by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ONLINE:

First up: a Cleveland native and three Cleveland-based composers. Earth and Air: String Orchestra shares a two-part program in which cellist David Ellis plays works by Jeffrey Mumford, Ryan Charles Ramer, and Margi Griebling-Haigh. It’s available beginning at noon on YouTube and “for a limited time afterwards.”

Part One, “Thankfulness in Solitude,” was filmed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. The more informal Part Two, “Thankfulness in Solitude: Music for Home,” covers chamber music for one or two cellos. Also included are links to interviews with the three composers.

Ellis writes: “This performance…is my way of giving back to the composers and community who have inspired me over the years as director of Earth and Air: String Orchestra.” The program is performed in memory of his father, Lloyd H. (Sandy) Ellis, Jr., who passed away a year ago tomorrow.

And this evening brings two local offerings. In a live stream at 7, the CIM Percussion Ensemble plays works by Mark Applebaum, Larry Baker, Tawnie Olson, Adam Silverman, Tōru Takemitsu, and Russell Peck (click here to watch).

At 7:30, Les Délices continues its SalonEra series with “Folk Influences,” featuring violinists Gail Hernández Rosa, Edwin Huizinga, and David McCormick. Performances and discussions include Celtic tunes, traditional music from Spain, and research focused on Black musicians at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (click here at start time).

LOCAL GROUPS ADJUSTING TO THE PANDEMIC:

Over the weekend, the Cleveland Chamber Choir reflected on their path since the arts world changed in March, from virtual-only performances that mix together individual voices, to more recently following a collection of best practices for choral rehearsal and performance that were put together by a coalition of 125 arts organizations. But due to the resurgence of COVID-19, they’re now returning to the virtual route for a concert in December — a month that will also bring their first album. Read more on their website.

And as the holidays arrive at a time when “the numbers,” as they say, are getting much worse, Opus 216, is preparing to offer “Pay-What-You-Can Zoom concerts and recordings for families and loved ones separated by the pandemic.” More info to come soon on their Facebook.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Paul Hindemith — that celebrated composer of the first half of the 20th century who was also a violist, conductor, and important music theorist and compositional pedagogue — was born on this date in 1895 in Hanau, Germany. His greatest works include the opera Mathis der Maler and the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, but going just slightly off the beaten path, wind players owe him a debt of gratitude for several major works of chamber music.

Oberlin Conservatory faculty members surveyed five of his sonatas on the 2018 album Convergent Winds: Music of Paul Hindemith (read Jeremy Reynolds’ review here).

And for a different and compelling take on standard repertoire — in this case Hindemith’s wind quintet — one can turn as usual to the Carion Quintet, that Danish-Latvian ensemble known for performing with choreography, and without chairs and stands. In this video of the first movement, they add even more theatricality: their performance is paralleled by a silent film that presents the music as a metaphor for disagreement — and maybe reconciliation — among the players. (Below: a horn solo as frustration.)

by Jarrett Hoffman

VETERANS DAY & ARMISTICE DAY:

At 11:00 in the morning on 11/11/1918, an armistice brought World War I to an end — more or less. Historian John Buchan writes:

Officers had their watches in their hands, and the troops waited with the same grave composure with which they had fought…there came a second of expectant silence, and then a curious rippling sound, which observers far behind the front likened to the noise of a light wind. It was the sound of men cheering from the Vosges [mountains] to the sea.

(Conflict in fact continued in several places due to delayed communication, one general’s disapproval of the peace agreement, and other reasons, in some cases with tragic and unnecessary results.)

Armistice Day was first held at Buckingham Palace a year later. Many countries have since renamed it Remembrance Day, while the United States chose the name Veterans Day in 1954, following World War II and the Korean War. Today, this federal holiday honors those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces in war or peace, whether they’re living or deceased, provided they have not been discharged dishonorably.

(If you’ve ever been confused about the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, or about smaller matters — like whether or not “Veterans” demands an apostrophe — here’s an informative article straight from the The Department of Defense.)

