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Naughton Piano Duo to visit Tuesday Musical

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Identical twins Christina and Michelle Naughton — the first piano duo to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant — are known for their uncanny level of mind-melding in performance. Christina once told The Wall Street Journal, “There are times I forget we are two people playing together.”

As I learned during a recent telephone call, that sense of unity extends to their interviews. Our central topic of conversation was their upcoming appearance on Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert on Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, where they’ll play an all-American program of music by Copland, Bernstein, Schoenfield, and Adams. (Tickets are available here.)

Throughout the call, they were thoughtful, humorous, down-to-earth — and very similar in voice. Occasionally I asked who had just been speaking, only to find out they had been switching off. According to Michelle (I think), they’ve been misquoted for each other “ten million times” — they’re not only used to it, but used to laughing about it. 

[Read more…]

Rocky River Chamber Music Society: pianist Arsentiy Kharitonov

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by Jarrett Hoffman

One challenge of concert previews is balancing a discussion of the music against a portrait of the artist. In the case of pianist Arsentiy Kharitonov, who will visit the Rocky River Chamber Music Society for a free concert on Monday, November 15 at 7:30 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church (masks required), those two worlds of content collided. The way he described his program — works by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Johann Strauss, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff — was very telling about the way he thinks about music.

The Russian-born Kharitonov, who is a first-prize winner of both the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition and the All-National Composer’s Competition (Russia), spoke to me by telephone from his current homebase of Denton, Texas, not far from Dallas.

Jarrett Hoffman: One thing that stands out about your program is that each half contains a transcription of Bach: Ferruccio Busoni’s take on the famous violin Chaconne, and the Alexander Siloti version of the Organ Prelude in g. Are transcriptions in general an interest of yours?

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 10, 2021

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by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

The schedule heats up starting tomorrow, but today our lone calendar listing belongs to organist Florence Mustric, who will play works by Franck and Widor at Trinity Lutheran Church at 12:15 pm as part of a program titled “More from those fabulous French.” Freewill offering.

IN THE NEWS:

Tomorrow marks the centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. In honor of that occasion, D.C.-based opera company UrbanArias commissioned a song cycle from composer Shawn Okpebholo and poet Marcus Amaker, who had previously worked together on the acclaimed song Two Black Churches. The film version of their new cycle, titled UNKNOWN, will receive its premiere online tonight just after midnight, at 12:01 am.

The work examines war from several angles, making use of different characters with their own individual identities and perspectives, as well as varying musical styles over the course of five movements.

Michael Andor Brodeur’s feature about UNKNOWN in an article for The Washington Post is worth reading in full. But among the highlights, he points out that the work “offers a new mode of memorial and a reimagined take on what makes a piece of music patriotic,” and that its songs strike a balance “between the catastrophe of war and the intimacy of loss.” Read the article here, and watch a trailer here.

And in The New York Times, Javier C. Hernández interviews Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han, in part seeking their response to criticisms that the Society’s programming is overly conservative.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Where Finckel and Han defend themselves against the notion of conservatism in music, Henri Rabaud (born on this date in 1873) embraced it. “Modernism is the enemy,” the French conductor, composer, and pedagogue was known to say. Funny, then, that during his nineteen years directing the Paris Conservatoire, one of the most famous students to come out of that institution was Olivier Messiaen.

Rabaud’s most famous works include his symphonic poem La procession nocturne, his cantata Daphné (which won him the Prix de Rome in 1894), and his Solo de concours for clarinet and piano. But perhaps it’s even better to watch something while listening to his music?

Among the movies he scored was the 1927 French silent film Joueur d’échecs (“Chess Player”), which involves a chess-playing automaton secretly controlled by a skillful player, set against the backdrop of the Polish movement for independence from Russia. 

Here’s one scene near the end featuring some interesting changes of mood, some compelling shaping of tension, and some unfortunate mickey-mousing (matching movement to music — a scoring technique that has generally fallen out of favor) among those figures wielding swords. It’s unintentionally humorous looking back, and that’s always fun.

