By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Not live, but lively: Charnofsky’s two-hour WRUW program on the radio and web
. In memoriam Kaija Saariaho (pictured)
. Almanac: focus on a prolific New England composer
HAPPENING TODAY:
With no live concerts on the schedule, enjoy some unusual selections from Eric Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music playlist. Today’s program on WRUW from 2-4 pm features Laurie Altman’s Homage a Stravinsky for Instrumental Octet, Charles Villiers Stanford’s String Quintet No. 1 in F, John Corigliano’s Promenade Overture, Lili Boulanger’s D’un vieux jardin & D’un jardin clair (piano), Stanley Grill’s 6 Songs (soprano/piano), Pavel Vejvanovsky’s Sonata in g (trumpet/organ),& Paul Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 7 (organ/chamber orchestra). Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area. .
Visit our Concert Listings page for robust listings of these and other events —composer names, composition titles, and performers.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Paris on Friday morning. Read a statement from her family here, and view her obituary by Joshua Baron in the New York Times here. Also in the Times, view Zachary Woolfe’s list of eleven essential works by Saariaho, and read an appreciation by Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki.
ALMANAC FOR JUNE 5:
Midwives and morticians were busy on June 5 in classical music history.
On the 5th, Boston composer Daniel Pinkham (pictured) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1923, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich made her natal debut in Buenos Aires in 1941, and American conductor Victoria Bond arrived in Los Angeles in 1945. Death notices on June 5 included Elizabethan composer Orlando Gibbons in Canterbury in 1625, and composer Carl Maria von Weber in London in 1826 (unexpectedly, at the age of 39, in the home of Sir George Smart).
Pinkham was a prolific composer with a specialty in religious music and a lively interest in early music — he served as the longtime music director of King’s Chapel in Boston, a parish famous for making the transition from Anglican to Unitarian at the time of the American Revolution merely by crossing out all Trinitarian references and continuing to use the Book of Common Prayer.
He founded a well-respected Sunday evening concert series there while serving on the faculties of most of Boston’s institutions of higher education. His cantatas have been favorites of college choruses — like the Wedding Cantata, sung here by the Texas A&M U-Commerce Chorale. His music deserves to be performed and enjoyed more often beyond the borders of New England, where he was very much a local hero.
“In this Musical Moment on YouTube, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Daniel Pinkham.”
