by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Back in town, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in the second of three concerts featuring Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3 (arranged for string orchestra) and the Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (repeated on Saturday).

Also on Friday, CityMusic Cleveland will take you (via the Praxis Fiber Workshop) on an excursion to sunny Italy, where Pytor Tchaikovsky escaped the Moscow winter to compose his Souvenir of Florence.

Details in our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most will retire in 2027 after his 25th year on the job. “That’s one year longer than George Szell, who made the Cleveland Orchestra famous, reports Zachary Lewis. ‘I never thought I would stay this long. It’s important now for the institution to get some fresh ideas,’” the conductor said. Read the cleveland.com story here.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

BREAKING NEWS: Franz Welser-Möst announces the conclusion of his tenure as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra in 2027. Read the press release here.

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra raise the curtain on their winter season with Ernst Krenek’s Kleine Symphonie, Gustav Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No. 10, and a double dose of Béla Bartók  — his String Quartet No. 3 arranged for string orchestra, and the Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin. Tickets available online.

IN MEMORIAM:

In an obituary tribute in today’s print edition, the New York Times writes:

Alice Parker, whose arrangements of hymns, folk songs, and spirituals were used in concert halls and churches across America, and who composed 11 song cycles and four operas, died on Dec. 24 at her home in Hawley, Mass. She was 98. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

There’s nothing on the concert calendar for today, but while waiting for Northeast Ohio’s classical concerts to rouse themselves from a well-deserved, post-holiday nap, here’s an interesting listen to recommend.

Les Délices has re-released its SalonEra second season program Phoenix of Mexico as an audio-only podcast. “Bassoonist Catalina Guevara Víquez Klein, violinist Karin Cuellar Rendon, and mezzo-soprano Raquel Winnica Young (pictured) explore personal connections to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), the 17th Century Mexican nun who was a visionary poet, intellectual, and proto feminist. Our guests explore her legacy in music by Jose Marin, Antonio Durán de la Mota, Rafael de Castellanos, and others.” Listen here.

For details, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

January 9 marks the birthdays of American professor and composer John Knowles Paine (1839, in Portland, Maine, pictured) and of longtime Metropolitan Opera administrator Rudolph Bing (1902, in Vienna). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Last call for Holiday Concerts.

On Friday and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Center with Brett Mitchell on the podium and soprano Capathia Jenkins in the spotlight.

On Friday & Saturday at 7, Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra presents Wassail concerts at Chagrin Valley Little theater, and on Friday at 7:30, Les Délice winds up its Noel, Noel series featuring soprano Amanda Powell at Disciples Church in Cleveland Heights.

On Saturday at high Noon, TubaChristmas Akron (pictured) packs the stage of E.J. Thomas Hall with gleaming tubas and euphoniums.

And on Sunday, Christmas Eve, through a strange convergence of dates and time zones, the annual Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King’s College, Cambridge will be broadcast live at 10am, the same hour that churches in the US’s Eastern Time Zone are marking the last Sunday in Advent. Read a reflection from the Dean of Chapel, download the printed program and listen live here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The Winter Solstice is scheduled for today at 10:27 pm in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Thursday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest news flows in from around the globe.

Time to shine light on darkness today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.

At 7:30 this evening, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Center with Brett Mitchell on the podium and soprano Capathia Jenkins in the spotlight, and Les Délices presents Noel, Noel featuring soprano Amanda Powell at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River. Visit our Concert Listings for details..

Or if you’d like to contemplate the Solstice online, click here to watch Sting’s A Winter’s Night, broadcast live from England’s Durham Cathedral in 2009. The comments are exuberant, and “magical” is the most-used word to describe this 90-minute concert. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Anna O’Connell, soprano & harp, Jonathan Goya, cornetto & recorder & Mikhail Grazhdanov, organ will play renaissance and early baroque music at Noon on the Tuesday Organ Plus series at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle, a performance also available as a live stream. 

And tonight at 7:30 (repeated on Wednesday), The Cleveland Orchestra takes a break from its Holiday Concerts to play the live score for a screening of Elf in Concert at Severance Music Center. Brett Mitchell conducts. More information here.

Visit our Concert Listings for details of these performances.

NEWS  BRIEFS:

Celebrate the December Holidays with the Bells of University Circle. Daily 12:15 concerts on the McGaffin Carillon at the Church of the Covenant will feature resident carillonneur George Leggiero (12/27), Patrick Macoska (12/21 & 12/22), Sheryl Modlin (12/26) & Keiran Cantilina (12/28 & 12/29). Cantilina will also play a special candlelight carillon concert on Christmas Eve (12/24) at 7pm. [Read more…]