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Cleveland Chamber Choir: “A Season of Thanksgiving”

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by Jarrett Hoffman

This year and last, Thanksgiving has taken on an additional meaning, something that the Cleveland Chamber Choir will recognize in a free program to open its seventh season on Saturday, November 6 at 7:00 pm at St. Ambrose Parish in Brunswick.

Celebrating life and gratitude as a way of recognizing all that musicians and audiences have gone through over the last eighteen months, “A Season of Thanksgiving” brings together sacred music by Kerry Andrew, Gwyneth Walker, Kevin Allen, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Susan LaBarr, and Jose Elberdin, as well as arrangements by Sarah Quartel, Mark Butler, and Kevin S. Foster. (Click here to learn about CCC’s safety practices related to COVID-19.)

The Choir will be represented by an octet made up of sopranos Jackie Josten and Anna E. White, altos Katie Fowler and Kira McGirr, tenors Joel Kincannon and Peter Wright, and basses Jelani Watkins and Corey Fowler — CCC’s assistant conductor, who will also be directing the ensemble.

On that note, when I reached Fowler last Friday during a break in his teaching at Roosevelt High School, where he is Director of Choirs, we began our conversation on the topic of leading a group while also singing within it.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, November 3, 2021

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by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

Free this afternoon? Save a spot in your schedule for either the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert at noon featuring big band Gabriel’s Horns (it will also be streamed), or organist Florence Mustric in a program titled “More from those fabulous French” at 12:15 at Trinity Lutheran Church.

And while you may have already gotten your voting on yesterday for Election Day, there’s another important matter for you to weigh in on: it’s the final day to check out Piano Cleveland’s video contest PianoFlicks, and there’s an Audience Prize at stake. Click here to watch the program and cast your vote, and here to read a preview article.

INTERESTING READ:

Giovanni Russonello’s most recent article in The New York Times is about one jazz icon (Esperanza Spalding) helping another (Wayne Shorter) realize a “long-simmering dream to produce a full opera,” but it’s more than that. It’s also a story about going against the grain of operatic tropes, collaborating with a former mentor, fulfilling an ambition in old age, and how artistic invigoration can counter declining health. Read here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

There are reasons both musical and geopolitical to reflect on Korean-born German composer Isang Yun, who died on this date in 1995.

First, he was widely admired for his inventive melding of East and West in music. One of the early pieces to bring him international renown was Réak (1966) for orchestra, which incorporates elements of Korean ceremonial music and imitations of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese traditional instruments into the avant-garde style that he had developed during his time studying at Darmstadt. Listen to a recording here by the Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra led by Stefan Asbury.

For our purposes, his 1976 Cello Concerto provides a transition into the political side of his life: it recalls his two years of imprisonment after he and his wife were kidnapped from their home in West Berlin by South Korean agents. He was given a life sentence for treason, having visited North Korea, while his wife was given three years in prison for her involvement. International pressure, as well as a petition from musicians including Luigi Dallapiccola, Herbert von Karajan, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Igor Stravinsky, eventually led to their release.

As for the concerto, it is riveting — intensely virtuosic and emotionally painful. The cadenza starting around 8:08, lighter in mood and full of pizzicati and expressive glissandi, is also quite something. Listen to a live recording here from 1986 by cellist Heinrich Schiff and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies.

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DIARY: Monday, November 1, 2021

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by Jarrett Hoffman

IN THE NEWS:

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and music director Vinay Parameswaran have announced details about the 2021-22 season, marking the ensemble’s return to performing in person. The three-concert series begins on November 21 with works by Joan Tower, Howard Swanson, Aaron Copland, and Antonin Dvořák. Concerts in February and May will also include the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus. Individual tickets are on sale now.

Did you catch the Browns yesterday? The end result might not have been ideal, but the beginning (at least in person) offered up the opportunity to hear the national anthem sung by the beloved baritone Brian Keith Johnson. A ubiquitous presence onstage in Northeast Ohio, and beyond, Johnson is also in his 32nd year teaching in Akron Public Schools. APS has proudly shared the audition video that earned him the Browns gig. Watch here.

