by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 12 Noon, organist Sol Rizzato plays a program on the Church of the Covenant’s Tuesday Series that includes Peter Sykes’ transcriptions of two movements from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Tonight at 7:30 on the Tuesday Musical series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, vocalist and pianist Michael Feinstein joins the Carnegie Hall Big Band to celebrate the legacy of Tony Bennett.
And tonight at 7:30 is your last opportunity to hear Apollo’s Fire perform four of J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos as the Baroque orchestra’s current tour concludes at Rocky River Presbyterian Church.
For details of these and other upcoming events, go to our Concert Listings.
HONORED:
During its November 1 concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will induct trumpeter and former artistic director (1992-2009) Jack Schantz into its CJO Preservation Circle. “Through his unwavering commitment to celebrate jazz’s composers, CJO original music and his singular voice as CJO’s signature soloist for decades, Jack has contributed beyond measure to further the CJO’s mission.”
Read more about Schantz’s contributions to jazz in Northeast Ohio on CJO’s blog.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Today’s calendar mostly records historic finales, perhaps none so tragic as that of French Baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair. On this date in 1764, he was murdered in his home, supposedly by his jealous nephew, although no one was ever tried for the crime.
Making a more natural departure, Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, father of the prolific keyboard composer Domenico, died on this date in 1725 in Naples at the age of 65. In his memory, we suggest his extraordinary setting of Stabat Mater for ten solo voices and organ, sung here by Ars Nova Copenhagen, led by Paul Hillier and recorded in the Garnisonskirken in April, 2014.
Another in memoriam is due to Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, who was welcomed into the heavenly cello section in San Juan, Puerto Rico on this date in 1973 at the age of 96. In a 1955 documentary filmed at his home in Prades, France, he talks with a former student about various subjects including his exile during the Franco regime, and plays one of Bach’s solo suites, in the revival of which he played a central role.
In a more civilized era, Casals played at the White House during the Kennedy Administration on November 13, 1961, a performance captured here on an LP recording.
Enough departures! Our birthday boy is Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt, born in Raiding, Austria on October 22, 1811. His eventful life and career included his single-handed invention of the solo piano recital, for which he wrote an enormous number of pieces to challenge keyboardists and make listeners swoon.
Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano (1840), by Josef Danhauser.
One familiar example fromrepertoire is his Mephisto Waltz No. 1, played here by Megan-Geoffrey Prinz at the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 20, 2018 (the fantastic story behind the piece is included in the notes).
Liszt also invented and championed the tone poem, of which he wrote a dozen during his years in Weimar. Orpheus tells the tale of the singing poet and lyre player who learned his art from Apollo himself. First performed as an orchestral introduction to Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Liszt later made a transcription for organ. So did Jean Guillou, who played the work in 1977 at Notre-Dame in Paris. Listen here.
