by Daniel Hathaway
Viewers who hopped onto the Cleveland Musicians Local 4 “Tuning In” performance by violinist Emily Cornelius and Pianist Eric Charnofsky last night witnessed a jarring interruption when the Facebook Live stream was shut down — more than once. It seems that the FB bots that spread out over the network to nab copyright infringements mistook the live performance for a commercial recording. Local 4 Music Fund Executive Director Amber Rogers writes, “If you want to hear the performance SO GOOD that Facebook shut it down TWICE, it’s here, for you.”
MUSEUM TO CLOSE TEMPORARILY:
The Cleveland Museum of Art is responding to the new surge in COVID-19 cases by closing its doors for the second time. The current interruption is planned to last from today through December 16. In the meanwhile, the Museum notes that “the CMA will continue to offer dynamic, online art experiences. Remember: Home Is Where the Art Is offers visitors a chance to explore the wealth of digital resources that the CMA has to offer.”
HAPPENING ONLINE TODAY:
Streamed concerts by students in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Advanced Trio Program and CWRU’s Symphonic Winds are available today. See the Concert Listings for details.
And while staying home in accordance with the most recent state guidelines, have a look at the wealth of online performances listed in Musical America’s Guide (follow the link at the top of our Concert Listings). Among today’s highlights, pianist Lang Lang plays J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations from Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where the composer is buried.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
November 20 obits include the passing of Renaissance composer Pierre de la Rue in Courtrai, Belgium in 1518 and Russian composer Anton Rubenstein in Peterhof in 1894, as well as that of English musician John Shore in 1752, who had invented the tuning fork in 1711 and presented one to Handel.
On the other end of the life cycle, American multimedia composer and innovative singer Meredith Monk was born in Lima, Peru on this date in 1942. Alan Pierson, Artistic Director of Alarm Will Sound talks to her about her piece Anthem in a recent interview. Watch 21 remote performers play the piece here in real time thanks to a platform Alarm Will Sound has developed during the pandemic.
Finally, on this date in 1820, an 80-ton sperm whale attacked and sank the Nantucket whaling ship Essex 2,000 miles off the west coast of South America. That event inspired Herman Melville’s 1851 more-than-a-novel, Moby-Dick, and in turn, moved American composer Jake Heggie to write his opera of the same name on commission from Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, State Opera of South Australia and Calgary Opera. I saw the premiere in Dallas in April, 2010 along with colleagues from the Music Critics Association of North America.
Heggie talked about the process of composing the work in a University of California TV interview in 2012. No time like the present to crack open Melville’s magnum opus, which may be one of those classics we’ve never gotten around to reading. (The author’s Billy Budd also inspired the eponymous opera by Benjamin Britten.)