by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
At noon, the Trinity Cathedral Brownbag series presents tabla player Joe Culley in Cathedral Hall, and at 6 pm, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts students from Case Western Reserve University’s Historical Performance Practice Program, who will perform in front of Italian Baroque artworks in the Donna and James Reid Gallery.
Also sponsored by the Art Museum: a 7 pm concert at Transformer Station by Paolo Angeli, modified guitar.
And at 7:30, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series presents violinist Midori in recital with pianist Özgür Aydin (pictured) in Finney Chapel.
And for Western Christians, today marks Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day penitential season of Lent. Traditional music for services today includes Gregorio Allegri’s Misereri, long the exclusive property of the Sistine Chapel Choir, until the young Wolfgang Mozart allegedly wrote it down from memory. Hear it in the context of Choral Evensong for Ash Wednesday from All Saints Cathedral in Halifax, Nova Scotia, sung by the University of King’s College Chapel Choir, directed by Paul Halley. Click here for the service bulletin.
Another view: “Roy Goodman travels to Rome to unravel the mysteries surrounding Allegri’s iconic work which, as a treble, he made so famous with the 1964 Argo recording ‘Evensong for Ash Wednesday.’ The programme was broadcast on BBC radio, 21 February 2006.’
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
March 5 marks the birthdates of American composer Arthur Foote (1853 in Salem, MA), Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 in Rio de Janiero), and Australian conductor and virtuoso hornist Barry Tuckwell (1931, in Melbourne). And the departure of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1953 in Moscow, notably upstaged by Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, who died on the same day).
Lee De Forest became the first DeeJay on this date in 1907 when he successfully transmitted Rossini’s William Tell Overture on a radio signal from Telharmonic Hall at Broadway and 40th Street in New York City, to a receiver at the US Naval Yard — not quite eight miles away.
Foote, who was a member of the “Boston Six” along with George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker, was the first American composer to have been entirely trained in the United States. Watch a performance of his Night Piece for flute and strings by Joshua Smith and the Cavani Quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music in December, 2008.
Among Villa-Lobos’ many compositions are his Bachianas Brasileras pieces in which he evoked the spirit of J.S. Bach. Here’s a performance of No. 5 for soprano (Natasha Simmons) and twelve cellos (students of Mark Kosower) at the Cleveland Institute of Music in February, 2016.
There’s lots to choose from to celebrate Prokofiev. Let’s start with his Symphony No. 1, nicknamed “Classical,” in a live performance by George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra in 1968. It’s either amusing or maddening to read conflicting YouTube comments.“Best I’ve ever heard of the piece!” and “The forces were too large, the tempo too fast. It’s sloppy, by Szell’s standard.” Your thoughts?
