by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Cavani String Quartet meets up for its latest collaboration with poet Mwatabu Okantah, Professor of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University. The subject of “Collage” is spoken poetry woven in and around music, and the program will be streamed live from the Bop Stop at 7:00 pm. Free, but donations welcome.

(Speaking of poetry, read the back story of Amanda Gorman’s electrifying contribution to yesterday’s Biden/Harris Inauguration ceremony.)

Fans of gaming music can tune in to Local 4 Music Fund’s latest episode of “Tuning In,” a program of piano arrangements of Nintendo soundtracks played by Rob Kovacs. Click here at 7:00 pm to access “88 bit.” Free, but donations benefit musicians.

And here’s a heads up for Friday, when a Curtis Opera Theatre duet scenes program streams at noon, and the evening lineup includes Jason Vieaux on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, CityMusic Cleveland chamber music in-person at St. Stanislaus, the Catalyst Quartet hosted by CIM, and the Oberlin Trio, when violinist David Bowlin and pianist Haewon Song welcome new cellist, Dmitry Kouzov. Some triage will be necessary!

INTERESTING READ:

New Yorker critic Alex Ross takes a different approach to Beethoven in the composer’s 250th anniversary year. Read Keep Beethoven Weird here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1575, Queen Elizabeth I granted English composers Thomas Tallis and William Byrd letters patent that gave them a monopoly over publishing music and music paper. The first collection, set that year by the Hugenot printer T. Vautrollier, was Cantiones sacrae, containing 17 motets each by the two composers. Listen to Tallis’ O nata lux de lumine sung by Almire here. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

MUSIC BEFORE, DURING & AFTER THE INAUGURATION:

The day opens with the “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, led by Col. Jason K. Fettig. From 10 to 11:30 am, gathered below the inauguration stage, the band plays an “Inaugural Prelude” of thirteen pieces ranging from “some of the earliest pieces of music that were written for George Washington,” as Fettig told The Washington Post, to music by living composers, including Peter Boyer’s newly commissioned Fanfare for Tomorrow.

(At the time of writing, the broadcast — available on many news outlets, streaming services, and on the website of the Biden Inaugural Committee — alternates footage of the band with other shots around the Capitol, joined together with plenty of commentary of course. Fortunately, even when the band isn’t in view, they can be heard in the distance.)

View the Marine Band’s full program here, and read that Washington Post article for an interesting juxtaposition of the violent riot at the Capitol two weeks ago, and music’s ability of “gluing our nation together,” as Fettig said. The article also delves into the long history of the Marine Band in presidential inaugurations — more on that later.

After Joe Biden is sworn in as president not long before noon, the Marine Band will join Lady Gaga in The Star-Spangled Banner. Other performances on the schedule around that hour include Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks. And later this afternoon, the 3:15 “virtual parade” hosted by actor Tony Goldwyn will include music by Earth Wind & Fire.

The most star-studded feature of the day comes at 8:30 pm. An event hosted by Tom Hanks will feature a word from Biden and Kamala Harris, and performances by Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato, Ant Clemons, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, and the Foo Fighters.

MORE MUSIC ON THE WEB & AIRWAVES:

In the classical realm, noon brings WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra as well as an online seminar from the Kronberg Academy with pianist Kirill Gerstein and cellist Steven Isserlis, focusing on Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano.

8:00 pm brings part five of Daniel Shapiro’s complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas. And at that same hour, and you can catch a program from Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion. See our Concert Listings for details about these events.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Among those anniversaries in the classical music world to honor today: the birth of three composers (Ernest Chausson – 1855, Walter Piston – 1894, and Kati Agocs – 1975), and two conductors who split the difference: Iván Fischer (born in 1951) and Claudio Abbado (died in 2014).

But today, it’s also interesting to look back on memorable performances over the years by classical musicians at U.S. presidential inaugurations. WQXR has curated a list of seven, beginning with the first such performance by the Marine Band — for noted musical enthusiast Thomas Jefferson.

Other names on the list include the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and several vocal stars: Marian Anderson, Jessye Norman, Marilyn Horne, and the duo of Susan Graham and Denyce Graves. In 2009, Barack Obama broke up the pattern with some instrumental chamber music: the premiere of John Williams’ Air and Simple Gifts by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero.

by Daniel Hathaway

ONLINE PERFORMANCES DEBUTING NOW:

The all-Czech Bennewitz Quartet has recorded an exclusive, full-length concert in lieu of their cancelled performance on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series this season. Violinists Jakub Fišer and Štěpán Ježek, violist Jiří Pinkas, and cellist Štěpán Doležal play Haydn’s Quartet in G, Op. 17/5, Schulhoff’s Five Pieces, and Beethoven’s Quartet in F, Op. 135. Watch free on-demand here.

