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 Daniel Hathaway

ONLINE TODAY:

This weekend, and for the first time since 1933, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival will be presented as a series of online events, beginning tonight at 7 with a virtual concert honoring cello professor Regina Mushabac (pictured), who will retire at the end of her 46th year at BW.

At noon, sit in on a master class by multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey via a Zoon webinar from Youngstown State University.

Two broadcasts from New York’s Carnegie Hall include Reiner Moritz’s documentary about Shostakovich (at 3:00 pn) and Italian pianist Emanuele Arciuli in “American Voices,” a program of works by Black and Native American composers (at 7:00 pm).

Buffalo Symphony music director JoAnn Falletta leads the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in a 7:00 pm online concert of works by Nathaniel Heyder (a premiere), Debussy, Cleveland composer Margaret Brouwer (The Art of Sailing at Dawn) and Stravinsky.

And this evening’s events conclude with opera: a 2017 production of Dvořák’s Rusalka from The MET, and Caroline Shaw’s We Need to Talk from Opera Philadelphia.

Check our Concert Listings for links and connect!

INTERESTING READS:

The Detroit Symphony was uniquely situated to move to an online presence when the pandemic reached our shores a year ago, having made its first foray into webcasting on April 10, 2007 as part of the strategy for renewing itself after a six-month work stoppage. Read about what took place over that decade in the Orchestra’s news article “Precedented Times: 10 years of Webcasting at the DSO.”

Organist Paul Jacobs, featured in the Poulenc Concerto in The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus 8, is highlighted this week in a newsletter from the public relations firm of Hemsing and Associates. Follow the links to read Jacobs’ recent Wall Street Journal article about contemporary music for the organ, and to catch up on his activities.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Among its many quirks, the ClevelandClassical.com Diary is a rich source of cultural trivia. Did you know that American silent film icon Charlie Chaplin was actually born in England on this date in 1889, composed most of the music for his own films, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975? (“Sir Charles!”)

Or that American composer Henry (Enrico) Mancini was a native Clevelander, born on this date in 1924 in Little Italy, whose first instrument was the piccolo? Or that he auditioned (successfully) for Juilliard in 1942 with a Beethoven sonata and an improvisation on Cole Porter’s “Night and Day?” Or that he made a cameo appearance in the first season of Frasier as a call-in patient to Dr. Frasier Crane’s radio show, followed by the playing of Moon River?

Tuck those useful factoids away while celebrating Chaplin’s life in this 90-minute documentary and viewing his 1931 film, City Lights, for which The Cleveland Orchestra played Chaplin’s score under the big screen in Severance Hall in March of 2021, William Eddins conducting.

Tunes from Mancini’s scores to such films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Pink Panther are surely still circulating in our ears. The latter is played here by a combo with the composer at the piano, and Swiss organist Guy Bovet was moved to make the theme into a cheeky polyphonic piece in his Fuga sopra un sogetto.

Final tribute of the day: the birth of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks in Aizpute on this date in 1946. Cleveland Orchestra solo English horn Robert Walters performed his concerto for that expressive instrument with Andrey Boreyko and the Orchestra in February of 2011, and talked about it in a preview. And Polish guitarist Marcin Dylla, who has appeared twice on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society series, plays Vasks’ The Sonata of Loneliness here.

by Mike Telin

EVENTS ON TODAY’S CALENDAR:

Today’s events begin at 7:00 pm with the Local 4 Music Fund’s “Tuning In” series. Livestreamed from the Bop Stop, the program features the jazz trio of Barbara Knight (vocals), Phil Lantry (piano), and Tim Powell, bass, in music for jazz trio. Click here at start time. The concert is free, but donations are welcome.

A half-hour later at 7:30 pm the CWRU Symphonic Winds will present a Spring Virtual Concert as part of the Silver Hall Series, streamed from the Maltz Performing Arts Center. Reserve your free tickets here.

Other offerings of note include the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at 7:20 pm, The Philadelphia Orchestra at 8:00 pm, and pianist Jeremy Denk (pictured) on Cal Performances at 10:00 pm. Check our Concert Listings page for more information.  

IN THE NEWS:

Oberlin Conservatory has announced that its successes in implementing online education over the past year have given rise to entirely new opportunities for virtual learning developed for a worldwide audience. This summer marks the launch of Oberlin Conservatory Global, which begins with a series of courses designed for music students, teachers, and lifelong learners of all backgrounds.

