By Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:30 pm, the Oberlin Sinfonietta, Timothy Weiss, conducting, with faculty cellist Darrett Adkins (pictured), play Chen Yi’s Duo Ye for chamber orchestra and Philip Cashian’s Concerto for Cello and Strings in Warner Concert Hall. There’s a free webcast as well.
For details, visit our Concert Listings.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The prolific keyboard composer Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples on this date in 1685, the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, and the third eminent member of the Class of ‘85 that includes Handel and J.S. Bach. Scarlatti spent most of his career in Spain churning out some of the most imaginative keyboard music of the period — his 555 Sonatas, which have become favorite program starters for keyboardists ranging from Liszt to Horowitz to Hamelin.
Thanks to the Petrucci Library, all of them are available here in eleven volumes immaculately edited by Kenneth Gilbert. Keyboardists: hone your sight reading by taking on one sonata every day, a challenge that might either thrill or frustrate you for the next year and a half!
And on this date in 1965, The Beatles kissed hands at Buckingham Palace and emerged as Sir John, Sir Paul, Sir George, and Sir Ringo, Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Lennon later returned his medal — read the story here.
October 26 in history also witnessed the birth of French pianist and composer Jacques Loussier (1934). These days, crossing between musical genres is commonplace, but Loussier mixed Bach with jazz improvisation and swing during a time when critics were much more likely to frown upon that kind of practice — read more in his obituary from The Guardian in 2019.
Here are two suggestions to get a taste of Loussier’s sensibilities: first, his group the Play Bach Trio in a 2007 performance at the Burghausen International Jazz Week, beginning with J.S. Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C. Second, hear their take on that composer’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 — date and venue unknown, but the unique approach is verifiable from the start.
