by Stephanie Manning
HAPPENING TODAY:
Two options from local conservatories round out this evening at 7:30.
For the CIM Insiders Series, violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Michelle Bushkova perform works by Szymanowski, Ravel, and Enescu in Mixon Hall. And the Oberlin Historical Performance Department presents a faculty concert from violinist Edwin Huizinga, cellist Rebecca Landell, and fortepianist David Breitman (pictured).
Plus, at 12:00 noon, organist Florence Mustric performs the music of Charles-Marie Widor for Music Near the Market.
For more information, visit our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Changes continue for The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts at Severance. Stepping in for Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali will make his Orchestra debut next week for the performances on November 21, 22, and 23.
He’ll lead a completely new program: Carl Nielsen’s Overture to Maskarade, Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1, and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with violinist Stefan Jackiw. Learn more here.
Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” featuring tenor Limmie Pulliam and baritone Iurii Samoilov, will now be performed in the 2025-26 season.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
French organist and composer Louis-Lefébure-Wély was born on this date in Paris in 1817. Closely associated with the symphonic organs built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, he occupied important positions at Saint-Roch, the Madeleine, and Saint-Sulpice. Nowadays, Wély’s exuberant, over-the-top compositions usually find their way onto recital programs as period novelties, but they reflect the taste of Parisian church-goers in the mid-19th century. YouTube offers a wide selection of his works, some played on harmoniums (not the same as American reed organs!) Click here to listen to René Saorgin play a selection of Wély’s pieces on the 1845 Nicolas-Antoine Lété instrument in Nantua.
Italian bel canto opera composer Gioachino Rossini died on this date in 1868, having written 39 operas by 1829, when he laid down his pen for the last 40 years of his life. Cleveland Opera Theater responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by reworking his The Barber of Seville into six educational episodes. Start watching here.
One of his few late career works is the Petite messe solennelle for choir, piano and harmonium — neither small nor solemn, despite the title. Click here to watch a performance by the Czech Philharmonic Choir led by Paolo Gatto and featuring soprano Patricia Janečková.
On November 13, 1951, Russian-born pianist and composer Nikolai Medtner died in London at the age of 71. It took some 25 years after his demise for the concert world to recognize him as a worthy colleague of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin in the Russian piano pantheon.
Here are three performances of single works by Medtner: first, his Tale in B-flat, played by the composer himself in 1930; then his Tale Op. 26, No. 3, performed by Daniil Trifonov at Carnegie Hall in December, 2016; and finally, his Canzona matinata and Sonata tragica from Op. 39, recorded by Alex Tuchman at CIM in April 2019.
