No. 5 in 1942 (on a monophonic LP). There’s also an interesting live performance of No. 10 from December of 1967, when George Szell passed his baton to David Oistrakh after the violinist had just played the Brahms Concerto.

The Fifth Symphony is the subject of a San Francisco Symphony “Keeping Score” episode hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas. The full-length concert performance was recorded at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall. Watch here.

by Daniel Hathaway

VIRTU(AL)OSO FINALS BEGIN TODAY:

Tune in tonight at 7 for the first of two final rounds in Piano Cleveland’s all-online 2020 Virtu(al)oso competition. Tamila Salimdjanova, Arseniy Gusev and Madoka Fukami perform 30-35 minute solo programs. Click here at start time.

GIDDENS NAMED SILKROAD ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:

Rhiannon Giddens has been named artistic director of Silkroad, founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998. Read the New York Times article here. Giddens graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory program in 2000, and was profiled in an article by Erich Burnett when she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017.

INTERESTING READS:

In an Early Music America article, Natasha Roule relates the story of a 17th-century French opera company in Lyon that survived plague, revolt, and bankruptcy, an experience that may have lessons for today’s organizations.

Following up on news of the death of Leon Fleisher, Olivia Giovetti considers the difficulties the pianist experienced along with his triumphs. Read her article, “A Coda for Leon Fleisher,” in VAN Magazine here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Paraguayan composer-guitarist Augustín Barrios Mangoré died on this date in 1944 in El Salvador, where he had been invited to settle in 1939 by El Salvador’s president. Composer of some 300 songs and a vast quantity of solo guitar music that drew heavily on the folk music of Paraguay.

Barrios Mangoré’s music will be the subject of a Cleveland Classical Guitar Society International Series concert by Berta Rojas and friends to be streamed online on August 15. In the meantime, listen here to 3-½ hours’ worth of historical recordings by the composer-guitarist, who was one of the first classical guitarists to preserve their performances for posterity.

by Daniel Hathaway

LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS:

On Wednesday evening, Piano Cleveland announced the names of the six finalists in its VirtuI(al)oso online competition who will play 30-35 minute programs on Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm. Read the story here.

Tri-C Jazz Fest has added a third day to its 2020 online festival, which now runs from Friday, August 21 through Sunday, August 23. Read more here.

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

In the latest episode of Oberlin Stage Left, violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson introduces the Verona Quartet, Oberlin Conservatory’s quartet in residence for 2020-2021, who will respond with some Beethoven, Adolphe, and Janáček, as well as a little bluegrass.

WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra includes Benno Sachs’ masterful reduction of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, tailor-made for the age of the pandemic, but actually made to introduce the piece to members of Vienna’s Society for Private Musical Performances (founded in 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg). And the MET Opera will stream a 2016 performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1619, composer and singer Barbara Strozzi was baptized in Venice. She survived an outbreak of the plague to become the most-published composer of her era, with eight books of mostly secular songs to her credit.

Click here to listen to her i baci sung by Burning River Baroque sopranos Malina Rauschenfels and Josefien Stopplenburg at St. Alban’s Church in Cleveland Heights in September, 2016, and here to watch Adriana Ruiz sing several of Strozzi’s works at Indiana University as part of Early Music America’s 2018 Emerging Artists Showcase during the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

And on this date in 1945, the United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom, detonated the first of two atomic bombs over the city of Hiroshima, Japan (a second bomb was dropped over Nagasaki three days later.

Click here to watch a performance of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki’s 1960 Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments, as performed by Sinfonia Varsovia led by Krzysztof Urbański at Penderecki’s 80th Birthday Celebration in Warsaw in November, 2013.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

ChamberFest Cleveland continues its rebroadcasts of archived performances on WCLV’s Ovations series tonight with Franklin Cohen soloing in (and conducting) Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Also on deck: Brahms’ Trio with violinist Alexi Kenney, cellist Oliver Herbert, and pianist Roman Rabinovich.

Earlier today, WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra is all-Beethoven: Franz Welser-Möst leads a string orchestra version of the “Heiliger Dankgesang” movement from the String Quartet Op. 132, and the “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony.

At 7:00 this evening, Piano Cleveland goes online to announce the names of the six pianists who will play 30-35 minute programs in the Final Round of its Virtu(al)oso online competition on Thursday and Friday.

And the MET Opera rebroadcasts a production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra from 1995. Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Franco-Flemish composer Guillaume Du Fay was presumably born on this date in 1397. Associated on and off throughout his career with Cambrai Cathedral, where he was buried, he became the most celebrated composer in Europe while working at different times for the Papal Chapel, noble Italian families, and the Duke of Burgundy, among others.

Du Fay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores, written in 1436 for the consecration of Brunelleschi’s dome for the Cathedral of Florence, reflects the composer’s rich contrapuntal gifts. Listen here to a September, 2014 performance by Quire Cleveland led by Ross W. Duffin, whose program notes reveal the elaborate symbolism behind Du Fay’s musical construction.

Other local performances of Du Fay’s works include his secular motet, Ma belle dame souveraine, performed on a March, 2013 Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert by the Case Collegium Musicum, Debra Nagy, director, and his Gloria, sung by Contrapunctus Early Music in March, 2015 at St. John’s Cathedral, directed by David Acres.

And here’s an unusual entry: On this date in 1978, Parowan, Utah, named a local mountain Mt. Messiaen to honor the composer of Des canyons aux etoiles (‘From the canyons to the stars’) commissioned in 1971 by Alice Tully to celebrate the American bicentennial in 1976. Olivier Messiaen was inspired by the natural beauty of Bryce Canyon, and this seems like an important time to revisit one of the country’s remarkable natural landscapes. Listen here to the 90-minute work for mixed ensemble in a performance by pianist Paul Crossley and the London Sinfonietta led by Esa Pekka Salonen.