by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Charnofsky’s Monday playlist
. Potter to join Les Délices, JazzFest plans jam sessions
. Almanac remembers Harvard professor/composers, The MET’s Rudolph Bing & some premieres
HAPPENING TODAY:
Join host Eric Charnofsky from 2:00 until 4:00 this afternoon for another edition of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music. The playlist includes Jan Engel’s Symphony in B, Cindy McTee’s Einstein’s Dream (orchestra and computer sounds), Michael Daugherty’s Labyrinth of Love (soprano, winds, piano, contrabass, percussion), Leopold Mozart’s Trumpet Concerto, Joseph Fennimore’s two Sonatas for piano, four hands, and selected transcriptions of music by Vivaldi, featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Les Délices has announced the appointment of Laura Potter as its new Executive Director. Potter has previously worked as Development Director for CityMusic Cleveland and has also held development and operations roles with the Indiana Music Education Association and the Youth Symphony of Kansas City.
Tri-C JazzFest has announced a partnership with the Bop Stop at The Music Settlement for student jam sessions to be held on the first and third Fridays of the month from Jan. 20 through May 19. The sessions will begin at 10 p.m.
“We feel the jam session experience is a priceless learning opportunity for aspiring jazz musicians, and we are thrilled to resume this endeavor with the Bop Stop after the pandemic years,” said Terri Pontremoli, director of Tri-C JazzFest. “In addition to the educational impact on students, this collaboration helps strengthen and solidify the jazz community in Cleveland.” The Bop Stop is at 2920 Detroit Ave., Cleveland.
ALMANAC FOR JANUARY 9
January 9 is the birthday of American composer John Knowles Paine (1839, in Portland, Maine, pictured) and of longtime Metropolitan Opera administrator Rudolph Bing (1902, in Vienna). Bing was famous for his tiffs with singers (he fired Maria Callas in 1968, and joked that he should have named his autobiography Nobody Knows the Traubels I’ve Seen — rather than 5000 Nights at the Opera.
January 9 also witnessed the first performances of a number of noteworthy works: Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, (NY Philharmonic, 1892). Debussy’s Estampes and Gaspard de la nuit (Spanish pianist Ricardo Vines, Paris, 1904 and 1909), Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 4 (the Kolisch Quartet in Los Angeles, 1937), Bela Bartók’s Rhapsody in two movements (clarinetist Benny Goodman, violinist Joseph Szigeti, and Bartók at the piano, New York, 1937), Roger Sessions’ Symphony No. 2 (1947 by Pierre Monteaux and the San Francisco Symphony), Kurt Weill’s opera Street Scene (1947 in New York’s Adelphi Theater), and Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 3 (1948 by Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony).
The Piston Symphony won the Pulitzer Prize for 1948, but is rarely performed today. That — along with the postponement of the Grammy Awards — brings up the subject of prizes in general, and the shelf life of musical works after their first performances specifically. Here’s a history of the Pulitzer awards and a list of winners since the musical category was added in 1943. Which composers have been over-recognized during those years and which have been excluded from consideration? How many of the pieces that won awards are still being performed?