by Daniel Hathaway

MISSING LULU:

Today, May 16, would have seen the first of three Cleveland Orchestra concert performances of Alban Berg’s Lulu, in the two-act version premiered in 1937. Berg’s opera, with soprano Barbara Hannigan as the title character, was to have been the centerpiece of the “Censored: Art and Power” mini-festival featuring pianists Aaron Diehl and Conrad Tao, and soprano Audrey Luna. Those plans were scuttled by the pandemic, but this may be a good moment to revisit Alban Berg. Click here to watch a 1972 Berg documentary produced by BBC 2 with Helene Berg, Pierre Boulez, Willi Reich, Alfred Kalmus, Jascha Horenstein, Jean-Rodolphe Kars, the BBC Symphony, and the Delme String Quartet. Note: the last eight minutes are missing.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE WEB (AND AIRWAVES):

On Saturday, the Berlin Philharmonic Brass Ensemble performs live ($), the MET opera streams Verdi’s Rigoletto, the Cincinnati Symphony replaces its 150th anniversary concert with a physically-distanced live stream, and WCLV rebroadcasts The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus with Jakub Hrůša. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES TODAY:

Principal Flute Joshua Smith is featured in Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1 on today’s 12 Noon Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra on WCLV104.9 Ideastream, and also in the latest edition of the Orchestra’s podcast series, which is now available for listening. In “The Boy With the Dragonfly Tattoo,” Episode 5 of On a Personal Note, Smith explains how performing Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen left a lasting impression, and why the dragonfly just may be his favorite insect. Listen here.

Also on today’s agenda: Brahms from CIM’s archives with violist Tess Krope and pianist Alicja Basinska, and Lucia de Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland from the MET Opera vault. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES TODAY:

It’s a busy Thursday. Consult our Concert Listings for details about WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra, Silvia Berry’s live noontime fortepiano recital, Oberlin’s Stage Left (subject: Broadway), Claire Chase’s four-hour live new music marathon, an all-Vivaldi Detroit Symphony Watch Party featuring Nicholas McGegan, the MET Opera’s 2008 production of Peter Grimes, and fp Creative’s third Long Distance Live concert.

 

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona either on this date or May 15 in Cremona. Put a marker in your calendar for the release next week of the composer’s Vespers of 1610 in Apollo’s Fire’s “Music For the Soul” series. Part 1 comes out on May 19, Part 2 on May 22 (subscribe to the whole series here.) [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1842, composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London. As the musical half of the Gilbert & Sullivan team, he joined librettist William Schwenk Gilbert in skewering many elements of British society in fourteen comic operas produced by Sir Richard D’Oyly Carte — many of them at London’s Savoy Theater. As a good Victorian, he also wrote oratorios and church music (most of that forgettable, including the triumphalist hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” and the hyper-sentimental The Lost Chord).

Gilbert and Sullivan got skewered themselves by British comedienne Anna Russell in her sketch, “How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera,” captured along with other famous parodies during her live performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1984. Watch here, or listen just to that individual sketch here.

Also on today’s date in 1949, British conductor and composer Jane Glover was born in Helmsley, England. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Celebrate the birthday of French composer Gabriel Fauré, born on this date in 1845, with his Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano in d, Op. 120. Click here to watch ChamberFest Cleveland players Franklin Cohen, clarinet, Oliver Herbert, cello, and Andrius Žlabys, piano in a performance at Harkness Chapel at CWRU in June, 2017.

The Cleveland Orchestra shares its “Mindful Music Moments” with over 20,000 students in more than 50 schools in Northeast Ohio, providing a way to “start each day with calm and focus.” Here’s such a moment, an excerpt from Má Vlast by Bohemian composer Bedřich Smetana, who died on this date in 1884. And click here to listen to a 1970 performance of the entire “Moldau” movement by the Orchestra under George Szell. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND THE AIRWAVES TODAY:

WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra features hornist Richard King, an episode of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Mahler Festival from Amsterdam presents the Fourth Symphony led by Iván Fischer, a piano trio from CIM’s archives plays Shostakovich, pianist Jeremy Denk talks about “How to Think Like Bach” from The Greene Space, and the nightly episode from the MET Opera will be Massenet’s Werther. Details in the Concert Listings.

TODAY’S FEATURED VIDEOS:

In lieu of this year’s cancelled Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, director Armin Kelly is offering nine videos featuring Czech classical guitarist Petra Poláčková, “a particularly popular regular at our Festival who was scheduled to join us once again this June. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ON THE WEB AND THE AIRWAVES THIS WEEKEND:

Reaching into recent and earlier archives, WCLV’s Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio features Bruckner’s 7th Symphony under Franz Welser-Möst on Saturday, and Weber, Mozart, and Beethoven led by George Szell on Sunday. The MET Opera changes things up on Saturday with The Opera House, a 2017 feature-length documentary about the 1966 creation of the New Met in Lincoln Center, then returns to opera on Sunday with “Cav and Pag.” Also on Sunday, violinist Edwin Huizinga and guitarist William Coulter, who perform together as Fire and Grace, offer folk and Baroque for Mother’s Day, and in the latest episode of Oberlin Stage Left, the Oberlin Orchestra plays Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in Finney Chapel in advance of its 2016 appearance at Chicago’s Symphony Center. And, just announced for Sunday, Puccini’s Turandot featuring soprano Othalie Graham is the subject of the Detroit Symphony’s latest watch party. See our Concert Listings for details.htt

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

ONLINE & ON THE AIRWAVES TODAY:

Today’s local streaming events include

• the end result of a Baldwin Wallace Vocal Performance Class Capstone Project — a 30-minute version of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel performed in English, with interactive artwork by students pre-K through Grade 5

• Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra on WCLV

• and a CIM virtual concert featuring its New Music Ensemble in a performance of Keith Fitch’s Ruthless Voicings.

Tonight’s HD Archive stream from the MET Opera is a viewers’ choice: Puccini’s La Bohème from 1977 featuring Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

UPDATES FROM OBERLIN & APOLLO’S FIRE:

News is coming in about Oberlin’s summer programs. BPI, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, will be held online from June 22-28, focusing on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and will offer three levels of access — one of them free. See details here. The Organ Academy, designed for students middle school and up, will also be held online from June 21-16 (go here for details). The Flute Academy, Hinton Bass Institute, Piano Festival, Sonic Arts Workshop, Trumpet Workshop, and Vocal Academy are cancelled. Credo Chamber Music, a guest event, will be held online (details here).

In its first announcement about the 2020-2021 subscription season, Apollo’s Fire is anticipating adjustments to future concerts due to the pandemic. [Read more…]