by Daniel Hathaway
ONLINE TODAY:
Opera Philadelphia and LA Opera present a remastering of the 2016 recording of composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves, the work that won the inaugural Best New Opera award from the Music Critics Association of North America. Recommended for mature audiences. Tickets from $10. Watch here. (Opera Philadelphia photo by Nicholas Korkos.)
A rare opportunity to hear Rodion Shchedrin’s 1967 Carmen Suite for percussion and string orchestra presents itself twice: in the latest episode of In Focus with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra, that debuted yesterday on the Adella streaming platform, and on tonight’s live streamed performance by the CIM Orchestra under guest conductor Carlos Kalmar.
There’s a new video from Chamber Music at Lincoln Center available beginning today on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society website, and Jim Wadsworth Productions presents Jazz at the Maltz Performing Arts Center with acoustic-electric guitarist Moises Borges.
And composer/pianist Geoffrey Peterson has invited us to share a link to a video he has made. He writes, “As of March 2021, more than 2.5 million people have died from COVID-19. This collection of images captured from around the world speaks to the profound and devastating loss of life. I created this video, and arranged and performed the music.” Thanks to Geoffrey!
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On March 12, 1837, French organist and composer Alexandre Guilmant was born in Meudon. Titulaire of La Trinité for 30 years (Messiaen held the post even longer beginning in 1931), Guilmant founded Paris’s Schola Cantorum, taught Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatory, and left a large legacy of works for the organ — his sole compositional interest.
Guilmant played his Fugue in D at the opening concert for the E.F. Walcker & Sons organ in Latvia’s Riga Dom (Cathedral) in 1884 for an audience of 3,000. Latvian organist Aivars Kalējs played the work in July, 2012 on the same instrument (but probably for not quite as many listeners).
During the Soviet occupation of Riga, the Dom was secularized. But Moscow picked up the bill for the renovation of its famous instrument in 1984 when the entire organ was flown to the shop of Flentrop Orgelbouw in Zaandam, the Netherlands.
While the grand organ of Notre-Dame de Paris is undergoing restoration after the fire, enjoy Olivier Latry’s performance of the Finale of Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1. And for fans of American organist Christopher Houlihan, here’s his performance of Guilmant’s March, Op. 15 based on the “Lift up your heads” chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Houlihan plays a large Allen electronic instrument. Loaded question: can you tell the difference?
On March 12, 1890, Russian ballet master Vaslav Nijinsky, famous — or notorious — for creating the role of the Faun in Debussy’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune, was born in Kvev. Although his performance seems to have been filmed, Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev suppressed its release. But Nijinsky’s close counterpart Rudolph Nureyev contributed a tribute in 1980 in partnership with the Joffrey Ballet.
March 12, 1985 saw the death of Eugene Ormandy (born Jeno Blau in Hungary), who launched his American career with what is now the Minnesota Orchestra, then chalked up a record-winning 44 years as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Both heralded and criticized for developing “The Philadelphia Sound,” to some ears everything he conducted sounded the same. Watch a film of Ormandy conducting Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony in 1979.
And on this date in 1999, child prodigy violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin died in Berlin. For an interesting look at his artistry, watch a 1947 film of a concert by the Hollywood Symphonic Orchestra led by Antal Dorati at Charlie Chaplin’s Hollywood studios. Menhuin contributes the Mendelssohn Concerto, which he first played at the age of 7. There was no rehearsal for this pilot film — intended to be released in film theaters. The full performance requires a Medici-TV membership, but this clip is free.
