DIARY: Wednesday, June 7, 2023
By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Ipanema Girl passes, Guitar Society seeks extra hands, CSO players join “Listen @ the Library”
. Almanac: Saluting three “Princes” of Music (pictured)
HAPPENING TODAY:
No live performances to alert you to today, which makes it a good time to plan your upcoming weekend, where you’ll have to make some informed choices from an extensive first-week-of-summer list. Visit our Concert Listings page for robust listings of these and other events —composer names, composition titles, and performers.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Astrud Gilberto, 83
Gilberto shot to fame with The Girl From Ipanema, the first song she ever recorded. It played a key role in making the Brazilian sound known as bossa nova a phenomenon in the United States. Read an article in The New York Times.
Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is looking for volunteers for upcoming events and programs, including
- on June 18 from 10am to 7pm in Midtown for the Composers in Residence Performance and Cleveland Community Celebration
- Unpacking and labeling guitars, date to be determined
- Concert volunteers throughout the season
Email Jon Poor to volunteer or for more information.
Canton Symphony: Listen @ the Library
Join your local librarian June 7th and 14th for a story time accompanied by musicians of the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Listen @ the Library! Read and listen to stories while learning about some instruments you can find in the orchestra.
Music and reading are crucial for children’s development. Music boosts cognition and inflection skills, while reading sparks imagination, improves language skills, and ultimately fosters love for learning. Together, they create a powerful foundation for growth. Here’s the schedule:
Thursday, June 7th
10-10:30 am | Belloni Branch – Massillon Public Library
11:15-11:45 am | Askren Branch – Massillon Public Library
Thursday, June 14th
10:15-10:45 am | Main Branch – Massillon Public Library
11:15-11:45 am | Main Branch – Massillon Public Library
ALMANAC:
by Jarrett Hoffman
Our Almanac for June 6 is themed around princes.
We begin with Prince Rogers Nelson, who was born on this date in 1958 in Minneapolis. Celebrate Prince with a selection of spectacular live recordings collected by David Remnick for The New Yorker, including his show-stealing tribute to George Harrison, and his 2007 Super Bowl halftime show, which ended, in the pouring rain, with Purple Rain. And if you’re looking for a classical music critic’s take on the artist, check out this short blog entry from Alex Ross, excerpted below:
The show I saw at Madison Square Garden in 2004…was one of the most staggering live performances I’ve ever seen, in any medium. It was a feast of lusty precision, and the sense of authority emanating from the man in the middle was almost frightening… Prince was, above all, a profoundly musical being whose most startling displays of virtuosity never lost sight of the fundamental harmonic landscape of a song…
It makes for nice alliteration to describe longtime Cleveland Orchestra music director George Szell (born on this date in 1897) as a prince of the podium, but he was definitely more of a king. As Wilma Salisbury wrote in 1978, when Szell received a posthumous award from the Cleveland Arts Prize,
A commanding authority figure and one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors, he quickly fired musicians who did not meet his high artistic standards, hired replacements who fit his concept of a homogenous ensemble, taught players to listen to one another like members of a string quartet and established uncompromising rehearsal techniques that required precise attention to details of phrasing, articulation, rhythm, balance and dynamics. His drive for perfection paid off. By the time the orchestra made its European debut tour in 1957, Szell had transformed it from an excellent regional ensemble to one of the finest orchestras in the world.
Here’s a recording that reflects those impressive qualities while still staying on brand today: Szell leads The Cleveland Orchestra in the Introduction to the “Polevetsian Dances” from — yes — Prince Igor.
And we’ll close with violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo, who turns 82 today. Laredo moved from his native Bolivia to the U.S. at the age of seven, and five years later came to Northeast Ohio to study with then-Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Gingold. Among the awards and positions making up his long and multifaceted career, he currently teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music and has served as Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
In the realm of his solo and chamber music output, we’ll highlight the 2014 album Two x Four, featuring both Laredo and violinist Jennifer Koh, his colleague and former student. That project spanned four double concertos, including two new commissions — one of which was Anna Clyne’s Grammy-nominated Prince of Clouds.
