by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
The Winter Solstice is scheduled for today at 10:27 pm in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Thursday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest news flows in from around the globe.
Time to shine light on darkness today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.
At 7:30 this evening, Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concerts continue at Severance Center with Brett Mitchell on the podium and soprano Capathia Jenkins in the spotlight, and Les Délices presents Noel, Noel featuring soprano Amanda Powell at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River. Visit our Concert Listings for details..
Or if you’d like to contemplate the Solstice online, click here to watch Sting’s A Winter’s Night, broadcast live from England’s Durham Cathedral in 2009. The comments are exuberant, and “magical” is the most-used word to describe this 90-minute concert.
Intro (Sting/A Winter’s Night Concert) 00:00 02. The Snow It Melts The Soonest 01:54 03. Gabriel’s Message 05:42 04. Soul Cake 09:15 05. There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue 15:21 06. Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming 20:10 07. Christmas At Sea 24:53 08. Now Winter Comes Slowly 30:42 09. Cold Song 33:54 10. The Burning Babe 38:24 11. Ghost Story 42:34 12. Team Spirit 47:38 13. The Hounds Of Winter 51:40 14. Cherry Tree Carol 58:37 15. Balulalow 01:02:56 16. Bethelehem Down 01:07:08 17. Coventry Carol 01:10:41 18. Lullaby For An Anxious Child 01:14:10 19. I Saw Three Ships 01:20:46 20. You Only Cross My Mind In Winter 01:25:41
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The stork was busy delivering musicians on this date in history — American musician, bandleader, and iconoclast Frank Zappa (1939 in Baltimore), American conductor, pianist, and composer Michael Tilson Thomas (1944 in Hollywood), and British pianist András Schiff (1953 in Budapest).
