by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. A decade of “not necessarily standard repertoire” on WRUW
. In the Almanac: interesting dates to note in the lives of Dvořák, MacDowell, Ellington, John Luther Adams, Paul Robeson, Mason Bates & Samuel Barber, including a Barber premiere that drew Mike Telin deep into the Cleveland Orchestra archives
HAPPENING TODAY:
Today from 2 to 4pm, WRUW celebrates the 10th anniversary of Eric Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, with a selection of some of the programmer’s favorite works that are “not necessarily standard repertoire.” Featured music includes Paul Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments (piano and orchestra), Samuel Barber’s Excursions (solo piano), Igor Stravinsky’s Agon (orchestra), Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations, plus music by Lukas Foss and André Jolivet. Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area
ALMANAC FOR JANUARY 23:
This date in 1894 saw the first performance of Antonin Dvorák’s own arrangement of Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home with vocal soloists Sissierette Jones and Harry T. Burleigh at a concert of African American choral music at Madison Square Concert Hall in NYC.
Exactly one year later, American composer Edward MacDowell’s Indian Suite was first performed (and the composer left us on January 23, 1908 at the age of 47).
The official debut of Edward “Duke” Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige Suite at Carnegie Hall followed a rehearsal performance on this date in 1943 at Rye High School, New York.
And January 23 births include American composers John Luther Adams (1953), and Mason Bates (1977), while the necrology includes bass Paul Robeson (1976) and composer Samuel Barber (1981 at age 70).
At the other end of his career, Barber visited Cleveland in 1937 to hear his first symphony premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, an event that inspired Mike Telin to visit the Cleveland Orchestra Archives to see what critics had to say about the work and composer. Read his article here.