by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ONLINE:

At 8:00 pm, WCLV’s “Ovations” will feature the Cleveland Chamber Choir in a rebroadcast of the ensemble’s “Madrigals of All Seasons” concert from May and selections from their recent CD, I Sing to Use the Waiting.

More details about that and many other events from around the globe can be found in our Concert Listings.

NEW SEASON FROM LD:

Les Délices has announced its 2021-22 Concert Series, Until Sky Above. Of the five programs, the first three will be available exclusively in the virtual realm — on the streaming service Marquee TV — while the final two will receive in-person performances followed by virtual releases. Plus, the SalonEra series will continue with twelve episodes (details coming later this summer).

Subscriptions will go on sale here starting August 15. Single tickets for all virtual concerts will be available via Marquee TV, while single tickets for local, live performances in February and April 2022 will go on sale in the fall.

Click here for dates and details about the Concert Series, from “Song of Orpheus” (music by Rameau, Courbois, and a new work by Jonathan Woody) to “Winds of Change” (music from the Revolutionary Age and a new work by Sydney Guillaume), “The Highland Lassie” (music from 18th-century Scotland), “Of Gods & Heroes” (Medieval song), and “The White Cat” (a fairytale Baroque opera pastiche).

Curious about the beautiful images above? They’re silkscreen monoprints that Les Délices commissioned from Cleveland-based artist Jen Craun to capture the series’ overarching theme (top left) and each successive program (continuing clockwise).

CCGS CREATIVE FUSION:

Over 100 people from Cleveland and Mexico participated in the next video in the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Creative Fusion series: Anastasia Sonaranda’s arrangement of the traditional Mexican song La Llorana. The arrangement includes original poetry by Irma Pineda Santiago written in the indigenous Zapoteco language, recited by the poet and sung by Martha Toledo Mar. Watch here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

A quartet of Ohioans and a premiere in Cleveland provide a fitting place to begin on this date in music history.

Those four musicians are all blowing out candles. The first two, both conductors, do so from the grave: John Finley Williamson (born in Canton in 1887), who founded the Westminster Choir School, and James Levine (Cincinnati, 1943), who served as longtime music director of the Metropolitan Opera until being terminated over sexual misconduct allegations.

The other two are both vocalists with operatic credits at renowned stages worldwide, and are still with us: Heldentenor William Cochran (Columbus, 1943) and two-time Grammy-winning soprano Sylvia McNair (Mansfield, 1956), who it should be noted has also successfully transitioned into Broadway and jazz over the past twenty years.

And harpsichordist Elaine Comparone (above) gave the premiere of Vincent Persichetti’s Harpsichord Sonata No. 2 on this date in 1982 in Cleveland. Further documentation about that performance doesn’t seem to exist, but some combination of that piece and that performer seems to have kicked off a spur of enthusiasm for the harpsichord from Persichetti.

He focused his energies around that instrument for the remainder of his life: seven more sonatas followed (the third one written for Comparone), as well as four other works for harpsichord. (The First Sonata is a total outlier, having arrived in 1951.)

Modern works for this “old” instrument — basically left for dead in the 19th century with the development of the fortepiano and piano before experiencing a resurgence — can be absolutely fascinating, and Persichetti’s Second Sonata is no exception. Listen to Comparone’s recording of it here.

Other notable names who grace this date in history include German composer Carl Reinecke (born June 23, 1984), American singer and actress Geraldine Ulmar (born on June 23, 1862), who was known for her Gilbert & Sullivan performances, English folk music and dance collector Cecil Sharp (died on this date in 1924), and Seattle-based pop-classical-crossover composer, pianist, and violinist Jennifer Thomas, who turns 44 today.

Watch the music video for Thomas’s piece The Fire Within, where she faces off with Kimberly StarKey (a.k.a. “The Rogue Pianist”) on a pair of Yamahas. Concerned about the instrument that’s seen engulfed in flames in the desert, whether out of principle, or for the sake of Thomas’s Yamaha sponsorship? No need.

“The piano that was burned was my old Behr Brothers grand piano that I used in three of my other music videos,” Thomas writes in the caption to the video. “It was terribly damaged and had seen its day…A lot of people asked me if I was going to turn it into a table piece, or a garden ornament. I said, ‘No, I think I’m going to set it on fire.’”