And yesterday, Apollo’s Fire released a special playlist for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Episode 18 in its Music for the Soul video series includes selections from AF’s “Resilience” concert featuring Ashlee Foreman, an aria from Bach’s Matthew-Passion sung by countertenor Reggie Mobley with Tenet, Joseph Bolognes’ Symphonie Concertante in G played by the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Stewart Goodyear with the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. Watch here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On January 19, 1955, English conductor Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool. After leading the Berlin Philharmonic for 16 years, he returned to England to lead the London Symphony. A few days ago, he surprised the British classical music world when he announced that he was cutting his London ties in 2023 to lead the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich and applying for German citizenship. From The Guardian on January 16:

“My passport is on the way,” Rattle told a news conference on Friday, when asked if he had followed many EU-based Britons in applying for citizenship that will let them continue to work freely around the bloc. “The fact that musicians and artists in general suddenly have to get visas for Europe is absolutely not the Brexit bonus we were talking about,” he said. “We will have to fight it.”

Watch a full-length interview with Rattle by Classic FM presenter and soprano Catherine Bott here, and enjoy a live performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Rattle and the LSO at the Barbican Center in September, 2017.

And here’s live video of “Hope & Harmony,” a special concert that Rattle led in Boston in 2019 to raise funds for underserved women with breast cancer. The Orchestra for the performance in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory included members of Mistral, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the MET Opera Orchestra and others.

And on this date in 1961, Leonard Bernstein’s 36-second long Fanfare was performed at the Inaugural Gala for President John F. Kennedy by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band.

More fanfares are planned for the Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Alexandria, VA-based Classical Movements has organized “Inauguration Fanfares” in association with Marin Alsop and the Hope & Harmony Ensemble, featuring musicians from 14 professional orchestras performing Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1. That project streams at 12 Noon today. Watch here and read more here.

Composer Peter Boyer has been commissioned by the United States Marine Band to compose a special fanfare for the 2021 ceremony. His Fanfare for Tomorrow will be featured in hour-long prelude music to the Inauguration conducted by Colonel Jason K. Fettig.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Check last Wednesday’s Diary for a rundown on events celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose official holiday is observed on Monday, January 18.

On Monday, two of Cleveland’s leading cultural institutions will re-open for the first time since November 19. The Cleveland Museum of Art is accepting timed reservations between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm (last reservations begin at 4:00 pm), and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum re-opens with an exhibit of some of the 100,000 images donated to the institution by Rolling Stone magazine’s first chief photographer Baron Wolman, who died in November.

And Ohio City’s Transformer Station will also open its doors to the public on Monday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

INTERESTING READ:

Two baritone friends — New York freelancer Steven LaBrie and German baritone Jarrett Ott, who has a full-time job — are featured in a New York Times article that contrasts how two countries have supported their artists in the current public health crisis. Read “Two Friends, Two Continents, Very Different Pandemics” here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Among those who have affected the history of classical music who were born or died on these three dates:

Anton Schindler (d. January 16, 1864), who falsely claimed a close relationship with Beethoven and manufactured bogus information about the composer. But perhaps not as extensively as his critics have claimed. Watch Decriminalization of Beethoven’s first Biographer Anton Schindler here.

American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (b. January 16, 1934), who has been a regular guest for master classes at Oberlin after her retirement from a distinguished career in art song and opera. Watch her coach soprano Greta Groothuis in arias by Handel and Mozart in December, 2019 here.

Italian-American conductor Arturo Toscanini (d. January 16, 1957), who led the NBC Symphony in groundbreaking radio and television broadcasts. Listen to him rehearsing Verdi’s Requiem here.

Dutch harpsichordist and conductor Gustav Leonhardt (d. January 16, 2012), who mentored such young musicians as Jeanette Sorrell, founder of Apollo’s Fire. Watch the Dutch documentary Traveler in Music here (partially subtitled).

