by Daniel Hathaway
Pianist Leon Fleisher died in hospice in Baltimore on Sunday at the age of 92. Read a New York Times obituary by Allan Kozinn here, and a Washington Post obituary by Anne Midgette — who co-authored Fleisher’s 2010 autobiography, My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music — here.
As Midgette notes, “He performed in leading concert halls and became the preferred soloist of George Szell, the formidable conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. His recordings with Szell remain benchmarks for their clarity, precision and sheer expressive musicality; Brahms’s first piano concerto was a touchstone.” Listen to that 1958 recording here, which Fleisher made at the age of 30.
In 2010, Fleisher led 16 young musicians in a weeklong series of master classes at Carnegie Hall with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Pamela Frank. In this short video, Ma invited Fleisher to play an excerpt from the Concerto “to demonstrate rhythmic freedom within a measure of music.”
TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
This evening, Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso competition continues with the fifth session of the first round. Five contestants — Andrei Iliushkin, Lorenzo Adamo, Byeol Kim, Jonas Aumiller, and Priscila Navarro — play 20-minute programs. Click the links to read our interviews with Aumiller and Navarro.
Also this evening, Bop Stop at The Music Settlement presents Christopher Jenkins (violin/viola), Dianna White-Gould (piano), and Matthew Jones (tenor) in an evening of inspirational music, featuring the music of local Cleveland composers H. Leslie Adams, Hale Smith, and George Walker.
There’s more, too. Consult our Concert Listings and scroll down to the bottom for the latest list of international live streams compiled by Musical America.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
English baritone Simon Keenlyside was born on this date in 1959 in London. Cleveland audiences will remember his appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra in the title role of Don Giovanni in March, 2011, in Sibelius songs in May, 2019, and in that same week, his performance of Schubert’s Winterreise in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance with pianist Natalia Katyukova. (Read our review of the 2019 performances here.)
And in 1998, Russian composer Alfred Schnittke died of a stroke (the last of several that plagued him late in his career) in Hamburg at the age of 63. Watch a 1990 BBC documentary, The Unreal World of Alfred Schnittke here.
ChamberFest Cleveland included his Piano Quartet after Mahler on its WCLV program yesterday, Click here to watch ChamberFest violinists Yehonatan Berick and David Bowlin play his Prelude in Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich at Harkness Chapel on June 26, 2015.
ANSWERS TO THE WEEKEND ALMANAC QUIZ:
English pianist John Ogdon died on August 1 in 1952. Which of these composers did he especially promote? a) Alkan. b) Reinecke. c) Busoni. c) Scriabin.
Answer: Alkan and Busoni.
Russian pianist Svyatoslav Richter died of a heart attack on August 1, 1997. True or false: In 1952, Richter was invited to play Franz Liszt in a film based on the life of Tchaikovsky.
Answer: Both true and false! He was invited to play the role of Liszt, but the film was about the life of Mikhail Glinka.
Italian opera composer Pietro Mascagni took his final curtain call on August 2, 1945. He’s best known for his one-act verismo drama Cavalliera rusticana. Which of the following scores did he not compose? a) Silvano. b) Zanetto. c) Amica. d) Arlecchino.
Answer: d). Arlecchino was written by Ferruccio Busoni.
And Mexican conductor and composer Carlos Chávez left us on August 2, 1978 at the age of 79. What famous conductor did he fill in for in 1938 during his four years in New York City? a) Leopold Stokowski. b) Arturo Toscanini. c) Bruno Walter. d) Thomas Schippers.
Answer: b) Toscanini, and the orchestra was the NBC Symphony.