by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today’s events: Apollo’s Fire, Oberlin Winter Term Opera, and The Cleveland Orchestra
•Calendar additions and revisions: BW and Steinway, Sacred Heart Concert Series, Opus 216, and Urban Troubadour
•Opportunities for students: Sphinx Performance Academy at CIM and Double Reed Day at Cleveland State
•Byrdle: a choral-music-themed variation on Wordle
•Almanac: the failed premiere of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Concerts from organist Rowan Draper and the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium
•Cooper Competition returns
•Applications for Kent Blossom Music Festival and camps from The Music Settlement
•In the news: Beethoven’s Fidelio reimagined in light of Black Lives Matter, and an emphasis on Florence Price at Carnegie Hall
•The almanac: Mikhail Glinka and The Czar’s Guitars
by Jarrett Hoffman
TODAY’S SCHEDULE:
At 7:30 pm at Severance, Herbert Blomstedt begins a three-day run leading The Cleveland Orchestra in a pair of symphonies: Carl Nielsen’s Fourth and Beethoven’s Fifth. Tickets are available here.
IN THE NEWS:
Brothers Lounge has announced that it will reopen on March 20, just over two years after the Detroit Avenue venue closed in mid-March of 2020. Read the story by Anne Nickoloff for Cleveland.com here.
CityMusic Cleveland has announced a Diversity Fellowship for the 2022-23 season. Violinists, violists, and cellists of African American, Latin American, and/or Native American descent are invited to apply by April 30. More information here.
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is looking for singers to attend its mid-season auditions on February 12. Find out more here.
by Jarrett Hoffman
HAPPENING TODAY:
At noon, head to the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland or go online to hear a free program by organist Christa Rakich, who will play selections from J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue (program details here, streaming link here).
The hour of 7:30 pm brings two in-person options. One is in Elyria, where Duo Anime — percussionists Andrew Pongracz and Mell Csicsila, pictured — will be featured on the LCCC Signature Series at Cirigliano Studio Theatre in the Stocker Center for the Arts. It’s free, and you can survey the program here.
The other is in Akron, where violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martinez will be joined by pianist Peter Dugan in “Voice and the Violin” on the Tuesday Musical series. Check out the program, read Mike Telin’s preview article, then shop for tickets.
by Jarrett Hoffman
TODAY’S SCHEDULE:
Today’s Tuesday Noon concert at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle features Oberlin visiting organ professor Christa Rakich in the first of two programs of selections from J.S. Bach’s Art of Fugue. You can hear the music in person again beginning today, or enjoy it online.
IN THE NEWS:
Tuesday Musical is extending the deadline for its 66th annual Scholarship Competition. Applications will now close at midnight on Sunday, February 6. Apply online here. The competition itself will be held in Akron on Saturday, March 19, “with significantly increased $ awards.”
Season 3, Episode 2 of the Canton Symphony’s Orchestrating Change podcast is now available. The featured guest is Jeri Lynne Johnson (pictured), founder of DEI Arts Consulting, and founder and artistic director of Philadelphia’s Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra — a model ensemble for issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion for over a decade. Listen here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
This date in history was an important one for Giacomo Puccini (below, left). The first of February brought the premieres of Manon Lescaut in 1893 and La bohème in 1896, the latter led by a young Arturo Toscanini, with both premieres taking place at the Teatro Regio in Turin.
Bohéme is one of the most frequently performed operas, but it’s interesting to note that at its premiere, critics were divided, and the audience was said to lack enthusiasm. Imagine if that had been the end of it. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
FOR THE YOUNG ONES:
Applications for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s 2022-23 season are now open. Admire the photo by Roger Mastroianni above, then click here for more information.
And the Canton Symphony’s educational program “SymphonyLand Strings” — which tells the story of Crunch the Shy Dinosaur while teaching about string instruments — is now available to watch. Register here. It’s designed for children ages 3-6, but, I mean…a dinosaur? That’s shy? That maybe likes music? Potentially checks a lot of boxes. (And because it’s virtual, interested adults need not go the route of Steve Buscemi’s character in NBC’s 30 Rock, in a flashback to his days infiltrating high schools as an undercover cop.)
TODAY’S LISTENING, FOR YOU, AND FOR MR. KIBBLES
The Cleveland Orchestra’s podcast, On A Personal Note, continues with a two-part episode exploring “one of the most unusual and memorable performances” in the history of the ensemble. That was in January 2018, when one soloist for Haydn’s The Seasons fell ill — and then another. Listen to “Change of Seasons” here, from “The Scramble” to “The Golda Touch.”
And an article from Animal Wellness Magazine explores the benefits music may offer to dogs and cats, an idea with particular relevance in stressful environments such as shelters and veterinary hospitals. Perhaps those concepts and applications are a draw for you, or perhaps you don’t want to deny yourself the opportunity to see a picture of a dog wearing headphones. Either way, click here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Anniversaries on this particular date in classical music history go on and on — the birth of Mozart (Salzburg, 1756) and the death of Verdi (age 87 in Milan, 1901) just scratch the surface.
Given that January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day — chosen for the date in 1945 when the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps — we’ll turn our focus to Czech pianist and composer Gideon Klein, who died on that same date in 1945 at age 25.
by Jarrett Hoffman
Almost two years passed, with Jeremy Denk limited to thinking about the piece, playing around with the fingerings, and maybe emailing the composer a question or two. All while he had it solidly learned.
“That was horrible not to be able to play this piece,” the pianist said during a recent telephone interview. “But.” He paused. “Good things come to those who wait, I suppose.”
