by Daniel Hathaway
EVENTS LIVE AND OTHERWISE THIS WEEKEND:
Some organizations are making the most of outdoor performing possibilities this weekend, although Heights Arts has postponed its 20th Anniversary Concert to next weekend due to chilly weather conditions. You can still catch Akron Symphony Interlude performances at Hale Farm and Museum, a front yard concert by the Blue Streak Ensemble playing music by Margaret Brouwer, Tuesday Musical’s percussion shows at Akron’s Historic Barder House, and an open-air Brahms String Sextet on the Sacred Heart Series in Oberlin (note: the last concert has now been moved indoors).
Indoors (or wherever you open up your laptop), you can catch the first pre-recorded large ensemble performances from Oberlin, watch a recital by organist Christa Rakich at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Akron, and hear what CIM composition students are up to. Check the Concert Listings for details.
INTERESTING READS:
New York Times critic Joshua Barone reports that American orchestras are suddenly on a roll to program music by Black composers, but wonders if that trend will last. Read the article here.
In a WQXR article, Heather O’Donovan polls a dozen scholars about changes in the academic field of (ethno)musicology. Two separate streams of research seem to be combining as scholars broaden the scope of their inquiries. “Today, music scholars (note the conspicuous absence of terminology) are grappling with the field’s complex, colonial history, its purpose and articulation, and even its name in novel ways. Their work is a reflection of the field’s proverbial coming of age.”
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
On October 3, 1923, Polish American conductor and composer Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was born in Lwow. He escaped the communist regime in 1958 to settle in the United States. Read a ClevelandClassical.com interview where he talks about that escapade and his first gig with The Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of George Szell. (He was scheduled to return to Blossom after an absence of three decades, but had to cancel due to illness.)
Skrowaczewski led what is now the Minnesota Orchestra for fourteen years, and was a favorite guest conductor with many other ensembles. One of his highly regarded performances was Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in 2014, preserved in this video.
In 1931, Danish composer Carl Nielsen died on October 3 in Copenhagen. Celebrated for his six symphonies, which demonstrate a highly individual compositional voice, his music was championed by Leonard Bernstein. Listen to his Fifth Symphony (the one where the snare drum is given permission to play out of time and interrupt the story) in a 1967 performance by The Cleveland Orchestra under Sixten Ehrling.
And on October 3, 1936, American composer Steve Reich was born in New York City. In 2015, ChamberFest Cleveland programmed two of his works: New York Counterpoint (for amplified clarinet and tape, featuring Franklin Cohen in CIM’s Kulas Hall) and Nagoya Marimbas (played by Scott Christian and Alexander Cohen at The Wine Spot).
On October 4, 1982 Canadian pianist Glenn Gould died in Toronto. We featured Gould recently when his birthdate came up, but it seems appropriate to celebrate the other end of his lifeline with the last work he performed with orchestra before withdrawing into a private world of highly-edited studio recordings.
The ensemble was the Toronto Symphony, the conductor was Karel Ančerl, and Gould’s participation in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto came about when Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli withdrew 72 hours before the performance. Gould was persuaded to take over and play from memory a work he hadn’t touched in four years. The concert, televised and aired on September 12, 1970, was a triumph. Watch it here.