“Through the effort and expertise of countless members of our campus community, Oberlin rose to meet those challenges in ways that have inspired us anew to reconsider previously held ideas of what music education in the 21st century can look like,” Conservatory Dean William Quillen said in a press release.

Initial OC Global offerings include programs dedicated to music theory and pedagogy, a guide to technology-assisted musical collaboration, topics in advanced string playing, and a course dedicated to the enduring impact of 1970s rock and roll. They vary in duration from four days to six weeks, and sessions take place primarily in the evening. Fees range from $150 to $250 per program.

Click here to learn more about Oberlin Conservatory Global.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

We begin today’s birthday celebrations back in 1688 when German violinist and composer Johann Friedrich Fasch entered this world on April 15 in Buttelstedt, Thuringia.

Fasch’s work took him to Prague, where for two years he served as Kapellmeister and court composer to Count Morzin. In 1722, he accepted the same position at Zerbst, where he remained until his death. Also in 1722, Fasch was recruited for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, but withdrew his name for consideration. The position was later filled by none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.

Fasch, a prolific composer whose music was often performed in his lifetime, wrote cantatas, concertos, symphonies, and chamber music. Sadly, most of his catalogue has been lost.

Johann Friedrich Fasch did leave us with a lovely bassoon sonata. Click here to hear the 4th movement performed by Katarzyna Zdybel (bassoon) and Katarzyna Kluczewska (piano).

This date in 1894 saw the birth of American blues singer Bessie Smith in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues,” Smith was one of, if not the most popular female blues singers of the ‘20s and ‘30s.

After the death of her parents, Smith and her siblings earned money by performing on street corners. She later toured in a group that included Ma Rainey before setting out on her own. Smith was signed to  Columbia Records in the 1920s, and her songs such as  Jail House Blues, Prison Blues, and Send Me to the Lectric Chair addressed social issues including chain gangs, the convict lease system and capital punishment. Unfortunately her life was cut short when she was killed in a car accident at the age of 43. Click here to listen to a 1929 recording of Smith singing St. Louis Blues.

We conclude today’s birthday celebrations in the year 1924 when English conductor and violinist Sir Neville Marriner entered the world in Lincoln. As a violinist, Marriner played with the Philharmonia and London Symphony orchestras. He also performed with the chamber orchestras of Reginald Jacques, Boyd Neel, and the London Mozart Players.

Marriner is best known as the founder of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, of which the ensemble’s discography is legendary. He was also the founder and first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Click here to read more about his productive career, and here to listen to Marriner conduct the ASMF in the Orchestral Suites of J.S. Bach.

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 Daniel Hathaway

A CHANGE IN OUR NEWSLETTER SCHEDULE:

Beginning this week, our weekly newsletter will be emailed to subscribers at 5:00 pm on Wednesdays. This change will give the editors a bit more time to prepare the weekly Concert Listings and for our staff to write and copyedit articles before posting. Because details of the classical music scene can change so quickly these days, we recommend that you check the website frequently for new and updated information.

DALLAS INVITES THE MET ORCHESTRA:

Fabbio Luisi, who served as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera before taking the helm at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (photo above), has invited some 50 of his former colleagues to Texas to join the DSO in two benefit performances of Mahler’s First Symphony on April 30 and May 1.

The MET Orchestra has been furloughed without pay since the house closed its doors on March 12, 2020, although recent negotiations with general manager Peter Gelb have yielded a plan for partial salary restoration. On their Facebook page, the MET musicians wrote, “We cannot overstate the impact this unprecedented collaboration will have on our members, both financially and artistically, after this long year of cultural famine.” Read more in New York Times articles here and here.

MIGNARDA RELEASES NEW ALBUM:

The voice and lute duo of Donna Stewart and Ron Andrico, who perform as Mignarda, announce the release of their 14th CD on April 10.

“Unquiet Thoughts presents a selection of rarities and perennial favorites by John Dowland (1563 – 1626) and a few of his contemporaries, concentrating on songs with exquisite poetical texts by some of the best poets of the Elizabethan age. It is no accident that we chose the very first song from Dowland’s First Booke as the title of our album, as the eloquent term so appropriately describes a genre that pairs an intimate voice with the most personal of instruments to express the secrets of the soul. Unquiet Thoughts is also the title of our blog (soon to be published in book form), which since 2010 has been a platform that offers our insights and experience of music for voice and lute and its relevance in the modern era.”

