by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
On Saturday at 11 am – A Memorial Service will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights for Karel Paukert (1935-2025), the long-time curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Organist and Choirmaster at St. Paul’s. The service will be live streamed here.
The weekend is otherwise full of events presented by Ohio Light Opera at the College of Wooster, ChamberFest Cleveland, Tri-C JazzFest, The Cleveland Opera, and the Stow Symphony.
For details, addresses, and ticket information, please visit our Concert Listings.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Apollo’s Fire has announced details of its 34nd season under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell, featuring 29 concerts of 8 programs at venues across Northeast Ohio. Click here to read or download a press release.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
June 28 — by Jarrett Hoffman
Look past the long series of discarded marriages — more than one ending with a beheading — and you might find interest in the musical side of Henry VIII (born on this date in 1491). BBC Music Magazine explored his impact on the music scene (both harm and help), and his own musical contributions in an article from 2016.
Another historical figure who had a keen interest in music, but who is more famous for his contributions to other disciplines, is Jean-Jacques Rousseau (born on this date in 1712). That writer and philosopher was also a composer, with seven operas to his name, including the one-act Village Soothsayer. Watch a 38-minute video production dating from 1962, featuring the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, led by Samuel Baud-Bovy.
Rousseau was also a music theorist, developing a system of musical notation that would be compatible with typography: it would use a single line, with numbers expressing different intervals, and periods and commas indicating rhythm. He presented it to the Academie Des Sciences and was rejected, though they seem to have been impressed, and even requested that he have another go at it.
Moving on to names most famous for their music-making, we continue with Hungarian violinist, composer, and conductor Joseph Joachim, born on this date in 1831. One of the great violinists of the 19th century, he was a close collaborator of Brahms, premiering the composer’s Violin Concerto in 1879 with Brahms himself on the podium. Even much earlier, at age 13, his performance of Beethoven’s Concerto (with Felix Mendelssohn conducting) helped bring that work into greater esteem.
In 1903, Joachim became one of the earliest violinists to be recorded: hear him in fuzzy but fascinating renditions of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances Nos. 1 and 2.
And finally, composer Richard Rodgers was born on this date in 1902 in New York City. He’s most famous for his work in musical theater, particularly in collaboration with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II — the latter partnership became the most successful in the history of American musical theater.
And though the EGOT was not such a historic concept at the time, Grammy Awards still being in their infancy, Rodgers became the first person to ever receive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. (He also received a Pulitzer — only he and Marvin Hamlisch have ever taken in all five awards.)
The Sound of Music — the last musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein together — not only won five Tonys, but its film version won five Oscars. Watch a clip from the movie, where Julie Andrews memorably sings the title track.
June 29—
On June 29, 1908, composer Leroy Anderson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although he studied music at the New England Conservatory and at Harvard (Walter Piston was his composition and orchestration teacher), he preferred to write short, light concert music, for which he had an eager collaborator in Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston Pops.
Anderson recently received an encomium from New York Times critic Anthony Tomassini, in his article, Not Bach or Beethoven, but Leroy Anderson Is the Composer for Now, noting that during the pandemic, “His charming, deceptively simple music will make you feel better about things.” Give it a try: click here to listen to Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs playing Bugler’s Holiday with trumpeters from his old high school in Santa Monica, California and from his alma mater, UCLA. Travis J. Cross leads the UCLA Wind Ensemble.
And composer Bernard Herrmann was born on June 29, 1911 in New York. Herrmann has become famous for his film scores (he was a favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock), especially once symphony orchestras like Cleveland began hosting screenings with live music. Listen to 48 tracks from a variety of films here.
Off the sound stage, Herrmann wrote concert music as well. Click here to listen to his 1941 Symphony in a performance he conducted himself, and here to hear his Sinfonietta for Strings played by the Berlin Symphony under Isaiah Jackson, former conductor of the Youngstown Symphony.
