HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
On Friday at 7:30, Petr Popelka conducts The Cleveland Orchestra with pianist Yuja Wang (pictured) in works by Ravel, Ligeti, and Mussorgsky at Severance Music Center (repeated on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3.)
On Saturday at 4 pm, The Cleveland Opera stages Georges Bizet’s Doctor Miracle, an hour-long, one-act comedy with sets and costumes, sung in English, and accompanied by chamber instrumentalists, at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland in Shaker Heights (repeated Sunday at 4 at Saint Cyprian Catholic Church, Perry.
On Sunday at 2 pm and 6 pm, Carl Topilow conducts the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and Chorus with vocalist Natalie Green and guests in Jingle Bell Jamboree at KeyBank State Theater in Playhouse Square.
On Sunday at 2 pm, Cleveland Cello Society presents its Scholarship Winners Recital in Judson Manor Ballroom.
On Sunday at 3 pm, Tuesday Musical presents Christmas with Cantus: Three Tales of Christmas at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, and at the same hour, Samuel Gordon conducts Singers Companye in The Call of Beauty at First United Methodist Church in Cuyahoga Falls.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING:
With nothing else on the concert calendar, we’ll send best wishes for a rejuvenating holiday weekend and safe and uncomplicated travel for those who are braving the airways and highways.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On November 25, 1731, Johann Sebastian Bach gave the first performance of his cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, in Leipzig on the 27th Sunday after Trinity, one of only two occasions during his tenure when an extra Sunday before Advent entered the calendar and required new music to be provided.
Wachet auf is one of several cantatas he completed later in his career, and it stands as one of his great accomplishments. Based on the popular chorale of the same name with words by Philipp Nicolai, it invokes the biblical parable of the five wise virgins who stood ready with oil-filled lamps to greet the Bridegroom (Christ) no matter at what hour he would appear, and treats the relationship of the Bridegroom and his Bride with a love duet between Christ and the Soul.
One of Bach’s most popular chorale settings, Zion hört die Wächter singen (stanza 2 of Nikoli’s hymn, scored with obligato for violins and violas, tenors singing the chorale melody, and basso continuo), appears again as the first of six “Schubler” chorales for solo organ published in 1747. The setting also inspired a version by Bobby McFerrin and the Jacques Lousier Trio.
There are a number of performances to recommend, but here’s one by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. A lovely way to spend half an hour during Thanksgiving week.
