by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
Many events to enjoy on Saturday —
The Canton Symphony and Canton Youth Symphony play side-by-side (3 pm, Umstattd Hall), leading up to Sunday’s presentation of the St. John Passion, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival presents works the Cantor of Leipzig composed in 1724, (7 pm in Gamble Auditorium), Brazilian guitarist Badi Assad performs for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (7:30 at the Maltz), violinist Steven Greenman solos with the Firelands Symphony and Chorus (7:30 at Sawmill Creek), Les Délices presents “Seasons Transformed” (7:30 at Disciples Center), and conductor Klaus Mäkelä and cellist Sol Gabetta join The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (8 pm at Severance — read our Plain Dealer review of Thursday’s concert here).
And more on Sunday —
Dirk Garner will lead the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival forces (pictured) in J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with Margaret Carpenter Haigh as the Evangelist & Tyler Duncan as Jesus (2 pm in Gamble Auditorium), pianist Evgeny Kissin & baritone Matthias Goerne collaborate in Schumann & Brahms (3 pm at Severance), Heights Arts presents “Close Encounters” with piano trios (3 pm at a Shaker Hts. villa), Music at Bath hosts world percussionist Dan Shiller (4 pm at Bath Church), Les Délices wraps up its “Seasons Transformed” series (4 pm at West Shore Church), Halida Dinova plays “Great Piano Miniatures” (4 pm at St. James, Lakewood), [CANCELLED] Kent State pianist Andrew Le plays a faculty recital (5 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall), and participants in CIM’s Advanced Piano Trio Program perform on the Music from the Western Reserve series (5 pm in Christ Church, Hudson).
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
April 13:
Obsequies on April 13 include French composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377, and Dutch conductor Edouard van Beinum in 1958 — during a rehearsal of Mahler’s Third Symphony according to one source, and Brahms’ First Symphony according to another. He ended his career as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who published this obituary at the time.
This date in history is also notable for the first performance of Handel’s Messiah at a concert hall in Dublin in 1742, the founding of the American Guild of Organists in 1896, and American pianist Van Cliburn’s winning the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958.
The Messiah performance (it was originally intended to be an Easter work) was a benefit concert that raised £400 from 600 subscribers — the equivalent of £48,194.98 in today’s currency.
Cliburn’s victory in Moscow caused a tidal wave in the classical music world. Watch a brief newsreel story here and listen to his winning performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto here.
April 14 — by Jarrett Hoffman:
In a quick follow-up to a feature in yesterday’s almanac — American pianist Van Cliburn winning the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow on April 13, 1958 — the next day, the pianist made his national television debut when he joined host Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. Too bad there’s no clip.
Hopping back a couple of centuries, George Frideric Handel died on this date in 1759. The last performance he attended? Fittingly for a composer, it was a performance of his own music: Messiah, that beloved work that comes with a wide range of interpretations.
Just to single out one pair of contrasting recordings: click here for a performance by Boston Baroque led by Thomas Pearlman, and here for a version by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. They almost sound like two different pieces.
British conductor Jane Glover noted in an interview with Daniel Hathaway in 2018 that her 100+ performances of the work have involved choirs ranging in size from 24 to 450 members. Since it’s quite a long piece, she also likes to condense it — or as she said, “make the odd nip and tuck.”
She also speculated as to what Handel might think of the work’s popularity in the present day. “Even for someone as confident and outgoing as he was, he would be astonished to learn what it has meant to every single generation of music lovers ever since.”
