by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:.

Because of the recent COVID surge, today’s noontime concert from the Church of the Covenant will be presented online only. At 12 Noon, organist Jonathan Moyer will play music for the Epiphany by Buxtehude, Lefébure-Wély, Jongen, Messiaen, and Tournemire. Click here to view a pdf of the program, and here to view the live streamed performance.

ANDREA ANELLI, 60

Jonah Schulz has written to inform us of the passing of his mother on January 1.

“Andrea Anelli (pictured), the beloved soprano and founder of Cleveland Opera Theater (originally Opera Per Tutti) and ContempOpera Cleveland, passed away at the age of 60.

“Andrea’s passion for opera kept the art form alive and thriving in Northeast Ohio. After founding Opera Per Tutti in 2006, Andrea performed many of Opera’s most classic roles making world class productions accessible to audiences in Gordon Square’s Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland’s Masonic Auditorium and as the creator of The Italian Cultural Garden’s annual “Opera in the Garden” concert.

“Her talent and work ethic was honored at Cleveland’s City Hall when she was presented with the Italian-American Heritage Award by Mayor Frank Jackson.

“After leaving Cleveland Opera Theater, Andrea founded ContempOpera Cleveland where she performed and produced the works of modern composers and brought opera into classrooms around Cleveland.”

Click here to read a statement from Cleveland Opera Theater, and here to view Anelli’s greeting to the audience before an Opera Per Tutti al fresco performance.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Apollo’s Fire has announced a job opening for full-time general manager of Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra. Read about the position and download a detailed job description here.

Video applications are now being received through February 15 for the 2022 James Stroud National Classical Guitar Youth Competition, open to students ages 14-18. Semi-final and final rounds will be held in person at the Cleveland Institute of Music from June 2 through 5. The competition will award prize money totalling US$ 25,000. Click here for details.

Looking ahead, the Vienna Philharmonic has announced that frequent guest conductor Franz Welser-Möst will lead its New Year’s Concert for the third time on January 1, 2023.

And looking back to its December “Carols for Quire XI” programs, Quire Cleveland has made ten “videos” created from photos and a live audio recording of its December 4, 2021 concert at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church available here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One important development to celebrate today in classical music history. In 1950, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) announced that it would produce LPs — 33 1/3 rpm long playing records — following the lead established by Columbia Records in 1948.

These records would replace 78 rpm discs — made of an abrasive shellac compound and limited to about five minutes of recording time per side — with vinyl, and formerly wide grooves with “microgrooves,” extending playing time to 22 minutes per side.

The history of this development gets a bit complicated (RCA had attempted to bring out an earlier version in 1931 that failed), but suffice to say that the change from shellac to vinyl — with all the attendant technical details — was a boon for classical music.

RCA has produced two films about “The History of Vinyl.” Click here to watch a 1946 film narrated by longtime Metropolitan Opera commentator Milton Cross that includes a tour of RCA’s Camden, New Jersey plant, and here to watch Part II, which followed ten years later. Part III, which followed in 1958, introduced stereo recording.

by Jarrett Hoffman

LOCAL NEWS:

Online applications are open until January 31 for the 66th annual Tuesday Musical Scholarship Competition, which provides support for university and college students pursuing careers as music performers and music educators. Categories include music education, brass, classical guitar, organ, piano, marimba/classical steel drum, strings, voice, and woodwinds. The adjudicated competition will be held in person on March 19 at the University of Akron, and the Final Round/Winners Concert will take place on May 15. More information is available here.

Out of an abundance of caution due to the Omicron variant, two early 2022 concerts from the Akron Symphony have been postponed until spring. “Baroque Virtuosos” has been rescheduled from January 15 to May 14 at 8:00 pm, and “Gospel Meets Symphony” will move from February 12 to June 18 at 7:30 pm (on the weekend of Juneteenth). Both events will take place at E.J. Thomas Hall. If you already had tickets, they will be honored on the new dates, or as an alternative, vouchers for other concerts are available through the Box Office.

