by Daniel Hathaway
Kelly Corcoran. Portrait by Bill Steber and Pat Casey Daley
AVAILABLE ONLINE TODAY:
The Canton Symphony launches its “Orchestrating Change” podcast series today with Episode 1: “Importance of Perspective,” featuring guest Kelly Corcoran. Formerly conductor of the Nashville Symphony and assistant conductor in Canton, Corcoran “pushes us to see a possible future where tradition is honored and the future is embraced by diverse audiences and musicians. How can the field of orchestral music keep relevance in today’s times and how do we engage in music in our everyday lives in a way that will allow us to embrace the future of orchestral music?” Tune in here for the 53-minute program hosted by the CSO’s Rachel Hagemeier and Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz.
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society has posted the latest episode of “Front Row National” from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, available free and on demand through January 12. Pianist Gilbert Kalish joins sopranos Tony Arnold and Lisette Oropesa, violinists Nicolas Dautricourt and violist Paul Neubauer, cellist Torleif Thedéen, and clarinetist David Shifrin in George Crumb’s Three Early Songs, Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock & Brahms’ Piano Quartet in c, Op. 60. Watch here.
HONORING THE U.S. CAPITOL:
After watching the disturbing events on Capitol Hill unfold on Wednesday, it seems a good time to visit the U.S. Capitol building and review its rich and complex history — something many of us haven’t done since our high school days. The Capitol Architect offers an interactive program here, and a shorter virtual tour here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1713, Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli died in Rome at the age of 59 and was honored with burial in the ancient Pantheon. His violin sonatas and concertos helped codify those musical forms and were admired, imitated, and arranged by such composers as Bach and Handel. In one of the few live performances this season from the Severance Hall Stage, guest conductor Nicholas McGegan led members of The Cleveland Orchestra in a program that included Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto. Watch here on the Orchestra’s Adella platform (subscription or one-time fee required).
On January 8, 1957, American composer David Lang was born in Los Angeles. He describes himself in his biography as “Passionate, prolific, and complicated, David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention; he is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms.” One of the founders of Bang on a Can and the author of Little Match Girl Passion, Lang conceived Lifespan, an installation that involved members of The Crossing blowing on a suspended 4 billion-year-old rock at the Cleveland Museum of Art in January, 2017. Watch here.
And on January 8, 1998, British composer Sir Michael Tippett died in London at the age of 93. Regarded along with Benjamin Britten as one of the preeminent British composers of the 20th century, and like Britten, a pacifist, Tippett is remembered today for his operas and for the oratorio A Child of Our Time, which he began composing in 1939. The subject was inspired by the murder of a teenaged Jewish refugee in Paris that set off the events of Kristallnacht in November, 1938. Basing its structure on Handel’s Messiah, the oratorio used African American spirituals as commentary in the same way that J.S. Bach used Lutheran chorales in the Passions.
Simon Rattle talked about the work with Andrew Sachs in this interview. Watch a complete 2011 performance by the Concertkoor Haarlem and the Promenade Orkkest here.
The chorales are frequently performed by themselves, as they were by Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Chorus and Orchestra on the Last Night of the Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall in September, 2011. Slatkin chose to program them in place of the usual end-of-Proms revelry due to the 9/11 attacks that happened only days before. Watch here.
