by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
12:00 Noon – Brownbag Concert. Trobár, (pictured), a small band of voices and instruments, is dedicated to bringing medieval music to modern audiences. Free at Trinity Cathedral.
INTERESTING READ:
The Strad writes about The Cleveland Orchestra’s appointment of Dover Quartet primo violinist Joel Link as concertmaster of the Orchestra. “However, the quartet plans to stay together in its current configuration.” Read the article here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Today we’ll raise a virtual glass to celebrate two European soloists born on the 21st of May: French trumpeter Maurice André who greeted the world in 1933 in Alès in the Cévennes, and Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger, who followed him six years later in Langenthal.
André espoused the piccolo trumpet, a small, modern instrument invented to allow players to negotiate the high trumpet parts favored by Baroque composers. Since then, the period instrument movement has spawned players who have mastered the art of playing clarino parts — like Steven Marquardt, who recently joined Amanda Forsythe and Apollo’s Fire in a wonderful performance of J.S. Bach’s cantata Jauchzet Gott.
Watch a video of the Gala Concert for Maurice André’s 60th birthday in which he plays Alessandro Marcello’s Concerto in d, recorded live at the Saint Rouen Abbey, Rouen, France, May 16, 1993.
For listeners who have grown up with the French school of oboe playing represented locally by the late John Mack of The Cleveland Orchestra, Holliger’s European sound takes a bit of getting used to. Watch a video here where he performs several works with the Swiss Chamber Soloists in Geneva in 2021.
Holliger was also a composer who studied with Pierre Boulez. Listen along with the scrolling score to his Studie II from 1981 performed by Tamás Bartók. Judging from the comments, both the piece and Bartók’s playing made a strong impression.
