by Jarrett Hoffman
TODAY ON THE WEB & AIRWAVES:
Depending on how you’re dealing with the political uncertainty of the moment, music might either be too much to handle, or it could provide some valuable emotional relief. If that’s the case, here are two listening options early today, and two late ones.
WCLV’s “Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra” broadcast shares a noon timeslot with Trinity Cathedral’s Virtual Brownbag Concert, featuring organist Nicole Keller. Tonight, the Met Opera shares an archived Idomeneo at 7:30, and the Cleveland Chamber Choir revisits its fun season-four “March Choral Madness” concert at 8. Links and details in our Concert Listings.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Or maybe the certainty of history could be calming today. We begin our almanac with Felix Mendelssohn, who died on this date in 1847 at the age of 38, not six months after the passing of his sister and close musical companion Fanny Mendelssohn. His beginnings as a child prodigy foreshadowed his highly successful career as a composer, keyboardist, and conductor in Europe, particularly in Germany and England.
And although his popularity waned following his death — in part due to antisemitism, and in part due to his fairly conservative writing when compared to his contemporaries such as Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz — he is now considered one of the most important composers of his time, one who linked Classical models with a Romantic-era sense of wonder.
As for listening, how about some under-the-radar Mendelssohn: his first violin concerto (in d minor, not the famous e-minor one), and his double concerto for violin and piano. Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv packaged those works in a recording released last year, with CIM faculty pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi by her side in the double concerto. ClevelandClassical’s Hannah Schoepe called both works “lost gems” — read that review here, and listen on Spotify here.
Another composer who bridged two musical periods was Gabriel Fauré, who was born in 1845 (overlapping with Mendelssohn for just two years) and died on this date in 1924 — and who can be seen as a link between Romanticism and Modernism. Here’s a recording of the Libera me from his famous Requiem, performed in 2010 by the Western Reserve Chorale, featuring baritone Brian Keith Johnson as soloist and led by the late J.D. Goddard. (Read a tribute to Goddard here.)
Daniel Hathaway wrote about American music patroness and composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge just a few days ago on the anniversary of her birth — she died on this date in 1864. Read our October 30 almanac to learn about the important commissions for which she was responsible.
And Nicholas Stevens recently reviewed a concert by hornist Nathaniel Silberschlag that also featured his trumpet-playing brother and father. Here’s another brass family story for you: English trumpeter, conductor, and composer Elgar Howarth was born on this date in 1935, the son of a brass band conductor. (He joined his father’s ensemble at age 10.)
As a composer, he’s a brass man through and through, having written several concertos and works for brass band, including a respected arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition, performed here at the Geneva University of Music’s 2018 Brass Festival. The confident and optimistic opening bars (still on trumpet of course) feel nourishing this morning.