by Daniel Hathaway
TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
Here are three interesting local events to attract your attention, and all three air at 7:00 pm tonight.
Local 4 Music Fund of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians hosts a live stream featuring percussionists Mell Csicsila and Andrew Pongracz, who perform as Duo Anime, but haven’t played together for nearly a year thanks to the pandemic. The feed originates at Survival Kit Studios, and you can read a preview of the program here.
The Cleveland Orchestra is airing a repeat of its 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. Check out yesterday’s Diary for details.
And live from the Bop Stop, long-time collaborators Jackie Warren, piano and Sammy DeLeon, timbales, come together again.
Whichever show you choose, do consider making a donation during the performance
INTERESTING READS:
In a timely Op-Ed piece, New York Times critic Jason Farago asks fundamental questions about the function of art and what it does for a person or a country. Read “The Arts Are in Crisis. Here’s how Biden Can Help” here.
AKRON SYMPHONY SURVEY:
The Akron Symphony has developed a survey to determine “how people have been engaging with the arts and when they might be comfortable coming back to live events in a concert hall.” They’re interested to hear from you even if you’re not a regular ASO patron. Click here to log your responses.
ORMACO SEEKS PERFORMERS:
Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach writes, “For our 2022 schedule, we are seeking professional musicians from a variety of genres for the following: One-hour live stream or pre-recorded streaming concerts for: January 9, February 13, March 13 and April 10 from 2-3 pm. One-hour outdoor Concerts in the Country to be held at ORMACO’s home-HeARTland, 8187 Camp Road, Homerville, OH 44235 for: May 15, June 12, July 10, Aug. 14, September 11 and October 9. One-hour concerts at the Homerville Community Center Auditorium for: November 13 and December 11 We are also lining up Jazz under the Stars, which takes place at Medina’s Uptown Park Gazebo from 7 to 9 pm. for the following 2022 dates: June 4, July 9, August 6 and August 27 If interested, please email credentials and samples here.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Several sources claim that the clarinet was invented by German woodwind builder Johann Christoph Denner on this date in 1690 in Nürnberg. Well…Denner seems to have added a register key to the chalmeau, a single-reed instrument whose origins can be traced back to ancient times. In any case, clarinets entered the orchestra during the Classical period and such virtuosi as Anton Stadler mastered them an inspired two wonderful solo works by Mozart. A good excuse to revisit Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet performed by Franklin Cohen and his ChamberFest Cleveland colleagues here.
Speaking of Mozart, January 14, 1800 was the birthdate of the Austrian musicographer Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, who compiled the first comprehensive catalogue of the composer’s works, hence the “K” numbers that identify them.
Many composers kept their own lists of compositions, often assigning them Opus (“Work”) numbers if they thought them worthy of a position in their personal canon. We have four sets of catalogue numbers for Beethoven: his own Opus list (Nos. 1-135), then a 1955 list by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm of “Works without Opus Numbers” (WoOo numbers 1-125), and a further list of works compiled by Willy Hess in the 1950s identified by Hess numbers. The final catalogue, compiled by Giovanni Biamonti in 1968, attempts a chronological listing of all of Beethoven’s works, Opus, WoO, and Hess numbers included. Otto Deutsch did a similar favor for Schubert, assigning his works “D” numbers.
Good trivia question: How many works did each of these composers leave to posterity? Mozart: at least 626 plus fragments. Beethoven: 849 according to Biamonti. Schubert: 993. Bach: more than 1,126. Numbers are approximate — some include lost works.
And looking forward to the celebrations this weekend, it was on this day in 1979 that President Jimmy Carter proposed observing Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday.