by Daniel Hathaway

SEPTEMBER!

Welcome to what should from its name be the seventh month of the year — if we had the good sense to begin the annual cycle in March with spring, like the Romans, who also gave us October, November, and December. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the beginning of the academic year as well as the usual beginning of the concert season.

Faculty, students, musicians and other performing artists will be facing unprecedented challenges in 2020-2021 and are addressing the resumption of activities in a number of ways, many of them innovative, and some that may be carried over as opportunities once the pandemic is history.

At ClevelandClassical.com, we’re seeing a gradual resumption of live events — some to be streamed without audiences, some with limited attendees, some designed as hybrid events that will permit in-person as well as remote experiences. Some organizations are developing pre-recorded content for streaming, while others are taking a pass for the fall months in hopes of better conditions after the first of the calendar year.

[Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Here are three birthdays to celebrate today: Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886), Israeli-American violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman (born in 1945), and American composer Lee Hyla (1952-2014).

Highly accomplished but not widely known, Hyla won a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize, and taught at the New England Conservatory and Northwestern University. He deserves another look.

Perlman needs no introduction, and is still writing a remarkable legacy that includes sixteen Grammys, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a performance at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, among so many honors. (“75 is pretty good,” Perlman told Howard Reich in a recent interview for the Chicago Tribune. “Things are still working!”)

Today we’ll focus on Ponchielli (above), and just for fun, we’ll do it by imagining his career as a set of matryoshkas. If we say that the composer himself is the largest doll, then nesting just inside is his best-known work, La Gioconda. And inside that is the act-three finale for which the opera is most famous, the charming Dance of the Hours.

And to take it a step further, that little doll surely belongs within yet another set of matryoshkas, one representing the 1940 film Fantasia. Which brings me back to December 2014, when then-assistant conductor Brett Mitchell led The Cleveland Orchestra in Disney Fantasia Live in Concert at Severance Hall. As Mitchell said to the audience after the Dance of the Hours, “You’ve never lived until you’ve conducted hippos in tutus.” (See what he means here on YouTube.) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

SCHOOLS OF MUSIC NEWS:

The campuses of Northeast Ohio Universities and Conservatories are coming to life this week as students — masked and observing safety protocols — return for various configurations of a new academic year. The normally busy concert schedules we usually begin publishing are subject to improvisation as larger ensembles begin rehearsing outdoors and nearly all performances will be streamed on the Internet. We’ll follow this developing story as plans unfold. (Oberlin check-in photo by Yvonne Gay).

Meanwhile, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory will launch its new year with a faculty convocation recital to be streamed today at 3:00 pm. Point your browser here at start time to watch.

And in planning for the future, Oberlin Conservatory would like to hear which of its summer “Oberlin Stage Left” programs resonated with viewers. Go here to vote and make suggestions for future online programs.

LIVE TODAY — IN A PARKING LOT:

The Marshall Griffith Trio (Marshall Griffith, piano, Linda White, flute, Dean Newton, bass) will play an hour-long, live drive-in concert today at 6:30 pm in the parking lot of the Cleveland Heights Recreation Center on Monticello Blvd. Tickets go for $5, and listeners are restricted to their cars. Reserve here. Rain date is Friday.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez (most often simply known as Josquin) died on this date in 1521 at the age of 81 in Valenciennes. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

WCLV’s Cleveland Ovations this evening at 8 features “Lux Caelestis,” a concert by Cleveland Chamber Choir conducted by Scott MacPherson that the ensemble presented twice in November, 2019. This publication reviewed the performance at St. John’s Cathedral. Listen at 104.9 FM or on the web.

Intrigued by the sounds singers are able to produce in contemporary music? Stephanie Lamprea gives a livestream workshop in extended techniques this afternoon at 2 in a session designed for singers, instrumentalists, and avant-garde enthusiasts. This might come in handy one of these days, if researchers are ever able to agree on protocols for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus through singing. RSVP here.

