by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Concerts and more concerts
. Almanac
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
This morning at 11 at Severance Music Center Thomas Adès leads The Cleveland Orchestra Thomas with Pekka Kuusisto, violin, in Sibelius’ Prelude & Suite No. 1 from The Tempest and Six Humoresques, Ades’ Märchentänze and The Tempest Symphony (United States Premiere, a Cleveland Orchestra co-commission). The program will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm.
At 12:15 pm the McGaffin Carillon Concert & Live Stream features Sheryl Modlin, Carillonneur in an eclectic program for spring at Church of the Savior.
And at 7 pm at BW’s Kulas Music Hall Jesse Blumberg, baritone & Martin Katz, piano perform a guest recital. Program to be announced.
On Saturday at 2 pm Gifts of Music will host a Community Sing of Handel’s Messiah (Easter portion). Vocalists of all types and experience levels are welcome. Rocky River United Methodist Church.
At 4:30 pm Ben Johns leads the Oberlin Chamber Singers with Chamber Ensemble in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore or The Three Sundays of a Poet, a Madrigal fable for chorus and nine instruments.Warner Concert Hall
And at 7 pm Greg Hillis directs the Snowbelt Symphony in “A Taste of Italy.” Selections from operas by Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti, including the overture to The Barber of Seville & the prelude to La traviata, as well as Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. Harvey High School.
On Sunday, April 2 The Cleveland Orchestra will present a Family Concert directed by Daniel Reith. Follow a magical Sprite as it embarks on a musical journey through the inner workings of an orchestra, all set to some of Classical music’s most famous compositions.
At 3 pm pianist Rob Kovacs, AKA 88bit, performs virtuosic note-for-note arrangements of vintage Super Nintendo and other classic game system tracks, as well as from newer video games at Maltz PAC.
At 4 pm Cleveland Chamber Choir and Cleveland Composers Guild team up for Le Monde Musical, featuring new works by Northeast Ohio’s premier choral composers and masterful works from the last five centuries following themes of renewal, nature, and deep belief. Drinko Hall.
At 7 pm Gerhardt Zimmermann leads the Canton Symphony Orchestra in music by Richard Strauss, Michael Daugherty, Widor, J.S. Bach, and Liszt. Zimmermann Symphony Center.
And at 7:30 pm the UA Prism concert features UA School of Music large and small ensembles, combos, and faculty. Guzzetta Recital Hall
Visit the Clevelandclassical.com Concert Listings page for details .
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
(March 31 by Jarrett Hoffman)
The two most famous musicians to recognize today are Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (born on this date in 1809) and Polish violinist/composer Henryk Wieniawski (died on March 31, 1880). But let’s instead turn our focus to a pair of lesser-known figures, beginning with an Ohio-connected composer.
Jake Heggie was born on this date in 1961 in West Palm Beach, Florida, but shortly afterward, his family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he was raised. Heggie’s story clues you into the amount of creative talent that exists in the administrative sector of the arts industry: in the late ‘90s, he went straight from the position of public relations associate for San Francisco Opera to being named that company’s composer-in-residence. His international career began with Dead Man Walking, premiered in 2000. Watch a clip from a 2016 performance by Shreveport Opera here.
And soprano Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who died on March 31, 1876, was considered the best-known Black musician of her time in both Europe and America, armed with a beautifully resonant voice and a wide range. Born into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi, she was taken to Philadelphia as a child and freed, though she continued to serve her former mistress until that woman’s death. After that, Greenfield supported herself by performing, gained recognition in the Northeast, and eventually embarked on a tour of the U.S. and Europe that included performing for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.
That description covers the basic facts about her life and accomplishments, but there is so much ugliness that’s also important to understand in the history around Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. Learn about the different ways in which racism impacted her career in an article by Adam Gustafson in The Conversation, which ends on a positive note about her impact on society:
But Greenfield’s tour did more than prove to white audiences that black performers could sing as well as their European peers. Her tour challenged Americans to begin to recognize the full artistry – and, ultimately, the full humanity – of their fellow citizens.
