By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Bach at noon

. Liu at Oberlin, Apple finally speaks classical music

. Remembering Margaret Bonds

HAPPENING TODAY:

Trinity Cathedral’s BachFest continues at noon today with violinist Andrew Sords performing the B-Minor Partita, and organist Todd Wilson playing the E-minor Trio Sonata. It’s free and you can enjoy it both in person and as a live stream.  Details in our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READ:

San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman writes about Apple’s new classical streaming service, which finally speaks the language of classical musicians and solves many of the search problems that the latter have found so frustrating when using other sources of streaming music. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. The latest playlist from Charnofsky’s Monday show

. The Hammond B-3 story and its jazz stars (pictured: Jones, Baccus Sr., DeFrancesco)

HAPPENING TODAY:

Bored with the usual classical radio fare? Try Eric Charnofsky’s two-hour CWRU program “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music” which  airs every Monday from 2-4 pm. This week’s featured music includes Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Quartet #1, Olivier Messiaen’s Hymn for Orchestra, Cliff Eidelman’s Night in the Gallery, Tom Lopez’s The Piper’s Son (piano and electronics, Reynaldo Hahn’s Violin Sonata in C & Don Walker’s Cummings Country (SATB chorus, vibraphone, contrabass). Click here to listen to the internet feed, or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Chicago inventor Laurens Hammond filed a patent on April 24, 1934 for a new electric organ, an event that produced consequences he couldn’t have imagined at the time. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. BW Bach Festival heads a long list of weekend performances

. Almanac: A Handel disaster, a Margaret Brouwer environmental cantata premiere, Shakespeare + Vaughan Williams, a perfect marriage of words and music

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Multiple performances include the 91st Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, which begins on Friday evening when the Boston-based Baroque string band ACRONYM plays an all-Bach concert featuring two of J. S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos, along with one of his cantatas, and more. The special guest is Catharina Meints, viola da gamba.

Guest conductor Bernard Labadie continues a four-concert run with The Cleveland Orchestra featuring soprano Lucy Crowe on Friday evening (through a Sunday matinee), Les Délices salutes Renaissance patron Isabella D’Este in Akron Friday evening, program repeated Saturday evening in Lakewood and Sunday afternoon in Shaker Hts.

The Cleveland Philharmonic presents competition winner Marina Ziegler (violin, in the Sibelius concerto) on Friday evening at CSU and Sunday afternoon in Westlake, Jay White leads Quire Cleveland in multiple settings of the Lord’s Prayer on Friday evening in downtown Cleveland, repeated Saturday evening in Chesterland and Sunday afternoon in Rocky River, and Cleveland Ballet premieres Anna Segal’s new score Symphony of Life on Friday evening in Playhouse Square, repeated Saturday evening. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Two lunchtime concerts & piano duos at Beachland Ballroom

. Almanac: remembering Germaine Tailleferre, who is easy to recognize in photos of Les Six, the group of French & Swiss composers based in  Montparnasse who represented a neo-classical protest against both Wagnerism and impressionism.

Can you match names to faces? Pictured with Tailleferre are Georges Auric (1899–1983), Louis Durey (1888–1979), Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), and Francis Poulenc (1899–1963). Photo from the Cleveland Memory Project donated by Katharine Warne.

HAPPENING TODAY:

12:00 pm – BrownBag Concerts: Bach Fest. Zhan Shu, violin (D minor Partita) Todd Wilson, organ (Prelude and Fugue in f, BWV 534. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. Cleveland. Free.

12:00 pm – Chamber Music in the Atrium Lunchtime Concert featuring students from the Cleveland Institute of Music: Manuel Lok, & Yuwa Roten, violins, Aubrey Williamson, viola, Aria Posner, cello, & Madelin Wilks & Alton French, bassoons. Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland. Free. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky’s playlist, new LD episode

. Chamber Choir auditions

. Almanac: remembering Herbert Elwell

HAPPENING TODAY:

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music: hosted by Eric Charnofsky. Featured music: John Harbison’s Seven Poems of Lorine Niedecker (soprano/piano), Paul Lansky’s Talking Guitars (guitar duet), Carl Stamitz’s Symphony in C, David Maslanka’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, John Carollo’s Awakenings for String Orchestra & Charles Villiers Stanford’ s Sonata Eroica in g for Organ. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

7:30 pm – Les Délices — SalonEra 3.7: Ximenez: Music & Politics. Karin Cuellar-Rendon and the Ximenez Quartet trace the early nation-building efforts of 19th-century Latin American composers Pedro Ximénez Abril Tirado (Bolivia-Peru), José Bernardo Alzedo (Chile), and Chiquinha Gonzaga (Brazil) who integrated elements of the European classical tradition with local musical genres. Available online and as a podcast. Episodes stream free from their premiere date thru June 30, 2023. Click here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Concerts upon concerts

. Oberlin grad named Utah Symphony assistant conductor

. Almanac: remembering Handel, Neville Marriner, and Charlie (Sir Charles) Chaplin

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Friday at 7, Columbian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia plays at the LatinUS Theater, Cleveland’s No Exit plays new music at Spaces Gallery (repeated at Kent State Saturday at 8), and BW’s Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble perform in Berea. At 7:30 Transient Canvas visits CSU, and at 8, vocalists Christiane Noll and Ben Davis join Cleveland POPS for “The Teams of Broadway” at Severance.

