by Daniel Hathaway.
THIS WEEKEND:
On Saturday, the U. of Akron highlights faculty saxophonist Todd Gaffke, Standing Rock sponsors a video by sitarist Hasu Patel, a Julia Child sendup and an Offenbach comedy continue their run at Kent Opera, and The Cleveland Orchestra winds up its trio of concerts led by Herbert Blomstedt.
Sunday sees the final Kent Opera performances, pianist Jeffrey Siegel holds forth on Beethoven, Suburban Symphony hosts four teenage concerto competition winners, and Stars in the Classics plays an early Valentine’s Day show (tickets were still available last we checked). Details in the Concert Listings.
NEWS BRIEFS:
The Cleveland Chamber Music Society announced on Friday that Cuarteto Casals has cut their U.S. tour short due to a medical emergency. Pianist Richard Goode will step in on February 22 at Disciples Christian Church with a program of works by Schumann, Schubert, Bartók, and Beethoven. Details here.
Jazz fans: mark your calendars for the return of the Tri-C JazzFest, which will be held in Playhouse Square from June 23-25. The festival will publish details about the lineup and ticket information in March. Read the press release here.
The Festival also plans to reschedule the Jazz Gallery All-Stars performance that was canceled last week for a new date in early March.
London-based composer Cecilia McDowall will include a visit to Trinity Cathedral when she comes to Cleveland for Cleveland Chamber Choir’s performances of her works the weekend of February 26-27. She will conduct two of her works at Trinity’s 11:15am service on Sunday, February 27.
INTERESTING READS:
Cleveland Pops writes: “In anticipation of our upcoming concert, ‘In Celebration of Black History Month’, Maestro Carl Topilow caught up with Michael Preacely, one of our guest vocalists for the February 18 event. Check out their conversation to learn about the repertoire and some other sneak peaks!” Click here to play the conversation.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
The death anniversaries of two important and interconnected 19th-century figures fall on this weekend: that of German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow on February 22, 1894 in Cairo, and composer Richard Wagner on February 23, 1883 in Bayreuth.
Interconnected? Professionally in that von Bülow conducted the premieres of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger as the Hofkapellmeister in Munich. And personally because von Bülow married Franz Lizst’s daughter Cosima in 1857 — who later married Wagner after a complicated affair and divorce that resembles the love triangles and intrigues of Pop stars.
Tip a hat to Wagner with Lorin Maazel’s distillation of the 17 hours of music in the Ring Cycle into 75 purely instrumental minutes. Click here to watch the previous Cleveland Orchestra music director and the Berlin Philharmonic play The Ring Without Words, recorded in 2000.
Other special events to mark this weekend: the first performance of the original version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on February 22, 1924 by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra with the composer at the keyboard.
And the birth on February 23, 1914 of George Kleinsinger, who created the music for a favorite piece from my childhood: the tale of Tubby the Tuba. Paul Tripp wrote the story in 1942 while serving in the Army. Kleinsinger and Tripp’s 1946 recording sold eight million copies. Has anyone ever had a more beautiful melody written for them than the one Kleinsinger gave Tubby? Watch a cartoon version here narrated by Danny Kaye.
