by Mike Telin

Welcome to Thursday the 18th of February.

Thursday, or “Thor’s day,” gets its English name after the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder, strength and protection. The Roman god Jupiter, as well as being the king of gods, was the god of the sky and thunder. “Thursday” comes from Old English “Þūnresdæg.” (Livescience.com)

Today’s events of note begin at noon on WCLV 104.9 Ideastream with “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra.” Franz Welser-Möst conducts music by Brahms, Bruckner, and Debussy.

At 7:00 pm, the Local 4 Music Fund “Tuning In” series features George Pope, flute, Lisa Whitfield, viola, and Emily Laurence, harp, in a live-streamed performance from Pilgrim UCC. The playlist includes works by Arnold Bax, Joseph Boulogne (le Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Valerie Coleman, William Ferris, Claude Debussy, and Sydney Guillaume. (Free)

A half-hour later at 7:30 pm, Les Délices debuts “Games & Grounds.” The imaginative program includes Lully’s Chaconne from Phaëton, Marais’ Folies d’Espagne, Rebel’s Caprice and Caractères de la danse as well as musical versions of Aesop’s Fables in English translations by Larry Rosenwald. The ensemble is Debra Nagy, Baroque oboe, Julie Andrijeski, violin, Rebecca Reed, viola da gamba, Elena Mullins, dancer and soprano, and Jason McStoots, tenor. Read our preview here. (Tickets required)

Also at 7:30, Oberlin Stage Left streams a Black History Month Faculty Concert, hosted by Katherine Jolly. Performers include flutist Alexa Still, bassoonist Drew Pattison, pianist James Howsmon, organist Christa Rakich, and violists Peter Slowik and Kirsten Docter, as well as recent alums Troy Stevenson and Marlea Simpson, violas. The music is by Valerie Coleman, Allison Loggins-Hull, Maurice Arnold, Edmond Dédé, and William Grant Still. (Free)

See our Concert Listings for details.

In the latest edition of Conversations with Carl, Cleveland Pops director Carl Topilow catches up with baritone Michael Preacely. Click here to view on demand.

In other news, on Wednesday, March 3 at 5:30 pm, the Akron Black Artist Guild will hold a virtual event. Black artists and creatives are invited to join a discussion that includes questions such as: “What are our priorities? What do we need to achieve them? And how do we activate as a collective?” Click here to register.

The group is also seeking input and data. Black artists in Greater Akron are encouraged to submit responses to a short survey that will be used to inform plans for networking, advocacy, education, and collaboration for the Guild. Click here for more information.

We begin today’s Almanac by celebrating the birth of Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos in Athens in 1896.

The young Dimitri exhibited musical talents at an early age and by his early teens hosted Saturday afternoon concerts at his home.

He studied at the Athens Conservatory as well as in Brussels and Berlin, where his teachers included Ferruccio Busoni. During the early to mid ‘20s he assisted Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera.

The conductor made his U.S. debut with the Boston Symphony in 1936, and from 1937 to 1949 he was principal conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra). In 1949 he became co-conductor — with Leopold Stokowski — of the New York Philharmonic and in 1951 was named the Orchestra’s music director.

In addition to making numerous recordings for Columbia Records, Mitropoulos and the Philharmonic sought out new audiences by making appearances on television and giving performances at the Roxy Theatre.

During his tenure, he expanded the Philharmonic’s repertoire by commissioning new works and championing the symphonies of Mahler. Upon his departure in 1958, he was succeeded by his protégé, Leonard Bernstein. Click here to listen to Mitropoulos conduct the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. [Read more…]

by Mike Telin  

If you’re in need of a respite from life’s daily grind, there’re plenty of concerts to take in today. At 12:00 noon it’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra on WCLV 104.9 Ideastream. The playlist includes the “Largo” from Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. You can also listen on the web.

At 7:00 pm, Local 4 Music Fund’s “Tuning In” series features Hammond B-3 virtuoso Eddie Baccus in a live streamed performance from the BOP STOP. Baccus will be joined by trombonist Chris Anderson, and percussionist Elijah Gilmore. The event is free, but donations are welcome. Click here at start time.

At the same time, The Cleveland Orchestra will debut In Focus Bonus Episode 1, featuring pianist Mitsuko Uchida. The concert is available to current subscribers and donors at no additional charge, or for Adella Premium subscribers on the Adella digital streaming app and Adella Live.

