by Jarrett Hoffman
ONLINE TONIGHT:
Tonight from 7:30 to 9, catch the virtual version of the University of Akron School of Music’s annual Collage concert, featuring the school’s symphony orchestra, bands, choirs, jazz bands, steel bands, and more. View the full program here, and click here at start time to watch.
THE BAD, THE GOOD, AND THE INTERESTING IN ARTS NEWS:
The bad news first: read about coronavirus cases spiking at La Scala (Associated Press), museums in New York City wondering how long they can operate at 25% capacity (New York Times), the Hong Kong Philharmonic in quarantine (South China Morning Post), and Italy closing performance venues and cinemas (Variety).
Now a piece of good news, and an interesting project: the big success of a particular brand of live-streaming from London’s Old Vic theater (New York Times), and choreographer Molissa Fenley bringing back her 1988 solo interpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (New York Times).
Lastly, a couple of thought-provoking pieces: the BBC explores racial representation and preconceived ideas about body shape in ballet. And Chris White of Slate suggests referring to composers by their complete names, especially during a time when programs are becoming more diverse. “When we say, ‘Tonight, you’ll be hearing symphonies by Johannes Brahms and Edmond Dédé,’ we’re linguistically treating both composers as being equally worthy of attention,” White writes.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Because of his connections to the area — thirteen years as concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell — we’ll focus today on Josef Gingold, the Russian-born violinist who became one of America’s foremost pedagogues of his instrument, and who was born on this date in 1909.
Gingold also held tenures in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini, and as concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony. As for his time with The Cleveland Orchestra, he later noted the important influence Szell had had on him “as a musician and, without my realizing it at the time, as a teacher.” He taught at Case Western Reserve University and The Music Settlement before spending over thirty years on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
The list of his famous students is long, so I’ll name just a few: Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, and Jamie Laredo. But as Alex Ross wrote in Gingold’s obituary for The New York Times, “he was noted less for the manufacture of virtuosos than for the broader values of musicianship he instilled in master classes and the close guidance he gave to chamber and orchestral musicians…He is remembered as a vibrant man who played a paternal role in his students’ lives.”
As for his own lineage, he was a student of Eugène Ysaÿe (whose Third Sonata he premiered), and was considered one of the final links to an earlier era of violin playing.
Here’s a recording of Gingold playing Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, and here’s a tribute video titled “A Musical Life” followed by his 75th Birthday Concert (the latter coming at the 27:33 mark). One great quote from Gingold early in the video, best heard in his own scruffy voice and Russian accent: “The greater love of the violin is everything in the world to me. That’s what I cherish more than anything.”
Other anniversaries to note today: the deaths of composers Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1755) and James P. Carrell (1854), and the birth of conductor and composer Howard Hanson (1896).