The Diary will return on Tuesday, November 8
DIARY: Thursday, November 3, 2022
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Tonight: BW Opera presents The Coronation of Poppea
•Competition and job listings: one-minute works for clarinetist-vocalist Kristen Mather de Andrade (pictured), and openings at the Beck Center for the Arts
•Almanac: reflecting on the music of Isang Yun
HAPPENING TODAY:
Tonight at 7:30 pm, BW Opera presents Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), in what is billed as a minimalist production set in the present day. Another modern twist: the production “leans into the code of ethics, morals, and politics featured in movies such as the Godfather films, which reference characters and scenarios from this opera.”
The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles, and the performance will be with chamber orchestra. It takes place at the Helen Theater at Playhouse Square. Tickets are available online.
DIARY: Wednesday, November 2, 2022
by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Visiting cellist and saxophonist
. Piano Cleveland at Phunkenship
. An Austrian, a Russian and a Greek to memorialize
TODAY’S EVENTS:
12:00 pm – Trinity Brownbag Concert. John Waltz, principal cello, Los Angeles Opera & Elizabeth DeMio, piano. Beethoven and Brahms cello sonatas. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering.
7:30 pm – CIM Faculty Recital, featuring Steven Banks, saxophone, with Xak Bjerken, piano. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oboe Sonata, Op. 166, Carlos Simon’s hear them (2020) & Sergei Rachmninoff’s Cello Sonata, Op. 19. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music, 11021 East Boulevard, Cleveland. Free seating passes required. Click here to reserve. The performance will be live streamed here [Read more…]
DIARY: Tuesday, November 1, 2022
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Tonight: Thomas Ospital plays both of Trinity Cathedral’s organs
•Take a tour of the largest organ in France (its case pictured here) — at Paris’s Church of Saint-Eustache, where Ospital is based
•Maria Callas makes her American debut with Norma
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:30 pm, Thomas Ospital — who holds the position of titular organist at the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris — will give a free recital that includes performances on both of the organs at Trinity Cathedral. On the program: music by Dieterich Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, Ravel, Maurice Duruflé, and César Franck, as well as Ospital’s own improvisations. The recital is jointly sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and Music & Art at Trinity Cathedral. A freewill offering will be collected.
DIARY: Monday, October 31, 2022
by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Music to raise goose bumps and stand your hair on end
. G. Schirmer’s plans to publish music by Holocaust composers
. Remembering Roget Quilter, Hugo Distler, and Anthony van Hoboken
TODAY’S EVENTS:
2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. A special Halloween-themed program, including music about haunted landscapes, witches, gnomes, apparitions, hallucinations, the moon, and nighttime. Composers include Arthur Bliss, György Ligeti, Robert Gibson, Ottorino Respighi, Lei Liang, Mathew Rosenblum, George Crumb, and John Corigliano. Listen on WRUW (via the internet feed) or at 91.1 FM in Cleveland. [Read more…]
DIARY: Weekend, October 28-30, 2022
by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Featured: a mix of Korean song & European opera, multiple concert choices all weekend
. Remembering Joseph Pulitzer (what happened to the prizewinners?)
. Choosing spooky music for All Hallows Eve, and remembering Black Tuesday and the New York Stock Exchange crash of 1929 (might make you feel better about 2022)
WEEKEND EVENTS:
This weekend’s featured event brings Korean and European cultures together in the physical context of visual art. On Saturday evening at 7:30, Singers Kyung Kim, Hein Jung, and Misook Yun (pictured) will join pianist Younjung Cha in a free program of Korean songs and Western opera trios at the McDonough Museum of Art at Youngstown State University.
I recently spoke about the event via teleconference with soprano Misook Yun, who has taught at YSU for 24 years (we were joined by her 20-year-old orange tabby cat, a charming if persistent Zoom bomber). [Read more…]
DIARY: Thursday, October 27, 2022
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Tonight: Dossin plays Walker, Lark solos with a conductor-less CityMusic, Cleveland Orchestra welcomes Gerstein and Gardner, and LCCC hosts Les Délices
•A recent adversary for No Exit: social media
•Almanac: Paganini and Nancarrow, both pushing the limits of possibility
DIARY: Wednesday, October 26, 2022
by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. featured keyboard music by (Domenico) Scarlatti & George Walker
. the Beatles and Jacques Lousssier push at stylistic borders
TODAY’S EVENTS:
At 7:30 tonight, pianist Alexandre Dossin takes his program “Piano Soundscapes: A Journey through Six Decades in the Music of George Walker” to Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program includes his Prelude and Caprice, Variations on a Kentucky Folk Song, Piano Sonata No. 2, Spatials, Spektra, Piano Sonata No. 3, Guido’s Hand — Five Pieces for Piano & Piano Sonata No. 5. Click here to watch a live stream.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The prolific keyboard composer Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples on this date in 1685, the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, and the third eminent member of the Class of ‘85 that includes Handel and J.S. Bach. [Read more…]
DIARY: Tuesday, October 25, 2022
by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Opportunities for conductors, string players, and high-school band students
•Tickets for Oberlin Orchestra’s visit to Carnegie Hall
•Almanac: Strauss Jr.’s Blue Danube, Bizet’s Carmen, and Midori — from child prodigy to the present day
DIARY: Monday, October 24, 2022
by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. COYO announces season with new conductor Daniel Reith (pictured), Watson moves on from Tri-C JazzFest, Piano Cleveland announces Young Artist Institute
. Weelkes and Gubaidulina share a birthdate
TODAY’S EVENTS:
At 2:00 pm join host Eric Charnofksy for Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music. Today’s edition celebrates the birth anniversaries of George Crumb and Luciano Berio, featuring Crumb’s Four Nocturnes for violin and piano, Quest for guitar and chamber ensemble & Pastoral Drone for organ, Berio’s Eindrücke for orchestra, & Petite Suite for piano, plus a string quartet by Edvard Grieg and vocal music by Leoš Janáček. WRUW.
IN THE NEWS:
Tickets are now on sale for the 2022/23 Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) season. [Read more…]