by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Today is the Winter Solstice

. Holiday music at the Atrium, a Winter Solstice Concert, and WASSAIL! from Apollo’s Fire

. Piano Cleveland Social Club

THE WINTER SOLSTICE is scheduled for today at 4:47 pm in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite a recent run of blazingly sunny days, this moment marks the point when we northerners are tilted as far away from the sun as possible, producing a Wednesday with the shortest daylight and longest night of the year. Just the thing to warm our hearts as the latest episode of the COVID-19 saga unfolds.

Given no alternative, we might as well enjoy our mutual planetary experience today, and as usual, music comes to the rescue.

Click here to listen to the carol commissioned for the 1998 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. Gile Swayne set his own English text in his Winter Solstice Carol (it alternates with familiar Latin phrases from the Christmas Day antiphon to the Magnificat): [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Online: Les Délices with Daphna Mor (pictured, Sue Yelanjian looking on) and rare finds by Eric Charnofsky

. Almanac: Clérambault, Christie & Isserlis

TODAYS EVENTS:

Beginning today, and continuing through June, Les Délices re-releases its SalonEra 3.3 program: Ottoman Influence. A Baroque musician, Ottoman music enthusiast, and multi-instrumentalist, Daphna Mor guest-curates this episode exploring connections between east and west. Oud player Kane Mathis helps us understand the building blocks of Ottoman music, and Turkish violinist and multi-instrumentalist Ceren Türkmenoğlu shares her fascinating and beautiful work, which inhabits both European and Turkish classical traditions. Available online and as a podcast. Click here.

From 2:00 – 4:00 pm today Eric Charnofsky’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music features a selection of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ sacred and secular choral songs, Charles Dodge’s Extensions (trumpet and tape), Vítězslav Novák’s Eternal Longing (orchestra), J.S. Bach’s Concerto in d arranged by ​Ilan Guetta for two electric guitars and strings, David Gompper’s Bailey’s Beads (double bass and piano), and Paula Matthusen’s Limerence (banjo and electronics). Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Charnofsky spins music you probably don’t know (but might)

. Having fun at the opera in Toronto

. Beethoven studies with Haydn

TODAYS EVENTS:

On the radio & the internet: from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Eric Charnofsky hosts “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, featuring Irving Fine’s Symphony (1962), Gabriel Pierné: Poème symphonique for piano and orchestra, Archduke Rudolph’s Trio in E-flat for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Five Preludes, for guitar, Clarice Assad’ Metamorfose, for viola and piano, and Stanley Leonard’s Quarimba, for four marimbas. Click here to listen to the internet feed or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area

INTERESTING READ:

Events by Toronto companies like Opera Revue, Against the Grain and Tapestry Opera are part of an effort to make the art form more accessible. Read Joshua Chong’s article in the Toronto Star, “Forget the ‘hoity-toity tuxes and gowns’ — at Opera Revue you can cheer and holler. No shushing allowed.” [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. City Music & No Exit along with a load of holiday-themed concerts

. Remembering Franck and Messiaen (pictured) on their birth anniversaries

TODAYS EVENTS:

On Friday the 9th at 7:30 at Lakewood Congregational Church, CityMusic Orchestra, led by guest conductor Stefan Willich, and featuring trumpeter Jack Sutte and soprano Chabrelle Williams, will perform Mozart’s Overture and “Deh vieni non tardar” from The Marriage of Figaro and Symphony No. 40 along with Neruda’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, Verdi’s “Caro nome” from Rigoletto, and Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicchi. The program will be repeated on Saturday the 10th at 7:30 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, and Sunday the 11th at 3 at Federated Church. All performances are free.

Also on Friday. No Exit New Music will present a 7:30 concert at Kent State University’s Ludwig Recital Hall that includes three world premieres: David Glaser’s Aurora II, Max Friedman’s Butter-Iider, and Frank Wiley’s The Dream of Sisyphus, along with Henry Cowell’s The Banshee and Tiger, and Ladislav Kubik’s Nocturnes. Read a preview article here. The concert is free. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Britten at Trinity at noon, Apollo’s Fire and Trio Mediaeval in Lakewood and at CMA tonight

. Oberlin Orchestra concert available for replay

TODAYS EVENTS:

Today at Noon at Trinity Cathedral the high voices of the Cathedral Choir and harpist Jody Guinn will present Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Freewill offering.

At 7:00 pm, Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrrell will continue their run of performances of Handel’s Messiah at  Lakewood United Methodist Church. Sopranos Sonya Headlam and Erica Schuller, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Crider and Kim Leeds, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, and baritone Edward Vogel are the soloists. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Exploring new repertory with WRUW’s Eric Charnofsky

. Cleveland Orchestra joins Symphony Live, proposes 12-days of Christmas gift list

. Should other minds complete great unfinished musical works?

TODAYS EVENTS:

Explore off-the-beaten-track music from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm with host Eric Charnofsky on “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” including Kazuo Fukushima’s Mei for solo flute, Louis Andriessen’s Facing Death transcribed for saxophone quartet, Michael Kurek’s Moon Canticle for harp, Pamela Decker’s Flores del Desierto (Tangos for Organ), Julius Röntgen’s Sonata in E for violin and piano, and a realization of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 10, a single movement piece assembled from sketches by Dr. Barry Cooper. To connect, click here, or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

QUICK LINKS:

Cleveland Orchestra joins Symphony Live and suggests a 12 Days of Christmas gift list. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin

IN THIS EDITION:

. So many events both holiday-themed and otherwise! Helpfully, most will receive more than a single performance, widening your choices

. Weekend Almanac: remembering anniversaries of Vincent d’Indy & William Grant Still

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

The Cleveland Orchestra will present their final classical concerts before Holiday events swing into action. On Friday at 11:00 am and on Saturday at 8:00 pm Vasily Petrenko will lead Elgar’s Cockaigne (“In London Town”), Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Behzod Abduraimov as soloist, and Walton’s Symphony No. 1. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. The Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert at Trinity features Todd Wilson’s CIM organ studio & Ólafsson solo piano recital in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall at Severance

. Tuesday Musical announces annual scholarship competition

. Elizabethan madrigalist Thomas Weelkes passes in 1623

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 12:00 pm – Trinity Brownbag Concert. Organist Todd Wilson & students of the Cleveland Institute of Music organ studio. Festive seasonal music played on Trinity’s two great pipe organs. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering.

At 7:30 pm – pianist Vìkingur Ólafsson (pictured above) will play a long list of short pieces by Mozart & his contemporaries in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center, including works by Galuppi, C.P.E. Bach, Cimarosa, and Haydn and arrangements by Liszt and Ólafsson himself. Take a deep breath and order your tickets online.

IN THE NEWS:

Tuesday Musical’s 2023 Annual Scholarship Competition is Saturday, March 18, with significantly increased cash awards. Applications will be accepted online from January 1 through January 31, 2023. [Read more…]