At 7:30 pm Oberlin Stage left presents a Black History Month Faculty Concert live streamed from Warner Concert Hall. The free event features violinists Sibbi Bernhardsson and David Bowlin and pianists Haewon Song and Robert Shannon William, performing works by William Grant Still and Jeff Scott. Watch here.

If you’re in the mood for opera, also at 7:30 pm, the MET Opera Nightly Streams presents Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, starring Aprile Millo, Carolyn Blackwell, Florence Quivar, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leo Nucci, conducted by James Levine.  Click here at start time.

And Cleveland Pops has recently released the latest episode of Conversations with Carl. Lieutenant Colonel Dwayne Milburn (ret.) reflects on how not seeing people who looked like him holding high profile orchestra positions helped shape his career. Click here to view.

It’s hard to believe that not long ago people were predicting the end of the recording industry. And while much about that industry has changed, there is certainly no shortage of new releases.

One that caught my eye, and ears, is composer George Lewis’ The Recombinant Trilogy. Released on New Focus Recordings last Friday, the album includes three works for solo instrument and electronics performed by flutist Claire Chase, cellist Seth Parker Woods, and bassoonist Dana Jessen. The digital album Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Remember the days when pretty much the only way to purchase a recording was to go to a record store, and the only way to listen to it was on a turntable?

This brings us to today’s Almanac. On February 11, 1847 the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Alva Edison, was born in Milan, Ohio. Of course, Edison is responsible for inventing many things that make our lives more pleasant, including the incandescent light bulb, the motion picture camera, and the fluoroscope, as well as improving the telegraph and telephone. Click here for a list of his 1,093 patents.

Of all his inventions, Edison’s favorite was the phonograph, which came about from his work on the telegraph and the telephone when, in 1877, he discovered a way to record sound on tinfoil-coated cylinders. He set the invention aside for ten years, and when he returned to work on his phonograph, he began using wax cylinders.

And what were the first words Edison recorded on his new machine? Click here to listen to him recite “Mary had a little lamb” (recorded in 1927 for the 50th anniversary of his invention).  Upon hearing his voice Edison said “I was never so taken aback in my life — I was always afraid of things that worked the first time.”

Edison believed the phonograph would eventually be used for letter writing and dictation, phonographic books for blind people, a family record — recording family members in their own voices — music boxes and toys, clocks that announce the time, and a connection with the telephone so communications could be recorded. Click here to visit the informative entries about Edison on the Library of Congress website.

Always striving to improve on things, Edison was once asked to give his opinion on the role that physics and mechanical instruments will play in the future. “A great deal — an enormous part,” the inventor responded. “The present instruments of the orchestra are very crude. Take the violin for instance. Don’t tell me that even the best violin cannot be improved. One of the worst things in all music in the E string on the violin.” Click here to read the interview titled New Aspects on the Art of Music.

So happy 174th Mr. Edison! Without you, nothing I’ve written about in this article would be possible.

I leave you with an inspiring quote by Thomas Edison. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

by Mike Telin

EVENTS CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH:

Tonight at 7:30 pm Oberlin Conservatory debuts their series To Be Young, Gifted, and Black with an overview hosted by Chris Jenkins (left), the Conservatory’s associate dean for academic support and liaison to the Office of Equity, Diversity, on Oberlin Stage Left. Read  our preview of the series here.

[Editors’ note: the concert from Castle of Our Skins has been postponed to February 18 at 7:00 pm.] At 7:30 pm The Celebrity Series of Boston’s Castle Of Our Skins, a collective of artists dedicated to advancing Black artistry through music, remembers Dr. King’s legacy and his complicated life. The program includes music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and George Walker. Click here at start time.

And conductor Carl Topilow caught up with Cleveland Pops favorite, vocalist Capathia Jenkins. Their discussion touches on the early stages of her career, the many influences of African American vocalists, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and stories of some memorable performances. Click here to watch.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 1912 celebrated conductor Erich Leinsdorf entered the world in Vienna. His long association with The Cleveland Orchestra included a brief tenure as Music Director from 1943 to 1946. Click here to listen to a January 12, 1984 Severance Hall performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

February 4, 2001 saw the death of Romanian born, Greek-French composer and architect Iannis Xenakis in Paris. A musical experimentalist, his 1953-54  Metastaseis for orchestra, includes an independent part for every musician. As an author, his theoretical writings include  Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition, and as an architect, he designed the  Philips Pavilion at Expo 58 in Brussels.

