by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols at Trinity, violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi in recital at CIM, and the premiere of a documentary about the 1988 Soviet Tour undertaken by the Cleveland Quartet (pictured)
•Announcements: Tuesday Musical Scholarship Competition applications, Gabe Pollack named 2023 Cleveland Jazz Hero, Double Reed Day at CSU, and instructors needed for U of A’s pre-professional Arts Academy
•Almanac: operatic tributes to Donizetti, Monteverdi, and Puccini
HAPPENING TODAY:
A Trinity Cathedral Brownbag Concert at noon will showcase the sopranos and altos of the Cathedral Choir, harpist Jody Guinn, and conductor Todd Wilson in Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. A freewill offering will be taken up.
A CIM Faculty Recital at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall will feature violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi in sonatas by Respighi, Debussy, and Fauré. It’s free, but reservations are required.
Also at 7:30, at Reinberger Chamber Hall, will be the premiere of the documentary Notes From Behind the Iron Curtain: Cleveland Quartet’s 1988 Soviet Tour. The event will also include live performances by The Weilerstein Trio (pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, violinist Donald Weilerstein, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein) and a cello ensemble of Cleveland Orchestra members including Mark Kosower, Richard Weiss, Charles Bernard, and Bryan Dumm. Get tickets here, and read Mike Telin’s interview with cellist Paul Katz here.
Details in our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Applications for Tuesday Musical’s Scholarship Competition will open on the first of the new year, and will be accepted throughout January. In terms of winnings, the 2024 edition will be the largest ever in the 68-year history of the competition, with 28 scholarships totaling over $40,000. The Competition is open to music performance and/or music education majors who are Ohio residents, or who are studying with a music teacher at an Ohio college or university. Categories include music education, brass, classical guitar, organ, piano, marimba/classical steel drum, strings, voice, and woodwinds. More information here.
Gabe Pollack, Director of Performing Arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art and formerly the Manager and Director of the Bop Stop, has been named the 2023 Cleveland Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association. He will receive the award on Thursday, November 30 at the Bop Stop right before the 7pm performance by Third Law Collective (event details here).
This Saturday, December 2 is Double Reed Day at Cleveland State University, open to high school and college students as well as adult community players. The event runs from noon to 4:30, and will include masterclasses, a faculty recital, reed-making, a session focusing on electronics and extended techniques, and of course the opportunity to join the double reed ensemble to conclude the day. Register here by December 1.
And the University of Akron is hiring part-time Music Instructors for its pre-professional Arts Academy program, aimed at youth and teens and encompassing all aspects of the arts. Apply here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
This date in music history includes anniversaries for a trio of Italian composers. Gaetano Donizetti was born on November 29, 1797, while Claudio Monteverdi and Giacomo Puccini died on this date in 1643 and 1924, respectively.
In other words, time for some opera.
As far as joyful music befitting a birthday, Donizetti would surely appreciate his “Ah! mes amis” (from La fille du régiment), a celebration of love — and of high notes. Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez (above) is a master of that aria and its series of sky-high C’s. When he sang it at La Scala in 2007, it only seemed right on that occasion to break a 70-year-old rule forbidding encores. Click here to watch him perform it at the Royal Opera House.
As for the opposite of birthday — and the opposite of high notes — the scene of Seneca’s death from The Coronation of Poppaea is an appropriate choice for Monteverdi. Finnish bass Matti Kalervo Salminen sings the role of the philosopher Seneca in this excerpt from Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s film version of the opera, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Be sure to listen for the low D at the very end — the Marianas Trench in musical form.
Whereas Seneca accepts death in a way that rids it of any sense of tragedy, there are few tearjerkers quite like Pucinni’s “E lucevan le stelle” from Tosca, from the scene where Cavaradossi sits in prison awaiting his death and longing for his love. Watch Jonas Kaufmann sing the aria here in another beautiful video from the Royal Opera House. You can admire in this performance both the high drama of the ending, and the dazed expressiveness of the opening, where “sweet kisses” never felt so far away.