As for musical suggestions today, two members of The Cleveland Orchestra offer something upbeat, patriotic, and truly pyrotechnic — you have not heard Stars and Stripes likes this. Click here to watch violinists Katherine Bormann and Jeanne Preucil Rose (pictured above) perform that Sousa classic in a brilliant arrangement by Bruce Dukov. The performance honors “all those who have served, especially Katherine’s grandfather.”

And for anyone observing Armistice Day, read our coverage from the World War I centennial year in 2018, including events that featured the McGaffin carillon (with a look into the connection between bells and the Great War), and Oberlin Conservatory’s multidisciplinary World War I Festival. Both articles might give you more listening ideas.

TODAY FROM WCLV:

Two local, archival streams for you today, both courtesy of WCLV.

Noon brings the daily “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra,” which explores works by Dvořák, Shostakovich, and Haydn.

Then at 8:00 on WCLV’s Ovations, “Best of ChamberFest Cleveland” provides a mash-up of styles: bluegrass fiddling from Yura Lee, and music by Biber, Ligeti, Brahms, and Britten (namely his Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, pictured here in performance by Marjorie Maltais, Karim Sulayman, and Orion Weiss). Links and details in our Concert Listings.

NATIONAL ARTS NEWS:

On Saturday, the Colburn School and LA Opera come together to stream the new critical edition of Joseph Boulogne’s comic opera L’Amant anonyme (“The Anonymous Letter”). Read here from Jason Victor Serinus of San Francisco Classical Voice to learn about that work, the unique circumstances of the stream, and about that 18th-century Black composer who has been brought to greater attention in recent months. (You can also read about Boulogne here in our series “The Legacy of Black Classical Music.”)

And here’s an interesting experiment undertaken by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times: “I wanted to try, for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic largely closed down live performing arts worldwide, to review a concert taken in the way I have most music since March: while running in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, ducking into the bodega for milk, walking Gus [his toy poodle], living life.” His test subject: a recital by French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard — read here.

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC: LESSER-KNOWN WOMEN COMPOSERS

Inspired by this past weekend’s performances by the Pantheon Ensemble as part of CityMusic Cleveland’s “Celebrating Women’s Rights to Vote and Create” series, let’s feature two women composers who aren’t very well known (at least in the U.S. in one case), and who were born on this date in history: Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723) and Aleksandra Pakhmutova (1929).

The youngest sister of Frederick II, and eventually the Abbess of Quedlinburg, Anna Amalia was only able to fully delve into musical studies after the death of her father, Frederick I, who was known to be abusive and to find music frivolous. A multi-instrumentalist, Amalia was also a composer, patron, and collector, having preserved some 600 volumes of music by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Telemann, and others. Not many of her own works survive — some suggest she destroyed them, as she was known to be self-critical — though her catalog includes cantatas, chorales, chamber music, and marches.

Among her most well-known pieces is the Flute Sonata in F, which you can hear on YouTube in a 2019 live performance in Montreal by members of Infusion Baroque on historical instruments. You can also learn more about Amalia from Episode 1 of that ensemble’s Virtuosa Series.

Jumping forward a couple hundred years, we get to a living composer: Aleksandra Pakhmutova, who is popular in Russia and has received many awards from the state. Her success spans many genres, including orchestral music, ballet, film music, and popular music. And here’s an unexpected (and admittedly minor) Ohio connection: there’s an asteroid bearing her name — it’s been known as “1889 Pakhmutova” since an “official naming citation” was filed in 1976 by the Minor Planet Center, based at the time in Cincinnati.

Before coming back down to earth, let’s spotlight her well-known Trumpet Concerto, which opens with beautifully celestial music — listen here in a performance by the Eastman Graduate Conducting Orchestra, with Samuel Huss as soloist and Peter J. Folliard conducting. And among her library of 400 songs is Good-Bye Moscow, which fittingly served as the farewell tune of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Other anniversaries to mark today: the death of composer Carl Philipp Stamitz (1801) and the birth of baritone Bryn Terfel (1965).

And if you missed those CityMusic performances from this past weekend, which featured music by Luise Adolpha Le Beau and Camille Saint-Saëns, the Sunday live stream is still available on YouTube. I also recommend taking a look at the program booklet, where page three is a handy and informative survey of the history of women composers in classical music.