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ONLINE:

No timed events today, but a reminder that the Re:Sound New Music Festival runs all month, with several videos available to peruse at your leisure. If you prefer a more guided approach, check out the Festival’s third weekly playlist, “Transitions & Transformations,” but you’ll need to register first if you haven’t already.

STROUD WINNERS:

In case you missed our weekend update, Friday evening brought the results of the Stroud Classical Guitar Competition. First place went to Jack Davisson of Palo Alto, followed by two other Californians and one Floridian: Eric Wang of San Jose, Ethan Boyers of Santa Rosa, and Patricia Hernandez of Miami. Watch the final-round video and announcement here.

REFLECTING ON 2020:

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Creative Fusion Series continues with Thomas Flippin’s A Dark Winter in a Lost Year. That piece, written in response to the pandemic, the disruption of education, and the murder of George Floyd, weaves together sampled recordings of speech with music. It’s performed by Duo Noire — the guitar duo of Flippin himself and Christopher Mallett — who are joined by violinist Kathleen Collins and cellist Tanya Ell Woolfrey. Watch the video here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

From Rimsky-Korsakov to Lana Del Rey, and Pavel Haas to Lalo Schifrin, let’s use moods and keys to tie together a diverse playlist based on the musical anniversaries of June 21st.

Capriccio Espagnol by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (who died on this date in 1908) begins with ultimate razzle-dazzle. Its opening movement in A Major is full of flair, with clarinet trills, tambourine rolls, and lots of fortissimo, but it ends in a gentler place: a string pizzicato on A over the carpet of a timpani roll (stop at 1:26).

We pick up on an A from the electric guitar in Shades of Cool by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, who turns 36 today. But here we’re in d minor, setting up Del Rey’s melancholy opening verse, fully of the smoky tone that is one of her calling cards. The chorus takes us higher up into her range, and into an F Major that feels like a mirage.

Pausing at 1:57, we move from the end of that chorus into something else quite dreamy: the opening of the first movement of the wonderful Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain” by Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness, who died on this date in 2000.

After a couple minutes of enjoying the gentle and meditative qualities of that work, perhaps stopping after the celestial celesta solo at 2:18, float even higher up into an ethereal realm with the combination of organ and choir in The Darkness is No Darkness by lesser-known English composer Judith Bingham, who turns 69 today, and who was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020.

Next, how about a shock to the system? Lalo Schifrin’s “Theme from Mission: Impossible” ought to do the trick. You likely know the classic opening material, but stick around at least until 1:19 to hear the excellent keyboard solo.

We’ll conclude with something that retains the energetic quality of that tune but that also transports us into more solemn air: the rhythmically driving opening to the Study for String Orchestra by Moravian-Jewish composer Pavel Haas (born on this date in 1899), who wrote the piece while imprisoned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the early 1940s. It was premiered there under the baton of Czech conductor Karel Ančerl, and was reconstructed after Ančerl found the parts after the liberation of the camp. (Both musicians were among 18,000 prisoners transferred to Auschwitz in 1944; Ančerl survived, but Haas did not.)

Nothing can capture the horror of that event, but for something at least musically appropriate, listen to the most deeply reflective section of this piece, the slow section beginning at 4:02.

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Aside from French composer and organist Maurice Duruflé, who died on this date in 1986, the Midwest is well-represented in the annals of June 16th music history, particularly when it comes to electronic music.

An early pioneer in that field was Bebe Barron, born in Minneapolis in 1925. Having been gifted a tape recorder as a wedding gift, she and her husband Louis Barron (together, above) delved into musique concréte, in which recorded sounds are often modified and assembled together. Their work brought them attention from the avant-garde community, including a collaboration with John Cage.

Turning to Hollywood, the couple went on to compose the first fully-electronic film score, for Forbidden Planet (1956). Audiences were reportedly stunned by what they heard, applauding wildly for one particular scene in which the music brings to life a spaceship landing on a foreign planet. As you’d expect, the visuals don’t exactly hold up today, but the music is still fascinating to hear — watch the minute-long landing scene here.

Bebe Barron’s last composition before her passing in 2008 was titled Mixed Emotions (2000). It came about after a residency at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and captures a similar feeling to her earlier work, but with the benefit of updated technology. Listen here.

And from Cleveland we have composer James K. Randall, born in 1929, who became increasingly interested in electronic music after he began teaching at Princeton University in the late 1950s. To my taste, his work is most interesting when it combines electronic and acoustic sounds, like in the second section of the haunting Mudgett: Monologues by a Mass Murderer. Listen here beginning at the 3:08 mark, where soprano Melinda Kessler enters the picture.

