by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At Noon, organist Natalie Mealey plays music by Storace, J.S. Bach, Buxtehude & Frescobaldi at the Church of the Covenant, and at 5:30, Jim Riggs and Tyler Young offer a 50-minute rush hour program of music for organ and saxophone at Fairmount Presbyterian Church.

Tonight at 7:30, Cleveland Chamber Music Society presents cellist Steven Isserlis & pianist Connie Shih at Disciples Church, and the CIM Orchestra  pays a visit to Severance Music Center with guest conductor Leonard Slatkin.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

INTERESTING READS:

British Cellist Steven Isserlis returns to Northeast Ohio tonight, where he studied with Richard Kapuscinski at the Oberlin Conservatory from 1976 to 1978, to play a recital on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series with pianist Connie Shih.

This is a good time to have a look at the multi-talented musician’s biography and involvements, richly detailed on his website. Among them, his writings. Click on “Steven’s Books” to read about Why Handel Waggled His Wig, the sequel to Why Beethoven Threw the Stew. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Visiting Artists: Conductor Philippe Herreweghe and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras join The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven & Haydn on Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 3 (read our Plain Dealer review here), the classical guitar duo of Hermelindo Ruiz and Samuel Diz (pictured) will be hosted by Cleveland Classical Guitar Society at the Maltz Saturday at 7:30), and organist William Porter plays at the Church of the Covenant Sunday at 4.

Other interesting events: soprano Sonya Headlam & pianist Joshua Konow perform music by Black composers Saturday at 7 at The Federated Church, and there are Oberlin Faculty Recitals by Dmitry Kouzov, cello & Thomas Bandy, piano on Saturday at 7:30 in Kulas Recital Hall & by pianist Tony Weinstein on Sunday at 4:30 in Warner Concert  Hall, and guitarist Jason Vieaux will play on the Music from the Western Reserve Series in Hudson on Sunday at 5.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

INTERESTING READS:

Cleveland OpEds

In his regular Saturday newsletter, Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn gives a nod to the book, The Way We Are, containing 100 opinion pieces by Thomas Bier published by the newspaper between 1977 and 2022. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 4:30 pm violist Wendy Richman, singer Alice Teyssier, and composer David Reminick will present the world premiere Reminick’s The Story Book for viola and voice along with works by Richman, Kaija Saariaho, and Hildegard of Bingen in Oberlin’s Stull Recital Hall. At 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, guest conductor Philippe Herreweghe leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont and Symphony No. 6, and Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Jean-Guihen Queyras (pictured) is the soloist. And 8:00 pm CUSP presents LIGAMENT — Anika Kildegaard + Will Yager — and Ensemble Mercury at Convivium 33 Gallery. Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

The Cleveland Orchestra announced it has received a generous gift of $4.6 million from longtime patrons and supporters Myrna and Jim Spira. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Guest conductor Philippe Herreweghe and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras visit The Cleveland Orchestra for Beethoven and Haydn tonight at 7:30, the same hour that the Dalí Quartet play Latin works by Arriaga, Piazzolla, Revueltas, and Ginastera in CIM’s Mixon Hall (webcast available).

Two Oberlin Faculty & Guest Recitals also begin at 7:30. Lillian Gordis, harpsichord & Jérôme Hantaï, viola da gamba play music by Marais, François Couperin & J.S. Bach in  Kulas Recital Hall, while clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein joins the Verona Quartet for Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind in Warner Concert Hall (webcasts available for both performances).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

NEWS BRIEFS:

CIM composition professor Keith Fitch and his predecessor Margaret Brouwer have both been honored with the 2024 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A string quartet from the chamber ensemble Wit’s Folly (Phaik Tzhi Chua & Guillero Salas-Suárez, violin, Jonathan Goya, viola & Jane Leggiero, cello) plays works by Joseph Eybler &  Joseph Haydn today at noon at the Church of the Covenant (live stream available).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

INTERESTING READS:

In The Guardian, Kenan Malik weighs in on one of the several issues raised by the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Read “A century on from Rhapsody in Blue, debates about cultural ‘theft’ rage still” here.

For the recent Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, actor Bradley Cooper insisted on filming the Mahler “Resurrection Symphony” scene in Ely Cathedral live — he’d been studying conducting for six years just to prepare for that. “On-set sound mixer Steven Morrow recalls it as a terrifying proposition — miking 200 chorus and orchestra members performing live in an echoey cathedral. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Last chances to hear repeating concerts: British composer & conductor George Benjamin (pictured) and countertenor Tim Mead, with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (Saturday at 8 at Severance Music Center — read Mike Telin’s preview here), violinist Alan Choo (read Daniel Hathaway’s interview here), in several of Heinrich Biber’s mystical Rosary Sonatas with Apollo’s Fire (Saturday at 8 in Cleveland Heights), and Les Délices harpsichordist Mark Edwards in J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations (Saturday at 3 — a concert and conversation — and Sunday at 4 in Cleveland Heights.

One-off events include the the Euclid Symphony (Saturday at 7 at the Maltz),  the Canton Symphony with pianist Garrick Ohlsson (Sunday at 3) The Cleveland Opera with Cleveland Women’s Orchestra in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA (Sunday at 3 at the Tudor Arms — read a preview here), Singers Companye (Sunday at 3 at the Maltz), Heights Arts Close Encounters (Sunday at 3 at Convivium 33 Gallery), and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus (Sunday at 7 at Severance).

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

“The Cleveland Orchestra and flutist, composer, and producer Allison Loggins-Hull have announced a series of four free concerts in collaboration with Cleveland community partners,” the Orchestra reported in a news release on Friday. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 in Berea, Baldwin Wallace’s FOCUS Festival features the compositions of Omar Thomas, and CityMusic Cleveland continues its chamber music series, Landscape of Memory at Praxis FIber Workshop.

At 7:30 at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra plays the live underscore for a screening of the 1987 “fantasy comedy adventure film,” The Princess Bride, and Apollo’s Fire presents the second of four performances of  “Sacred Mysteries: Biber’s Rosary Sonatas for Violin” featuring Alan Choo at St. Paul’s in Cleveland Hts.

Then at 8, Oberlin Conservatory hosts Part II of The Danenberg Honors Recital in Warner Concert Hall.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these and other performances.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1938, American composer John Corigliano (pictured above) was born in New York City, the son of John Sr., who served for 23 years as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Although he came late to composition, Corigliano was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Grawemeyer Award, and an Oscar. [Read more…]