by Daniel Hathaway
This weekend’s entries:
• Concerts at Oberlin, Severance Music Center, and Kent State, and on the road in Fairlawn and Coventry Village
• Coverage of reactions by the classical music community to the Russian invasion of Ukraine from The Violin Channel, and report of a construction miracle for the New York Philharmonic (Thank you, pandemic)
• Marking the birthdate of American choral conductor and composer Hall Johnson
THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:
The Oberlin Conservatory is humming with concert activity this weekend, with an alumni recital by solo cellist Aaron Wolff, and a Baroque Orchestra concert of three of J.S. Bach’s Weimar cantatas on Saturday. Sunday brings a Brass Ensemble performance, and guest recitals by violinist Grigory Kalinovsky and Tatiana Lokhina, and classical guitarists Thomas Flippin and Christopher Mallett, performing as Duo Noire.
The Cleveland Orchestra winds up its set of concerts featuring the Walton Violin Concerto with Peter Otto on Saturday evening, and is back onstage at Severance on Sunday for a family concert, its farewell performance with the Magic Circle Mime Company, which is retiring from performing.
Kent State presents both its Brass Quintet and its New Music Ensemble on Sunday, the latter program featuring Ohio composers, and the Baldwin Wallace Men’s Chorus sings at Faith Lutheran in Fairlawn.
The weekend concludes with a performance in its Music for America series by Cleveland Chamber Collective, featuring works by Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovi, Keith Fitch, Sarah Gibson, and Jessie Montgomery in the former Centrum Theater in Coventry Village.
Details in our Concert Listings.
IN THE NEWS:
We scan a variety of sources for our Diary entries every day, but to follow the fast-developing reactions by the classical music community to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the place to go at the moment is The Violin Channel, which bills itself as “The World’s #1 Classical Music News Source.” Have a look. (Pictured above, Yo Yo Ma playing outside the Russian Embassy in Washington.)
“On budget and two years ahead of schedule” are words that may never have appeared in reports of new concert hall construction until now. The pandemic turned out to be a boon for the New York Philharmonic and the renovation of David Geffen Hall. Read the New York Times article here. (There’s another story on The Violin Channel.)
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
We’ve previously called out some well-known musicians whose anniversaries fall on March 12 and 13, but this time we’ll shine a spotlight on African American choral conductor and composer Hall Johnson, born on March 12, 1887 in Athens, Georgia.
Johnson, who received an extensive musical education, began his career as a professional violinist and violist in theater orchestras, but later became interested in choral music. Among many choral ensembles he founded was the Hall Johnson Negro Choir (1925), which was featured in Broadway productions and on radio and television. He arranged music for his choir and conducted them in some 30 Hollywood films. In 1937, the choir was heard in the soundtracks of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, and Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Along with H.T. Burleigh and R. Nathaniel Dett, Johnson was well known for his arrangements and performances of Spirituals. As he wrote in the introduction to Thirty Spirituals: Arranged for Voice and Piano,
True enough, this music was transmitted to us through humble channels, but its source is that of all great art everywhere—the unquenchable, divinely human longing for a perfect realization of life. It traverses every shade of emotion without spilling over in any direction. Its most tragic utterances are without pessimism, and its lightest, brightest moments have nothing to do with frivolity. In its darkest expressions there is always a hope, and in its gayest measures a constant reminder. Born out of the heart-cries of a captive people who still did not forget how to laugh, this music covers an amazing range of mood. Nevertheless, it is always serious music and should be performed seriously, in the spirit of its original conception.
Hall Johnson died tragically in a fire at his New York apartment in 1970 at the age of 82.
Click here for a playlist of 44 Hall Johnson spirituals, recorded with his choir in 1936.
