By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Bach at lunchtime, identifying piano talent in the evening
. More season announcements for 2023-2024
. New conductor appointed at Summit Choral Society
. Almanac: saluting tenor Richard Lewis & electronic pioneer Milton Babbitt
HAPPENING TODAY:
Trinity Cathedral caps off its Noontime Bach Fest with performances by violinist Miho Hashizume (A minor Sonata) and organist Todd Wilson, (C Major Trio Sonata). It’s free both in-person and online.
The Cleveland International Piano Competition presents another episode in its Listening Series at the BOP STOP this evening when Oberlin piano professors Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow share their insights about identifying and nurturing talent.
Visit the Clevelandclassical.com Concert Listings page for details including addresses of venues and information about even more concerts in Northeast Ohio.
SEASON ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Tuesday Musical has announced the lineup for its 136th concert series at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall in 2023-2024. The schedule includes Quarteto Latinoamericano on October 24, the Akropolis Reed Quintet on November 7, The King’s Singers on December 5, the Aaron Diehl Trio on February 13, the Kyiv Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra on March 12, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis on April 20.
Cleveland Chamber Music Society will alternate between Plymouth Church and Disciples Cultural Arts Center in presenting the Belcea Quartet on October 17, Danish String Quartet on November 14, Takács Quartet with pianist Marc-André Hamelin on January 23, cellist Steven Isserlis with pianist Connie Shih on February 27, Pavel Haas Quartet on March 12, tenor Matthew Polenzani with pianist Juilius Drake on April 9, and pianist Garrick Ohlsson on May 7.
Quire Cleveland will present only one set of concerts next season, celebrating the five-year tenure of artistic director Jay White, who is retiring. Churches of the Same God: Mass Settings of Byrd and Tallis will be performed on September 29 at St. Paschal Baylon Church, Highland Hts., September 30 at Our Lady of Peace Church, Shaker Sq., and October 1 at St. John Cantius Church in Tremont.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Akron’s Summit Choral Society announces the appointment of Britt Cooper as Director of its adult community choir, the Metropolitan Chorus. Along with serving as featured conductor of numerous SCS concerts during the past five years, Cooper has served as Director of Choral Activities at Walsh University, Director of Chancel Choir at Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton and past conductor of the Canton Symphony Chorus (2012-2022).
ALMANAC FOR MAY 10:
by Jarrett Hoffman
English tenor Richard Lewis was born on this date in 1914 in Manchester, followed exactly two years later by the birth of American composer Milton Babbitt in Philadelphia.
Though Lewis was particularly noted for his interpretations of the music of Handel — see Daniel Hathaway’s Diary entry last year — he also helped contemporary opera enter into the world through several premieres, including William Walton’s Troilus and Cressida, in which he sang the role of Troilus. Listen to a recording of Scenes from Troilus and Cressida here, where Lewis (who enters at the 4:30 mark) is joined by another very famous voice: that of soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Babbitt may have been a contemporary of Walton, but their styles of composition are quite contrasting — though perhaps both composers are painted with too broad a brush. By the middle of Walton’s career, his music was considered conservative and Romantic (though he would come into fashion again late in his life), while Babbitt is best known for writing with intense, complex logic and structure.
On the other hand, as Allan Kozinn wrote in The New York Times following Babbitt’s passing in 2011, listeners “who simply sat back and listened, rather than trying to understand his harmonies and structural processes…often discovered works of great expressive variety.”
One subtle but powerful work of Babbitt’s is the 1976 Solo Requiem for soprano and two pianists. As the critic John Rockwell wrote in a review of its premiere, its texts “express the incomprehensibility and protestations of the living faced with the bereavement of death,” and its music “is appropriately fragmented and chill.” Listen to a recording by the musicians who gave that premiere — soprano Bethany Beardslee and pianists Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs — divided into parts one, two, and three.