More details here.

EVENTS ON TODAY’S CALENDAR:

Two online events look forward to Baldwin Wallace’s upcoming virtual Bach Festival. Director Dirk Garner speaks to recent Conservatory alumni and Festival Choir members in this Tuesday’s edition of BACHCAST, and half a dozen young scholars discuss the projects they’re pursuing through the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.

Today’s breakfast-time stream from London’s Wigmore Hall (still available at lunchtime, tea time, and suppertime) features Christian Wolff’s setting of Susan Griffin’s text about Underground Railway figure Harriet Tubman, while the New York Festival of Song features works written during the pandemic. Performers include Oberlin alum Joshua Blue.

Russian piano wizard Daniil Trifonov will be featured in works by Debussy, Prokofiev, and Brahms he recorded in January for New York’s 92nd St. Y, and the Baltimore Symphony showcases some of its soloists in BSO Session—Spotlight.

And organist Paul Jacobs, who soloed with The Cleveland Orchestra in last week’s Focus 8 performance of the Poulenc Organ Concerto (when he also gave a tour of Severance Hall’s E.M. Skinner instrument), pops up this evening in a concert from the University of Minnesota featuring music by J.S. Bach and Handel.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Two very different musicians to remember on this 13th day of April, when French composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut died in 1377 in Reims, and Polish American pianist and avant-garde composer Frederic Rzewski was born in 1938 in Westfield, Massachusetts.

Machaut, whose musical creations helped define the Ars nova movement of the eventful fourteenth century, was equally active as the author of some 400 poems in the courtly love tradition. His Messe de Nostre Dame may have been the first cyclical setting of the Roman Catholic mass by a single composer. Listen here to a performance by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois in which other music appropriate to the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is interleaved.

Just in time for his obsequies, Cleveland’s Les Délices has joined Boston’s Blue Heron to produce Machaut’s Lay of the Fountain. Read Mike Telin’s article here and watch the hour-long program here until April 19.

Rzewski had a traditional academic education at Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, studying with Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt. Then he sojourned in Italy, where his career was influenced by Luigi Dallapiccolo and he was introduced to electronic music and improvisation.

Famous for politically-charged works, one of Rzewski’s most famous works is The People United Will Never Be Defeated! — 36 variations on Chilean leftist song meant to be a companion piece to Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Conrad Tao plays it here at the 2020 Modern Music Festival. (While listening, think of editor Nicholas Slonimsky’s comment in Baker’s Dictionary: 

[Rzewski] is furthermore a granitically overpowering piano technician, capable of depositing huge boulders of sonoristic material across the keyboard without actually wrecking the instrument.”

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

By Daniel Hathaway

CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND:

If the current trends continue, we’ll be posting an increasing number of in-person events in the Concert Listings. There are two on Sunday: CityMusic Cleveland at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus at 3:00 pm, and French chamber music on the Sacred Heart Concert Series in Oberlin (pictured) at 5:00 pm.

Online only events on Saturday include NPR’s Amplify with Lara Downes, Oberlin Conservatory Large Ensembles, and the JACK Quartet with Shai Wosner.

On Sunday, there’s the New World Symphony with Matthias Pintscher and pianist Inon Bartanan, the CIM New Music Ensemble, Kent’s Black Squirrel Winds on Hudson’s Music from the Western Reserve series, violinist Jennifer Koh, and Chanticleer.

See our Concert Listings for details.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

There are only birthdates to honor this weekend. For April 10, that includes French jazz pianist and composer Claude Bolling (1930, in Cannes), and Uzbek pianist Yefim Bronfman (1958 in Tashkent).

For April 11, it’s a longer list: French composer Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682 in Avignon), Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (in 1866 in Empoli, near Florence), American composer, conductor, organist, and music critic Harvey B. Gaul (1881, in New York), Czech conductor Karel Ancerl (1908 in Tucapy), and Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916 in Buenos Aires).

We’ll concentrate on Ginastera, the most prominent composer on the list, who like many Porteños (denizens of Buenos Aires) was of mixed Spanish and Italian ancestry — his father was Catalan, his mother Italian. He spent most of his career in Argentina, with brief sojourns in the U.S. (the first in 1945-47 to study with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood) before moving to Europe in 1970. (Photo: Ginastera with his wife, Argentine cellist Aurora Natola, and Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.)

