By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Keeping it in the Kern family (pictured)

. Replace-a-maestro: latest sudden ascent of a young conductor

. Almanac: Mexican-American guitarist and singer Lydia Mendoza, Groundbreaking pianist Louise Farrenc

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:30 pm, Piano Cleveland hosts a new episode in its 2023 Listening Series — Cleveland International Piano Competition Dynamic Duos: “It’s all Relative.” Olga Kern joins her son Vladislav in a presentation about the joys of working together as a musical family. Disciples Christian Church 3663 Mayfield Rd. Cleveland Heights. Click here for tickets.

IN THE NEWS:

From The New York Times:

Thomas Guggeis was a young repetiteur at the Berlin State Opera five years ago when he was asked a career-changing question: Could he conduct “Salome”?

He had worked with the singers, but this new production of Strauss’s opera was meant to be led by the veteran maestro Christoph von Dohnányi — until a dispute with the director led him to back out mere hours before the final dress rehearsal. So Guggeis went on in his place. And he was back in the pit on opening night. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Only one concert is scheduled for this weekend

. A selection of music for Memorial Day, formerly Decoration Day (pictured)

. Remembering William Bolcom, Niccolò Paganini, and Nikolai Sokoloff, and mentioning the births of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Iannis Zenakis, Helmut Rilling and the losses of William S. Gilbert, Josef Suk, and George Rochberg

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday, May 27 at 8:00 pm, Carl Topilow leads the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Chorus in Summon the Heroes: American Salute. The concert pays tribute to our Armed Forces, as well as the police and fire departments, and our first responders. Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, 44106. Tickets available online.

MUSIC FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND:

Monday of this weekend was officially declared Memorial Day only in 1971, although commemorations of those who had perished in the U.S. Civil War had been organized within a few months of the cessation of hostilities in 1865. Among the first to hold such a memorial was a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina.

The event, when graves were traditionally adorned with flowers, was known as Decoration Day well into the 20th century, the name Charles Ives used for the second movement of his Holiday Symphony, discussed here in an episode of Keeping Score, created by Michael Tilson Thomas with the San Francisco Symphony (the other holidays are Washington’s Birthday, The Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving Day.) [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Gallery music returns to CMA

. Ticket sales are steadily recovering post-Pandemic, says the New York Times, in an article featuring The Cleveland Orchestra and its inaugural Arts & Humanities Festival

. Almanac: Premiere of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata by George Bridgetower (pictured), births of Harold Budd, Michael Horwood & Phil Fried, departure of Jacob Druckman

HAPPENING TODAY:

There’s music in the galleries at the Cleveland Museum of Art again today at 6pm. “Modern, American, and Accessible” will find Eva Mondragon, violin & viola, Jenny Cluggish, violin, Paul Kirk, fiddle, Stephan Haluska, harp, Ellie Glorioso, cello, and Chris Jenkins, viola performing works by modern American composers in the Contemporary Art Gallery. Composers range from Pulitzer Prize–winner Caroline Shaw to African American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and the playlist will include concert music by comedic classical composer Peter Schickele, and fiddle music arranged by Paul Kirk. It’s free.

INTERESTING READ:

The  Cleveland Orchestra and its inaugural Arts and Humanities Festival are featured in today’s print edition of The New York Times as part of a general survey of organizations that are now seeing an increase in subscriptions and ticket sales following a drop off during the pandemic and a weak recovery at the beginning of the concert season. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. The weekly Charnofsky playlist

. Almanac: first performance of Verdi’s Requiem, naissance of Wagner (& Anna Russell explains The Ring to you)

HAPPENING TODAY:

As he does every Monday afternoon from 2-4, Eric Charnofsky wafts underperformed works out on the airways and the Web on CWRU’s “Not your Grandmother’s Classical Music.” Today’s menu features Richard Wagner’s Overture to Das Liebesverbot, Leonard Bernstein’s Four Sabras (piano), Sebastian Currier’s Vocalissimus (soprano, clarinet, violin), Osvaldo Golijov’s K’vakarat (cantor, string quartet), Ernest Bloch’s Piano Quintet No. 2 & J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (arranged for string trio). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

ALMANAC FOR MAY 22:

On May 22 in 1874, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem was first performed at the church of San Marco in Milan, ending a long requiem saga for the composer, who had originally proposed a collaborative work by several Italian composers to honor Gioachino Rossini after his death in 1868. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A plethora of performances to choose from, some multiple

. Almanac: celebrating the lives and careers of Alice Mary Smith, Linda Martinez, Walter Aschaffenburg, Maurice André, Heinz Holliger, and Gustav Mahler

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Friday at 7:30, the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream continues with a Cleveland Orchestra concert led by Franz Welser-Möst featuring works by Scott Joplin, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, Bernard Herrmann, Raven Chacon and Edgar Varèse, CityMusic Cleveland plays the first of three concerts with cellist Edward Arron at 7:30 at St. Noel in Willoughby Hills (repeated Saturday at 7:30 at St. Stanislaus and Sunday at 3 at Lakewood Congregational, and Cleveland Composers Guild presents opera scenes with Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Steven Smith, conducting, at Baldwin Wallace. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Agenda: Bach at Noon at Trinity & Puccini’s wild west opera at Severance

. Almanac: remembering four musicians — Marcel Moyse, John de Lancie, Dennis Brain & John William Boone (pictured)

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:00 pm – Trinity BrownBag Concerts: Bach Fest 6. James Thompson, violin (C Major Sonata) Todd Wilson, organ (Prelude & Fugue in G, BWV 541). Trinity Cathedral, Free. Click here for live stream.

7:30 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra: Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West. Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, Emily Magee, soprano (Minnie), Roman Burdenko, bass (Jack Rance), Limmie Pulliam, tenor (Dick Johnson), Tony Stevenson, tenor (Nick), and Scott Conner, bass (Ashby). Severance Music Center.

Visit the Clevelandclassical.com Concert Listings page for details including addresses of venues and information about even more concerts in Northeast Ohio.

ALMANAC FOR MAY 17: [Read more…]