(April 1 by Mike Telin)
Today we honor two composer/pianists who came into the world on April Fools Day: Ferruccio Busoni in 1866 and Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff in 1873.
Born in Empoli, Italy, Busoni revealed himself to be a pianist and composer of note at an early age. After holding several teaching positions he dedicated himself to writing music and touring. Also a musicologist, Busoni’s visits to the United States sparked his interest in the music of North American Indigenous people. In addition to the Piano Concerto, his transcriptions of works by J.S. Bach are legendary.
Prior to his 2019 performances of the monumental Piano Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra, Garrick Ohlsson — who won the Busoni Competition in 1966 — told Clevelandclassical.com that during his lifetime, Busoni was a leading teacher, composer, and theorist as well as a great pianist. “People were drawn to him. He was in the middle of musical and artistic society. He taught in all sorts of places including the United States, Finland, and Russia — he was a true internationalist. But one of the problems with Busoni as a composer is that he’s very eclectic in his choice of language. If you see his name on the program, you don’t know if you’re going to have a tonal neoclassical, a completely atonal piece, or an overripe Romantic one like this.” Click here to read the preview.
Olhsson recorded Busoni’s five-movement concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra and Men’s Chorus under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi in 1989. Click here for part one and here for part two.
Born in Semyonovo, near Novgorod, in northwestern Russia, Rachmaninoff’s life and celebrated career are well-documented. What people may not know is that he had a long relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra. Rachmaninoff first came to Cleveland in 1923 to perform his second piano concerto at the Masonic Auditorium on March 29 and 31, an event that coincided with the 25th anniversary of Adella Prentiss Hughes’ reign as Cleveland’s musical impresario. He returned in 1932 just after the Orchestra moved to Severance Hall, and four more personal appearances followed: November, 1937 (the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini), October, 1939 (Piano Concerto No. 1), March, 1941 (Beethoven Concerto No. 1 & the Paganini Rhapsody) and January, 1942 (Piano Concerto No. 2). The 1923 and 1932 engagements were led by Nikolai Sokoloff, the rest by Artur Rodzinski.
The January, 1942 Severance Hall concert also included his symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1907), and the recently composed Symphonic Dances, Op. 45. (1940). His return was highly anticipated. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Press, Cleveland News and Akron Beacon Journal, as well as local foreign language publications, all ran previews announcing the concerts.
How was the almost 69-year-old pianist’s performance of his concerto received by the local critics?
Plain Dealer critic Herbert Elwell wrote, “There was even more enthusiasm when Rachmaninoff appeared in the concerto. As usual he gave to his own music luster and animation that only his brilliant pianism can give it. And it was with evident pleasure that listeners heard from his own hands the drooping wistful melodies that have now reached the domain of popular music.”
However, Cleveland Press critic Arthur Loesser was unfavorably impressed by the tempos. “It must be said that much of Mr. Rachmaninoff’s performance was on the streamlined side, some of it even seemed to be functioning with a tailwind. Those of us who know this concerto pretty thoroughly had trouble recognizing our friendly note-figures in the rush.”
Loesser went on to say, “Great praise must be bestowed upon Dr. Rodzinski…for the highly skilled accommodation of his beat to Mr. Rachmaninoff’s frequent willfulnesses as well as for his success in keeping the occasionally heavy scoring in good balance.” Click here to read our “From the Archives” preview and here for our “What would Rachmaninoff post on Facebook” feature.
(April 2 by Daniel Hathaway)
Just one historical event to spotlight today: the founding of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1842, making the ensemble the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States (some sources report that the founding took place on April 5). The first concert was given in New York’s Apollo Rooms in lower Manhattan in December of that year with some 600 in attendance. (Photo: Gustav Mahler rehearsing the orchestra during his term as music director).
The organization’s complex history, including mergers with the New York Symphony, the New/National Symphony, and its summer seasons at Lewisohn Stadium is richly chronicled in a Performance History database that documents “all known concerts of all of these organizations, amounting to more than 20,000 performances. The New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives provides an additional interface for searching printed programs alongside other digitized items such as marked music scores, marked orchestral parts, business records, and photos.”
Start searching — or browsing — here.