American composer Donald Erb (b. January 17, 1927 in Youngstown), who graduated from Lakewood High School, spent his early career as a jazz trumpeter, and returned to the Cleveland Institute of Music where he had earned his master’s degree to become Distinguished Professor of Composition at CIM. Listen here to the fourth movement of his Ritual Observances (1991) commissioned by St. Louis Symphony and dedicated to Leonard Slatkin and the late Cleveland percussionist Bruce Collie. Slatkin conducts the CIM Orchestra.

And on January 18, 1962, President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy invited Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky to “a small dinner” at the White House. Read more here.

by Daniel Hathaway

CELEBRATING THE WOMAN BEHIND MLK:

Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Stimm’ in unsern Jubel ein!
Nie wird es zu hoch besungen,
Retterin des Gatten sein.

Those are the words that close Beethoven’s Fidelio, when the entire company celebrates the freeing of Florestan and other political prisoners through the intervention of his faithful wife Leonora.

Somehow, in the curious way the mind connects things, listening recently to that ebullient finale made me wonder why the celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy around his birthday on January 15 every year rarely mention his own faithful wife, Coretta Scott King, who continued his campaigns against racism and injustice after his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

Moreso, as Jeanne Theoharis writes in a February, 2018 article in The Guardian, “Martin Luther King’s ‘helpmate’ was a seasoned civil rights campaigner in her own right — ‘never just a wife, never just a widow.’” Read I am not a symbol, I am an activist’: the untold story of Coretta Scott King here.

She was also a musician, who went on after graduating from Antioch College to earn bachelor’s degrees in voice and violin at The New England Conservatory, where she met her future husband, who was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University. She talks about her singing career in a video interview for the National Visionary Leadership Project, and in a WFMT article.

Sample the flavor of Coretta Scott King’s oratory in her address at Harvard’s Class Day Excercises in 1968, when she stood in for her late husband only weeks after his assassination, and six days after Robert F. Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles.

An early protester against the Vietnam War who also campaigned for gay rights and was arrested in 1985 along with her son Martin III and her two daugherts for protesting South Africa’s policy of apartheid outside the country’s embassy in Washington, Coretta Scott King’s 15-year lobbying effort resulted in the Act of Congress that established Martin Luther King Day as an official national holiday — the first non-President to be so honored.

And just for fun, on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, actor John Lithgow recalled having Coretta Scott babysit him and his siblings in Yellow Springs, Ohio during her time at Antioch.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

Here are three interesting local events to attract your attention, and all three air at 7:00 pm tonight.

Local 4 Music Fund of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians hosts a live stream featuring percussionists Mell Csicsila and Andrew Pongracz, who perform as Duo Anime, but haven’t played together for nearly a year thanks to the pandemic. The feed originates at Survival Kit Studios, and you can read a preview of the program here.

The Cleveland Orchestra is airing a repeat of its 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. Check out yesterday’s Diary for details.

And live from the Bop Stop, long-time collaborators Jackie Warren, piano and Sammy DeLeon, timbales, come together again.

Whichever show you choose, do consider making a donation during the performance

INTERESTING READS:

In a timely Op-Ed piece, New York Times critic Jason Farago asks fundamental questions about the function of art and what it does for a person or a country. Read “The Arts Are in Crisis. Here’s how Biden Can Help” here.

AKRON SYMPHONY SURVEY:

The Akron Symphony has developed a survey to determine “how people have been engaging with the arts and when they might be comfortable coming back to live events in a concert hall.” They’re interested to hear from you even if you’re not a regular ASO patron. Click here to log your responses.

ORMACO SEEKS PERFORMERS:

Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach writes, “For our 2022 schedule, we are seeking professional musicians from a variety of genres for the following: One-hour live stream or pre-recorded streaming concerts for: January 9, February 13, March 13 and April 10 from 2-3 pm. One-hour outdoor Concerts in the Country to be held at ORMACO’s home-HeARTland, 8187 Camp Road, Homerville, OH 44235 for: May 15, June 12, July 10, Aug. 14, September 11 and October 9. One-hour concerts at the Homerville Community Center Auditorium for: November 13 and December 11 We are also lining up Jazz under the Stars, which takes place at Medina’s Uptown Park Gazebo from 7 to 9 pm. for the following 2022 dates: June 4, July 9, August 6 and August 27 If interested, please email credentials and samples here.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Several sources claim that the clarinet was invented by German woodwind builder Johann Christoph Denner on this date in 1690 in Nürnberg. Well…Denner seems to have added a register key to the chalmeau, a single-reed instrument whose origins can be traced back to ancient times. In any case, clarinets entered the orchestra during the Classical period and such virtuosi as Anton Stadler mastered them an inspired two wonderful solo works by Mozart. A good excuse to revisit Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet performed by Franklin Cohen and his ChamberFest Cleveland colleagues here.

