by Daniel Hathaway
NEWS BRIEFS:
Piano Cleveland will present Arts Alive: A Space Odyssey, featuring students from the Paul L. Dunbar Elementary School’s PianoLab on Wednesday, March 19, from 7-8 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“The students will guide audiences on an exhilarating journey, featuring musical works, dynamic choreography, captivating visual art, and evocative written word. As the stars align, you’ll travel to distant planets, get up close with a black hole, and witness the cosmos unfold in a breathtaking display of young talent.” The event is free, but tickets are required. More information here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Five years ago, The Cleveland Orchestra began the week by announcing that “due to ongoing developments related to coronavirus (COVID-19), the Orchestra will not travel to Europe (Linz, Vienna and Paris) and Abu Dhabi for the ensemble’s previously announced tour scheduled to take place during the next several weeks.”
That began a cascade of postponements and cancellations that effectively brought a halt to live music in Northeast Ohio, causing institutions, presenters and touring artists to come up with clever ways to cope with an uncertain future. (Photo above: Roger Mastroianni)
TODAY IN CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY:
by Jarrett Hoffman
Pablo de Sarasate, who was born on March 10, 1844, is known for his virtuosic and pure-toned violin playing, as well as the pieces he wrote to show it off. Most famous among those is his Zigeunerweisen. Listen to that piece in two versions: first, as written for violin and orchestra, from Itzhak Perlman and the Lawrence Foster-led Abbey Road Ensemble. And second, more unconventionally, from double bassist Edgar Meyer with mandolinist Mike Marshall on the 1997 album Uncommon Ritual.
Composer Arthur Honegger was born in France — to Swiss parents — on this date in 1892, and lived most of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, he is known for merging the French avant-garde style of the first half of the 20th century with elements of German Romanticism — more so than his fellow members of that group, who turned away from that tradition. One listening recommendation: his Symphony No. 3, a commentary on the horrors of World War II, and an inventive combination of tonality and harsh, expressive language. Listen here to a famous recording by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
And pour one out for Carl Reinecke, the German composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher who died on this date in 1910 at age 85. Some of the highlights of his resume include long tenures conducting Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, teaching piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory, and eventually serving as director of that institution. His list of students is impressive, including Edvard Grieg, Charles Stanford, Leoš Janáček, Isaac Albéniz, and Max Bruch. Listen to his famous Sonata Undine for flute, heard here in a performance by Sir James Galway and pianist Phillip Moll.
