by Mike Telin

TODAY’S ALMANAC: 

Today we celebrate the 95th birthday of Franco-American composer Betsy Jolas. Born in Paris, her mother was a translator and singer, her father a poet and journalist and the founder of the magazine transition. Along with her family, Jolis settled in the United States in late 1940.

While living in the States, she studied music at Bennington, but upon returning to Paris in 1946 she continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, where she was a student of  Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. Jolis served as Messiaen’s assistant at the Conservatoire from 1971 to 1974, and was appointed to the faculty in 1975.

An active composer since 1945, her output includes Opera, works for Orchestra and solo works with orchestra or ensemble, pieces for large ensemble, chamber music, and choral and vocal works which have been performed by Kent Nagano, Anssi Karttunen, William Christie, Håkan Hardenberger, and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Jolas also has amassed a collection of awards from the Copley Foundation of Chicago, ORTF, the American Academy of Arts, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Grand Prix National de la Musique, Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris, and the Grand Prix de la SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique).

In 1983 she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has held teaching positions at Yale, Harvard, Mills College, Berkeley, USC and San Diego University, Tanglewood, and the University of Michigan.

In recent years, her career has enjoyed a resurgence after she was “rediscovered” by Sir Simon Rattle. Click here to listen to a thoroughly engaging conversation with Berlin Philharmonic hornist Fergus McWilliam.

Click here for a performance of A Little Summer Suite (2015) and here for Letters from Bachville for orchestra (2019). Both performances are by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Andris Nelsons.

by Mike Telin

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 7:00 pm, Semifinal rounds of the Cleveland International Piano Competition continue in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Jiarui Cheng (22, China) will play Scarlatti’s Sonata in b, K. 87, Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp, Op. 60, Rachmaninoff‘s Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 and Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story (arr. Kurbatov). Yedam Kim (32, South Korea) will perform Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat, Op. 61, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 4 in c, Op. 29, and Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody (arr. Kurbatov). Chen and Kim will then team up for Mozart’s Sonata in D for two pianos. Tickets are available online. You can attend in person, or watch remotely.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 1970, George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra music director for 24 years, died in Hannah House at University Hospitals — during a Blossom concert conducted by Pierre Boulez.

In his book, The Cleveland Orchestra Story “Second to None,” Donald Rosenberg recounted the evening.

That night at Blossom, the musicians were applying their efforts to Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Mischa Dichther as soloist and Boulez on the podium, when the phone rang backstage. Szell had just died at 9:50 p.m., of complications from a heart attack he had suffered the previous month. News of Szell’s deteriorating health had spread throughout the day, but the orchestra wouldn’t learn of his death until after the concert. 

Rosenberg continues — The Plain Dealer saluted him in an editorial the next day: “Few men did more to enhance Cleveland’s reputation than did the late Groege Szell. To many people around the world he and the Cleveland Orchestra symbolized the city . . . . Szell will be best remembered for what he leaves behind — the Cleveland Orchestra. Seldom has a richer legacy been left to a city.”    

It is in the spirit of legacy that I share some of my favorite Szell recordings. I’m sure many of you have your own list, so spend some time listening. And if possible, share them with a young person who may not have had the opportunity to hear the Orchestra under the direction of the late maestro.

Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra 

Janáček: Sinfonietta

Dvořák: Symphony No. 7

Mahler:  Symphony No 4 (Judith Raskin, soprano)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4  (Leon Fleisher)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 ( Robert Casadesus)

Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 72 No. 2 

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Choral)

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Gary Graffman)

by Mike Telin

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 6:30 pm, the Canton Symphony Woodwind Quintet will present “Summer Serenade” at Tam O’Shanter Park, Hills & Dales Rd. NW, Canton. The event is free but reservations are required. Click  here to RSVP.

At 7:00 pm Semifinal rounds of the Cleveland International Piano Competition get underway in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Ling Ye (23, China) performs Mozart’s Sonata No. 13 in B-flat, K. 333, Richard Strauss’ “Ramble on Love” from Der Rosenkavalier (arr. Grainger), and Bartók’s Sonata, Sz. 80, and Themes from Mission Impossible (arr. Kurbatov). Honggi Kim (29, South Korea) Plays Schifrin’s Themes from Mission Impossible (arr. Kurbatov) and Chopin’s Twelve Etudes, Op. 25. Ye and Kim (pictured) will join forces for Schubert’s Fantasie in f. Tickets available online. You can attend in person, or watch remotely.

IN THE NEWS:

Tuesday Musical has announced its 2021-22 season which will feature VOCES8 (Oct. 19),  Naughton Piano Duo (Nov. 16), The Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass (Dec. 7), Violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martinez (Feb. 8), Harlem Quartet with pianist Aldo López-Gavilán (March 1), and Nu Deco Ensemble (May 4). Click here for details.

Following the successful debut of its early music variety show, SalonEra, Les Délices has announced details for the twelve episode 2021-22 season line-up. Read the press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

July 29 saw the passing of composer Robert Schumann in 1856, but we’ll begin by remembering British conductor Sir John Barbirolli, who died on this day in 1970.

Born into a musical family in London, Barbirolli began his professional life as a cellist. As a young freelancer, he played in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra and in the pit of the Beecham and Carl Rosa opera companies. Never turning down a gig, Barbirolli played with orchestras in theatres, cinemas, hotels, and dance-halls.

His first conducting experience occurred during WWI while he was serving as a lance-corporal in the Suffolk Regiment. In a 1969 Gramophone interview Barbirolli told Alan Blyth:

…. In our battalion of the Suffolks we had a number of professional musicians. So we formed an orchestra and played in the equivalent of the NAAFI [Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes] during our spare time. I was the principal cello and we were conducted by the bandmaster, one Lieutenant Bonham. The other boys knew that I was longing to conduct and one day when Bonham fell ill with flu, they thought “old Barby” – as I was known – should have a go. It was really rather romantic — I was scrubbing the floor in the Officers’ Mess when they came and invited me to take over. We did the Light Cavalry overture and Coleridge-Taylor’s Petite Suite de Concert but I can’t say I recall the rest of the programme.

His early conduing gigs included the Guild of Singers and Players Chamber Orchestra which he helped establish in 1924, and was soon invited to lead performances of the British National Opera Company, and made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1928. He would go on to be named Arturo Toscanini’s successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving from 1936 to 1943, when he was asked by the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester — which was in danger of becoming extinct — to become its conductor. Barbirolli jumped at the opportunity to help revive the orchestra. He remained there for the rest of his life.

Click here to listen to a 9144 recording of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5 with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli.

Another recording Barbirolli is remembered for is the Elgar Cello Concerto with Jacqueline Du Pre and the London Symphony Orchestra. The album also includes the composer’s Sea Pictures with mezzo-soprano Janet Baker. Click here to listen.

We visit our Daily Diary archives to remember Robert Schumann, who died on this day in 1856 at the age of 46 after spending two years in an asylum in Bonn, having been taken there at his own request after he attempted suicide by throwing himself off a bridge into the Rhine River. [Read more…]

by Mike Telin

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 7:00 pm the Cleveland International Piano Competition holds a Watch Party featuring Trivia Night. Yaron Kohlberg and Zsolt Bognár will host and test your knowledge of the piano and music. Teams can be up to six people, so bring your friends (or make new ones) and enjoy great music and a chance to win a Cleveland musical prize package. Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland. Tickets: $65 includes your first beverage and the Music Box Buffet. Click here to purchase tickets online or call 216.242.1250.

Also at 7:00 pm is Round 2, session 3 of Cleveland International Piano Competition. Contestants perform their Second Round solo recitals of 30 minutes from around the world. Ziyu Liu (22, China), Daria Parkhomenko (29, Russia), Rafael Skorka (32, Israel), and Bowen Li (24, China). Click here at start time. Free.

At 8:30 pm it’s Ohio Light Opera’s Rare and Well Done, a concert comprising thirteen songs connected with historical personages, composed by such operetta luminaries as Jacques Offenbach, Franz von Suppé, Arthur Sullivan, and George Gershwin. Characters range from queens to sculptors to actors to composers. Live streamed from Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre, no audience present. $20. Buy tickets here.

IN THE NEWS:

The Violin Channel wants to know what you’re thinking. Click here to access the article and online survey.

INTERESTING READS:

There are two interesting New York Times articles: in one, Javier C. Hernández examines the question “Asians Are Represented in Classical Music. But Are They Seen?” Click here to access the article. The other is a conversation with conductor Oksana Lyniv, who, after 145 years, will become the first woman to lead a production at the Bayreuth Festival. Click here to read.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1796, Cleaveland was established as a settlement by the surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company and named after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland. (Although he supervised the design of what would become our modern downtown, he returned home shortly thereafter and never returned to Ohio.) The name of the settlement was shortened in 1831, allegedly in order to fit on the masthead of The Cleveland Advertiser, and it wasn’t until 1836 that the settlement became incorporated as a city.

Culture took even longer to arrive on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, a history laid out by Cleveland State University professor J. Heywood Alexander in his article in The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Jazz began to flourish in the early 20th century (read a parallel article by Joe Mossbrook and Chris Columbi here.)

Fast forward to 2020 to take a tour of the city with Cleveland Orchestra cellist Alan Harrell, who plays Bach in a number of different locations, and follows that up by popping up all over Northeast Ohio in a second video.

And on this date in 1933, soprano Caterina Jarboro appeared in the role of Aïda at the New York Hippodrome, the first Black female opera singer to perform in the United States. A year earlier, Jules Bledsoe made history by singing the role of Amonasro in the same opera, the first Black singer to appear in that role. His performance came in the second and last season of Stadium Opera at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, a series whose first season, sponsored by The Cleveland Press, also saw the premiere of Shirley Graham’s Tom-Tom. Alas, no recordings are available.

On this day in 1949, Alan Irwin Menken was born in Manhattan. A prolific composer and songwriter, Menken is best known for his scores and songs for Disney films. The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) have each earned him Academy Awards. A personal favorite is his score for Little Shop of Horrors. Click here to listen to “Dentist!” from the 2003 Broadway Revival Cast Recording.