by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
Saxophonist Steven Banks, guest conductor Stéphane Denève, and The Cleveland Orchestra reprise their stunning performance of Guillaume Connesson’s A Kind of Trane at Severance Music Center on Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 — read our review of Thursday’s concert in the Plain Dealer on cleveland.com (photo by Roger Mastroianni). Other French delights fill out the program.
On Sunday at 2 pm, the Cleveland Cello Society hosts a lecture by Dr. Damir Janigro, son of virtuoso 20th-century cellist Antonio Janigro, who will share historic recordings, film clips, and his own personal anecdotes in a one-of-a-kind program at Judson Park Auditorium.
And Sunday at 3, Cleveland Chamber Collective continues its Music of America series with episode VII, featuring music by Reena Esmail, Ellen Ruth Harrison, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ty Alan Emerson, Missy Mazzoli, Lou Harrison, and Astor Piazzolla at Disciples Christian Church.
For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.
WEEKEND ALMANAC
January 11:
On this date in 1937, Irish composer and pianist John Field, who invented the Nocturne and wrote 18 or 21 of them, depending on how you count them, died in Moscow, where he had settled in 1802, attracted by the vibrant cultural life of the Russian capital. Click here to listen to John O’Conor play the “Complete” 18 and puzzle along with the commentators why Field isn’t as well-known as his contemporaries — like Chopin.
Possibly the best-known French composer with the smallest portfolio of works to his credit, Maurice Duruflé was born in Louviers on this date in 1902. He was assisting Louis Vierne at Notre-Dame in Paris on June 2, 1937 when Vierne died on the organ bench, and two years later was the soloist at the premiere of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. He passed the torch of French organ music to his students Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou, and Marie-Claire Alain before retiring from St-Étienne-du-Mont after a serious automobile accident.
Here is a rare recording of Maurice Duruflé playing the Prelude and Sicilienne from his Suite for Organ.
January 12 — by Mike Telin:
Today marks the passing of American composer and conductor Arthur Shepherd in 1958 in Cleveland. Born in Idaho on February 19, 1880, Shepherd entered the New England Conservatory at age 12 and upon graduation moved to Salt Lake City, leading a local orchestra for six years. He would later accept a teaching position at his alma mater. After serving as a bandmaster during World War I, at the invitation of Nikolai Sokoloff he was appointed The Cleveland Orchestra’s assistant conductor and program book editor. His tenure with the Orchestra lasted from 1920 until 1928.
As a composer Shepherd wrote over 100 works which included symphonies, string quartets, and songs.
In 1977 he was posthumously awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music. In her tribute, Wilma Salisbury writes:
Arthur Shepherd, like other esteemed composers of his generation, sought to develop a distinctively American musical language. Born in the Mormon village of Paris, Idaho, on February 19, 1880, he celebrated his pioneer heritage in works such as “Horizons,” Symphony no. 1. His most frequently performed work, the large-scale piece incorporates cowboy tunes and paints tone poems of the grand Western landscape.
Read the article here. Listen to a performance of “Horizons” by The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Louis Lane here, and click here to listen to his Triptych for High Voice and String Quartet (1926) performed by soprano Betsy Norden and the Emerson String Quartet.
