by Daniel Hathaway
TODAY ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
ChamberFest Cleveland continues its rebroadcasts of archived performances on WCLV’s Ovations series tonight with Franklin Cohen soloing in (and conducting) Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Also on deck: Brahms’ Trio with violinist Alexi Kenney, cellist Oliver Herbert, and pianist Roman Rabinovich.
Earlier today, WCLV’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra is all-Beethoven: Franz Welser-Möst leads a string orchestra version of the “Heiliger Dankgesang” movement from the String Quartet Op. 132, and the “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony.
At 7:00 this evening, Piano Cleveland goes online to announce the names of the six pianists who will play 30-35 minute programs in the Final Round of its Virtu(al)oso online competition on Thursday and Friday.
And the MET Opera rebroadcasts a production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra from 1995. Details in our Concert Listings.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Franco-Flemish composer Guillaume Du Fay was presumably born on this date in 1397. Associated on and off throughout his career with Cambrai Cathedral, where he was buried, he became the most celebrated composer in Europe while working at different times for the Papal Chapel, noble Italian families, and the Duke of Burgundy, among others.
Du Fay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores, written in 1436 for the consecration of Brunelleschi’s dome for the Cathedral of Florence, reflects the composer’s rich contrapuntal gifts. Listen here to a September, 2014 performance by Quire Cleveland led by Ross W. Duffin, whose program notes reveal the elaborate symbolism behind Du Fay’s musical construction.
Other local performances of Du Fay’s works include his secular motet, Ma belle dame souveraine, performed on a March, 2013 Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert by the Case Collegium Musicum, Debra Nagy, director, and his Gloria, sung by Contrapunctus Early Music in March, 2015 at St. John’s Cathedral, directed by David Acres.
And here’s an unusual entry: On this date in 1978, Parowan, Utah, named a local mountain Mt. Messiaen to honor the composer of Des canyons aux etoiles (‘From the canyons to the stars’) commissioned in 1971 by Alice Tully to celebrate the American bicentennial in 1976. Olivier Messiaen was inspired by the natural beauty of Bryce Canyon, and this seems like an important time to revisit one of the country’s remarkable natural landscapes. Listen here to the 90-minute work for mixed ensemble in a performance by pianist Paul Crossley and the London Sinfonietta led by Esa Pekka Salonen.