On a related topic, The Cleveland Orchestra has updated its vaccine policy. Upon arrival at Severance Music Center, guests are now required to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination — including a booster — along with a photo ID. Those who are unable to be vaccinated or have not received their booster dose will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID test, along with a photo ID. Masks are required at Severance at all times. Read the full Health & Safety policy here.

HAPPENING TODAY:

Eric Charnofsky’s radio show “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music” will be hosted remotely and without commentary throughout January, but that doesn’t mean the playlist can’t be intriguing.

Today’s program from 2 to 4 includes Daniel Goode’s Clarinet Quintet, Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Mon Coeur S’ouvre À Ta Voix” from Samson et Delilah in an arrangement for mandolin ensemble, Samuel-Coleridge Taylor’s Four Characteristic Waltzes for piano, Aaron Jay Kernis’s Symphony No. 4, Amy Beach’s A Hermit Thrust at Morn and Clara Schumann’s Romance, both for harp, Hannah Lash’s Start for unsnared drum, Ernest Chausson’s Viviane for orchestra, Michael Matthews’s Sky Rings for clarinet and electronics, and a cappella voice arrangements of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Debussy’s Girl with the Flaxen Hair. Listen on WRUW or here online.

INTERESTING READS:

Among the concerts over the past several weeks that have gone on as planned, one stands out for the extreme lengths the organizers went to in order to make it happen. That was the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of excerpts from Handel’s Messiah on December 22, in which the conductor and four soloists were replaced in a span of about 24 hours. Read David Patrick Stearn’s review in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Pittsburgh Symphony has announced an expansion of its pre-professional fellowship for Black and African American musicians, as Jeremy Reynolds reports in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The program will support four new fellows each season by the year 2025, making it one of the larger fellowship opportunities in the country.”

And in The New York Times, Joshua Barone profiles Helsinki Philharmonic chief conductor and Los Angeles Philharmonic principal guest conductor Susanna Mälkki, who is considered to be “on leading wish lists” for major American orchestras with upcoming openings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

One of the most unique characters to appear in our Almanac has to be Victor Borge, the Danish-American comedian and pianist who was born on this date in 1909 in Copenhagen.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Organist Jonathan Moyer devotes his Tuesday Noon Advent Series recital at the Church of the Covenant to music by J.S. Bach: the Six “Schubler” Chorales — all arrangements by the composer of his own cantata movements, plus the little Duetto II that found its way along with three other two-part pieces into the Clavierübung III, and the C-Major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 545. It’s free. (Lunchtime Holiday Carillon concerts resume on Wednesday at 12:15.)

Burning River Brass takes its Holiday program to the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls tonight at 7. Tickets are available online.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Earlier this month, the finals of the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition were held at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Among the eight semifinalists was Cleveland native Samuel Rosenthal (pictured), who eventually took home second prize in the prestigious contest established in 1979 and named for viola virtuoso William Primrose. He currently studies with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang at the Juilliard School.

The San Francisco Conservatory has announced a new collaborative project with the National Brass Ensemble, whose artistic director is Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs. The ensemble, which draws brass and percussion players from major American orchestras, last came together in 2014. Part of the NBE’s Summer Academy for students, scheduled for June 13-20, events will include a live concert on June 20 in Davies Symphony Hall.

Sachs said, “We’ll be performing and recording new works written especially for us by Aaron Jay Kernis, Jonathan Bingham, and Arturo Sandoval, and a new Richard Wagner Ring compilation arrangement.

“In addition to these performed works, this time we will be interacting with a group of brass, percussion, and timpani students especially chosen through auditions to participate in a comprehensive menu of educational events including panel discussions, lectures, intimate masterclass settings, instrument specific subject matter classes, as well as interactive readings of chamber music, music of Giovanni Gabrieli, and standard orchestral repertoire.” Read a press release here.

