by Daniel Hathaway
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Following the final round of the Cooper International Piano Competition on Thursday evening with Samy Rachid and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center, the jury awarded first prize to Anna Avramidou (17, Nicosia, Cyprus) who played Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto. Two Second Prizes were bestowed on Anwen Deng (16, Brisbane, Australia) and Sawako Harada (18, Tokyo, Japan), who had performed Robert Schumann’s Concerto and Prokofiev’s 3rd Concerto, respectively.
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND
On Friday at 12:15 noon, Patrick Macoska plays music by John Courter on the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle, and Ohio Light Opera performs Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet at 2 pm and Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience at 7:30.
On Saturday, Ohio Light Opera stages Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon at Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel at 7:30, The Cleveland Orchestra plays its annual side-by-side concert with the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra under guest conductor Jonathon Heyward (pictured) with saxophonist Jess Gillam, Renovare Music presents “A Hive’s Song” at Heights Theater at 7, and Piano Cleveland hosts Detroit-based neoclassical pianist BLKBOK at Dobama.
Sunday’s lineup includes Ohio Light Opera’s 2 pm matinee of The Cousin from Batavia, The Cleveland Opera’s annual Opera in the Italian Garden performance at 6 pm, and vocalist Cynthia Erivo with The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Edwin Outwater at Blossom.
Details in our Concert Listings.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
On July 27, 1741, Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna. He made his reputation in Venice, especially as music director for 30 years of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for young women. He continued his career in Mantua, eventually migrating to Vienna in hopes of advancing his fortunes as an opera composer.
Of course, Vivaldi’s best known for his hundreds of orchestral concertos, including The Four Seasons, which have provided a rich stream of music for Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire. Click here to watch a performance of his Concerto for Two Cellos (René Schiffer and Mimé Brinkmann), and here to witness Jeannette Sorrell’s infectious arrangement of his La Folia, both from concerts at Tanglewood.
And on July 27, 1924, Italian-German composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni died in Berlin. Known for his Romantic piano elaborations of Bach chorales, Busoni crowned his keyboard works with his immense Piano Concerto. Pianist Garrick Ohsson recorded it in the late 1980s with Christoph von Dohnányi, The Cleveland Orchestra and the men of the Orchestra Chorus. Thirty years later, Ohlsson revisited the piece with the Orchestra in February, 2019, and prefaced the performance with some of his thoughts.
