by Jarrett Hoffman
ON TONIGHT:
At 8:00 pm, WCLV’s Ovations features Les Délices’ 2019 program “The Elements,” which celebrated the conclusion of the ensemble’s first decade of existence. The playlist depicts “the chaos of creation” and the elements of earth, air, water, and fire through music by Jean-Féry Rebel and Jean-Philippe Rameau, as well as in a commission from Theo Chandler.
Listen locally at 104.9 FM, or tune in from around the globe via MP3 stream or mobile player. To give yourself a full preview of the concert, dig into our recent archives for Mike Telin’s conversations with Chandler and Les Délices director Debra Nagy here.
On another Les Délices-related note, subscriptions recently went on sale for the ensemble’s 2021-22 season. Check out your options here.
FOR THOSE WE CONTINUE LOSING:
One of the final episodes of The Cleveland Orchestra’s pre-recorded In Focus series this past season featured a musical tribute to victims of the pandemic in the form of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Elegy . . . for those we lost, written in May 2020. Originally for orchestra, on this occasion the piece was heard in a new version for harp and trumpet, arranged for and performed by Yolanda Kondonassis and Michael Sachs.
This was in June 2021. In fact, the duo had already recorded it a month earlier, setting the stage for its upcoming release on September 17 as a digital single from Azica Records.
“I strived to create music to counterpoint the terrible pandemic and honor the dead — to try to give some measure of solace to families by sharing a personal expression of grief,” Kernis writes.
Still, painfully, relevant.
LEADERSHIP & CHANGE:
The latest episode of the Canton Symphony’s Orchestrating Change podcast brings the series’ second season to a close, but also marks the end of the ensemble’s first Orchestrating Change Leadership Program. OCLP brought together nine college students via Zoom for activities that included discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and creating an educational program dedicated to combating issues of accessibility and inequality in Canton.
Three OCLP participants — Samaria Hill, Valerie Mathis, and Irene Guggenheim-Triana — joined hosts Rachel Hagemeier and Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz to discuss the program. Watch “The Next Generation” here.
GUITAR ENSEMBLE, ANYONE?
The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is welcoming new members to the Cleveland Guitar Orchestra, which begins rehearsing in October (register here). Or, if you’re not quite ready for that advanced ensemble, another option is the Cleveland Youth Guitar Orchestra, or the Community Guitar Orchestra, both of which regroup in early 2022.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On the one hand, Amadeus obscured the legacy of Italian composer and conductor Antonio Salieri, who turns 271 today. That 1979 play and its 1984 film version were deliberately loose with history, painting Salieri as an archrival of Mozart, and to great effect — in addition to its financial and critical success, the movie won a slew of Oscars, and is considered a classic.
Its inaccuracies and outright falsehoods may elicit cringing from some history buffs, and you’d understand if Salieri turns over in his grave, or maybe worse, every time someone watches it. But in a cruel way, he also owes his legacy to it. By 1868, his music had nearly vanished from the repertoire, only to be revisited due to — yes — Amadeus.
One example of his partially revitalized stature in the 20th and 21st centuries is 2003’s The Salieri Album from Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli. It contains thirteen arias from his extensive operatic output, and is available on YouTube from her popular Channel — where it’s worth sticking around to enjoy more examples of her exquisite voice and music-making.