by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND EVENTS:
Today at 2:00 pm, the Semifinal rounds of the Cleveland International Piano Competition continue in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art (pictured: Thursday’s duo photo by Gregory Wilson).
Rafael Skorka (32, Israel) performs Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story (arr. Kurbatov), Leighton’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica, Op. 24 (“Homage to Bach”) (1956) and Brahms’ Sieben Fantasien, Op. 116.
Martín García García (24, Spain) will play Schubert’s Wanderer-Fantasie in C, D. 760, Liszt’s “Les cloches de Genève (Nocturne)” from Années de Pèlerinage I, S. 160, Étude de Concert, S. 145, No. 2 (“Gnomenreigen”) and Transcendental Etude, S. 139, No. 10. Skorka and García García will then team up for Schubert’s Fantasie in f. Tickets are available online.
The Semifinal rounds continue on Sunday at 2:00 pm in Gartner Auditorium. Byeol Kim (31, South Korea) performs Clara Schumann’s Notturno in F, Op. 6, No. 2, Robert Schumann’s Arabeske in C, Op. 18, Gottschalk’s The Union, Op. 48, Mendelssohn’s Fantasie in f-sharp, Op. 28, Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody (arr. Kurbatov) and Jalbert’s Toccata (2001).
Lovre Marušić (28, Croatia) plays Scarlatti’s Sonata in E, K. 380, Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody (arr. Kurbatov). Kim and Marušić will conclude with Mozart’s Sonata in D for two pianos. Tickets are available online.
On Sunday at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center it’s The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt. Garrick Ohlsson plays Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Blomstedt leads the Orchestra in the composer’s Symphony No. 7. Tickets are available online.
At 7:00 pm at Guzzetta Lawn, outside Guzzetta Hall on Buchtel Common, University of Akron, Tucker Jolly leads the 21st Annual TubaSummer. The program features summer favorites performed by tuba, sousaphone, baritone and euphonium players from throughout the region. Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome. The event is free.
Then at 7:30 pm, the Akron Symphony continues its Outside Voices Concert Series at Goodyear Heights Metro Park. Christopher Wilkins leads the ASO Virtuosi in orks by Scott Joplin, Miguel del Águila, W.C. Handy and John Philip Sousa. The concert is free.
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
On July 31, 1886, Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth, Germany at the age of 74. The 19th-century classical equivalent of a 20th-century rock star, Liszt’s solo piano performances gave rise to such pan-European fame that the poet Heinrich Heine characterized audience acclaim as “Lisztomania.” The composer ended his career as “the Abbé Liszt” after taking minor orders in the Catholic Church.
Listen to two Cleveland performances that feature his forward-looking piano music. Vladimir Horowitz played Liszt’s B-Minor Sonata at Severance Hall on October 31 of 1976, and third-place winner François Dumont programmed his tone poem, Vallée d’Obermann, for his semi-final round in the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition.
There are no special Cleveland connections to celebrate for August 1 but how about a little quiz that references classical music figures who died on the first day of August?
- English pianist John Ogdon died on August 1 in 1952. Which of these composers did he especially promote? a) Alkan. b) Reinecke. c) Busoni. c) Scriabin.
- Russian pianist Svyatoslav Richter died of a heart attack on August 1, 1997. True or false: In 1952, Richter was invited to play Franz Liszt in a film based on the life of Tchaikovsky.
Click here for the answers to the quiz.