And as of November 15, Early Music America will have its sixth Executive Director: David McCormick. He previously served in that position with Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and is also artistic director of Early Music Access Project and a founding member of the Medieval ensemble Alkemie.

Also of note: a fellowship awarded to him last year by the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies to investigate the repertoire of free and enslaved Black musicians associated with Monticello, culminating in ongoing concert and web series.

“I’m thrilled for this opportunity to lead Early Music America and look forward to advocating on behalf of our membership and our entire field,” McCormick says. “Whether you are an aspiring student musician, a dedicated amateur, a seasoned professional, or an avid concertgoer, I want EMA to be a place where your voice is heard and your work is supported.”

INTERESTING READ:

Facial coverings have been key not only in fighting the pandemic but also in the return to the stage. However, they present a bit of an obstacle to anyone who makes music with their vocal cords. Read an article from CBC News about soprano/conductor Joan Fearnley, who, fed up with trying to sing while wearing other masks, decided to design one especially for vocalists — and choirs across the world have been grateful.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

English art song composer Roger Quilter (born on this date in 1877) and German composer Hugo Distler (died on this date in 1942) have both been featured in earlier editions of our almanac here and here. One newcomer is American composer Kent Kennan, who died on November 1, 2003 in Austin, Texas, where he had spent the majority of his career on the faculty of UT — though he also taught briefly at Kent State and Ohio State.

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CIM New Music Ensemble to feature guest composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate

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by Jarrett Hoffman

A swirl of CIM connections pervades the next program from the school’s New Music Ensemble, starting with the featured guest: Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate ’00, a composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma who is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition.

“Jerod has been on my list for quite some time,” New Music Ensemble director Keith Fitch said in an interview. “He’s a really interesting composer who’s carved a fascinating career, and who is representative of a community of musicians we don’t often hear from.”

Music from opposite ends of Tate’s career will bookend the program on Sunday, October 31 at 4:00 pm in Mixon Hall. Talowa’ Hiloha (Thunder Song) for solo timpani was written in 1997 when he was at CIM, while MoonStrike for string quartet and narrator was premiered in 2019. The role of narrator, who recounts three American Indian legends, will be played in this case by Tate himself.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, October 27, 2021

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by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

It’s an unusually busy Wednesday in Northeast Ohio’s classical music scene, with two events in the afternoon and five at night.

At 12:15 in Youngstown, catch a Dana School of Music faculty recital from violinist Wendy Case and pianist Caroline Oltmanns, or in Cleveland hear organist Robert Myers at Trinity Lutheran.

The evening kicks off with a new feature from Piano Cleveland at 7:00 online — a video contest by the name of PianoFlicks showcasing some outside-the-box thinking as pianists re-imagine the presentation of classical music. Plus, you can cast your vote for the Audience Prize. Read Mike Telin’s preview article here.

7:30 is the busiest hour of the day, as pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer of Indiana University gives a master class at Oberlin, the University of Akron presents its Collage 2021 program featuring all different components of its music department, and back in Oberlin the Sacred Heart Concert Series presents music for string quartet, solo viola, and solo piano, including a premiere by Benjamin Martin.

Finally, capping off the day at 8:00, sit back and turn on the radio (or go online) for a retrospective of BW Bach Festival B-minor Mass broadcasts on WCLV, 104.9 FM.

Somehow make it to a moment of all of those, and you get a prize: a speeding ticket.

Details about all those events in our Concert Listings.

IN THE NEWS:

Two film-score concerts intended for Blossom 2020 are back from the dead. The 2022 edition of the festival will include screenings of the first outing in the Lord of the Rings series (Fellowship of the Ring) and the second from Harry Potter (Chamber of Secrets). The music — by Howard Shore and John Williams, respectively — will of course be played all the way through by The Cleveland Orchestra. Tickets go on sale November 2, with pre-sale now underway. (The complete Blossom season will be announced early next year.)

“My first score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, was the beginning of my journey into the world of Tolkien and I will always hold a special fondness for the music and the experience,” Shore has said of writing that music.