Speaking of Mozart, January 14, 1800 was the birthdate of the Austrian musicographer Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, who compiled the first comprehensive catalogue of the composer’s works, hence the “K” numbers that identify them.

Many composers kept their own lists of compositions, often assigning them Opus (“Work”) numbers if they thought them worthy of a position in their personal canon. We have four sets of catalogue numbers for Beethoven: his own Opus list (Nos. 1-135), then a 1955 list by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm of “Works without Opus Numbers” (WoOo numbers 1-125), and a further list of works compiled by Willy Hess in the 1950s identified by Hess numbers. The final catalogue, compiled by Giovanni Biamonti in 1968, attempts a chronological listing of all of Beethoven’s works, Opus, WoO, and Hess numbers included. Otto Deutsch did a similar favor for Schubert, assigning his works “D” numbers.

Good trivia question: How many works did each of these composers leave to posterity? Mozart: at least 626 plus fragments. Beethoven: 849 according to Biamonti. Schubert: 993. Bach: more than 1,126. Numbers are approximate — some include lost works.

And looking forward to the celebrations this weekend, it was on this day in 1979 that President Jimmy Carter proposed observing Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday.

by Jarrett Hoffman

REFLECTING ON MLK:

On Monday, we featured a video of Metropolitan Opera principal trumpet Billy Hunter playing The Star-Spangled Banner, but going quiet at the end at two key words: “free” and “brave.” One possible takeaway from that is a message that has become more and more of a refrain in society over the past year, from the killing of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, to the violence inflicted on peaceful protesters this past summer, to the lenient treatment of insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol last week: “We live in two different Americas.”

The phrase “two Americas” was most famously uttered by Martin Luther King, Jr. during a speech at Stanford University in 1967. King was not addressing discriminatory treatment at the hands of police: he was speaking about the economic stratification of society, especially in relationship to race. But it’s a timeless phrase with many applications, as was made more clear than ever one week ago today in Washington, D.C., and it serves as one possible avenue through which to reflect on the legacy of human rights and activism that King left behind.

On the day of the Capitol insurrection, Senator-elect Raphael Warnock — who is also the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, a former congregation of King’s — offered up another quote that never ceases to be relevant. Warnock wrote on Twitter:

In this moment of unrest, violence and anger, we must remember the words of Dr. King, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Let each of us try to be a light to see our country out of this dark moment.

It’s impossible to summarize King through a couple of statements. But both the incredible ability to inspire, as seen in that quote, and the keen awareness of society’s injustices (“Two Americas”) are part of who he was.

On that note, let us proceed to a collection of arts-related events in the area that will be accessible virtually over the coming days, and that are designed to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14:

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Annual MLK Celebration will be a re-broadcast of the 2018 event, which was held during the 50th anniversary year of King’s assassination. It’s available for free on the Orchestra’s Adella platform from 7:00 pm on January 14 until April 14.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Orchestra, which is joined by narrator James Pickens Jr., bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, and the MLK Celebration Chorus, directed by William Henry Caldwell.

The program includes Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Mendelssohn’s “Lord God of Abraham” from Elijah and his Symphony No. 5 finale, Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Respighi’s “Pines of the Appian Way” from Pines of Rome, Verdi’s “Va pensiero” from Nabucco, the spiritual Down by the Riverside (arr. Floyd), Dorsey’s Precious Lord (arr. Floyd), Steffe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic (arr. Wilhousky), and Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17:

The Bop Stop offers two live streams on Sunday. First up, at 3:00 pm, is the free MLK Memorial Concert, curated by Linda Allen and Matthew Jones and featuring performances by Music Settlement faculty and students. Click here at start time.

Then at 7:00 pm, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra Little Big Band joins with the Roots of American Music to present “The Blues and the Self Evident Truth.” The program, featuring vocalist Reginald Bowens, includes excerpts from Chris Coles’ Nine Lives Suite, music by Oliver Nelson to accompany a reading of King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and works by Herbie Hancock and Paul Ferguson. Click here at start time (free but donations accepted).

(An excerpt from that famous letter — You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue…I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.)

