by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Online: Les Délices with Daphna Mor (pictured, Sue Yelanjian looking on) and rare finds by Eric Charnofsky
. Almanac: Clérambault, Christie & Isserlis
TODAYS EVENTS:
Beginning today, and continuing through June, Les Délices re-releases its SalonEra 3.3 program: Ottoman Influence. A Baroque musician, Ottoman music enthusiast, and multi-instrumentalist, Daphna Mor guest-curates this episode exploring connections between east and west. Oud player Kane Mathis helps us understand the building blocks of Ottoman music, and Turkish violinist and multi-instrumentalist Ceren Türkmenoğlu shares her fascinating and beautiful work, which inhabits both European and Turkish classical traditions. Available online and as a podcast. Click here.
From 2:00 – 4:00 pm today Eric Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music features a selection of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ sacred and secular choral songs, Charles Dodge’s Extensions (trumpet and tape), Vítězslav Novák’s Eternal Longing (orchestra), J.S. Bach’s Concerto in d arranged by Ilan Guetta for two electric guitars and strings, David Gompper’s Bailey’s Beads (double bass and piano), and Paula Matthusen’s Limerence (banjo and electronics). Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.
ALMANAC — DECEMBER 19 IN MUSIC HISTORY:
French composer, organist, and harpsichordist Louis Nicholas Clérambault was born on December 19, 1676 in Paris. Oberlin Baroque performed one of his cantatas, Orphée, as part of Early Music America’s 2017 Young Performers Festival at the Boston Early Music Festival. Watch here.
268 years later, American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie was born near Buffalo. After graduating from Harvard in art history and studying with Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale, he moved to France to found Les Arts Florissants, taking French citizenship and becoming one of the principal gurus of French Baroque music of our time. Here’s a performance of Charpentier’s Te Deum that Christie led at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2017. And click here to watch a 2013 artist interview moderated by John Heilpern interspersed with harpsichord demonstrations.
And on this date in 1958, British cellist Steven Isserlis was born in London, going on to study at Oberlin with Richard Kapinsky. His colorful career as a cellist is enhanced by his other interests, which include writing such books for children as Why Beethoven Threw the Stew: And Lots More Stories about the Lives of Great Composers (2002) and Why Handel Waggled His Wig (2006), and other titles including Anthem Guide to the Opera, Concert Halls and Classical Music Venues of Europe (2007), 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (2008), Robert Schumann’s Advice to Young Musicians Revisited by Steven Isserlis (2016), and The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion (2021).
Click here to watch Isserlis work with Oberlin graduate Aaron Wolff on Thomas Adés’ Lieux retrouvés as part of a cello master class recorded live at Juilliard’s Paul Hall on December 7, 2018.
