by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING ONLINE THESE TWO DAYS:
The temperatures in Northeast Ohio this weekend only inspire outdoor activities among the intrepid, so here’s a pretty rich list of musical events you can enjoy from your cozy bunker.
Local events on Saturday include a recital from the McDonough Museum by Youngstown State University cello professor Kivie-Cahn Lipman and a performance from the BOP STOP by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s Little Big Band featuring trumpeter Dominick Farinacci and percussionist Jamie Haddad. Pianist Richard Goode plays Bach and Debussy from the 92nd St. Y, Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man is featured in a Chinese New Year program from Bard College, the Catalyst Quartet performs music by Black composers from Chamber Music Northwest, and soprano Stephanie Blythe and her blue ukulele host a Valentine’s Day weekend special featuring a selection of songs from the American Songbook.
On Sunday, Stars in the Classics will release a special Valentine’s Day video for on-demand viewing, and organ enthusiasts can tag along with Trinity Cathedral associate organist Nicole Keller as she travels to Worcester, Massachusetts to play a program at Trinity Lutheran Church, or catch a recital by Curtis Institute professor Alan Morrison from Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia. And if you haven’t yet heard The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus 5 program, WCLV, 104.9 Ideastream will broadcast the audio only version on Sunday afternoon’s “Cleveland Orchestra on the Radio.”
Details in our Concert Listings.
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
February 13 marked the baptism of Spanish composer Fernando Sor in Barcelona in 1778, the birth of American composer George Kleinsinger in 1914 and the departure of German composer Richard Wagner in Bayreuth in 1883.
Sor is well-known to classical guitarists, who have probably improved their playing technique through the composer’s pedagogical works. Watch Jason Vieaux here giving a lesson on Sor’s Etude No. 6 in D, which requires “a spidery left hand.” And listen to Judicaël Perroy, who teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory and has performed in Northeast Ohio, play Sor’s Fantaisie élégiaque, Op. 59.
Wagner’s music is so ubiquitous that it hardly needs an introduction, and probably the less you about the composer’s personal life, the better. Fans of Wagner’s Ring Cycle of operas who would prefer hearing the music without singers have former Cleveland Orchestra music director Lorin Maazel to thank for assembling The Ring Without Words. Reviewing Maazel’s Telarc recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, a Gramophone critic wrote, “…audiophiles who like blazingly spectacular sound and plenty of adrenalin flowing in the music-making, should find this worth trying. Certainly the heavy brass sounds are very tangible.” Listen here.
And George Kleinsinger, who was born on this date in 1914 in California, was responsible for writing an unforgettable tune for the children’s classic Tubby the Tuba. Paul Tripp wrote the story in 1942 while serving in the Army, and Kleinsinger supplied Tubby’s luminous melody for a recording in 1946 that sold eight million copies. Read the story behind the story in a Library of Congress publication, and sing along here.