And as always during these distressing times, The Cleveland Orchestra and the MET Opera offer daily doses of past performances to tide us over. At lunchtime, the Orchestra serves up Richard Strauss and a Beethoven quartet movement reformatted for full strings, and this evening, the MET continues its Verdi week with Luisa Miller.

LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS:

After 25 seasons, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and its founder and music director Liza Grossman have announced their mutual intention to “move in different directions” for the 2020-2021 season. In the same email message received today, Grossman wrote, “In addition to continuing my relationship with [the rock group] Styx, I will be pursuing conducting opportunities that include recordings and performances.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Two births and a death to mark today.

American composer, pianist, and critic Arthur Loesser was born on this date in 1894 in New York, the half-brother of Broadway composer Frank Loesser (who he referred to as “the evil of two Loessers”).

His career took him to Cleveland, where he began teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1926 and from 1953 headed its piano department. He died on January 4, 1969 of a heart attack at the wheel of his car outside CIM.

A witty commentator, Loesser wrote program notes for The Cleveland Orchestra and Vladimir Horowitz, and penned the popular book Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History. He talked about that book in a two-part lecture at the University of Michigan in July of 1965. Listen here and here.

On August 25, 1958, British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams died in London at the age of 82. His thoroughly English oeuvre reflects a long-standing pastoral tradition that often includes folk song. But he could be equally inspired by literature (John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress) and poetry, as in his miraculous setting of George Meredith’s poem The Lark Ascending. Listen here to a performance by violinist Rafael Druian and the Cleveland Sinfonietta, led by Louis Lane.

And on this date in 1960, American saxophonist Branford Marsalis was born in New Orleans. A good way to celebrate would be to enjoy the Marsalis Quartet’s performance at the Jazz Sous les Pommiers festival at Coutances in the French province of Normandy on May 21, 2009. Watch here.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on this date in 1918. We’ve previously mentioned his sole appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra in a 1970 performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony at Blossom, but today it might be fun to go behind the scenes and watch “Lenny” in rehearsal — a process even more revealing than a resulting performance.

I had the honor of studying with Bernstein in the conducting class at Tanglewood in the early ‘70s, and of singing in Mahler 2 with the Harvard-Radcliffe Choruses and the Boston Symphony on a radiant summer afternoon during that time. Click here to watch Bernstein rehearse Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring during the 1987 International Conductor’s Competition and Master Course at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. And in a separate clip, he takes the triangle players in Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette aside for a brief tutorial.

And on August 25, 2002, American bass-baritone William Warfield died in Chicago at the age of 82 (read an obituary here). He launched his career with a debut recital at New York’s Town Hall in 1950, and two years later — in an age when cultural diplomacy was still important — he performed in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in the first of six tours he made for the U.S. State Department.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Warfield went on to teach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and later at Northwestern University.

In his first television appearance in 1951, he was featured in “It ain’t necessarily so from Porgy (listen here), and toward the end of his career in 2000, he sang one of his signature pieces, Schubert’s Erlkönig in California. To appreciate another aspect of his artistic talents, you can hear his recitations of Paul Lauence Dunbar’s “Deacon Jones’ Grievance,” “Prometheus,” and “When Malindy Sings” here.

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

In addition to Bernstein, Haydn, and Mozart on WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra and the MET Opera’s Il Trovatore during Verdi Week, tune in to the 92nd St. Y’s archive performance by the Danish String Quartet. Details here.

INTERESTING LINKS:

For musicians (and listeners) who are interested in diversifying their repertoire, the Oberlin Conservatory Library has curated a list of digital resources available via the Library’s website.

And Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have been busy filming concerts in the empty Hollywood Bowl, which boasts a stage capacious enough to accommodate a full, socially-distanced orchestra. The performances will be streamed free of charge. Details here.

by Daniel Hathaway

LES DÉLICES LAUNCHES SALONERA SERIES TODAY:

Cleveland’s mostly French Baroque ensemble wades into new waters with its every-other-Monday SalonEra series, which premieres online tonight at 7:30 pm. The first episode of the series, which has been specifically designed for interactive viewing on the internet, will feature an all-J.S. Bach program performed by soprano Sherezade Panthaki, violinist Shelby Yamin, keyboardist Eric Milnes, and violist da gamba Mélisande Corriveau. The series is free, though a $10 donation is suggested, and can be viewed on several platforms (see the Concert Listings for details and click here to view the calendar of forthcoming programs.)

INTERESTING READS:

As some organizations begin taking exploratory steps to offer live performances once again, New York Times critic Anthony Tomassini writes about the difference between live and virtual concerts with reference to recitals of both types by pianist Conrad Tao. And his colleagues Joshua Barone and Zachary Woolfe reflect on their experience attending the same in-person concert after being deprived for nearly half a year: they heard the JACK Quartet playing in a New Jersey parking lot.

And as performing arts schools begin their fall semesters virtually or in-person, three Washington Post arts writers survey a number of officials — including Oberlin Conservatory Dean William Quillen — about the challenges ahead.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The late American composer Stephan Paulus was born on this date in 1949 in Summit, New Jersey, though he spent most of his career in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. His life was tragically cut short by a stroke which led to his death in 2014.

His some 450 works are dominated by choral pieces of all dimensions and the four operas he wrote for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Paulus was a popular composer-in-residence, having served in that position with the Atlanta Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the orchestras of Tucson and Annapolis.

Organist Paul Jacobs performed his Grand Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2017, and Elizabeth Lentl soloed in his smaller Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Percussion with Trinity Chamber Orchestra at a Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert in 2012. Watch the latter performance here.

For a taste of Paulus’ choral music, click here to watch the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus sing his “Wonder Tidings” from Three Nativity Carols at Rocky River Presbyterian Church in 2013.

by Daniel Hathaway

WEEKEND EVENTS LIVE AND ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

Northeast Ohio’s appetite for live performances is in much in evidence this weekend: all of Apollo’s Fire’s al fresco performances of “Tuscan Sun” have sold out.

Tri-C JazzFest’s Virtual Festival of 90-minute performances continues today and Sunday at 7 with a mix of live and pre-recorded events.

In the wake of the unexpected death last week of its music director, the Youngstown Symphony has revised its gala on Saturday at 7 as a memorial to Randall Craig Fleischer.

Streaming events of interest to Northeast Ohio Audiences this weekend include the Swingles on Voces 8’s Live from London series (Saturday at 2), and two concerts from the La Jolla Music Festival featuring pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Tessa Lark, and cellist Clive Greensmith, cello (Saturday at 10 pm) and violinist Yura Lee, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and Barnatan (Sunday at 6).

WCLV’S Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio revisits a concert from April, 2013 featuring Frank Peter Zimmerman in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto (Saturday at 8), and a performance from October, 2013 that includes two symphonies: Beethoven’s No, 3 and Shostakovich’s No, 6 (Sunday at 4), both led by Franz Welser-Möst.

And for MET Opera fans, an archived performance of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Sivglia stream on Saturday, followed by Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel on Sunday, both at 7:30.

Check the Concert Listings for details.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Italian madrigalist Luca Marenzio died on August 22, 1599 in Rome, having crafted some 500 examples of that Renaissance-early Baroque vocal form while in the employ of the Gonzaga, Este, and Medici families. While Northeast Ohio singers have yet to tackle his works, London’s Fieri Consort offers a lecture recital featuring live performances of pieces by Marenzio and his contemporaries. Watch here.

Born on August 22, 1862 in St. Germain-en-Laye, French composer Claude Debussy has come to be regarded as the musical embodiment of the impressionist movement created by contemporary visual artists, though he disliked that stylistic label. Today is a good opportunity to revisit one of his less-performed works, the Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and Orchestra, performed here by Franklin Cohen and The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Pierre Boulez. (Don’t bother looking for Debussy’s Deuxième Rhapsodie — there isn’t one!)

