by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
SATURDAY: BlueWater Chamber Orchestra joins guitarist Jason Vieaux (pictured) in Vivaldi & Daniel Meyer leads Avner Dorman’s How to Love and Beethoven’s 7th (7:30, Church of the Covenant), Victor Liva leads the Cleveland Philharmonic in Mahler’s First & works by Chausson & Sarasate with violinist Odin Rathnam (7:30 in CSU’s Waetjen Auditorium), Oberlin Collegium sings Renaissance music under Steven Plank (7:30 in Fairchild Chapel), & pianist Lang Lang plays Saint-Saëns’ 2nd Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra, plus Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique (8 pm at Severance, Franz Welser-Möst, conducting).
SUNDAY: North Coast Winds play Jazz (2 pm at Hudson Library), Tuesday Musical presents its final Scholarship round & winners’ concert (2:30 in Guzzetta Hall, U. of Akron), Oberlin College Choir & Musical Union led by Gregory Ristow sing Duruflé & Lorain County Bicentennial premieres of student compositions (2:30 in Finney Chapel), the Cleveland Philharmonic & Parma Symphony both perform at 3 (the former in Westlake, the latter in Parma Hts.), organist Davis Badaszewski plays early music (3 pm in Painesville), Frank Wiley leads Heights Chamber Orchestra with saxophonist Perry Roth (3:30 at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.), the Verona & Cavani String Quartets come together for Andrew Rindfleisch’s octet Phantasmagoria (4 pm, St. Wendelin Church in Tremont), Oberlin remembers the Holocaust with a Yom HaShoah concert (4:30 in Warner Concert Hall) & the West Shore Chorale sings Haydn & Vivaldi (7:30 at Avon Lake PAC).
For details of these and other performances, visit our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Cleveland Chamber Music Society has revealed details of its forthcoming 75th Anniversary Season in 2024-2025, which will include performances by Chanticleer, the Imani Winds with pianist Michelle Cann, Cuarteto Casals, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Jerusalem Quartet (pictured), who will play a complete Shostakovich cycle at the Cleveland Museum of Art from April 21-30. More details here.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
SATURDAY:
On May 4, 1920, The Symphony Society of New York — which eventually became the New York Philharmonic — played the opening concert of its debut European Tour at the Paris Opera, making it the first American ensemble to perform overseas.
The Symphony Society Bulletin of March 18, 1920 noted that the European Tour was being undertaken “by official invitation from the governments of France, Italy, Belgium and a committee of England’s foremost musicians.” The Orchestra embarked on the transatlantic crossing aboard the Rochambeau on April 22, beginning “a tour which is unprecedented and indicates in a remarkable manner the new position of America in the world of music.”
The May 4 performance, led by Walter Damrosch, included Berlioz’ Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, Beethoven’s Third Symphony, d’Indy’s Istar: variations symphonique, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, “Fragment Symphonique.” The Orchestra’s European adventure lasted nearly two months, culminating in a June 20 matinee at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
COVID put the kibosh on The Cleveland Orchestra’s plans for an international tour in 2020, and its 2023 tour to Israel was cancelled due to the war in Gaza. In April, the Orchestra announced dates for its 80th international excursion that will take the ensemble to Berlin, Helsinki, Lucerne, Ansfelden, Bratislava, and Vienna from August 26 to September 7, 2024, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner in Ansfelden, the composer’s hometown. Read the press release here.
SUNDAY:
On May 5 of 1891, New York’s Carnegie Hall opened its doors with a gala concert featuring guest conductor Pytor Ilych Tchaikovsky. Watch a video with archivist Gino Francesconi, who talks about the opening exercises, and a second video where Francesconi delves into the connections between the Russian composer and the iconic New York concert venue.