Ginastera’s compositions incorporated varying elements of traditional Argentine music in the course of his career, though those influences became more abstract over the decades.

Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower recorded the First Cello Concerto with his former orchestra, Germany’s Bamberg Symphony (follow along with the score), and played the Second Concerto with Cleveland in October of 2018 (here’s a brief excerpt from a Severance Hall  rehearsal with guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno).

In other Cleveland Orchestra performances, George Szell led Pampeana No. 3 in a live concert in November, 1956, and Louis Lane conducted the Variaciones Concertantes in a live radio broadcast in 1969.

More recently, Oberlin Harp Professor Yolanda Kondonassis recorded the Ginastera Harp Concerto on the Oberlin Music CD Ginastera: One Hundred. Her performance of the work with Raphael Jiménez and the Oberlin Orchestra was also featured in the inaugural edition of Oberlin Stage Left, where she talks about the piece with Conservatory Dean William Quillen.

By Daniel Hathaway

UPDATES FROM CLEVELAND CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY & APOLLO’S FIRE:

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society announced today that the last three performances of its season will be presented live at St. Paschal Baylon in Highland Heights, where social distancing protocols will be followed and face masks required. Free livestream access will be announced when information becomes available. Performances include violinist Alexi Kenney and pianist Renana Gutman on April 27, the Junction Trio on May 11, and the last of three programs of Beethoven sonatas by violinist James Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong on May 18. Check the CCMS website for ticketing details.

Apollo’s Fire has added a fifth performance to its all-Bach season finale on Wednesday, April 21 at 7:30 pm at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. Details here.

STREAMING ONLINE TODAY:

Former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor James Gaffigan, who also led CityMusic Cleveland, guest conducts the Orchestra of Berlin’s Comic Opera today at 2:00 pm, but you can hear the performances of Webern’s Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30, Friedrich Gulda’s Concerto for Cello & Winds with soloist Felik Nickel, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 on-demand through April 15.

Ilya Kaler leads the CIM Orchestra in Arensky’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a & Herbert’s Serenade for String Orchestra tonight at 7.

And at 7:30pm — from the Wellspring Theater in Kalamazoo — the Aaron Diehl Trio plays works in the early jazz tradition courtesy of The Gilmore.

Details in our Concert Listings.

AN INTERESTING READ:

The New York Times’ obituary for Lois Kirschenbaum, who died on March 27, at the age of 88  tells the extraordinary story of one of the Metropolitan Opera’s most loyal followers. “In New York opera circles, an autograph request from her, the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade said, was considered ‘a special type of approval.’” Read about “the Ultimate Opera Superfan” here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Three memorable dates in Black American classical music history appear on today’s calendar: the birth of composer Florence Beatrice Price in 1887, the birth of bass and actor Paul Robeson in 1898, and Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, that drew a crowd of 75,000. The performance (pictured) protested the decision of the Daughters of the American Revolution to prevent the contralto from performing at the DAR’s Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Having been neglected for decades, the music of Florence Price is now appearing on concert programs everywhere. We devoted much of the Diary on June 3, 2020 to Price on the anniversary of her death, and Lilyana D’Amato wrote about her in our Legacy of Black Musicians series on July 29, 2020. As more and more of her music is being re-engraved and re-issued, programmers will want to keep up with the progress of that project by visiting the Wisemusic catalog here.

Robeson had an eventful career that included venturing into the troubled political waters of mid-20th century America, where he fought against facism but got close enough to the communist party to be investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. His life is summarized in the documentary Here I Stand, and a sample of his vocal artistry is available in this 1936, second version of Old Man River (note both versions of the lyrics in the notes).

And Marian Anderson, the first Black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, thrilled a huge audience on Easter Day, April 9, 1939 with this performance, accompanied by Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen. The occasion is treated at somewhat greater length in this short documentary, and the press had much to say about the incident.