TODAY IN-PERSON AND ONLINE:

ChamberFest Cleveland continues its season tonight at 7:00 pm with “Luscious Soundscapes,” which includes music by Domenico Scarlatti, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Strauss, and Amy Beach. Reserve a spot at The Grove Amphitheatre here.

Les Délices will be featured on WCLV’s Ovations at 8:00 pm with highlights from “Women of Genius,” a program that premiered in March. Details here.

Outside the area, one virtual event of interest comes to us from Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, who will explore the music of jazz pianist and composer James P. Johnson. View here and on demand through June.

NEWS:

The latest video in the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Creative Fusion Series brings together music for solo guitar (written and performed by Anastasia Sonaranda) with choreography and dance (by Susana Weingarten Evert). Sonaranda has often been inspired by nature, and this piece, Cuyahoga Weeping, is no exception. Watch here.

Burning River Baroque is requesting poetry submissions by June 23 for possible inclusion in the ensemble’s live-streamed concert on June 26, “Elements Worth Fighting For,” themed around climate change. Read more about that program here.

The Cleveland Opera will join the Cleveland Ballet for an outdoor, in-person performance on July 18 at the Italian Cultural Garden. The socially distanced audience is limited to 250 seats. Get tickets here, or watch free online from July 25-31.

The Firelands Symphony will give a free outdoor concert on July 4 at Jackson Street Pier in Sandusky. “An Independence Day Pops Celebration” will be followed by fireworks. More information here.

And the Canton Symphony continues its Orchestrating Change discussion series with Season 2, Episode 2: “Inclusion at Every Level,” featuring guest Ana Abrantes, Director of Education at the Sphinx Organization. Watch here.

by Jarrett Hoffman

AND THE AWARD GOES TO…

On Saturday, the Lower Great Lakes Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences named the recipients of its 52nd annual Emmy Awards. The winner in the category of Education/Schools – News was a video produced by Darrielle Snipes and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District highlighting the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Education Program. Click here to watch the video, titled “Students’ grades, emotions improving through musical program.” And see the full list of winners here.

And on Friday, Tania León was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her orchestral work Stride. The Pulitzer jury described the piece as “a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.”

It was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in February of 2020 as part of Project 19, the ensemble’s commissioning program celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Read León’s interview with Tom Huizenga for NPR here, and listen to a clip from a rehearsal of Stride here.

TODAY ONLINE:

Last Thursday, the Re:Sound New Music Festival released its second weekly playlist: “Work & Play.” Watch here, or explore the entirety of the Festival’s offerings here through June 30. If you haven’t registered yet, you’ll need to do that first, but it’s free.

Venturing outside of Northeast Ohio, virtual possibilities for your day include chamber music from pianist Martha Argerich and friends, a combination of discussion and performance around Prokofiev violin sonatas from Lincoln Center, and violinist Augustin Hadelich teaming up with pianist Orion Weiss. Head to Musical America for details about those events.

NEWS BITS:

Passes are now available from Ticketmaster for the 42nd Tri-C JazzFest, to be held September 11 and 12 under the covered Evans Amphitheater.

And rock star and composer Stewart Copeland will bring Police Deranged for Orchestra to Blossom Music Center on September 11, performing greatest hits of The Police on drums with The Cleveland Orchestra and guests. More info here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The first name to celebrate today is American composer, conductor, and pianist Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, who was born on this date in 1932, and who charted a widely varied career in classical music, jazz, dance, pop, film, and television.

One venture on the podium to highlight: in 1965 he co-founded and later served as Music Director of New York’s Symphony of the New World, which aimed to provide opportunities for Black and Puerto Rican musicians who faced discrimination from major orchestras.

In 2005, a year after his death, Cedille Records released Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: A Celebration, containing six world-premiere recordings of works dating from 1955 to 2004. That playlist includes two works that have seen performances in Northeast Ohio over the past several weeks: the Sinfonietta No. 1 (Tuesday Musical with the Sphinx Virtuosi in May) and Lamentations for solo cello (ChamberFest Cleveland and cellist Zlatomir Fung just yesterday).

Take a listen to those pieces — click the above links for their first movements — in addition to taking a moment to read some of the liner notes by Gregory Weinstein, who begins by sharing Perkinson’s response after being asked to define Black music:

I cannot define black music. I could say that it is a music that has its genesis in the black psyche or the black social life, but it is very difficult to say what black music really is. There are kinds of black music, just as there are kinds of other musics….

