by Daniel Hathaway
TODAY’S ENTRIES:
. Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from 2-4
. Mäkëla to lead Concertgebouw Orchestra at 26, megabucks for Minnesota Public Radio, Cleveland comes of age in 1921, and does eye contact between musicians matter during performances?
. Anniversaries of composer comings and goings: enter Carlos Chavez (pictured) and exit David Diamond.
TODAY’S EVENTS:
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Radio Broadcast: Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. Program includes Summer (Tone Poem) by Frank Bridge, Classic Concerto for organ and orchestra by Leo Sowerby, selections from A Love Cycle by Marques L.A. Garrett, Michael Torke’s Saxophone Concerto, and Tambuco for percussion by Carlos Chavez. WRUW, Case Western Reserve University. Click here to listen to the internet feed.
To check out concerts happening this week see our Concert Listings.
IN THE NEWS:
Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, 26, has been named principal conductor of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra beginning in 2027. He last appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra in April, leading Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, and the Sibelius concerto with violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaidera. Read the Gramophone story here.
Minnesota Public Radio has announced receipt of the largest gift in its history — an anonymous donation of $56 million that will endow “new media technology and enhanced content.” Read more here.
INTERESTING READS:
Last Friday’s Musical America reprinted its lead article from December 10, 1921, declaring that Cleveland had now emerged as a center for classical music in America. “With the music season in full swing and an average of six or seven concerts a week, Cleveland may be said to have reached almost its full growth as a great music center.” Read Cleveland Reaches Full Musical Growth here.
During the height of pandemic masking protocols, musicians’ facial expressions were pretty much limited to what the eyes could convey between performers. But exactly how important is eye contact in performances? Ariane Todes investigates in this article from the BBC Music Magazine.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
June 13 marks anniversaries for Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chavez, who was born in Mexico City in 1899, and American composer David Diamond, who died in Rochester, NewYork in 2005. Although each of them have been championed by individual conductors, their music awaits wider attention.
A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music who taught for years at Juilliard, Diamond’s works — along with those of other mid-century tonal composers — were overshadowed by the rise of atonal music.
Diamond’s extensive works list includes eleven symphonies and ten string quartets. He was honorary composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony, with whom Gerard Schwarz recorded his 1948 orchestral fantasy The Enormous Room, based on e.e. cummings’ autobiographical novel of the same name. Listen here.
The music of Chavez has all but disappeared as Latin American culture has faded from the American consciousness. Here’s a video where Bard College president Leon Botstein talks about the composer and Latin American music. Click here to listen to his Toccata performed by the Eastman Chamber Percussion Ensemble in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, Andrea Venet conducting, or here to watch his Sinfonia India led by Gustavo Dudamel — apparently in a football arena.
