by Daniel Hathaway
COOPER PIANO COMPETITION NEWS:
Following the Concerto Rounds on Tuesday in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall, Fifth place prizes were awarded to Qinyaoyao Ji (15, China) and Yangting Wang (13, China), and the Fourth prize was given to Yixen Shen (14, China).
On Thursday at 7:30 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Anwen Deng (16, Australia), Sawako Harada (18, Japan), and Anna Avramidou (17, Cyprus) will vie for the top three prizes by playing concertos by Robert Schumann, Sergei Prokofief, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky respectively with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Samy Rachid.
HAPPENING TODAY:
2:00 pm – Ohio Light Opera. Herman Haller and Eduard Künneke’s The Cousin from Batavia. Freedlander Theatre, 329 E. University St., Wooster. Tickets available online.
5:30 pm – Piano Cleveland. Wade Oval Wednesdays: A Celebration of Ukrainian Roots. Honoring her Ukrainian heritage, pianist Mirabelle Kajenjeri partners with faculty and students from Cleveland’s own bandura academy, Hryhory Kytasty Cleveland School of Bandura. Wade Oval, 10820 East Blvd., Cleveland. Free.
7:30 pm – City Stages. Las Karamba. Founded in Spain, this six-woman group of mestizas and migrants create danceable music influenced by traditional styles, rap, and a touch of samba and rumba. Transformer Station, 1460 W. 29th St., Cleveland. Free.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1757, Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid. Son of composer Alessandro, Domenico spent most of his career in Spain, producing mainly keyboard works including 555 sonatas.
Click here to begin watching an extensive 1985 BBC documentary about Domenico’s life with musical selections played by Rafael Puyana (part two is here). And click here to watch Oberlin Harpsichord Professor Mark Edwards play three of the sonatas in Warner Concert Hall in February, 2018.
And on July 23, 1928, American pianist Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco. Well-known to Cleveland — and worldwide — audiences for his commanding recordings of the Beethoven Concertos, Fleisher lost control of his right hand in 1964 due to focal dystonia. He spent the next decades concentrating on left-hand repertoire, teaching, and conducting, but made a famous comeback in 2004 with the Vanguard recording Two Hands.
Listen here to a Peabody Institute Founders Day interview with Fleisher by Ray Sprenkle, enjoy Fleisher’s recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra from 1961, and — for something completely different, watch him play a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Schafe können sicher weiden.