Also on Sunday (7:00 pm on WUAB Channel 43) — before repeating on Monday, January 18 (9:00 am on WOIO Channel 19, and 11:00 am on Channel 43) — the Cleveland Public Library will host its 36th Annual Commemorative Celebration of MLK.

The event includes performances by the Karamu House (which will reenact Robert Kennedy’s 1968 eulogy for King), as well as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District All-City Arts Choir, The Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, and members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Alpha Lambda Chapter.

And as part of a mission to honor “unsung heroes who exemplify Dr. King’s legacy,” the program will incorporate a conversation with Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle, Pastor Emeritus at Antioch Baptist Church, in addition to recognizing 2021 Drum Major For Change recipient India Pierce Lee, Cleveland Foundation Senior Vice President and community leader. [Read more…]

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…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC: NATIONAL ANTHEMS

The 178th anniversary today of the death of Francis Scott Key got me reflecting on memorable performances of The Star-Spangled Banner. Here are five that came to mind.

Accompanied by Jahja Ling and The Florida Orchestra, pop icon Whitney Houston’s rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl is rightfully one of the most famous, often serving as a point of comparison to those that have come since. Its enduring appeal comes both from its context (in the midst of the Persian Gulf War) and of course from the performance itself, which is absolutely staggering — a snapshot of what it truly is for a voice to soar.

Here’s another important Super Bowl performance: in 2014, Renée Fleming became the first opera singer to perform the National Anthem at that event. It was a big moment in the mainstream spotlight for classical music, and her mixture of pop and operatic style largely received high marks. Critic Anne Midgette gave a deep analysis here for The Washington Post.

On the more experimental side, I was fortunate enough to be in person for organist Cameron Carpenter’s adventurous National Anthem before his appearance with the Hawaii Symphony in 2018. Sadly it’s nowhere to be found online — you’ll just have to imagine one surprising chord after another, and plenty of grinding dissonance. Here’s a fitting substitute, though: Carpenter’s wild Stars and Stripes Forever.

When vocalists tinker around with the National Anthem, usually what they’re doing is adding more and more dramatic ornamentation (or occasionally forgetting the lyrics). But at the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, singer-songwriter Anthony Hamilton bucked convention in a truly unique and refreshing way. He reimagines much of the melody in an understated way, while still holding onto the signature moments, and he delivers it all with plenty of smooth soulfulness — brilliant.

The circumstances of this last performance are completely different. No stage, no crowd, just one man in a room. As part of clarinetist Anthony McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees movement for racial justice in the spring of 2020, Metropolitan Opera principal trumpet Billy Hunter shared a powerful rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner that notably goes quiet at two key words at the end. Explaining it here doesn’t do it justice. Listen, and feel the emptiness of those silences.

SUMMIT COUNTY ARTIST RELIEF

ArtsNow has announced an Artist Relief Fund for artists who live and/or work in Summit County and who have been impacted by the pandemic. Grants of $500 or $1000 per person will be awarded from the $50,000 that has been provided by the GAR Foundation. Applications will be accepted through January 28 at midnight. Click here for more details and to apply.

CLEVELANDCLASSICAL “ALUMS”:

Let’s check in with three past contributors to ClevelandClassical.com by reading some of their most recent stories.

In The Boston Globe, Zoë Madonna writes about the Boston Hope Music Teaching Project, which connected frontline health care workers with conservatory students for music lessons this past fall. “The goal wasn’t to teach them skill or technique, but to provide a refuge from day-to-day life on the COVID ward…”

In San Francisco Classical Voice, Jeremy Reynolds talks to members of Sō Percussion, Third Coast Percussion, and Yarn/Wire about the proliferation of percussion ensembles in the contemporary classical scene. “The new is being embraced in a more important way than it ever has been.”

And for WTTW in Chicago, Daniel Hautzinger writes about the death of democracy — but not in the United States. Instead, he covers the documentary A Thousand Cuts, about the Philippines under the regime of Rodrigo Duterte. “You really have to be vigilant, because you can take your eyes off the ball, and then so quickly democratic institutions crumble.”

by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE AIRWAVES:

The performance not to be missed this weekend is the rebroadcast of the concert that opened The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2003-2004 season. On September 25 and 27, Franz Welser-Möst led the Orchestra and Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, the subject of Sunday’s 4:00 pm Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio program on WCLV 104.9 Ideastream and wclv.org.