Saturday’s 12:30 matinee features the American Guild of Organists’ Great Lakes Regional Competition for Young Organists at Fairmount Presbyterian, and evening concerts include the Akron Symphony (Christopher Wilkins leads Mahler 3 at 7:30) and The Cleveland Orchestra (with Michael Tilson Thomas at the helm, Leif Ove Andsnes at the keyboard for Debussy and Mahler 1 at 8 — repeated on Sunday at 3). [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Bach Fest at Trinity, Brent Kirby in Rocky River

. Steven Hough remembers his childhood in a new book

. The Almanac remembers Imogen Holst

HAPPENING TODAY:

12 Noon – Trinity Cathedral begins its spring Bach Fest with a concert by violinist Mari Sato and organist Todd Wilson that includes the E-major Violin Partita and the c-minor trio sonata. It’s free.

1:30 pm – Local #4 Music Fund/Haff-Paluck Chamber Series: Brent Kirby, guitar. Rocky River Senior Center, 21014 Hilliard Blvd. Free. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. WRUW fundraiser

. Terrence Blanchard’s Champion at The Met

. Almanac: Pulitzer and the music prizes, first performances & births

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today’s edition of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, hosted by Eric Charnofsky, is the special annual telethon edition fundraiser for WRUW. Featured music: Gabriel Fauré’s Ouverture from Masques et Bergamasques, Gabriel Pierné’s Fantaisie-Ballet (piano and orchestra), Teresa Carreño’s String Quartet in b, Arnold Bax’s The Happy Forest (tone poem for orchestra), Dolores White’s Crystal Gazing (orchestra), Roberto Sierra’s Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano & Lukas Foss’s American Landscapes (excerpt, for guitar). Click here to listen to the internet feed from 2 pm to 4pm or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

INTERESTING READ:

Terrence Blanchard’s Champion, an opera in jazz opens today at the Metropolitan Opera for nine performances. Click here to read Mike Silverman’s story in AP News about adapting the piece for The Met following its debut at Opera St Louis. An excerpt: [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A short but eclectic mix of musical offerings

. Almanac: historical links with a weekend Cleveland Orchestra concert

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

APRIL 7 – FRIDAY

7:30 pm – Québecois trio É.T.É brings a mix of Gaelic jazz, folk, and step dancing, performances on fiddle, cello, and bouzouki, and vocal harmonies. Maltz Center for the Performing Arts,1855 Ansel Rd, Cleveland. Click here for tickets.

7:30 pm – Apollo’s Fire: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Rediscovered, Jeannette Sorrell, direction & harpsichord, featuring Francisco Fullana & Alan Choo & Emi Tanabe, violins. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Concerto for Two Cellos & La Folia. West Shore Unitarian Universalist, 20401 Hilliard Blvd, Rocky River, 44116. The program will be repeated on Saturday at the Federated Church, 76 Bell St., Chagrin Falls. Tickets available online.

7:30 am – Trinity Good Friday Concert: Trinity Cathedral Choir, Todd Wilson, conducting, Elizabeth DeMio & Anne Wilson, pianists, Jacqueline Josten, soprano, Edward Vogel, baritone. Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsche Requiem with accompaniment for piano four hands arranged by the composer. 6:45 pre-concert talk by Charles McGuire, Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. More music for these Jewish and Christian Holy Days

. Remembering Louis Spohr & Sébastien Érard

MUSIC FOR THESE HOLY DAYS:

With no live performances to note, today, let’s renew the search we began on Monday for interesting recordings of music for Passover and Holy Week.

The central event in Jewish history is Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt, which established the observance of Passover and is celebrated in Psalm 113 (or 114 depending on your numbering system), which has come over into the Christian tradition as well.

Apollo’s Fire presented the debut of Jeannette Sorrell’s edition of Handel’s oratorio, Israel in Egypt last year, which trimmed the piece to a more concise length but preserves the colorful representations of the plagues and the escape through the Red Sea for which the composer is famous. The video is available on Vimeo. Directions here.

There are YouTube videos of performances of Psalm 114 (“In exitu Israel”) by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie), by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (Ensemble Inégal & Prague Baroque Soloists under the direction of Adam Viktora), and by English composer Samuel Wesley (double choir motet, Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, conducted by Barry Rose, from a live BBC broadcast). [Read more…]