by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Featured: a mix of Korean song & European opera, multiple concert choices all weekend
. Remembering Joseph Pulitzer (what happened to the prizewinners?)
. Choosing spooky music for All Hallows Eve, and remembering Black Tuesday and the New York Stock Exchange crash of 1929 (might make you feel better about 2022)
WEEKEND EVENTS:
This weekend’s featured event brings Korean and European cultures together in the physical context of visual art. On Saturday evening at 7:30, Singers Kyung Kim, Hein Jung, and Misook Yun (pictured) will join pianist Younjung Cha in a free program of Korean songs and Western opera trios at the McDonough Museum of Art at Youngstown State University.
I recently spoke about the event via teleconference with soprano Misook Yun, who has taught at YSU for 24 years (we were joined by her 20-year-old orange tabby cat, a charming if persistent Zoom bomber).
Saturday’s concert revisits a format that Misook Yun and her Korean colleagues have successfully followed for previous performances in Tampa and Dayton. “The program will include opera duets and trios, along with some fairly recently-written Korean art songs and trios,” she said. Listeners can look forward to enjoying such favorites as selections from Lakme, the flower duet from Butterfly, and the trio from Rosenkavalier.
The Korean repertoire includes what has almost become a second national anthem, as well as a song about the confluence of a river written in Western style with Korean rhythmic elements.
Misook Yun said that traditional Korean singing is more like throat singing, but different from the Mongolian variety. A traditional way of learning the technique is to sing so loudly under a waterfall that you cough up blood. “Your voice will be opened up — chesty and throaty, but beautiful in its own way.”
Conversations with Koreans often turn to food. I asked Misook Yun what her favorite Korean dish was. “I am becoming like my mother. I prefer food with more broth especially with the cold weather.”
Fish or meat stews are her favorites. “I recently made a beef rib stew, and the next day stretched it out by adding a vegetable. For the third day I added dumplings that friends who were visiting volunteered to make. The last day, there was only a little rice left, so I made a kind of porridge.”
Thinking about a Northeast Ohio violinist who ventured into making her own kimchi — fermented cabbage and vegetables — a process that involves burying the mixture until it cures, I asked Misook Yun if she made the national dish at home. “No, a friend makes it for me, and she doesn’t bury it because she doesn’t have the correct clay pots. She uses the refrigerator.”
Probably a good idea. That violinist friend came home one day after she had proudly buried a batch to find the fire department nosing around her house looking for the gas leak a neighbor had reported. Better use the refrigerator.
Three more concerts on Friday night all begin at 7:30.
CityMusic Orchestra, Tessa Lark, violin. “Batonless Beethoven.” Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, Dvořák’s Romance for Violin in f, & Beethoven’s Romance for Violin No. 2 in F & Symphony No. 1. St. Noel Church, 35200 Chardon Rd., Willoughby Hills. The program will be repeated on Saturday evening at 7:30 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus and on Sunday afternoon at 3 at Lakewood Congregational Church. Free
The Cleveland Orchestra: Edward Gardner, conductor, Kirill Gerstein, piano. Benjamin’s Ringed by a Flat Horizon, Schumann’s Piano Concerto, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7. Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. Repeated on Saturday at 8. Tickets are available online
No Exit presents the French new music group Ensemble Court-Circuit, Jean Deroyer, music director. Click here to meet the musicians. Sky Macklay’s Fastlowhighslow, Anthony Cheung’s Ebbing Flow, David Felder’s Rare Air, David Hudry’s Impulses, Violeta Cruz’s Tactil, and Philippe Leroux’s Postlude à l’épais. Ludwig Recital Hall, Kent State University, 1325 Theatre Drive, Kent. You can also catch it at 8 on Saturday evening at SPACES. Free.
On Saturday evening at 7, M.U.S.i.C. – Stars in the Classics dials up seasonal chills with a Halloween Musical Salon. Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, arranged for violin & piano, Korngold’s Caprice Fantastique (Dance of the Goblins), Rachmaninoff’s Etude-tableau, Op. 39, No. 6 (Red Riding Hood), Paganini’s The Witches’ Dance, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Cassado’s Dance of the Green Devil, and Humperdinck’s Witch’s Aria from Hansel and Gretel set the scene in a private home in Cleveland Heights, address provided upon paid reservation. Click here to reserve.
Also at 7 on Saturday, violinist Andrew Sords will join Mari Sato, violin, Eric Wong, viola, John Walz, cello (principal of the L.A. Opera), and Elizabeth DeMio, piano, in works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Rachmaninoff. The Dvořák is the composer’s Piano Quintet, and the agreeable venue is Federated Church in Chagrin Falls. It’s free.
On Sunday at 3:00 pm – The Cleveland Orchestra Halloween Spooktacular, Daniel Reith, conductor. A hauntingly fun program filled with musical tricks and treats such as “Ride of the Valkyries,” Danse Macabre, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and highlights from Harry Potter. Wear your favorite costume for the annual musicians and audience costume contest! Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. Tickets are available online
At 5:00 pm, No Exit will host pianist Jenny Lin In partnership with the Kent State Keyboard Series in an intriguing, all-Philip Glass program. Mad Rush (1979), Piano Etudes (1994-2012), Passacaglia (2017) & selections from Candyman (1992). Ludwig Recital Hall, Kent State University, 1325 Theatre Drive, Kent. Tickets: $10, students free.
At 7:00 on Sunday, Arts Renaissance Tremont puts the Cavani String Quartet together with the Amici Quartet and plays Octets by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich at St. Wendelin Church, 2281 Columbus Rd., Tremont. Freewill offering.
Also at 7 pm Sunday, the Canton Symphony, Gerhardt Zimmermann conducting, welcomes pianist Michelle Cann to a program that includes Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, Richard Strauss’ Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra, César Franck’s Le casseur maudit and Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Francesa da Rimini. Zimmermann Symphony Center, 1001 Market Ave. N., Canton. Tickets available online.
Even more events can be found on the Clevelandclassical.com Concert Listings page.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On October 29, 1911, Hungarian-born newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer died in Charleston, South Carolina. His estate endowed the Pulitzer Prizes, which, beginning in 1943, included an annual award for a classical musical composition by an American composer.
In the late 1990s, the entry rules were expanded to include a wider range of American music, and the first such prize recognized Wynton Marsalis’ 1997 Blood on the Fields. George Gershwin and Duke Ellington were subsequently honored on their anniversary years in 1998 and 1999.
It’s interesting to read down the list of Pulitzer Prize winners in music, both to see what works have passed into wide use and which seem to have fallen by the wayside. Click here to view the list.
For an early start on your Halloween celebrations, have a listen to Edward Burlingame Hill’s The Fall of the House of Usher, based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, which received its first performance on this date in 1920 by Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony. In lieu of a recording of the piece, how about listening to Basil Rathbone’s inimitable reading of Poe’s chiller. Click here if you have 23 minutes to spare.
Finally, on this day in 1929, dubbed “Black Tuesday,” the New York Stock Exchange crashed, launching the Great Depression. YouTube will take you back to some popular music of the period via this playlist.