Download the full program booklet here.

Other artists to celebrate today include Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who turns 39, and two musicians who passed away on this date in history, 400 years apart: Flemish composer Orlando de Lassus (1594), and Cleveland-born composer and conductor Henry Mancini (1994).

Enjoy Lang Lang soloing with The Cleveland Orchestra in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, three excerpts from Lassus’ Bicinias in the hands of Cleveland’s Contrapunctus Early Music, and Mancini leading his orchestra in a medley of his own hits: Pink Panther, Moon River, Baby Elephant Walk, and Peter Gunn.

by Jarrett Hoffman

ON TODAY:

ChamberFest Cleveland opens its season tonight at 7:00 pm at The Grove Amphitheatre in Mayfield. The evening is titled after Dvořák’s Legends, performed in a new arrangement by Shai Wosner for clarinet, viola, and piano. Also on the docket: Enrique Granados’ Sonata for Violin and Piano, Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku, and Franz Schubert’s Trio No. 2 in E-flat. It’s free, but reservations are required. As a preview and to get to know some of the artists, read our conversations with Shai Wosner and cellist Zlatomir Fung.

There are also numerous concerts today online from the Boston Early Music Festival, plus a pair of streams from the New York Opera Festival and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. See our Concert Listings for details.

NEWS FROM AKRON & CANTON SYMPHONIES:

As part of their 2021 Gospel Meets Symphony programming, the Akron Symphony has released a series of videos featuring six spirituals arranged and orchestrated by William Grant Still. These works, which are excerpted from Still’s Spirituals: A Medley, “may be receiving their first-ever recordings with this project,” the Orchestra writes. Watch here, and note that some of these pieces will grace the debut of the ASO’s Outside Voices Concert Series on June 19.

In the podcasting arena, the latest episode of Symphosium features ASO percussionist Matt Dudack, who discusses his career in music, the history (and his love) of the steel drum, the best drummers of all time, and more. Listen here.

And the Canton Symphony has announced the return of its Summer Serenades in collaboration with Stark Parks. The series features several different combinations of chamber music: brass quintet (July 1 and 15), string quartet (July 8 and 22), woodwind quintet (July 29 and August 19), and flute/harp duet (August 12).

The CSO’s summer season also includes two orchestra concerts at Jackson Amphitheatre: “Broadway Hits” (July 18) and “A Night at the Movies” (August 12). More details about all those summer concerts here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

In a conversation last month with bassoonist Barrick Stees, he shared the opinion that woodwind quintets have really come into their own in the 20th and 21st centuries, as composers such as Ligeti and Barber “featured the personalities of the different instruments, as opposed to making them subjugate those personalities to form a homogenous sound.”

Another composer to toss into that group is Carl Nielsen, born on this date in 1865, whose well-known quintet was influenced by the individual members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. Having overheard the group rehearsing one evening, Nielsen noted how each player’s personality came through in their playing, and decided to picture them in music, particularly in a variations movement.

Variation 5, a duet between clarinet and bassoon, is especially colorful with its depiction of clarinetist Aage Oxenvad’s hot temper. According to an article by the group’s oboist, Sven Christian Felumb, Nielsen’s instructions here were to “play like a married couple who are arguing…” Perhaps it makes sense that bassoon (Knud Lassen) gets quiet at the end, because Felumb describes Lassen as easygoing and sophisticated — something that perhaps you can hear in the bassoon melody that opens the first movement.

Listen to Variation 5 (and the whole piece) here in a live performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet.

When Nielsen passed in 1931, his popularity had not yet reached the international heights at which it lies today. On his 60th birthday in 1925, even as he was celebrated in Scandinavia, he wrote:

If I could live my life again, I would chase any thoughts of Art out of my head and be apprenticed to a merchant or pursue some other useful trade the results of which could be visible in the end … What use is it to me that the whole world acknowledges me, but hurries away and leaves me alone with my wares until everything breaks down and I discover to my disgrace that I have lived as a foolish dreamer and believed that the more I worked and exerted myself in my art, the better position I would achieve. No, it is no enviable fate to be an artist.

It’s poignant to imagine the scene of his funeral, where the Copenhagen Quintet gathered to pay tribute in the form of the chorale from the last movement of the Wind Quintet.

Read more about that work and the Copenhagen Quintet in Chapter IV of a doctoral dissertation by Marcia L. Spence.