by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
6:00 pm – Piano Cleveland Live presents Daniela Liebman, joined by fellow pianists and Baldwin Wallace faculty members Anthony and Christine Fuoco in repertoire that runs the gamut from originals to new spins on old favorites at BrewDog Cleveland Outpost.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Before lighting the birthday candles for historical figures born on May 14, let’s observe the passing of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel in 1847 at the too-young age of 43. That Felix Mendelssohn’s sister could hold her own is demonstrated in her piano cycle Das Jahr (played here on a doctoral recital in Montréal by Laurence Manning).
German conductor Otto Klemperer was born on this date in 1885 in Breslau, and forced to leave his post at the Hamburg Opera in 1915 after a scandal involving a recently married soprano. In popular culture, his son Werner probably eclipsed his fame as the actor who played the bumbling Colonel Klink in the CBS television series Hogan’s Heroes. But back to the concert world, here’s Otto Klemperer’s take on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in 1958 with the Philharmonia Orchestra
The life and career of American composer Lou Harrison, born on this date in 1917 in Portland, Oregon, is summarized in a documentary that includes interviews with John Cage and Virgil Thomson. For a taste of Harrison’s lively music, watch a performance here of his Concerto for Organ, Percussion, and Strings at Trinity Wall Street in April of 2017 by organist Chelsea Chen and Rutgers Percussion conducted by Patrick Gardner, during the Lou Harrison Centennial Festival.
And Cuban-American composer Tania León, born in Havana in 1943, is credited with introducing Afro-Cuban percussion instruments into symphonic works. Her five-movement Ritmicas is a fine example. The performance was organized by the Chicago Center For Contemporary Composition.
