by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ON THE WEB:

At 7:00 pm via livestream from the Bop Stop, the Cleveland Chamber Collective presents “Music of America.” Built around the diverse styles and influences in the musical landscape of the USA, the program includes music for strings and piano by Reena Esmail, Andrea Clearfield, Yaz Lancaster, Ty Alan Emerson, and Saad Haddad.

More music for strings and piano arrives at that same hour, when CIM shares a virtual faculty recital of music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms.

And at 7:30, in person, Apollo’s Fire gives the first performance of “Virtuosity: Fireworks from J.S. Bach” at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights — though according to their website, tickets are sold out not only for tonight, but for the whole run of concerts through April 25. If you missed out, there is a waitlist. (Pictured above: soloist Amanda Forsythe, soprano.)

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEW PODCASTS:

In the podcasting category, the Akron Symphony’s Deep River: The Legacy of the Spirituals continues with a listening session featuring works by Morton Gould, William Grant Still, William Dawson, and Margaret Bonds. Listen to episode three here.

And the latest episode of Les Délices’ LD Music Meditations, this one titled “A Meditation on Change and Malleability,” features Diane Kendig’s poem Writ in Water, read by Leon Bibb, with music by Henry Purcell. Listen here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One of the great 20th-century viola players, Emanuel Vardi, was born in Jerusalem on this date in 1915, as was American composer Randall Thompson (1899, New York City). But we’ll focus our attention today on a living composer who also shares that birthday: Hong Kong-born, Canadian composer Melissa Hui, a member of the faculty at McGill University and the recipient of a 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship, who turns 55.

One of the most intriguing projects of her career is the hour-long Pimooteewin (The Journey), which has been billed as the first opera written and sung in Cree (though Hui thinks of it more as an oratorio). It was commissioned by Soundstreams Canada and premiered in 2008.

Sadly, no recording seems to be available. (In one strange way, the transition to virtual for arts organizations during the pandemic has spoiled us — we expect to be able to find anything online now.) But perhaps it’s worth digging into the work descriptively to give you an idea of it, and perhaps to spark a new production in the future.

The story tells of Weesageechak (the Trickster) and Migisoo (the Eagle), who travel to the land of the dead and try to bring back the spirits of their loved ones, only for the dead souls to escape and return to their fellow spirits.

In addition to mining Cree storytelling traditions to write the text, librettist Tomson Highway drew upon a dream he had about his brother, who had died of AIDS-related causes in the ‘90s. In the dream, they were together in a boat on the way to an island shrouded in mist. “On that island, only one of us was allowed to get off and it was him,” Highway has said. “I had no choice but to go back to the mainland in that boat by myself…” (Source: Robin Elliott’s essay “Creating Pimooteewin” from the book Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures.)

In that same essay, Elliott goes on to explore the music, describing Hui’s “haunting, somber score for the work which evokes the land of the dead” and the sparse scoring — “the warm sounds of the violin and viola are absent from much of the work.” Speaking of scoring, in addition to the tenor and soprano soloists, choir, flutes, oboe, and strings, the percussion section includes both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal instruments.

As for the challenge of bringing together music and text, Hui notes that she “needed to listen intently to the rhythm of the Cree language” in order to “emphasize the right syllables in each word” and complement “the rhythm of the text.”

Finally, one visual element for us to imagine: the use of kuroko from kabuki theater, as well as puppetry, all choreographed by Michael Greyeyes, with the goal of making the story more understandable to those who don’t speak Cree.

I’ve come across two reviews of performances of Pimooteewin, both in productions put on by Soundstream Canada. In 2008 for Classical FM, Paula Citron praised Hui’s “absolutely stunning” score but was less enthused about the libretto and the production in general. On the other hand, in 2019, when the work was featured in a double-bill of Indigenous-language operas, John Terauds wrote for the Toronto Star that Pimooteewin “is one of those deftly created works that suspends time as it tells its story, and the excellent performances incite us to hope that we won’t have to leave this alternate universe for a while.”

Here’s hoping that some company out there allows us to enter into that universe sometime soon, either live or online.

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ON THE WEB:

Tonight at 7:30 pm, as part of its SalonEra series, Les Délices will explore “The Orpheus Myth” through different artistic interpretations of that story over the centuries, including music by Monteverdi, Charpentier, and Rameau, as well as Marcel Camus’ 1959 film Black Orpheus. Joining host Debra Nagy are soprano Michele Kennedy, tenor Jason McStoots, and musicologist Susan McClary. Click here at start time, or watch on-demand for 48 hours. It’s free, but a $10 donation is suggested.

Speaking of Les Délices, today is also the last day to watch “Machaut’s Lai of the Fountain” on their ticketed Concert Series. Read Daniel Hathaway’s review, and watch the concert here.

