by Mike Telin
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:00 pm, the Fine Arts Association Faculty Artist Recital Series will present the Fine Arts Chamber Orchestra, Michael Lund Ziegler, conducting, and the Muse Trio (Jenny Cluggish, violin, Melissa Lund Ziegler, viola and Daniel Pereira, cello). The inaugural performance by the orchestra includes Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, Ernst von Dohnáni’s Serenade in C, Op. 10 (Muse Trio), and the premiere of Gamer Troll Loses Control, a new work by Matthew Saunders inspired by Fine Arts Student Artwork by Gabe Elliot, Rosalynd Gruden, Callie Roberts and Sophie Shaposka. Fine Arts Association, 38660 Mentor Ave. Willoughby. Click here for tickets. Read our preview article here.
NEWS BRIEFS:
The Lorain County Community College Signature Series, curated by composer Jeffrey Mumford, will present four concerts during the coming season. Oberlin cello professor Darrett Adkins will play the Annual Eva Hornyak Memorial Concert on September 28, Duo Anime (percussionists Andrew Pongracz and Mell Csicsila) will premiere a new work by LCCC’s Gerald Evans on February 8, the Longleash Piano Trio, (Pala Garcia, violin, John Popham, cello & Renate Rohlfing, piano) will perform on March 29, and the CIM New Music Ensemble, Keith Fitch, director, will close out the season on April 19. Concerts are free on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm in the Cirigliano Studio Theatre at the Stocker Center for the Arts in Elyria (except for the CIM Ensemble, who will perform in Cinema Hall).
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Today we celebrate the birth of composer George Enescu, but we’ll begin by marking the passing of Russian art critic, patron, and ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (pictured above, center, with Igor Stravinsky, left, and dancer Serge Lifar, right), who died in Venice, Italy on August 19, 1929 at the age of 57.
Although Diaghilev composed his first work at age 15 and later studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, it was his passion for promoting Russian art that would lead to his founding of The Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929 the Paris-based company toured across Europe as well as North and South America. Interestingly, the company never performed in Russia. Still, because of its innovative collaborations with important choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, The Ballets Russes is heralded as the most important company of the 20th century.
Together with the Company’s artistic director Léon Bakst, Diaghilev spawned a new style of ballet designed to be appealing to a general audience, rather than just the upper class. Of the company’s unique style, fashion designer Coco Chanel is reported to have famously said that “Diaghilev invented Russia for foreigners.”
During the company’s history, Diaghilev staged many works by Rimsky-Korsakov and commissioned ballet scores from a who’s-who list of composers including Nikolai Tcherepnin, Claude Debussy (Jeux, 1913), Maurice Ravel (Daphnis et Chloé, 1912), Erik Satie (Parade, 1917), Manuel de Falla (El Sombrero de Tres Picos, 1917), Richard Strauss (Josephslegende, 1914), Sergei Prokofiev (Le pas d’acier, 1926 and The Prodigal Son, 1929), Ottorino Respighi (La Boutique fantasque, 1919), and Francis Poulenc (Les biches, 1923).
Diaghilev’s most celebrated collaborations were with Igor Stravinsky, from whom he commissioned ballet scores for The Firebird and Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Diaghilev and Stravinsky also collaborated on Les noces (1923) and Pulcinella (1920), for which Pablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes.
Click here to watch a performance of Debussey’s Jeux with choreography by Nijinsky.
One year ago my colleague Jarrett Hoffman honored the birth of Enescu this way:
Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor George Enescu was born on this date in 1881 in what was then a village known as Liveni — later renamed “George Enescu” following the musician’s death in 1955. If that’s not enough indication of his importance to his home country, take a walk down to the Romanian Cultural Garden in Cleveland to see his life-sized likeness in bronze (photo above by Stuart Spivack).
Hear “The Fiddler” from Enescu’s Impressions d’enfance in a solo recital by violinist Yura Lee at Transformer Station in 2016 as part of ChamberFest Cleveland. Marvel at the music, her playing, the dramatic canvases behind her, and the sight of a crowd of people packed into a building, happily.