Only recently did the opportunity arrive to perform John Adams’ third piano concerto, Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? — written in 2018, and played by only a couple of other keyboardists before Denk was to take it on with the composer on the podium in late March of 2020.
Finally, his first go at it came in Seattle in the early days of 2022. St. Louis is next, in late January. And Cleveland will follow when Denk and Adams share the Severance stage with The Cleveland Orchestra on February 3 (at 7:30 pm), February 5 (at 8:00 pm), and February 6 (at 3:00 pm).
“Now we’re really in the thick of trying to define this piece and make sense of it,” Denk said, “which is so much fun.”
by Jarrett Hoffman
TODAY’S SCHEDULE:
After the concert was postponed last week, organist Jonathan Moyer will get the chance to play the complete Nedêlní Hudba (“Sunday Music”) by Petr Eben today at noon in a livestream-only concert presented by the Church of the Covenant. Watch on YouTube.
And as a reminder, the concert by the Danish String Quartet on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series, previously scheduled for tonight, has been cancelled due to positive COVID-19 test results from one of the performers — wishing them a quick recovery. Ticketing questions? See yesterday’s Diary.
TODAY’S READING:
Three days ago, January 22, The Washington Post featured “22 for ‘22” — a list that Michael Andor Brodeur described as “a diverse variety of composers, performers and artists hitting their stride with work that resonates with the right now.” Click here to read about Carlos Simon, Kedrick Armstrong, Marcos Balter, Rohan Chander (a.k.a. AIYYER), James Diaz, Anthony R. Green, Sarah Hennies, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Eddy Kwon, Catherine Lamb, Charmaine Lee, Allison Loggins-Hull, Raven McMillion, Rob Moose, Emma O’Halloran, Tarik O’Regan, Kamala Sankaram, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Dale Trumbore, Dai Wei, and Paul Wiancko.
In more weighty news, The New York Times undergoes a self-evaluation: out of deference to its style guide, did the paper ever refer to the late rock singer Meat Loaf as Mr. Loaf ? Matt Stevens investigates here — click the arrows to discover the truth.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The name Robert Burns has already come up in our pages a few times in recent weeks. That’s because Scotland’s national bard was the inspiration for Les Délices’ concert video “The Highland Lassie,” released five days ago as an early celebration of the anniversary of the poet’s birth on January 25, 1759 — 263 years ago today. Watch the concert here.
Speaking of that anniversary — on this date, you might celebrate Robert Burns Day, a.k.a. Rabbie Burns Day, Burns Day, and Burns Night. Whatever you name it, the party might include a Burns Supper, traditionally kicked off with a bagpiper greeting the guests, and continuing with a welcome speech, then the saying of grace — usually the Selkirk Grace, attributed to Burns and written in Scots:
Some Folk hae meat that canna eat,
And some can eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
So let the Lord be Thanket!
by Jarrett Hoffman
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:30 pm, Lalia Mangione (violin) and Rebecca Shasberger (cello, guitar, and vocals) of the ensemble Renovare will take the stage of the Maltz Performing Arts Center as part of the Silver Hall Concert Series. It’s free, and you can stream it or attend in person, but tickets are requested.
Also at 7:30, but online, and with a pre-concert talk at 7, Les Délices debuts “The Highland Lassie” — a program of Scottish traditional music crossing the borders between folk song and art song. Click here to read Daniel Hathaway’s “pre-review” (the latest innovation in the vocabulary of ClevelandClassical.com since the pandemic began), and here for tickets.
CANTON SYMPHONY NEWS:
Speaking of changes in classical music over the past 22 months, several local organizations have stepped into the podcasting sphere, including the Canton Symphony with Orchestrating Change. Hosted by Rachel Hagemeier and Matthew Jaroszewicz, the video series is designed around the goal of making the concert hall a more inclusive space. In Season 3, Episode 1, which dropped this past weekend, arts scholar and music lover MJ Albacete shares “why he thinks working towards a more equitable and diverse future is important for classical music.” Watch here, and take in an overview of this coming season here.
Aiming to further the same mission as the podcast, but in a different fashion, is the CSO’s Orchestrating Change Leadership Program. In 2021, the first year for this summer intensive, ten undergraduates discussed issues of inclusion in orchestral music, in addition to receiving arts leadership training. Their final product was the creation of an after-school music program that will begin in southeast Canton this year. The 2022 program will take place virtually June 13 – July 1, and is open to those entering college in fall ‘22 through those graduating in spring ‘22. Nominations close February 25 — click here if you have someone in mind.
by Jarrett Hoffman
This weekend with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra is a case study in the breadth of sounds contained under the umbrella of “pops.”
On Friday, January 21 at 8:00 pm at Playhouse Square, that term means the music of a classic band outfitted in a mix of rock and orchestral clothes, as conductor Brent Havens, vocalist Tony Vincent, and a full rock band join the Pops to celebrate “The Music of Queen.”
And on Saturday, January 22 at 8:00 pm at Severance Music Center, it means the singular jazz stylings of a trumpeter/vocalist with plenty of virtuosity and charisma to spare, as showcased in “All that Jazz with Byron Stripling,” a program led by music director Carl Topilow. Get tickets for those events here and here, and read the Pops’ COVID-19 safety policies here.
That kind of variety is a big part of the job for both Topilow and the ensemble. “We’re fortunate,” the conductor (below) said in an interview on Zoom. “Piano, bass, drums, brass — they’re sort of the core of our orchestra, like the pitcher and catcher of a baseball team. And so many of them are experienced jazz players, which puts us at a huge advantage in concerts like these.”