And how does that process even work? In an interview with Daniel Hathaway in 2016, conductor Richard Kaufman marveled at what film composers do.

“When they sit there watching a film, looking at a blank sheet of music paper, who knows what’s going through their heads? How did John Williams come up with those two notes in Jaws? As a studio violinist who played on that film, I think it’s amazing how composers can elicit terror from the audience in such a subtle way.”

On a very different topic, as former Young Writer Fellow for ClevelandClassical.com Jeremy Reynolds writes in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The debate over vaccines is roiling the arts” — and his focus is trained on a big orchestra in the Steel City. Read his article “COVID-19 vaccine mandate leaves some Pittsburgh Symphony musicians banned from the stage.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Last year, Daniel Hathaway authored a deep dive into October 27 in music history, covering four notable comings and goings, and beginning with a truly inspiring story: that of German organist and composer Helmut Walcha, born on this date in 1907.

Blind from the age of 19, Walcha (pictured below) went on to hold posts as assistant organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the Friedenskirche in Frankfurt am Main, and finally the Dreikönigskirche, also in Frankfurt, where he remained until his passing in 1991.

[Read more…]

Music, Sports, and Ancient Greece festival: Oberlin faculty recital (Oct. 10)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

To open the academic calendar in recent years, Oberlin Conservatory violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson has organized interdisciplinary festivals centered around intriguing themes. That continued earlier this month with “Music, Sports, and the Enduring Influence of Ancient Greece,” a topic that was examined through a variety of events, musical and otherwise, over the course of two days. I caught the tail-end of the festival via live stream: the fourth and final faculty recital in Warner Concert Hall on the evening of October 10.

The program was fresh and eclectic, featuring several works by lesser-known composers, and spanning from traditional classical to contemporary music and jazz — not to mention poetry.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, October 25, 2021

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by Jarrett Hoffman

APOLLO’S FIRE & FOUR SEASONS — TODAY, AND WHENEVER YOU’D LIKE:

At 7:30 pm, Jeannette Sorrell and The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra head to St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills to present the final performance of “Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Rediscovered,” a program that joins that work with the composer’s Concerto for Two Cellos and La Folia. Soloists include violinists Francisco Fullana (Le quattro stagioni), Alan Choo and Emi Tanabe (La Folia), and cellists René Schiffer and Sarah Stone. Tickets are available here.

If you want more Apollo’s Fire and more Four Seasons in your life, first of all, stay in Cleveland, which has plenty of both of those to offer (weather joke). And second of all, check out the ensemble’s most recent CD, released last week — Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, again featuring Francisco Fullana, and billed as “Not your mother’s Four Seasons.” Purchase here, and listen on Spotify here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC — MILHAUD & JAZZ IN 1920s PARIS:

In the 1920s, negrophilia — the term used among the French avant-garde to describe their fetishization of Black culture — was all the rage in Paris. That trend was also related to a longstanding interest in the “exotic,” as well as a post-WWI yearning for what was perceived as the “simple” or “primitive.” And the latter term, off-puttingly enough, was associated with jazz, which fascinated the public.

Among the many artists and composers influenced by those ideas was Darius Milhaud (above), who was part of a multi-disciplinary artistic group that particularly “took it upon itself to promote jazz as the badge of its own identity,” writes Bernard Gendron in his book Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde.

Those trends mentioned above are deeply problematic, as you probably don’t need me to tell you, and it’s important to consider Milhaud in that light. But in the eyes of many, the composer stood out in taking a more respectful approach to jazz than his contemporaries. One piece of evidence is his ballet La Création du Monde (premiered on this date in 1923 by the Ballets Suédois at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris), one of the most notable jazz-related works produced by members of that group of artists.

Milhaud was of course not alone in his desire to draw on popular culture for his own artistic creations — that was a common thread among many modernists. But according to Gendron, the composer went further than most “by viewing jazz not merely as cultural raw material for modernist experimentation or avant-garde shock tactics, but as an innovative art form in its own right…” [Read more…]

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