by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND EVENTS LIVE AND ON THE WEB AND AIRWAVES:
Northeast Ohio’s appetite for live performances is in much in evidence this weekend: all of Apollo’s Fire’s al fresco performances of “Tuscan Sun” have sold out.
Tri-C JazzFest’s Virtual Festival of 90-minute performances continues today and Sunday at 7 with a mix of live and pre-recorded events.
In the wake of the unexpected death last week of its music director, the Youngstown Symphony has revised its gala on Saturday at 7 as a memorial to Randall Craig Fleischer.
Streaming events of interest to Northeast Ohio Audiences this weekend include the Swingles on Voces 8’s Live from London series (Saturday at 2), and two concerts from the La Jolla Music Festival featuring pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Tessa Lark, and cellist Clive Greensmith, cello (Saturday at 10 pm) and violinist Yura Lee, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and Barnatan (Sunday at 6).
WCLV’S Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio revisits a concert from April, 2013 featuring Frank Peter Zimmerman in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto (Saturday at 8), and a performance from October, 2013 that includes two symphonies: Beethoven’s No, 3 and Shostakovich’s No, 6 (Sunday at 4), both led by Franz Welser-Möst.
And for MET Opera fans, an archived performance of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Sivglia stream on Saturday, followed by Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel on Sunday, both at 7:30.
Check the Concert Listings for details.
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
Italian madrigalist Luca Marenzio died on August 22, 1599 in Rome, having crafted some 500 examples of that Renaissance-early Baroque vocal form while in the employ of the Gonzaga, Este, and Medici families. While Northeast Ohio singers have yet to tackle his works, London’s Fieri Consort offers a lecture recital featuring live performances of pieces by Marenzio and his contemporaries. Watch here.
Born on August 22, 1862 in St. Germain-en-Laye, French composer Claude Debussy has come to be regarded as the musical embodiment of the impressionist movement created by contemporary visual artists, though he disliked that stylistic label. Today is a good opportunity to revisit one of his less-performed works, the Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and Orchestra, performed here by Franklin Cohen and The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Pierre Boulez. (Don’t bother looking for Debussy’s Deuxième Rhapsodie — there isn’t one!)
On August 23, 1900, composer Ernst Krenek was born in Vienna. During his career he embraced several musical styles (his jazz opera opera Jonny spielt auf caused a sensation in Europe) and moved about, finally settling in the U.S. in 1945. The Cleveland Orchestra recorded his Static and Ecstatic just before the pandemic shutdown for release on October 2 — its second recording of 2020.
And composer Irving Fine died in Boston on August 23, 1962 at the age of 48. His music hasn’t been played often outside the Boston area, but his Serious Song, Lament for String Orchestra, composed in 1955, seems appropriate for the anniversary of his premature leave-taking. Listen here to a recording by Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony from 1962.