On August 23, 1900, composer Ernst Krenek was born in Vienna. During his career he embraced several musical styles (his jazz opera opera Jonny spielt auf caused a sensation in Europe) and moved about, finally settling in the U.S. in 1945. The Cleveland Orchestra recorded his Static and Ecstatic just before the pandemic shutdown for release on October 2 — its second recording of 2020.

And composer Irving Fine died in Boston on August 23, 1962 at the age of 48. His music hasn’t been played often outside the Boston area, but his Serious Song, Lament for String Orchestra, composed in 1955, seems appropriate for the anniversary of his premature leave-taking. Listen here to a recording by Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony from 1962.

by Daniel Hathaway

NEWS BRIEFS:

Oberlin alumnus Randall Craig Fleischer, conductor of the Youngstown Symphony as well as New York’s Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Alaska’s Anchorage Symphony, died unexpectedly at his home in California on Wednesday at the age of 61. Read a story from the Youngstown Business Journal here.

On August 20, The Cleveland Orchestra released the third edition of TCO Classics. “Summer Nights,” a collection of memorable performances at Blossom. The series marks the first time that free, on-demand streams of full-length concert recordings are available directly from the Cleveland Orchestra website. The streams will be accessible through September 17. More information here.

The Orchestra has also announced the release on October 2 of its second 2020 recording, captured just as the coronavirus began shuttering its live performances. Featuring Schubert’s Ninth Symphony and Ernst Křenek’s Static and Ecstatic, the album was recorded on March 13 in Severance Hall with only a dozen people in attendance. More information here.

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

In addition to the daily Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra broadcast over WCLV (some Beethoven, some Mozart, and Walter Piston’s Suite from The Incredible Flutist), the weekly carillon concert in University Circle, and the nightly MET Opera stream (Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra), today marks the beginning of the three-day Tri-C JazzFest Virtual Festival, and features a special recital by organist Aaron Tan from St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. (Tan, winner of the American Guild of Organists’ 2018 National Competition in Organ Performance, played in Cleveland at St. John’s Cathedral in February of 2019). Details here.

INTERESTING READS AND VIDEOS:

Jarrett Hoffman, ClevelandClassical.com’s managing editor, has profiled Cleveland early music ensembles Les Délices and Apollo’s Fire in the online edition of Early Music America. Safety, finances, the pandemic, and racial diversity are issues that the ensembles are confronting in embarking on their fall seasons. Read the article here. [Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:

Singing. Latency. Those are two words that have gotten more stressful since March of 2020. Tonight at 7:30 on Oberlin Stage Left, vocal ensembles director Gregory Ristow and voice professor Kendra Colton will discuss those topics, and will demonstrate “real-time musical collaboration over the internet” during So You Think You’re in Sync? – Latency Solutions for Real-Time Virtual Performance.

At noon, WCLV’s “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra” features Mozart’s 17th Piano Concerto and selections from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. And if the opera bug catches you there, you can stream a ‘90s performance of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera tonight from the Met.

Staying in New York, but going back to the 6th century, Benjamin Bagby evokes the ancient world of Beowulf with his voice and a six-string harp. The one-man performance was recorded in January, and is streamed tonight as part of 92nd St. Y’s Summer Concerts.

More details about all of those events here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Tomas Luis de Victoria — the most well-known composer in Spain during the 1500s, and considered one of the greatest composers of the 16th century as a whole — died on this day in 1611 in Madrid.

There’s been a revival of interest in Victoria’s work over the past hundred years, and his name is no stranger to the program booklets — and YouTube channels — of Northeast Ohio’s ensembles.

His Christmas motet O magnum mysterium is quite popular: check out this live performance from Quire Cleveland at Trinity Cathedral in 2009, or this duo version from Mignarda’s 2016 album of Advent and Christmas music for lute and voice.

The Requiem Mass Officium Defunctorum is considered by many to be Victoria’s masterpiece. Hear Contrapunctus Early Music sing that work’s “Taedet animam meam” during a live performance at Mary Queen of Peace in 2015.