LIVE AT CMA:

Trinity Cathedral associate organist and Baldwin Wallace faculty member Nicole Keller will bring live concerts back to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday, January 9 at 2:00 pm with a free recital of music by J.S. Bach, Calvin Hampton, Rayner Brown, Hindemith, Mozart, and Florence Price.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The Winter Solstice is scheduled for today at 10:58 am in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite a recent run of blazingly sunny days, this moment marks the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Tuesday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest episode of the COVID-19 saga unfolds.

Given no alternative, we might as well enjoy our mutual planetary experience today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.

Click here to listen to the carol commissioned for the 1998 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. Gile Swayne set his own English text in his Winter Solstice Carol (it alternates with familiar Latin phrases from the Christmas Day antiphon to the Magnificat): [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:

First, an update: the No Exit concert announced for this evening at Praxis Fiber Workshop has been cancelled due to COVID concerns.

Otherwise on Saturday, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts will begin at 2:30 and 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center. 2:30 Oberlin events include the Oberlin Chamber Singers in Fairchild Chapel and the Verona Quartet in Kulas Recital Hall. Cleveland Opera Theater will take its Amahl production to Old Stone Church on Public Square at 7, and at the same hour, Local 4 of the Musicians Union will present “Classic, New, Borrowed & Blue II” at SPACES, and Summit Choral Society will sing by candlelight at St. Bernard’s Church in Akron.

On Sunday, you can catch repeat performances of Holiday Concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra at 2:30 and 7:30, and Cleveland Opera Theater’s Amahl at 3 in Rocky River. Also at 3, Oberlin faculty organist Mark Edwards will play Baroque Christmas from 17th and 18th century Germany, Italy, and France on the new Paul Fritts organ in First Lutheran, Lorain, and at 4, Arts Renaissance Tremont will host Burning River Brass (pictured) at St. Wendelin Church. The Oberlin Musical Union — the second oldest choral organization in the U.S. — will end the weekend with a collage of masterworks at 7:30 in Finney Chapel.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Oberlin Conservatory has named the winners of its inaugural Peter Takács Beethoven Prize in Piano competition, held on December 4 and 5 in Finney Chapel. They include second-year pianist Ho Ting (Kelvin) Tang, (first prize and an award of $5,000), fourth-year student Leo Choi (second prize and $1,000), and third-year student Guoanni (Annie) Qin (third prize and $500). Read the story by Erich Burnett here.

INTERESTING READS:

Did you know that in mid-career Charles Dickens wrote four other Christmas books besides A Christmas Carol? Click here to read a story in The Guardian about the others, including Cricket on the Hearth, now being promoted by London’s Dickens Museum in conjunction with a first-time display of John Leech’s sketches for the book. “It’s quite a lovely, homely romance story, that was also extremely popular. It’s quite fairytale-like,” said curator Emily Smith.

While acknowledging the popularity of A Christmas Carol due to the originality of its plot, Dickens’ great-great-great granddaughter and author Lucinda Hawksley said, “the others are also definitely worth reading – and they were written by Dickens to be celebrated in the same way…to be read with your family over the Christmas period, around the fire, and probably to be read out loud.”

Now that’s a lovely way to celebrate that doesn’t involve staring at a screen. But failing a family reading, the next best thing might be to hear the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral reading Cricket in front of his fire with a pot of tea nearby and the decanal cat at his feet. Click here.

CHRISTMAS JAZZ  FOR YOU:

Tri-C JazzFest has curated a playlist of 50 tracks that can enhance three hours and fourteen minutes worth of your holiday activities this Christmas. Among other jazz legends, the mix includes performances by Charlie Parker, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Vince Guaraldi, and Take 6. Access Christmas Jazz to Keep you Warm here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

We could raise a glass to several events in classical music history this weekend, but since it’s a busy time of year, let’s stick to one first performance that suggested itself  through the Oberlin Musical Union’s playlist for its Sunday evening concert of excerpts from choral  masterworks.