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ON THE WEB & AIRWAVES:

Depending on how you’re dealing with the political uncertainty of the moment, music might either be too much to handle, or it could provide some valuable emotional relief. If that’s the case, here are two listening options early today, and two late ones.

WCLV’s “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra” broadcast shares a noon timeslot with Trinity Cathedral’s Virtual Brownbag Concert, featuring organist Nicole Keller. Tonight, the Met Opera shares an archived Idomeneo at 7:30, and the Cleveland Chamber Choir revisits its fun season-four “March Choral Madness” concert at 8. Links and details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Or maybe the certainty of history could be calming today. We begin our almanac with Felix Mendelssohn, who died on this date in 1847 at the age of 38, not six months after the passing of his sister and close musical companion Fanny Mendelssohn. His beginnings as a child prodigy foreshadowed his highly successful career as a composer, keyboardist, and conductor in Europe, particularly in Germany and England.

And although his popularity waned following his death — in part due to antisemitism, and in part due to his fairly conservative writing when compared to his contemporaries such as Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz — he is now considered one of the most important composers of his time, one who linked Classical models with a Romantic-era sense of wonder.

As for listening, how about some under-the-radar Mendelssohn: his first violin concerto (in d minor, not the famous e-minor one), and his double concerto for violin and piano. Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv packaged those works in a recording released last year, with CIM faculty pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi by her side in the double concerto. ClevelandClassical’s Hannah Schoepe called both works “lost gems” — read that review here, and listen on Spotify here.

Another composer who bridged two musical periods was Gabriel Fauré, who was born in 1845 (overlapping with Mendelssohn for just two years) and died on this date in 1924 — and who can be seen as a link between Romanticism and Modernism. Here’s a recording of the Libera me from his famous Requiem, performed in 2010 by the Western Reserve Chorale, featuring baritone Brian Keith Johnson as soloist and led by the late J.D. Goddard. (Read a tribute to Goddard here.)

Daniel Hathaway wrote about American music patroness and composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge just a few days ago on the anniversary of her birth — she died on this date in 1864. Read our October 30 almanac to learn about the important commissions for which she was responsible.

And Nicholas Stevens recently reviewed a concert by hornist Nathaniel Silberschlag that also featured his trumpet-playing brother and father. Here’s another brass family story for you: English trumpeter, conductor, and composer Elgar Howarth was born on this date in 1935, the son of a brass band conductor. (He joined his father’s ensemble at age 10.)

As a composer, he’s a brass man through and through, having written several concertos and works for brass band, including a respected arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition, performed here at the Geneva University of Music’s 2018 Brass Festival. The confident and optimistic opening bars (still on trumpet of course) feel nourishing this morning.

by Jarrett Hoffman

HALLOWEEN…CONTINUED

If you still have your carved pumpkin sitting out — even as it begins to rot out — maybe you’re not quite ready to let go of All Hallows’ Eve. (Understandably, as the calendar now gets more stressful with Election Day and holidays that potentially bring family gatherings.) With the help of Northeast Ohio’s classical music organizations, here are a few suggestions to hold onto the Halloween spirit.

Les Délices gives us two options. First, today is the last call for their season-opening video production “Bewitched.” (Read our preview and review, and get tickets here.) Second, their SalonEra series continues tonight at 7:30 pm with a “Schubertiade” themed around the supernatural, including Schubert’s Die Erlkönig. More info here.

Spooky adjectives get tossed around a lot during this season, but if there’s a piece of music that’s truly spine-tingling, it’s Die Erlkönig. So here’s another rendition: a duo arrangement featuring Akron Symphony musicians Dianna Joiner (violin) and Patrick Miller (viola) as part of the “ASO at Home” series. Watch on Facebook.

Here’s a true Halloween classic, courtesy of Cleveland Orchestra principal keyboardist Joela Jones: J.S. Bach’s Toccata in d from BWV 565. Watch here — and if you get a kick out of her costume, take a look at these priceless pictures of other Cleveland Orchestra musicians from over the years, including the “mighty morphin” horn section up above.

