by Daniel Hathaway
INTERESTING READS:
Alisa Weilerstein’s Cello by Lucy Ellmann, published on October 29, 2026 in the Paris Review (via ArtsJournal)
Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Is Reborn, Expanding to the Outdoors by John Hanc in The New York Times, October 31 (via ArtsJournal)
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Some random milestones to recall on November 2 in classical music history,
On this date in 1887, Swedish coloratura soprano Jenny Lind died in England at the age of 67. Having made her mark in opera, she retired at the age of 29 in 1849, but the next year undertook a 93-concert tour of the U.S. under the management of P.T. Barnum. She raised today’s equivalent of nearly $11 million, endowing free schools in her native country and contributing to charities. Lind settled in England in 1852, raised three children, and taught at the Royal College of Music.
Jumping across into the mid-20th century, Gian Carlo Menotti’s Piano Concerto had its debut on November 2, 1945 by Rudolf Firkusny and the Boston Symphony with Richard Burgin on the podium. An instrumental work by Menotti, who was known principally as an opera composer? Give it a try in this performance by Earl Wild and the Symphony of the Air under the baton of Jorge Mester.
On this date in 1979, Peter Shaffer’s musical Amadeus opened in London.
And on November 2, 1960, Greek American conductor Dimitri Metropoulos died of a heart attack in Milan while rehearsing Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Orchestra of La Scala. Here’s some footage of Metropoulos rehearsing part of Liszt’s tone poem, Faust, with the New York Philharmonic.
