by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

At noon, stop by Trinity Cathedral or hop online for a Brownbag Concert featuring Britten’s seasonal masterpiece A Ceremony of Carols (freewill offering).

Then at 7:30, head over to St. Bernard Catholic Church in Akron to catch conductor Nic McGegan’s debut with Apollo’s Fire in Handel’s Messiah — the first of five area performances. Read Mike Telin’s conversation with McGegan here, and get tickets here.

TODAY’S ALMA-NEWS:

Today we pair a musical anniversary with a recent piece of musical news, and with an event on this weekend’s calendar.

On December 8, 1978, The Deer Hunter had its premiere in Los Angeles. An epic war drama set in both Vietnam and in the town of Clairton, PA (some of it was shot in Cleveland), the film is remembered today for several reasons. Those include the performances by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep, the direction by Michael Cimino, and the honors it hauled in for all involved: five Oscars, a place on several best-films-ever list, and preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Then there’s the soundtrack, highlighted by Stanley Myers’ Cavatina in a performance by guitarist John Williams (above, right). For many, it’s inseparable from the film, and is often referred to as simply its theme: a lyrical line unfolding gently over unhurried arpeggios, against a backdrop of strings (and a lovely appearance from the wind section about three-quarters through), and with an emotional palette of pure wistfulness. Listen here as you watch “the deer-hunting scene.”

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON TODAY’S AGENDA:

The free, Noon Advent Series at the Church of the Covenant continues today with an organ recital by Adam Chlebek, an Oberlin organ major and music director of Lakewood’s St. James Church. Both organs will be featured in music by Nicolaus Bruhns, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Olivier Latry.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents The Cavani Quartet in its next-to-last performance in its Beyond Beethoven series. This event, a free, community concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, features Beethoven’s Op. 95 and Op. 127 string quartets, and the “beyond” work is Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae. (Photo: an earlier performance at the Music Settlement).

And in case you haven’t already heard, don’t go to the Akron Civic tonight — the Tuesday Musical performance by Rodney Marsalis and Philadelphia Big Brass has been cancelled.

INTERESTING READ:

Israeli-born cellist and conductor Amit Peled is featured in a Baltimore Sun article about The Mount Vernon Virtuosi, his chamber orchestra, and his vision of free classical music for all. (Peled was named music director of CityMusic Cleveland in 2019, when the organization was still presenting chamber orchestra concerts.) Read the article here.

CHANGES OF VENUE:

Two events previously scheduled at the Cleveland Institute of Music have been moved to other venues. The Cleveland Art Song Festival’s Winter Minifestival, including a recital on December 10 by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and pianist Bryan Wagorn, and master classes with Wagorn on the 9th, and Costanzo on the 11th, will now be held in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, same dates and times.

And a joint concert by Margaret Brouwer’s Blue Streak Ensemble and Burning River Baroque scheduled at CIM on December 15 will now take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music announced today that applications are now being received for the second annual Emerging Black Composers Project. Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead the San Francisco Symphony in the first performance of a new work commissioned from the winner of the Project, who will also receive a $15,000 cash award. Read a press release here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we celebrate two inaugurations and a premiere that took place on December 7 in classical music history. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

From 2 to 4, Eric Charnofsky (above) hosts “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” which you can hear on WRUW or via stream. This week’s edition pays tribute to a late great icon of American musical theater. Hint: first name Stephen.

The broadcast includes selections from Symphonic Sondheim (performed by the London Symphony Orchestra) and from Liaisons – Reimagining Sondheim (featuring pianist Anthony de Mare in music by Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, Ethan Iverson, and Mark-Anthony Turnage).

Also on the broadcast: works by Beethoven, Frank Bridge, Augusta Read Thomas, and Camille Saint-Saëns — some of those pieces appearing in the form of interesting arrangements and transcriptions.

And at 7:30 pm, Matthew C. Saunders leads the Lakeland Civic Orchestra in Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 2, Florence Price’s Adoration, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, and some seasonal favorites at Painesville United Methodist Church (freewill offering).

