by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
The Cleveland Orchestra celebrates the music of North America this weekend, as Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska (pictured) takes the podium to conduct Silvestre Revueltas’s La Noche de los Mayas and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Severance Music Center Friday at 11:00 am (without the Revueltas), Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets available online.
The 8 pm Friday evening slot at Severance Music Center goes to the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra this week, when conductor James Feddeck will lead a suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet and César Franck’s Symphony in d. Tickets available online.
Daniel Meyer will lead the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra in “Waves of Passion” at the Church of the Covenant on Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3 pm at Rocky River Presbyterian church. Music by Aaron Copland and Margaret Brouwer, plus Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with soloist David McCarroll. Find ticket information for Saturday’s concert here.
Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series welcomes the Danish String Quartet to Finney Chapel on Friday at 7:30 pm. Music by Jonny Greenwood & Beethoven, plus original arrangements and compositions. Tickets available online.
Baroque ensemble Les Délices presents four family-friendly events throughout the weekend. “The Aesop Project,” featuring puppets created by Ian Petroni, visits the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center at 11:30 am on Saturday, and the Akron Public Library at 3:30 that afternoon. Arrive at 10:30 am to join art-making activities. The same program will be repeated at the Akron Public Library Main Branch at 3:30 pm that day. And Les Délices’ “Wild Things” visits the Rocky River Public Library (Friday at 7:00 pm) and Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson (Sunday at 5:00 pm).
For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.
WEEKEND ALMANAC FOR NOVEMBER 22:
by Jarrett Hoffman
Benjamin Britten’s 1942 Hymn to St. Cecilia is a useful piece of music to feature on November 22, which is both the designated feast day for the patron saint of music and musicians, and Britten’s birthday (he was born in 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England). Click here to watch a performance by the ensemble VOCES8.
In addition, several pieces written in honor of St. Cecilia have been premiered on this date in history. Henry Purcell’s 1683 Welcome to all the pleasures (performed here by the Bach Collegium San Diego) was the first in a series of works by the composer taking that figure as inspiration.
From the pen of G. F. Handel we have the 1739 Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day (played here by the Dunedin Consort led by John Butt), and from Charles Gounod the 1855 St. Cecilia Mass (follow the score here along with a performance by Barbara Hendricks, Jean-Philippe Lafont, and Laurence Dale with the Choeurs de Radio-France and Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique, led by Georges Pretre).
Also born on St. Cecilia’s Day in 1859 was the folk-song collector Cecil James Sharp. And moving into different territory, apparently Paul Simon has noted that the famous Simon & Garfunkel song Cecilia is a reference to that saint (perhaps as a metaphor for songwriting and the fickleness of inspiration?) Then again, others claim it’s merely about his dog — who was unavailable for comment.