And Carnegie Hall delves into Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk today through two events. Learn about the opera at 5:00 through a presentation titled “The Tragedy of Katerina Ismailov,” then watch a rebroadcast of a 2006 Dutch National Opera production at 8:00 pm.

More details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Three particularly notable birthday anniversaries to celebrate today. Two of these figures were born in New York City: Kay Swift (b. 1897, the first woman to write the complete score to a Broadway musical) and Murray Perahia (b. 1947, considered one of the greatest living pianists).

And third, an underrecognized Parisian composer on whom we’ll train our focus today. Born on this date in 1892 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, southeast of the City of Light, Germaine Tailleferre was the only female member of the post-World War I group of composers known as Les Six. Her varied output included operas, ballets, film music, concertos, songs, and orchestral and chamber music.

One of the best ways to celebrate her career is by listening to her Le marchand d’oiseaux. Full of fresh-flavored neoclassicism, it’s no wonder that it was the Ballet Suédois’ most frequently performed ballet in the 1920s. A performance led by Perry So (with perhaps the BBC Welsh National Orchestra, as one commenter suggests) is available on YouTube.

Another highlight is her impressionistic and deeply atmospheric Ballade for piano and orchestra, heard here in a recording by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, led by Pablo González and featuring Florian Uhlig as soloist.

It’s also important to understand how sexism obstructed Tailleferre’s career and legacy, a topic that Timothy Diovanni (now an arts writer for Dallas Morning News) explored in two articles written for Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy in 2017.

In the first essay, Diovanni delves into the men in her personal life who impeded her artistic progress: her discouraging, hostile, and verbally abusive father, as well as her two husbands, whose behavior ranged from jealous to controlling, threatening, and violent.

The second covers the ways that critics and historians have described her work — often dismissively, using gender-coded language, and training their focus on her appearance rather than her music.

In history, it’s very easy to oversimplify the lives of the characters who appear along the way, so that they barely seem like real people at all. Indeed, many well-regarded encyclopedias do just that with their short and useful summaries that, in the end, leave out so much about a person’s life. On that note, Diovanni makes an important point near the conclusion of his first article:

Tailleferre is not just an eleven-letter name in a music history textbook, but rather she was a real, living woman who had to negotiate social pressures and overcome tremendous injustices.

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ON THE WEB:

At noon, Trinity Cathedral presents a Virtual Brownbag Concert by one of the premier arts and disabilities organizations in the U.S. — Dancing Wheels, a professional, physically integrated dance company uniting the talents of dancers both with and without disabilities. Freewill offering.

And at 7 pm, multi-instrumentalist and composer (and 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow) Tyshawn Sorey performs on Youngstown State’s Pipino Performing Arts Series, in addition to giving a master class at 5:30 pm — both online, both free.

Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

What was the last performance that George Frideric Handel attended, eight days before his death on this date in 1759? Somewhat fittingly, that would be his own Messiah, our focus today. Of course, there are a number of ways to delve into such an extensive and beloved work, let alone one that comes with a complex interpretive history.

We can start with some listening. One pair of contrasting options: an intimate performance here by Boston Baroque led by Thomas Pearlman (a video which also comes with a poignant message from one listener in the comments, posted during the pandemic), and a larger-scale take on the piece here from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. Heard side by side, those recordings almost sound like two different pieces at the beginning, thanks to differences in the number of instruments, in the key, and even more so in tempo.

It’s also interesting to hear from a Messiah master such as conductor Jane Glover, who celebrated her 100th performance of the work during a slate of appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2018. Before those dates, ClevelandClassical.com’s Daniel Hathaway spoke to Glover about an array of topics surrounding the piece:

The range of performing forces she’s led, from choirs of 24 up to 450? (“Whatever you do with this remarkable piece, it comes up fresh as paint.”)

Condensing the work just slightly, as she prefers? (“I love every number, but I know that it becomes a very long evening if one is doing every golden note of it, so we have to make the odd nip and tuck.”)

Her preparation as a conductor? (She brings her own set of marked parts to every Messiah gig, which works out wonderfully — except for the one time they all got lost in the mail and never turned up.) 

What Handel might think of the piece’s popularity these days? (“Even for someone as confident and outgoing as he was, he would be astonished to learn what it has meant to every single generation of music lovers ever since.”)

It might also be fun to touch on one strange fact about the premiere, and one strange, possible myth about the piece. First the fact: a crowd of 700 people watched the first performance, on April 13, 1742 in Dublin, and to create space for seating, men were asked to remove their swords, while women were requested to wear dresses without hoops. I think it’s safe to say those aren’t such common problems today, but in their place, we have the phenomenon of manspreading. (“Hallelujah.”)