LOOKING AHEAD:

Two things new, one thing changed.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

CONCERTS THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday at 1:30 pm at the Hay-McKinney Mansion of the Western Reserve Historical Society, members of The Cleveland Orchestra will play music by winners of the Cleveland Arts Prize in conjunction with the exhibit “Honoring Our Past Masters: The Golden Age of Cleveland Art, 1900-1945.” And at 8:00 pm, the Oberlin College Black Musicians Guild hosts the Nicholas Payton Trio in Finney Chapel.

On Sunday at 1:00 pm, Finney Chapel will be the site of the inaugural Peter Takács Beethoven Prize in Piano competition, named for the longtime Oberlin piano professor for whom Beethoven’s music has been a lifelong inspiration. (You can watch a webcast as well as attend in person.) A few blocks away at 5 pm, the Sacred Heart Concert Series presents the Orb Quartet and other Oberlin Conservatory musicians in “Chillin’ with Contemporary Composers.”

Otherwise, a long list of Advent and Christmas concerts fills this weekend’s calendar.

On Saturday, performers include the Lake Effect Concert Band, the Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra with vocalists Vanessa Rubin, Evelyn Wright, and Ava Presto, and Quire Cleveland’s third and last “Mary’s Song” program.

On Sunday, seasonal music continues with Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas, the Euclid Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops, Western Reserve Chorale, Advent Lessons and Carols with Trinity Cathedral Choir, Singers Companye in Fairlawn, the University of Akron Choral Ensembles and Brass Choir (pictured above), and the West Shore Chorale.

Visit our Concert Listings page for details.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov was born on December 5, 1960 in La Plata, but departures far outnumber arrivals on these two dates in history. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S HAPPENING:

The vocal and instrumental musicians of Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Sebastian Catholic Church join forces at 7:30 pm for An Advent Procession of Lessons and Carols at Holy Trinity. You can attend in person or watch the live stream, which will be available for the next week.

Oberlin’s Fridays@Finney tonight at 7:30 pm hews to an avian theme with performances of Ottorino Respighi’s The Birds, Shulamit Ran’s Grand Rounds & Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques by the Oberlin Orchestra & Contemporary Music Ensemble led by Rafael Jiménez and Timothy Weiss. Attend in-person, or join the live stream.

Guest vocalists Vanessa Rubin, Evelyn Wright, and Ava Preston will be featured with Cleveland Jazz Orchestra at 8:00 pm at BLUE Jazz+ in Akron. If that’s not convenient, “Sing a Song for the Holidays” repeats on Saturday at the Maltz PAC in University Circle.

And Quire Cleveland makes the second stop on its three-concert tour of “Carols for Quire XI: Mary’s Song” tonight at 8 pm at Our Lady of Peace Church on Buckingham Ave. in Cleveland. It’s free. Read a preview here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On December 3, 1883, Oberlin College began classes as the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to admit both women and men.

And on this date in 1978, composer William Grant Still (pictured above), one of Oberlin’s first Black students, passed in Los Angeles at the age of 83. (He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the school in 1947.) Still has recently received long-overdue attention for his extensive catalogue of works that includes symphonies, ballets, operas, choral works, art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments. A good reason to go exploring! Start here to access a web site maintained by his family and click away!

Let’s continue our December list of premieres with a look at the first performance of Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony on this date in 1954.

Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1942, the gestation of Barber’s one-movement piece for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, was prolonged by a few interruptions — notably World War II.

Barber chose to set words by the 19th-century Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard, whose writings had always appealed to him, but the composer avoided Kierkegaard’s complicated philosophy, turning to some simple and beautiful prayers instead,

Although it’s difficult to imagine in today’s media world, Time Magazine devoted an unsigned editorial to Barber’s new work, beginning with a description of the piece: [Read more…]

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm at St. Paschal Baylon in Highland Hts, Jay White will lead Quire Cleveland in the first of three concerts titled Carols for Quire XI: Mary’s Song. The program features four sixteenth-century settings of the Magnificat, the virgin Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel, by Giovanni Pierluigi di Palestrina (Italy), Tomás Luis de Victoria (Spain), and the Britons, Robert Fayrfax and Robert Parsons. Carols of the season, including Gabriel’s Message, The Cherry Tree Carol, and Silent Night, along with familiar carols inviting audience participation round out the evening. Freewill offering. Open seating, no reservations or tickets required, but masks are mandatory for all attendees, regardless of vaccination status. Read our preview article here. Check our Concert Listings for times and locations on Friday and Saturday.

