by Daniel Hathaway
NEW IN FOCUS EPISODES ON THE WAY:
The Cleveland Orchestra will be filming four new episodes for its In Focus series in March and April for release in April and May. Franz Welser-Möst will lead three of them, and Associate Conductor Vinay Parameswaren the fourth. The mix of orchestral and chamber music repertoire will feature principal flute Joshua Smith in solo works by Takemitsu and Debussy, organist Paul Jacobs in the Poulenc Concerto, principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis in John Corigliano’s Conjurer, principal oboe Frank Rosenwein with pianist Carolyn Gadiel Warner in Ravel’s Sonatine, and principal clarinet Afendi Yusuf in the Mozart Quintet. More details here.
INTERESTING READS:
The passing of Cleveland native Roger Englander, who produced all 53 of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, among other groundbreaking classical television shows, is noted in obituaries in both The New York Times (by Richard Sandomir) and The Washington Post (by Tim Page).
Washington Post critic Michael Andor Brodeur writes about his virtual reality experience at Detroit’s Symphony Hall when he attended a rehearsal of Anna Clyne’s Stride through the eyes and ears of “Ted,” “a standard-issue mannequin head, purchased off the Internet and outfitted with a 360-degree camera and an array of microphones by creator, audio engineer and Clyne’s husband, Jody Elff.”
And in separate New Yorker articles, jazz pianist Dan Tepfer (due to play on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series on April 18) talks about his experiences with tweaking technology so he could play online with other musicians in quarantine, and music critic Alex Ross weighs in on the podcast “Switched On Pop.” Ross writes, “I gave up trying to follow current pop years ago, but I soon found myself absorbed in disquisitions on the creative arc of Taylor Swift. Perhaps the ultimate test of good music criticism is whether it can keep you interested in music you don’t know, even in music you don’t think you like.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
March 5 marks the birthdates of American composer Arthur Foote (1853 in Salem, MA), Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 in Rio de Janiero), and Australian conductor and virtuoso hornist Barry Tuckwell (1931, in Melbourne). And the departure of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1953 in Moscow, notably upstaged by Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, who died on the same day).
And before jazz pianist Dan Tepfer was experimenting with online rehearsals in 2021, Lee De Forest became the first DeeJay on this date in 1907 when he successfully transmitted Rossini’s William Tell Overture on a radio signal from Telharmonic Hall at Broadway and 40th Street in New York City, to a the receiver at the US Naval Yard — less than eight miles away.
Foote, who was a member of the “Boston Six” along with George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker, was the first American composer to have been entirely trained in the United States. Watch a performance of his Night Piece for flute and strings by Joshua Smith and the Cavani Quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music in December, 2008.
Among Villa-Lobos’ many compositions are his Bachianas Brasileras pieces in which he evoked the spirit of J.S. Bach. Here’s a performance of No. 5 for soprano (Natasha Simmons) and twelve cellos (students of Mark Kosower) at the Cleveland Institute of Music in February, 2016.
Lots to choose from to celebrate Prokofiev. Let’s start with his Symphony No. 1, nicknamed “Classical,” in a live performance by George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra in 1968. It’s either amusing or maddening to read YouTube comments, but in this case there are only two: “Best I’ve ever heard of the piece!” and “The forces were too large, the tempo too fast. It’s sloppy, by Szell’s standard.” Your thoughts?
For a second tribute, how about another digital road trip — tonight at 9:00 pm to Minneapolis to hear James Ehnes play Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. Also on the program: Jesse Montgomery’s string quartets Voodoo Dolls and Source Code, and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. Juraj Valčuha conducts the Minnesota Orchestra. Book your tickets here
