by Daniel Hathaway
TODAY’S STREAMS:
Online events today include pianist Daniel Shapiro’s performance of Schubert’s late Sonata in A on Piano Cleveland’s Quarantine Concerts, and the second edition of Oberlin’s Stage Left — a conversation between author Peter Carlin and ethnomusicology professor Kathryn Metz about Carlin’s biography of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and his forthcoming book about Warner Bros. Records. Check the Concert Listings for details.
NEW LIST OF ONLINE ORCHESTRAL OFFERINGS:
The League of American Orchestras has compiled a list of livestreams, videos, and digital learning events offered by its members during the pandemic. Click here to visit “Symphony Spot.”
TODAY’S FEATURED WORK:
The Cleveland Orchestra was scheduled to return to Severance Hall tonight to resume its spring season, following its (cancelled) tour to Europe and the Middle East, but COVID-19 had other plans. On this weekend’s programs, Jahja Ling was to have led Florence Price’s Fourth Symphony, a major work by one of the 20th century’s most neglected composers. Price, who died in Chicago at the age of 66 in 1953, was the first African American woman to have a composition played by a major symphony orchestra — the Chicago Symphony.
Dozens of Price’s scores, including the Fourth Symphony, escaped destruction when they were discovered in an abandoned house in St. Anne, IL in 2009. Listen to a performance of her Symphony No. 4 in d by the Fort Smith Symphony here (it shares a Naxos disc with her First Symphony). John Jeter conducts.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
A year ago yesterday, Parisians and world-wide viewers watched in horror as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame went up in flames. The pandemic has led to the cancellation of events marking that disaster, but “Emmanuel,” the largest of the Cathedral’s ten-bell ring, tolled for five minutes from the south tower last night. Although the other nine bells were recast in 2012, this one remains as it was originally made in 1681 — well before the French Revolution. Watch a video posted by Olivier Latry, one of the Cathedral’s tenured organists
UPDATE ON CANCELLATIONS & POSTPONEMENTS:
Citing the likelihood of travel restrictions, visa issues, and logistical challenges, Piano Cleveland has announced that it will delay the next iteration of the Cleveland International Piano Competition until the summer of 2021.
