by Mike Telin
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:00 pm Dave Becker will lead the BW Symphony Orchestra in a program to be announced at Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. The concert is free. Click here to access the live stream.
At 7:00 pm organist Daryl Robinson (Christ Church Cathedral, Houston & University of Houston) will present a recital sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists at the Immaculate Conception Church, 4129 Superior Ave., in Cleveland. The event is free.
Also at 7:00 pm, the Somerset Trio, Danna Sundet, oboe, Mark Addleman, horn and Elizabeth Etter, piano, will present a program to be announced at the Church of the Western Reserve, 30500 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland. The performance is free.
IN THE NEWS:
Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium
Next month a consortium of area arts organizations will come together to present a series of events celebrating some of the major masterworks of silent cinema. To highlight the Cleveland connection, the Festival will focus on the music of Cleveland native and film music pioneer John Stepan Zamecnik.
The week-long Festival kicks off on February 13 at 3:00 pm at the Hermit Club, when violinist Isabel Trautwein and other members of the Cleveland Orchestra join Rodney Sauer, music director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, in a concert of chamber works by Zamecnik and his mentor, Antonín Dvorak. Click here for tickets.
Zamecnik’s music will accompany a screening of the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr., at the Apollo Theater in Oberlin on February 16, and at three Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque screenings: Wings(Feb. 18), The Wedding March, (Feb 19), and Sunrise, (Feb 20). Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Wedding March, and Sunrise will all feature live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, an ensemble nationally known for its definitive interpretations of historic film scores.
During the festival, Mont Alto will be working with Oberlin students in a Winter Term project on locating, selecting, and compiling historic photoplay music for silent film accompaniment. An end of term free performance will be held at the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space on February 15 at 7:00 pm.
Click here to access the Festival Facebook Page. COVID protocols will be in place for all events. Proof of vaccinations/booster will be checked at the door and masks must be worn at all times.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
In a year that was full of unexpected events, it appears that January 28 was left alone although our Daily Diary archives reveal two debuts and one final curtain call of note.
Today marks the birth of Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein in 1887 in Łódź, Poland. With a career spanning eight decades, he is regarded as one of the greatest pianists — and the greatest interpreter of Chopin — of all time. Relocating to California during WWII, he became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1946. He also lent his talents to Hollywood, providing piano soundtracks for films, including Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn, and playing himself in Carnegie Hall and Of Men and Music. Click here to watch a documentary of his life with historic film footage.
On this date in 1944, British avant-garde composer John Tavener was born in London. We featured his life in our Daily Diary last November 12, marking the date of his death. The English composer achieved wide renown for his religious works, many of which reflected his conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1977. Among his best-sellers: The Protecting Veil (recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis), Song for Athene (sung at the end of the funeral for Princess Diana in Westminster Abbey in 1997), and the haunting little setting of William Blake’s The Lamb, inspired by his 3-year-old nephew and premiered at the 1982 King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Watch Quire Cleveland perform The Lamb at Trinity Cathedral in December, 2013.
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge included The Lamb in a 2013 tribute to Tavener, along with his Mother of God, Today the Virgin, Funeral Ikos, and Song for Athene. Stephen Layton conducted the ensemble at the European Festival of Church Music in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany in July 2013. Watch here.
Finally, today we note the passing of violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler on this date in 1962. Like Rubinstein, he was regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Listen to a WQXR interview on his 80th birthday in 1955 here. Kreisler was famous for his encores, and you can binge-listen to two hours of them here.
