by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

At 12 Noon, organist Sol Rizzato plays a program on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Series that includes Peter Sykes’ transcriptions of two movements from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

Tonight at 7:30 on the Tuesday Musical series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, vocalist and pianist Michael Feinstein joins the Carnegie Hall Big Band to celebrate the legacy of Tony Bennett.

And tonight at 7:30 is your last opportunity to hear Apollo’s Fire perform four of J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos as the Baroque orchestra’s current tour concludes at Rocky River Presbyterian Church.

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings.

HONORED:

During its November 1 concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will induct trumpeter and former artistic director (1992-2009) Jack Schantz into its CJO Preservation Circle. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: 

The schedule is packed.

On Saturday, Les Délices presents Arcadian Dreams (2 pm at Hudson Library), Klaus Mäkelä leads The Cleveland Orchestra and choruses in the last of three performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (8 pm at Severance Music Center), No Exit New Music continues its new season with a triptych of concerts and a trio of world premieres (7 pm at SPACES), the Akron Symphony plays Charles Ives — pictured — and Gustav Holst (7:30 in E.J. Thomas Hall), Apollo’s Fire plays four of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (7:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights), the Cleveland Philharmonic plays Liszt with Halida Dinova; The Cleveland Opera presents Puccini’s L’amico Fritz (7:30 at First Baptist, Shaker Hts., and Wit’s Folly plays early Iberian music (7:30 at St. Noel Church, Willoughby Hills).

On Sunday, stand-alone events include Cleveland Composers Guild (organ works at 3 pm in Morley Hall, Painesville), and Lakeland Civic Chorus (4 pm at Lakeland Community College, Kirtland). Repeated programs include the Cleveland Philharmonic (3 pm at CSU), Wit’s Folly (4 pm at Bath Church), The Cleveland Opera (4 pm at First Baptist, Shaker Hts.), Apollo’s Fire (5 pm at First Methodist Church, Akron) and Les Délices (7:30 in Harkness Chapel, CWRU).

For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READS:

Writing for VAN Magazine, Hannah Edgar updates the situation at the Cleveland Institute of Music since the faculty voted to unionize, and reports on the effect the turmoil of the last year has had on student enrollment. Read her reporting here. (Note: the article is behind a paywall, but inexpensive subscriptions to the Berlin-based magazine are available).

Jeremy Denk on Charles Ives. In an essay this weekend in The New York Times, the pianist considers the thorny composer’s legacy on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Read At 150, Charles Ives Still Reflects the Darkness and Hope of America here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Klaus Mäkelä leads the Cleveland Orchestra and choruses with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson in the second of three performances of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (7:30 at Severance Music Center, repeated Saturday at 8).

No Exit New Music (pictured) continues its new season with a triptych of concerts and a trio of world premieres (7 pm at Waterloo Arts).

And Apollo’s Fire plays J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6 (7:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights.)

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

by Jarrett Hoffman

Wish a happy birthday to the legendary Wynton Marsalis, who turns 63. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY: 

Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä (pictured) flies in to lead the Cleveland Orchestra and choruses with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (7:30 at Severance Music Center, repeated Friday at 7:30 and Saturday at 8).

No Exit New Music begins its new season with a triptych of concerts and a trio of world premieres tonight at 7 pm in CSU’s Drinko Recital Hall (repeated Friday at Waterloo Arts, and Saturday at SPACES Gallery, both at 7:30.)

The Oberlin College Choir and Musical Union sing a joint concert directed by Brian Bailey and Jami Lercher (7:30 in Warner Concert Hall), and Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project presents James Ilgenfritz & Matthew Goodheart/Heather Mease (8 pm in Calicchia Gallery Studio, Cleveland).

For details of these and other concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On October 17, 1849 Frederic Chopin died in Paris. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 11, carillonneurs Becky Everett & Keiran Cantilina play a concert in honor of David Osburn’s 30+ years of playing the bells at St Christopher by the River in Gates Mills, at 3 pm & 7 pm, BW Opera continues its run of Handel’s Radamisto in Playhouse Square, at 7:30 British violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason plays Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Violin Concerto in g with the Canton Symphony, and at 8, Finnish musicians Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor & composer) and Senja Rummukainen (cellist) continue their visit to The Cleveland Orchestra (read our review of Thursday’s concert on cleveland.com here — photo by Roger Mastroianni).

Final performances on Sunday at 3 include BW Opera’s Radamisto and The Cleveland Orchestra with Salonen & Rummukainen. Other concerts include Cleveland Cello Society’s Scholarship winners (1pm at Judson Park), the Parma Symphony (3 pm at Valley Forge H.S.), Heights Chamber Orchestra with organist Kevin Jones (3:30 at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.) and Lakeland Civic Band with saxophonist Tyler Young (4 pm, at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland).

RECENT DISCOVERIES:

While researching for the new edition of the Mozart Köchel catalog, scholars have turned up an early string serenade by the teenage composer in the Leipzig Municipal Library, and Deutsche Grammophon is recording three versions of the piece. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Two Baldwin Wallace events begin tonight at 7 pm: Handel’s Radamisto, the composer’s first opera for the Royal Academy of Music, at The Helen Theatre in Playhouse Square Center, and the Symphonic Band joins the Strongsville Community Band in Gamble Auditorium.

And at 7:30, Spanish pianist Gregorio Benítez (pictured) will play excerpts from Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance Music Center.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

By Jarrett Hoffman

Canadian-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett was born on October 11, 1882 in Drummondville, Ontario (now part of Niagara Falls). He is especially famous for his choral and piano compositions based on African American spirituals and folk songs. Among his great works is his oratorio The Ordering of Moses, written in 1932 as his thesis at the Eastman School of Music, and premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony in 1937. [Read more…]