by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
Here are our classical music recommendations for this weekend, selected from our master concert listings calendar.
On Friday evening at 7:30 the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss, with Jennifer Koh, violin, Alexandra Armantrading, soprano, Rodrick Dixon, tenor, Timothy LeFebvre, baritone, and the Oberlin Percussion Group in Gartner Auditorium, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland.
On Saturday afternoon at 3 pm, Roger Kalia will lead the Canton Symphony Orchestra with narrator Averi Ellis in works by Clarice Assad, Benjamin Britten, Wojciech Kilar, and Dmitri Shostakovich (his Symphony No. 9) in Umstattd Hall, Zimmermann Symphony Center, 2331 17th St. N.W., Canton.
On Saturday evening at 7:30, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Ohio will present pianist Kevin Kenner and the Callisto Quartet in works by the Polish composer in Harkness Chapel at Case Western Reserve University.
And on Sunday afternoon at the same hour, Erik Ochesner will lead the Youngstown Symphony in works by Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius, John Williams, and Hector Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique) in Stambaugh Auditorium.
For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.
INTERESTING READS:
In operatic dispute, Met Opera director and designers order names stripped from Carmen (Associated Press)
Guest Essay: Stop Mutilating Classical Music to Sell It to Kids (NY Times)
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
This date in 1894 saw the first performance of Antonin Dvorák’s own arrangement of Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home with vocal soloists Sissierette Jones and Harry T. Burleigh at a concert of African American choral music at Madison Square Concert Hall in NYC.
Exactly one year later, American composer Edward MacDowell’s Indian Suite was first performed (and the composer left us on January 23, 1908 at the age of 47).
The official debut of Edward “Duke” Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige Suite at Carnegie Hall followed a rehearsal performance on this date in 1943 at Rye High School, New York.
And January 23 births include American composers John Luther Adams (1953), and Mason Bates (1977), while the necrology includes bass Paul Robeson (1976) and composer Samuel Barber (1981 at age 70).
At the other end of his career, Barber visited Cleveland in 1937 to hear his first symphony premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, an event that inspired Mike Telin to visit the Cleveland Orchestra Archives to see what critics had to say about the work and composer. Read his article here.
