by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Tatsuya Nakatani CUSP concert, Charnofsky playlist
. Why orchestras flourish in the American Midwest, and a few births, deaths, and premieres for the record
TODAY’S EVENTS:
8:00 pm – Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project presents Tatsuya Nakatani, avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound, with CUSP Improvisation Orchestra in “a spatially presented, structured improvisation.” Convivium 33 Gallery, 1433 E. 33 St,, Cleveland. $15 recommended ticket price or pay what you can. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Eric Charnofsky’s playlist for Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music today from 2-4 pm: Charles Wakefield Cadman’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Henri Dutilleux’s: Mystère de l’instant (string orchestra, cimbalom, and percussion), Jules Massenet’s Poème d’Octobre (baritone voice and piano), Paul Creston’s Symphony No. 4 (in celebration of his birth anniversary), Nicolas Flagello’s Electra (piano, celesta, harp, and percussion) & Erik Satie’s: solo piano selections.
INTERESTING READ:
Why does the Midwest love orchestras so much? Is it the Lutherans? The Europeans? The cold? The Washington Post’s Department of Data columnist Andrew Van Dam looks at the numbers.
“Readers sent in a multitude of theories, starting with the most obvious: The Midwest teems with tremendous orchestras, the sort of world-renowned outfits that will draw out-of-town visitor s to your Airbnb. Cincinnati reader Dana Harms reels them off.
“There are top-notch organizations in the Midwest: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra,” she wrote. “(I was surprised too, when I moved here!)”
“Others pointed out that even smaller towns in the region ten d to have robust symphonies and orchestras. And there’s data to back this up. Reader Stephen Spiewak, a senior digital content manager at ticket marketplace Vivid Seats, kindly ran the numbers on live events in 2022. Midwest states hosted 27 percent of U.S. orchestra performances, even though they were home to only 19 percent of concerts overall.”
Read van Dam’s analysis here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
A death, a birth, and some first performances that took place on October 10:
- In 1825 “Russian composer” Dimitri Bortniansky, actually Ukrainian, passed away at the age of 74 in St. Petersburg.
- In 1906, American composer Giuseppe Guttovegio was born in New York, better known by his pen name, Paul Creston.
- And the first performances? George F. Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest, Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, The King Shall Rejoice, and My Heart Is Inditing, at Westminster Abbey in 1727 during the coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline. Not so smooth a premiere, apparently: one bishop noted in his program book that the performances were in disarray. And William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast at the 1933 Leeds music festival in London, as well as the Broadway premiere of Porgy and Bess at the Alvin Theater in 1935.