And now to that possible myth: that the custom of standing for the “Hallelujah” chorus dates back to Messiah’s London premiere in 1743, when King George II supposedly and suddenly stood up, and the rest of the audience followed suit to avoid offending him. The first mention of that occurrence doesn’t come until thirteen years later, raising doubts about whether that’s true at all.

But supposing it is true, it’s fun to run through the different reasons the king might have had for doing that. All sorts of theories have popped up. Was he simply moved by the music, more so there than at any other moment in the piece? Was he coming down with a bothersome case of pins and needles — relatable — or could it have been an attack of gout? Might he have just wanted to stretch his limbs after sitting for a couple hours? Had he been sleeping and startled awake by the chorus? Was he acknowledging what he somehow thought to be a tribute to him — the words “And He shall reign for ever and ever”?

Whatever the case, enjoy this performance of the “Hallelujah” Chorus by the Royal Choral Society and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and although we can’t see the audience stand up, you’ll hear it about fifteen seconds in. It’s accompanied by plenty of rustling, and at least one big cough — that joy of in-person concerts we’ll someday be reacquainted with.

by Jarrett Hoffman

BLOSSOM 2021:

Following a year’s hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Cleveland Orchestra has announced the return of Blossom Music Festival for 2021. The lineup currently includes eleven concerts running from July 3 to September 5 at Blossom Music Center, presented in accordance with local, state, and federal health guidelines. Subscriptions are now on sale, and individual tickets will be available beginning on May 3.

Read the press release for details about health and safety protocols, subscription options, the Under 18s Free program, and the cancellation of two previously announced movie concerts. And find the festival calendar below — but note that additional repertoire and guest artists will be announced in May.

AN AMERICAN CELEBRATION
Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.*
*with fireworks

The Cleveland Orchestra
Brett Mitchell, conductor

Program to include:
Copland, Suite from Appalachian Spring
Tchaikovksy, 1812 Overture
Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever

MOZART IN THE MEADOWS
Sunday, July 11, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Dame Jane Glover, conductor (Blossom Music Festival debut)

Program to include:
Mozart, Symphony No. 40

THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK: Gershwin and Ellington
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Lucas Waldin, conductor
Capathia Jenkins, vocalist

Program to include:
Gershwin, Fascinating Rhythm
Ellington, Satin Doll
Kern, All the Things You Are
Gershwin, The Man I Love
Gershwin, Summertime

FROM THE NEW WORLD
Sunday, July 25, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Rafael Payare, conductor (Cleveland Orchestra debut)

Program to include:
Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”)

BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTH SYMPHONY
Sunday, August 1, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Program to include:
Beethoven, Symphony No. 7

CLASSICAL MYSTERY TOUR: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES
Sunday, August 8, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Martin Herman, conductor (Cleveland Orchestra debut)
with Classical Mystery Tour

TCHAIKOVSKY’S FOURTH
Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Karina Canellakis, conductor (Cleveland Orchestra debut)

Program to include:
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4

ROMANTIC BRAHMS
Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Jahja Ling, conductor

Program to include:
Brahms, Symphony No. 3

ENIGMA VARIATIONS
Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Elim Chan, conductor (Cleveland Orchestra debut)

Program to include:
Elgar, Enigma Variations

HOLLYWOOD UNDER THE STARS
Saturday, September 4, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 5, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Richard Kaufman, conductor

TODAY ON THE WEB:

Off to London and New York today. Wigmore Hall kicked off the morning — at least over here in Eastern Time — with a concert by Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu, and will follow up this afternoon with pianist Imogen Cooper (both will be available on demand for 30 days). NYC brings us the Met Opera’s nightly stream (Massenet’s Cendrillon), CMS Lincoln Center’s exploration of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and a program focusing on “The Art of the 21st Century Trombone” from Cutting Edge Concerts. Details in Musical America’s streaming guide.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The Amati are one of the most important families of luthiers in the history of the violin, and on this date in 1684, the greatest instrument maker in that family, Nicola Amati, died in Cremona, Italy. Some say that his instruments, particularly the larger and wider “Grand Pattern” ones, were known for producing more power in their tone. On the other hand, the Smithsonian Institution describes the instruments as beautiful and penetrating in their sound, though not powerful. Have a look at one of the instruments in the possession of the National Museum of American History here, and watch a short demonstration of both an Amati and a copy on YouTube.

And Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé was born on this date in 1933. A beautiful summary of her life and career can be found in her 2018 obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times, in which Fox describes her as “among the last of the old-time prima donnas for the transcendent purity of her voice, the sweeping breadth of her repertory and the delirious adulation of her fans…” Here’s a pairing to show off her beautiful voice in two very different contexts: “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and the single “Barcelona” from the album of the same name, a collaboration with Freddie Mercury.

Blossom photo by Roger Mastroianni