Xenakis was responsible for significant works for percussion including Psappha (1975), Persephassa (1969), and Pléïades (1979), the later two having been premiered by the venerable ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg. Click here to listen to a recording of Pléïades performed by that ensemble and here to listen to an interview with the composer. In 2011, as part of their North American tour, (I happened to have been the tour manager) Les Percussions de Strasbourg performed Persephassa and Pléïades at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Read the New York Times review here. 

On personal note, I remember when Xenakis came to Oberlin for a residency in November of 1981. As a member of the Contemporary Music Ensemble, I had the privilege of working with the composer, who introduced me to the concept of “playing ugly.” I cannot remember the title of the piece, but I do remember it having a wicked bassoon part that spent a good deal of time in the instrument’s highest register. I was frustrated — and so was he.

Finally during a rehearsal break Xenakis came to me and asked “Why are you trying to make it sound beautiful? It’s supposed to be ugly.” That advice pretty much solved the problem. It was during that same residency that the Oberlin Percussion Group gave the U.S. premiere of Pléïades — and my fascination with music for percussion ensemble and my love for contemporary music was born.

by Mike Telin

STREAMING TONIGHT:

If you’re planning to stay home again tonight, there are two concerts that may interest you.

At 7:00 pm The Cleveland Orchestra debuts In Focus, Episode 5: Musical Patterns, on its Adella streaming platform. Vinay Parameswaran leads a program that features associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee and pianist Marc-André Hamelin in works by Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, J.S. Bach, and John Adams. Click here to read our preview.

Also at 7:00, harpist, composer, and improviser Stephan Haluska will perform a Live Streamed concert from BOP STOP, program to be announced. It’s free but donations are welcome. Click here to read our preview.

See our Concert Listings page for more information.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

January 28 marks the birth of Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein in 1887 in Łódź, Poland. With a career spanning eight decades, he is regarded as one of the greatest pianists — and the greatest interpreter of Chopin — of all time. Relocating to California during WWII, he became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1946. He also lent his talents to Hollywood, providing piano soundtracks for films, including Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn, and playing himself in Carnegie Hall and Of Men and Music. Click here to watch a documentary of his life with historic film footage.

On this date in 1944, British avant-garde composer John Tavener was born in London. We featured his life in our Daily Diary last November 12, marking the date of his death.

And on January 28 in 1956 American composer and Oberlin alum Richard Danielpour was born in New York City. Click here to watch pianist, Oberlin alum, and Tuesday Musical Scholarship recipient Chelsea de Souza perform his Enchanted Garden, Book I.

Finally, today we note the passing of violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler on this date in 1962. Like Rubinstein, he was regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Listen to a WQXR interview on his 80th birthday in 1955 here. Kreisler was famous for his encores, and you can binge-listen to two hours of them here.

INTERESTING READ: 

In a San Francisco Chronicle article by Joshua Kosman, incoming San Francisco Symphony music director Esa-Pekka Salonen makes a case for orchestras to become less wedded to long-range planning, leaving room to take advantage of sudden opportunities.

TAKE A SURVEY:

Speaking of planning, Ideastream is interested to hear your thoughts about arts and culture. Click here to answer a survey. It will only take approximately five minutes. Please be sure to write in ClevelandClassical.com in your response to question 3.

by Mike Telin

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Born on this day in 1876, Venetian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari penned a piano quintet, two piano trios, three violin sonatas, works for organ, and a violin concerto, as well as numerous songs. However, he is best known for his comic operas I quattro rusteghi (“The School for Fathers”) and Il segreto di Susanna (“The Secret of Susanna”), the latter a one-act, three-character intermezzo which premiered in Munich on December 4, 1909.

And what was Susanna’s secret? No, she was not keeping a lover as her husband suspected, but he would discover that the young countess — I can hardly write the words — smoked cigarettes. Heavens to Betsy. Many will recognize the opera’s lively overture, here performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Lance Friedel. [Read more…]