by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
Piano Cleveland shifts into high summer gear this evening at 7:30 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Session 1 of the Semi-Final Round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. Sessions 2 and 3 follow on Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. Click here for details.
Before that Semi-Final Round gets underway, Piano Cleveland will present a community concert on Friday at Noon at the Natural History Museum.
Following the opening of The Red Mill (pictured) on Thursday, Ohio Light Opera will have all of its summer titles running in repertory this weekend. On Friday, catch Yeomen of the Guard on Friday at 2, and The Merry Widow at 7:30. Saturday’s shows are Damn Yankees at 2 and My Fair Lady at 7:30. And The Red Mill closes the company’s busy week with a 2 pm matinee on Sunday.
On Saturday at 1pm, Akron Symphonic Winds will take their Happy Birthday, America! tour to the Akron Art Expo in Hardesty Park.
(There may still be places left for M.U.S.i.C. – Stars in the Classics’ Summer Music in the Garden party in Orange Village on Saturday at 6:30).
And on Saturday at 7 at Blossom, principal cello Mark Kosower will be the featured soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Kevin John Edusei, conducting, in Martinů’s Cello Concerto No. 1.
On Sunday, three al fresco concerts close out a packed weekend. At 4 pm, Friends of the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle will present Keiran Cantilina in a Summer Carillon Festival Concert.
Close by in Rockefeller Park on Sunday at 6, The Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Ballet Theater will host Opera in the Italian Cultural Garden.
And on Sunday at 7 at Blossom, The Cleveland Orchestra will present An Evening with vocalist Idina Menzel, star of Rent, Wicked, and Frozen, Andy Einhorn conducts.
For details of these and other classical music events, please visit the ClevelandClassical.com concert listings.
FIFA WORLD CUP HALFTIME VIDEO:
The Violin Channel reports that “Conductor Gustavo Dudamel recently led members of the New York Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in a performance as part of the inaugural FIFA World Cup Halftime Show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Watch the video here.
“The appearance marks the first time the two ensembles have shared the stage. Both orchestras are currently under Dudamel’s direction.
“Dudamel and the musicians of the combined orchestras performed The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army alongside The Muppets. Also included in the performance’s lineup were Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira, BTS, and Coldplay.”
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
On July 24, 1880, Swiss-American composer Ernst Bloch was born in Geneva. We wrote about the founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music a few days ago on the anniversary of his death, but today we remember him through his Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh), a full-length, through-composed setting of the Jewish liturgy. Listen to a classic 1960 recording by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic here.
Bloch served as founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920-1925 before moving on to the San Francisco Conservatory.
After a hiatus back in Switzerland, he helped found the Music Academy of the West, and taught in the summers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Among Bloch’s music based on Jewish themes is his tone poem about King Solomon, Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque. Listen here to a live Blossom Festival performance in 1980 by cellist Janós Starker with The Cleveland Orchestra, led by Eduardo Mata. Or click here to listen to a January 2019 performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music by Lydia Rhea, with pianist Evan Solomon.