Although commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky for the Boston Symphony, Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms received its first performance in Belgium by the Société Philharmonique de Bruxelles on December 13, 1930, followed by the American premiere a week later on December 19 by the BSO and the chorus of the Cecilia Society (prepared by Arthur Fiedler!) Koussevitzky had an orchestral work in mind, but Stravinsky had long been contemplating a work for chorus and orchestra. The piece is remarkable for the predominance of wind instruments —  the only strings are cellos and basses.

Stravinsky was on the podium for a recording made in Paris with the Orchestre des Concerts Straram and the Alexis Vlassov Choir in February, 1931 (listen here), but there are a number of other recordings with different takes on the striking piece. Here’s one led by Riccardo Muti, obviously recorded in Italy but with no mention of who the performing forces are (La Scala?).

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:00 pm at The Temple-Tifereth Israel, CityMusic Cleveland will present From the New World. The program features the premiere of a new work by Michi Wiancko, in addition to Francisco J. de Castro’s Trio Sonata Op. 1 No. 3, Andrea Falconieri’s Passacalle a 3, Luigi Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D “Fandango,” as well as Folias echa para mi Señora Doña Tarolilla de Carallenos and selections from the Codex Martínez Compañón. Performerss include Guillermo Salas-Suarez & Alan Choo, Baroque violins, Yael Senamaud, Baroque viola, Sophie Benn, Baroque cello, QinYin Tang, harpsichord, and Jeremy Bass, Baroque guitar. The concert is free.

The Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center. Tickets are available online.

At 7:30 pm in Kulas Recital Hall, the Oberlin Guitar Ensemble, directed by Stephen Aron, performs works by Astor Piazzolla,  Mauro Giuliani, Yvonne Desportes, J.S. Bach, Leo Brouwer, Maneul de Falla, and Celso Machado. The concert is free. Click here for a detailed program and here to access the live stream.

At 8:00 pm at First Congregational Church UCC in Elyria, the Eastman School of Music Historical Keyboards Department (pictured), under the direction of Lisa Goode Crawford, presents J.S. Bach’s Concertos for Multiple Harpsichords. Performers include Lindsey Williams, Dylan Sanzenbacher, Ryan Chan & Ali Santos, harpsichords, James Marshall and  Rachel Smith, violins, Juliana Kilcoyne, viola, Owen Cummings, cello, and  Ariel Walton, bass. On the program: the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C, BWV 1061, Concerto for Three Harpsichords in d, BWV 1063, and  Concerto for Four Harpsichords in a, BWV 1065. The performance is free.

IN THE NEWS: 

On Tuesday, Jeannette Sorrell made her conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic. New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote:  “…the New York Philharmonic — joined by Apollo’s Singers, the chorus of the early-music ensemble Apollo’s Fire, and four superb vocal soloists, all led by Jeannette Sorrell — gave a splendid performance of Handel’s “Messiah” at Riverside Church.”

Click here to read the full review.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 1770 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany. In response to a request for a comment, we received a text from the composer saying: “Enough with the celebrating, I’m 251 years-old. Leave me alone already.”

However, if you still want to keep the party going, click here to read musicologist John Wilson’s essay on why we should change the way we program Beethoven in his anniversary year.

December 16 also saw the birth of American operatic tenor James McCracken in Gary, Indiana in 1926. Hailed by The New York Times as “the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States…” McCracken began singing in his church choir during childhood.

McCracken, who studied music at Columbia University, made his professional opera debut in 1952 in the role of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème with Colorado’s Central City Opera.

While still a student, he sang minor roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and in 1957 made his debut at the Vienna State Opera. In 1963 he began his long association with The Met, and quickly became one of the company’s principal dramatic tenors.

Click here to listen to McCracken sing Nessun dorma with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Lamberto Gardelli.