Also at 7:30 pm, the Oberlin Trio — David Bowlin, violin, Dmitry Kouzov, cello and  Haewon Song, piano (pictured) — perform Haydn’s Trio in g, XV:19, Takemitsu’s Between Tides and Dvořák’s Trio No. 3 in f, Op. 65 in Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall. The concert is free. Click here to access the webcast.

And through December, Les Délices’ Holiday show “Noel, Noel” is available on Marquee TV. That virtual concert is a repeat from last year, when Timothy Robson described it in a review as “a highly enjoyable blend of English, French, and German carols, interspersed with Christmas-themed poetry from authors as diverse as Christina Rosetti and e.e. cummings.” Not to mention recent work by Northeast Ohio poets Dave Lucas, Diane Kendig, and Julie Warther, all read by Dee Perry. Read more about it in Mike Telin’s preview, and get tickets here.

IN THE NEWS:

We are saddened to learn that experimental composer Alvin Lucier passed away on Wednesday at his home in Middletown, Conn at the age of 90. Allan Kozinn writes in his New York Times obituary that “Unlike composers who have the goal of painting an aural picture, evoking particular emotions, creating a dramatic narrative or exploring carefully plotted rhythmic interactions, Mr. Lucier seemed to approach his works as experiments that might yield unpredictable soundscapes.

“A finished work could sound like howling feedback, electronic crackling or — in the case of his best-known piece, “I Am Sitting in a Room” (1969) — a spoken text that with repetition becomes increasingly distorted and overlaid with reverberation until it is transformed into a symphony of dancing overtones.” Read the full obituary here. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TODAY:

Ignore the grinches of the world (including a certain editor of ClevelandClassical.com!) — it’s time to embrace music of the holidays, whether on the FM dial, or in concert via stream and onstage.

Les Délices kicks off December with “Noel, Noel,” available on Marquee TV beginning today through the end of the month. That virtual concert is a repeat from last year, when Timothy Robson described it in a review as “a highly enjoyable blend of English, French, and German carols, interspersed with Christmas-themed poetry from authors as diverse as Christina Rosetti and e.e. cummings.” Not to mention recent work by Northeast Ohio poets Dave Lucas, Diane Kendig, and Julie Warther, all read by Dee Perry. Read more about it in Mike Telin’s preview, and get tickets here.

This afternoon brings two more holiday-themed events. First, the noontime Trinity Brownbag “Jazzy Christmas” featuring carols performed by the Gateway Band with vocalist Jennifer Cochran (in person and streamed, freewill offering). And second, a 12:15 organ recital from Florence Mustric at Trinity Lutheran themed around “An American Christmas,” including music by Barber, Ginastera, and Virgil Fox (freewill offering).

In the hours after these events, it is encouraged — no, required — that you grate on the nerves of those around you with endless humming.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Sadly, one holiday event has been taken off the calendar. Tuesday Musical’s concert by The Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass on Tuesday, December 7 has been canceled because of the artists’ health concerns.

If you purchased single tickets, refunds will be issued within a few days. If you’re a subscriber, you have the option of transferring tickets to another concert this season, donating the cost of tickets to Tuesday Musical, or receiving a refund. Indicate your choice by December 15 by emailing kjenkins@tuesdaymusical.org or calling 330-761-3460. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S AGENDA:

Today’s free noon concert at the Church of the Covenant features North German Advent Music of the late 17th century. Tenor Mark Laseter, violinists Jonathan Goya and Addi Liu, violist da gamba Jane Leggiero, and organist Jonathan Moyer will perform music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, and Johann Adam Reincken.