Looking for something that relates more to the scariness of real life? Apollo’s Fire has extended the run of its “Music for Troubled Times” production, which reflects on the plague of London in 1665 and the outbreaks of cholera and dysentery at the end of the American Civil War. Read our review here, and get tickets here.

BIG NEWS FROM THE BOP STOP:

The Bop Stop is one of twenty of the country’s small venues that were recently selected to receive a grant from the Live Music Society. Pete Muller, the founder and board chairman of that new philanthropic organization, said in a statement:

There are small venues around the country that create soul-filling experiences for their audiences, staff, and for the local and touring musicians that play there. These clubs are a precious and important part of our nation’s music ecosystem, and our goal is to help them continue to be excellent at what they do.

Read more in the Variety article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Let’s start with two birthday anniversaries on this date in the 18th century: Austrian violinist and important Classical Era composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf in 1739, and Russian diplomat and famous Beethoven patron Andrey Razumovsky in 1752. Jumping to the 20th century, American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec entered the world on this day in 1957.

Here’s one listening recommendation that connects to the area, and that fits into our nostalgia for two days ago: the strange, eerie, and perhaps even frightening first movement of Beethoven’s second “Razumovsky” Quartet. It’s played by the Miró Quartet (founded at Oberlin Conservatory in 1995) as part of their complete survey of that composer’s string quartets, released last year. Listen here on Spotify. (And read our review of the recording here.)

by Jarrett Hoffman

ONLINE TONIGHT:

Tonight from 7:30 to 9, catch the virtual version of the University of Akron School of Music’s annual Collage concert, featuring the school’s symphony orchestra, bands, choirs, jazz bands, steel bands, and more. View the full program here, and click here at start time to watch.

THE BAD, THE GOOD, AND THE INTERESTING IN ARTS NEWS:

The bad news first: read about coronavirus cases spiking at La Scala (Associated Press), museums in New York City wondering how long they can operate at 25% capacity (New York Times), the Hong Kong Philharmonic in quarantine (South China Morning Post), and Italy closing performance venues and cinemas (Variety).

Now a piece of good news, and an interesting project: the big success of a particular brand of live-streaming from London’s Old Vic theater (New York Times), and choreographer Molissa Fenley bringing back her 1988 solo interpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (New York Times).

Lastly, a couple of thought-provoking pieces: the BBC explores racial representation and preconceived ideas about body shape in ballet. And Chris White of Slate suggests referring to composers by their complete names, especially during a time when programs are becoming more diverse. “When we say, ‘Tonight, you’ll be hearing symphonies by Johannes Brahms and Edmond Dédé,’ we’re linguistically treating both composers as being equally worthy of attention,” White writes.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Because of his connections to the area — thirteen years as concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell — we’ll focus today on Josef Gingold, the Russian-born violinist who became one of America’s foremost pedagogues of his instrument, and who was born on this date in 1909.

Gingold also held tenures in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini, and as concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony. As for his time with The Cleveland Orchestra, he later noted the important influence Szell had had on him “as a musician and, without my realizing it at the time, as a teacher.” He taught at Case Western Reserve University and The Music Settlement before spending over thirty years on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

The list of his famous students is long, so I’ll name just a few: Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, and Jamie Laredo. But as Alex Ross wrote in Gingold’s obituary for The New York Times, “he was noted less for the manufacture of virtuosos than for the broader values of musicianship he instilled in master classes and the close guidance he gave to chamber and orchestral musicians…He is remembered as a vibrant man who played a paternal role in his students’ lives.”

As for his own lineage, he was a student of Eugène Ysaÿe (whose Third Sonata he premiered), and was considered one of the final links to an earlier era of violin playing.

Here’s a recording of Gingold playing Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, and here’s a tribute video titled “A Musical Life” followed by his 75th Birthday Concert (the latter coming at the 27:33 mark). One great quote from Gingold early in the video, best heard in his own scruffy voice and Russian accent: “The greater love of the violin is everything in the world to me. That’s what I cherish more than anything.”

Other anniversaries to note today: the deaths of composers Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1755) and James P. Carrell (1854), and the birth of conductor and composer Howard Hanson (1896).