The Philadelphia Tribune wrote, “A group of tottering old ladies, who don’t know the difference between patriotism and putridism, have compelled the gracious First Lady to apologize for their national rudeness.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote, “In these days of racial intolerance so crudely expressed in the Third Reich, an action such as the D.A.R.’s ban … seems all the more deplorable.” — Wikipedia article on Marian Anderson

Other April  9 milestones to note in passing: the birth of impresario Sol Hurok (Russia, 1888), of conductor Antal Dorati (Hungary, 1906), and New York Pro Musica founder Noah Greenberg (USA, 1919), and the death of post-Romantic composer Siegfried Karg-Elert (Leipzig, 1933), who gave a much-anticipated but disastrous organ recital at the Cleveland Museum of Art shortly before his demise. We’ll catch them the next time around.

By Mike Telin 

STREAMING ON THE WEB TODAY:

At 7:00 pm The Cleveland Orchestra debuts “Visions & Impressions,” Episode 8 of the In Focus series. Franz Welser-Möst leads performances of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives, Opus 22a (15 movements for piano arranged by Rudolf Barshai for string orchestra) and Paul Jacobs is the soloist in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto (for organ, strings, and timpani). Filmed March 18-20 at Severance Hall, the playlist also features principal flute Joshua Smith in Takemitsu’s Air and Debussy’s Syrinx. Click  here for ticket information.

Also at 7:00 pm, it’s “Tuning In” presented by the Local 4 Music Fund. The ensemble “Nous,” features Howie Smith (sax), Theron Brown (keyboards), and Aidan Plank (bass) in a program to be announced. The Bop Stop event is free but donations are welcome. Click here at start time.

A half-hour later at 7:30 pm, Les Délices debuts Machaut’s Lai of the Fountain. Guillaume de Machaut’s flowing melodies become brilliant rainbows when refracted into three-voice canons in this 14th century piece. The program also features works by Johannes Ciconia and others to aid your exploration of the Medieval garden’s subtle beauty in this collaboration with Boston’s Blue Heron. There’s also a pre-concert conversation with Machaut scholar Domenic Leo and projection designer Camilla Tassi, and a live Q&A with the artists. Click here to read our preview article and here for tickets.

In other news, the Akron Symphony Orchestra has announced the debut of a new podcast channel, Symphosium, which will focus on all things related to classical music. The first podcast episode, ASO Goes Electric: Sam Petrey, is part of a collaboration with Akron-based EarthQuaker Devices where ASO musicians visited EarthQuaker’s studio to be recorded performing with a variety of effects pedals. The series includes Sam’s video, which you can view on EarthQuaker’s YouTube page.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we remember three composers of note who took their leave of this world on April 8.

In 1848 Italian bel canto composer Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti died of neurosyphilis at the age of 50. A prolific composer best-known for his operatic works, he also wrote church music, a number of string quartets, and some orchestral pieces. Altogether, he composed some 75 operas, 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas, instrumental concertos, sonatas, and other chamber pieces.

Who doesn’t like a Donizetti aria? One crowd pleaser is “Ah! Mes amis … Pour mon âme” (the one with nine high Cs) from La Fille du Régiment. Click here to witness the rare encore performance at the Metropolitan Opera by tenor Javier Camarena (that brings the total count of high Cs to eighteen). Read the New York Times review here.

Another aria sure to inspire the crowd is the “Mad Scene” from Lucia di Lammermoor. Natalie Dessay gives a stunning performance here.

It was the Spanish Flu that took composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes’ life in 1920 at the age of 35 in New York City. His most famous work is his 1915 piano piece, White Peacock, which he then orchestrated in 1919. Other compositions include his Piano Sonata, The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan (based on a poetic fragment by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and Poem for Flute and Orchestra.

In addition to many programmatic pieces for piano, chamber ensembles, and voice, it is his unpublished Sho-jo (1917) — a one-act pantomimic drama based on Japanese themes —  that makes him one of the first American composers to draw direct inspiration from Japanese music. Pianist Michael Lewin plays The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan here.

Last but not least, we pay our respects to American organist and composer Arthur William Foote, who died in Boston in 1937 at age 84. Foote was a member of the select group of composers known as the Boston Six which included George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.

Foote was appointed organist of the First Church in Boston (Unitarian) in 1878, a position he held for 32 years. During his tenure he was an editor of Hymns of the Church Universal, published in 1890. He was also a founder of the American Guild of Organists.

Most of his catalogue is chamber music — A Night Piece for flute and string quartet immediately comes to mind (here’s a performance by Joshua Smith and the Cavani Quartet at CIM in 2008). But his Second String Quartet from 1893 is a gem. Listen to a performance by the Da Vinci Quartet here.