by Daniel Hathaway
LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS:
Due to the recent increase of COVID-19 cases, Apollo’s Fire has postponed its July “Blues Café 1610” concert at Music Box Supper Club until September 20. Read the announcement here.
The buildup to Piano Cleveland’s Virtu(al)oso Competition that launches on July 30 begins today at 11:30 am with the first PianoKids program — a series of 15-minute videos for children ages 3-8. Details here.
Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) has released its July playlist. Click here to listen to Summer Sounds, including performances by Lea Bertucci & Amirtha Kidambi, Ammie Brod, Anika Kildegaard, Stephanie Lamprea & Zack Sheets, Martha Mooke, and Nina Dante & Dalia Chi.
TODAY ONLINE AND ON THE AIRWAVES:
The Miró Quartet — who have appeared on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, and the ENCORE Chamber Music Series — open their cycle of the complete Beethoven string quartets tonight with a live performance from their hometown of Austin, Texas. It’s part of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, normally held in Washington State, but moved online this summer.
Also today, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its Lunchtime series on WCLV, 104.9 Ideastream with Brahms and Johann Strauss, Jr., and the MET Opera revisits its January 11 production of Alban Berg’s Wozzek with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium. For streaming details, go to the Concert Listings.
Heads up: Nézet-Séguin is also scheduled to lead the first in a series of Philadelphia International Music Festival online master classes on Saturday, July 19 at 7:00 pm. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets (there’s a nominal fee).
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Belgian composer, violinist and conductor Eugène Ysaÿe was born on this date in 1858 in Liège. His solo sonatas are popular encore pieces, and you can see why in James Ehnes’ performance of his Third Sonata on an occasion that the YouTube uploader hasn’t bothered to identify. Any clues?
And Scottish composer James MacMillan was born on July 16, 1959 in Kilwinning, Ayrshire. It’s probably his Veni, Veni Emanuel percussion concerto that brought both MacMillan and Evelyn Glennie to international attention. Here’s a live performance by Glennie and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 1994 led by Sian Edwards.
Like Messiaen’s, many of MacMillan’s works reflect his devout Roman Catholicism. Click here to watch a performance of his Stabat Mater in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in April of 2018 by Harry Christopher and The Sixteen with the Britten Sinfonia.
