by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:00 pm, the Fine Arts Association Faculty Artist Recital Series will present the Fine Arts Chamber Orchestra, Michael Lund Ziegler, conducting, and the Muse Trio (Jenny Cluggish, violin, Melissa Lund Ziegler, viola and Daniel Pereira, cello). The inaugural performance by the orchestra includes Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, Ernst von Dohnáni’s Serenade in C, Op. 10 (Muse Trio), and the premiere of Gamer Troll Loses Control, a new work by Matthew Saunders inspired by Fine Arts Student Artwork by Gabe Elliot, Rosalynd Gruden, Callie Roberts and Sophie Shaposka. Fine Arts Association, 38660 Mentor Ave. Willoughby. Click here for tickets. Read our preview article here.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Lorain County Community College Signature Series, curated by composer Jeffrey Mumford, will present four concerts during the coming season. Oberlin cello professor Darrett Adkins will play the Annual Eva Hornyak Memorial Concert on September 28, Duo Anime (percussionists Andrew Pongracz and Mell Csicsila) will premiere a new work by LCCC’s Gerald Evans on February 8, the Longleash Piano Trio, (Pala Garcia, violin, John Popham, cello & Renate Rohlfing, piano) will perform on March 29, and the CIM New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch, director, will close out the season on April 19. Concerts are free on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm in the Cirigliano Studio Theatre at the Stocker Center for the Arts in Elyria (except for the CIM Ensemble, who will perform in Cinema Hall).

TODAY’S ALMANAC: 

Today we celebrate the birth of composer ​​George Enescu, but we’ll begin by marking the passing of Russian art critic, patron, and ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (pictured above, center, with Igor Stravinsky, left, and dancer Serge Lifar, right), who died in Venice, Italy on August 19, 1929 at the age of 57.

Although Diaghilev composed his first work at age 15 and later studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, it was his passion for promoting Russian art that would lead to his founding of The Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929 the Paris-based company toured across Europe as well as North and South America. Interestingly, the company never performed in Russia. Still, because of its innovative collaborations with important choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, The Ballets Russes is heralded as the most important company of the 20th century.

Together with the Company’s artistic director Léon Bakst, Diaghilev spawned a new style of ballet designed to be appealing to a general audience, rather than just the upper class. Of the company’s unique style, fashion designer Coco Chanel is reported to have famously said that “Diaghilev invented Russia for foreigners.”

During the company’s history, Diaghilev staged many works by Rimsky-Korsakov and commissioned ballet scores from a who’s-who list of composers including Nikolai Tcherepnin, Claude Debussy (Jeux, 1913), Maurice Ravel (Daphnis et Chloé, 1912), Erik Satie (Parade, 1917), Manuel de Falla (El Sombrero de Tres Picos, 1917), Richard Strauss (Josephslegende, 1914), Sergei Prokofiev (Le pas d’acier, 1926 and The Prodigal Son, 1929), Ottorino Respighi (La Boutique fantasque, 1919), and Francis Poulenc (Les biches, 1923).

Diaghilev’s most celebrated collaborations were with Igor Stravinsky, from whom he commissioned ballet scores for The Firebird and Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Diaghilev and Stravinsky also collaborated on Les noces (1923) and Pulcinella (1920), for which Pablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes. [Read more…]

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…]