WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
Michael Praetorius
by Daniel Hathaway
On Friday at 6 pm, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents Chamber Music in the Atrium: A Musical Prelude for the Holidays featuring M.U.S.i.C. — Stars in the Classics in a selection of vocal works, piano duets, and other musical delights celebrating the season, including excerpts from The Nutcracker performed by Ohio Contemporary Ballet.
And on Friday at 7 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, in Akron, Jeannette Sorrell leads Apollo’s Fire in Michael Praetorius’ elaborate Christmas Vespers, featuring antiphonal choirs, trumpets, sackbuts, cornettos, lutes, harp, strings and recorders. Singers include sopranos Rebecca Myers, Andréa Walker and Molly Netter, countertenor Doug Dodson, tenors Michael Jones & Matthew Newhouse, baritone Matthew Dexter, and Apollo’s Singers and Apollo’s Musettes (Treble Youth Choir). This late Renaissance extravaganza will be repeated four times next week.
The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus plus guest choirs will present thirteen Holiday Concerts with guest conductor Sarah Hicks in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center during the month of December, beginning on Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30, and continuing on Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 (note correction of start date).
And if you’re interested in singing Handel’s Messiah rather than just listening to that famous oratorio, the Oberlin Conservatory invites you to join conductor Peter Slowik in a Messiah Sing-along featuring soloists and orchestra from the Conservatory and Credo Music in Finney Chapel on Sunday at 7:30. Rent a score for $5,
For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.
NEWS BRIEFS:
Neighborhood Connections has approved $273,778 in grants to support 81 projects in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC), the local public funder for arts and culture, will co-fund 16 of these resident-led arts and culture projects through a partnership with Neighborhood Connections. Read the news release here.
INTERESTING READS:
Pianist and Lakewood Catholic Academy student John Michael “Mikey” Klein, 13, will perform in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on Thursday, December 18. The young musician, who studies with Cleveland-based pianist Halida Dinova, earned this opportunity from his prize-winning performance in the online Golden Classical Music Awards. Learn more in this article, written by Kevin McLaughlin for The Land.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
French composer Hector Berlioz entered the world on December 11, 1803. A seasonally appropriate way to celebrate would be to listen to his Sacred Trilogy, L’Enfance du Christ, for which he wrote the libretto, and intended it to be staged.
The quirky and ultimately charming work treats the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, where they suffer antisemitic taunts but find their way into a Jewish household that welcomes them with a wonderful trio for two flutes and harp.
Other luminous moments include the “Shepherds’ Farewell” and the concluding chorus where the orchestra drops out, leaving the narrator and a choir of angels to finish the piece a cappella.
Spotify will provide you with a number of complete performances of the work, but having sung in it, I have a personal preference for the December 13, 1966 performance led by Charles Munch with the Boston Symphony, Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, and soloists John McCollum, Florence Kopleff, Theodor Uppman, and Donald Gramm. You can still purchase the DVD. Here’s just a taste: the “Shepherds’ Farewell.”