We’ve been remiss in recommending Eric Charnofsky’s radio programs, “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” which air from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Mondays on Case Western Reserve University’s internet stream. Himself a composer and a collaborative pianist, Charnofsky (pictured) likes to hunt out not-so-often performed music by well-known composers. The current edition features works by Frederick Delius, Kile Smith, Julius Eastman, Paul Hindemith, Aaron Coland, Poldowski (the pseudonym for Régine Wieniawski), and Shih-Hui Chen. Need assistance connecting? Help is only a click away.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

For those who recoiled a bit last Friday morning at the all-too-early dominance of Christmas and Holiday music on the airwaves, we’ll seek out alternatives during these last weeks of 2021 and note the anniversaries of some works that received their premieres on these dates in classical music history.

On November 30, 1913 (with some wiggle room due to the conversion of Russian calendar dates), Sergei Rachmaninov conducted the first performance of his choral symphonic poem, The Bells, in St. Petersburg.

The composer, who had been seeking out a likely text to set to follow his cantata, Spring, was on holiday in Rome in 1907when he received an anonymous letter suggesting Edgar Allen Poe’s The Bells, in a translation by the Russian symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont.

The original poem, read here by Basil Rathbone with an underlay of Mahler, is highly onomatopoetic, something that doesn’t translate well. But Rachmaninoff took to it enthusiastically, regarding the finished work — along with his All-Night Vigil — as one of his two favorite compositions. Click here to listen to a 2015 live performance on AVROTROS with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus led by James Gaffigan, former assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.

1.   Allegro ma non tanto: The Silver Sleigh Bells
2.   Lento: The Mellow Wedding Bells
3.     Presto: The Loud Alarm Bells
4.   Lento lugubre: The Mournful Iron Bells”

 

by Jarrett Hoffman

HAPPENING TONIGHT:

At 7:30 pm, Debra Nagy teams up with Scott Metcalfe of Boston-based vocal ensemble Blue Heron for the latest episode of Les Délices’ SalonEra series: “Machaut Man.” (Can’t beat that title.)

The episode celebrates the forthcoming release of the ensembles’ collaborative album Le Remede de Fortune, centered around that work by Machaut — a long-form narrative poem with musical interpolations that tells the story of a young lover’s attempts to live well despite the capriciousness of Fortune.

In addition to showcasing footage from live performances and from the ensembles’ archives, tonight Nagy and Metcalfe will explore the extravagantly detailed, evocative illuminations found in MS C, one of the most richly-decorated of Machaut’s surviving manuscripts.

See the full program and register here. It’s available for a short time on-demand after the premiere.

R.I.P. SONDHEIM:

The most important piece of news in music since our last Diary entry is the passing of Stephen Sondheim, titan of American musical theater, on November 26 at the age of 91. The lyricist for West Side Story early on in his career, he went on to leave his strongest legacy as both the composer and lyricist for such musicals as Company, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods. 

Probably his most famous song is “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, sung here by Judi Dench, who received the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in a revival of the show in 1995 in London.

But as Tim Page writes in an obituary in The Washington Post, “Mr. Sondheim was less interested in creating stand-alone popular ‘hits’ than in fashioning unified works that maintained a firm, near-operatic structural integrity throughout.” To experience the song in context, as Sondheim himself felt it was most powerful, watch the full musical here in a live broadcast from New York City Opera in November of 1990.

To some critics, including Page, Sondheim’s greatest masterpiece is Sweeney Todd, a work that is interesting for many reasons aside from its unusual and dark subject matter. Those include its categorization in genre: some consider it an opera, or at least a crossover. “It has demands for specific singers that are more operatic, yet need the acting skills necessary in traditional musicals,” Michigan Opera Theater assistant music director and chorus master Suzanne Acton said in an article in Detroit Free Press.

This 2014 performance of the Johanna Quartet from Sweeney Todd provides a good example: it’s fascinating to hear bass-baritone and frequent operatic star Bryn Terfel as the title character, singing side by side with a Broadway headliner in Jay Armstrong Johnson.

Finally, as evidence of just how strongly Sondheim’s passing has been felt in the musical community, watch here as a large group of Broadway artists — including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban, and Sara Bareilles — gather in Times Square this past Sunday, November 28, to sing “Sunday” from Sunday In The Park With George.