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DIARY: Wednesday, May 6, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the executive order that created the Works Progress Administration or WPA, which along with other federal programs, gave temporary assistance in the form of jobs to out-of-work Americans during the Great Depression.

Later that year, Nikolai Sokoloff, who had founded The Cleveland Orchestra along with Adella Prentiss Hugues and conducted the ensemble from 1918-1932, was put in charge of the Federal Music Project, which supported unemployed musicians, composers, opera projects, and orchestras in Cleveland and elsewhere. Sokoloff was soon criticized for favoring Eurocentric classical music — the focus of the project widened in 1936 when Charles Seeger was appointed assistant director. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, May 5, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

NOT HAPPENING TODAY, BUT…

The final event in this season’s Cleveland Chamber Music Society series would have taken place this evening at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case Western Reserve University. Absent the music, it’s a good time to revisit the origins of the Maltz, originally completed in 1924 as the second home of The Temple-Tifereth Israel congregation. The Maltz staff has put together a “blast from the past” with photos of the original construction, followed by a second retrospective featuring images of the building’s recent transformation into a performing arts center.  [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, May 4, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On May 4, 1665, Italian harpsichord builder Bartolomeo Cristofori was born in Padua. During his career, he would invent the first practical pianoforte, launching a family of instruments whose strings were struck with hammers rather than plucked, earning them their “soft-loud” name. His first model, crafted in 1720 in Florence, is still on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — and during the closure of the collection, can be viewed online here.

Oberlin Conservatory professors David Breitman and Peter Takács devised their course Time Travel for Pianists to introduce their students to the history of the piano, using historic and modern instruments from Oberlin’s rich collection. Watch a 2012 video where they explain what they had in mind and students offer their insights into what they learned from older instruments that inform their performances on modern Steinways. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend, May 2-3, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

ONLINE & ON THE AIRWAVES THIS WEEKEND:

Although the weather is becoming increasingly springlike, a lot of us will still be spending time indoors this weekend. Here’s a selection of scheduled online attractions, some of which will remind us of events that had to be cancelled.

Apollo’s Fire was to have concluded its season this weekend with “Virtuoso Fireworks.” In lieu of those life performances, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra has posted the latest in its “Music For the Soul” series, featuring Bach’s Fourth and Fifth Brandenburg Concertos in a 2015 performance at the Tanglewood Festival, and arias from Handel’s Alcina and Giulio Cesare sung by coloratura soprano Amanda Forstythe at Cleveland concerts, also in 2015. Click here to follow links to the video and program notes. [Read more…]

DIARY: Friday, May 1, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

VIRTUAL PIANO COMPETITION:

Piano Cleveland announced this morning that its Cleveland International Piano Competition, postponed until 2021, will be replaced this summer with a special online contest. Virtu(al)oso will allow contestants to record their performances at Steinway Galleries in Cleveland, New York, London, Hamburg, and Beijing for broadcast online from July 30 through August 9. Applications to fill the 30 available slots will be accepted beginning today. Go here for more information. [Read more…]

DIARY: Thursday, April 30, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

UPDATES ON TWO SUMMER FESTIVALS:

Franklin and Diana Cohen announced this morning that Carte Blanche!, the 2020 edition of ChamberFest Cleveland, will be rescheduled for 2021. Noting that every performance ChamberFest has given has been captured in audio and video recordings, the founders added, “While we cannot be with you in the concert hall this June we can come to you in your homes via our Digital Performance Library on YouTube, on radio station WCLV, and with other new and fun ways to connect. With your help nothing will deter us from the mission that inspired us: “to nurture a deep family-like connection between musicians and audiences of all ages.” [Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, April 29, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN MEMORIAM DAVID BOE & LYNN  HARRELL:

Yesterday brought news of the passing of long-time Oberlin Conservatory dean and organ professor David Boe (84, in Chicago, of complications of COVID-19), and cellist Lynn Harrell (76, of undisclosed causes) who served as principal cello of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1964-1971 (he took up the post under George Szell at the age of 18).

Boe focused more on pedagogy than performing (he retired in May 2008 after 46 years of teaching at Oberlin). Recordings of his playing are few and include performances of C.P.E. Bach and Mendelssohn on the 1982, 2-LP Gasparo recording Organs of Oberlin. He did make an appearance on the 1986 Nebraska Public Television documentary, Wind at One’s Fingertips, about Lincoln organbuilder Gene Bedient’s new instrument for Grand Rapids, Michigan (watch here). Click here to read the Oberlin Conservatory obituary by Erich Burnett. [Read more…]

DIARY: Tuesday, April 28, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

CHRIS HAFF-PALUCK TRIBUTES:

We’re collecting tributes to the late Christine Haff-Paluck to be published on a dedicated page of the website. That includes many heartfelt comments we’ve culled from Facebook posts. Those who knew Chris and would like to submit a remembrance or a photo should send them by email here.

Among her many accomplishments was the founding of Arts Renaissance Tremont. That concert series brought distinguished area musicians to its free Sunday afternoon concerts at Pilgrim United Church of Christ, and was nearing the end of its 29th season when the novel coronavirus arrived. Here are two examples from ART’s video archives: cellist Darrett Adkins and pianist Cicilia Yudha performing the Chopin Sonata (watch here), and members of The Cleveland Orchestra bass section — the double bass was Chris’s instrument — playing François Rabbath’s Kobalds here. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, April 27, 2020

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN MEMORIAM CHRIS HAFF-PALUCK:

In a message posted on Sunday, Arts Renaissance Tremont Board President Fred Calatrello wrote:

“It is with great regret and a heavy heart that I must inform you that Chris, our friend, colleague and the moving spirit behind ART, passed away last night with her husband at her bedside. I don’t have to tell any of you what a great loss this is not only for us but also for her many former students, her numberless friends in the musical community and, indeed, anyone who had the good fortune to know and work with her over the many years she lived in and served this community. We all know that in addition to husband, family and friends, Chris’ great passion over the past three decades has been ARTS RENAISSANCE TREMONT; not only did she create the organization but she worked year in and year out to secure funding and artists so that each year we could bring great music to audiences in N.E.Ohio. For Chis, this was truly a labour of love.”

Arrangements are pending. A tribute to Chris will be published on ClevelandClassical.com later this week. [Read more…]

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