Commissioned for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral after the destruction of the Medieval building in World War II and first performed on May 30, 1962 by the City of Birmingham Symphony conducted by Meredith Davies, and the Melos Ensemble, conducted by the composer, the work strikingly interleaves anti-war poetry by Wilfred Owen in between movements of the Latin Mass.

Soloists for the 2003 Cleveland performances included Melanie Diener, soprano, John Mark Ainsley, tenor, and Thomas Hampson, baritone. Following the concerts at Severance Hall, the Cleveland forces took the War Requiem to Vienna.

JUPITERS AND JASPERS PRODUCE JOINT RECORDING:

The Jupiter and Jasper String Quartets have collaborated on a new album to be released on February 5 on Marquis Classics. As Jupiter violist explains in a press release, “the Jasper and Jupiter quartets are brought together by many dimensions of connection. There are siblings — J Freivogel from the Jaspers is the younger brother of Jupiter members Meg and Liz Freivogel; spouses — Rachel Henderson Freivogel and J are married in the Jaspers, and Daniel McDonough and Meg are married in the Jupiters; and longtime friends —Nelson Lee and Karen Kim were apartment mates while they were college students in Boston, and both they and Sam Quintal are enduring friends and colleagues of all of the quartets’ members, with relationships stretching back two decades.”

The album includes the premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath (2011), Osvaldo Golijov’s Piazzolla tribute, Last Round (1996), and the Mendelssohn Octet, in which the 16-year-old composer “weaves all kinds of deft and subtle conversations among the eight musicians, in every possible combination.”

Visit the Jasper and Jupiter Quartet websites for ordering information.

ICE ISSUES A CALL FOR ____(fill in the blank)___:

The International Contemporary Ensemble — no, not Immigration Customs Enforcement, in case you were worried — is looking to connect with new artists and get to know their work in 2021.

In an e-message, ICE invites individual creators or creators’ collectives in the practice of performed sound (composers, sound artists, generative music makers, or __________) to collaborate with us over an 18-month period starting in April 2021. Selected artists will be commissioned for a new work to be premiered at one of our concerts during the upcoming concert season. Commission fees start at $4,000, and selected artists will also receive remote workshop and rehearsal opportunities with the Ensemble’s musicians throughout the process. Two of the selected artists will be supported through a generous partnership with the Jerome Foundation.”

More information, including other opportunities to collaborate with the Ensemble will be available in an online information session on January 12. Interested parties are invited to submit questions beforehand by email, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions is available here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

On Saturday, celebrate the birth in 1839 of John Knowles Paine, in Portland, Maine, one of the first American composers to gain widespread acclaim for their orchestral music, along with his colleagues of “The Boston Six:” George Chadwick, Horatio Parker, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, and Mrs. H. H. A. (Amy) Beach.

Paine studied in Germany, and on his return to the U.S. in 1861, became Harvard University’s first organist and choirmaster. Free courses he taught in music appreciation and theory led to the founding of the first American academic music department and his appointment as the country’s first professor of music.

Paine is celebrated for his symphonies and his Mass in D, but here are two period pieces that imbibe the flavor of his era. His 1903 Hymn to the West, performed here in a version for orchestra alone by the National Gallery Orchestra, was the official hymn of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. And the fourth variation and fugue from his Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn receives a revival from students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Thinking of Lincoln Center, which sits dark and empty at this stage of the pandemic, turns thoughts to the anniversaries of Rudolph Bing (born in Vienna on January 9, 1902) and George Balanchine (in Georgia in 1904). Bing, who oversaw the MET Opera’s move to Lincoln Center in 1963, was famously described by New York Times critic in 1990: “Wielding his powerful position at the Metropolitan Opera with intense personal charisma over two decades, Sir Rudolf Bing ruled much of the operatic universe in autocratic fashion, nurturing young artists and cutting superstars down to size with equal enthusiasm).” He once fired Maria Callas.

And Balanchine co-founded the New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein, for which he choreographed works by Hindemith (The Four Temperaments), Stravinsky (Firebird, Agon), and other contemporary composers, in addition to his durable Nutcracker, which has been performed every year by the company. Watch his choreography to Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments here.

We mentioned Benjamin Britten earlier. His teacher, British composer Frank Bridge, died on January 10, 1941 in Eastbourne. For a taste of Bridge’s own music, here’s a rare performance of his Piano Quintet from the “Forgotten Romantics Series” at the Australian National Academy of Music, and his setting of Music When Soft Voices Die from a ChamberFest Cleveland performance in Reinberger Chamber Hall in 2016.