by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Resident ensembles step up for Thanksgiving weekend

. A tangle of headlines to sort through

. Almanac: anniversary of a richly textured Bach cantata, revisiting piano works of Earl Wild

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

Cleveland’s major resident ensembles are holding down the fort on Thanksgiving weekend with the help of some distinguished guests.

Thomas Søndergård, recently named Osmo Vanska’s successor as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, will join The Cleveland Orchestra and violinist Stefan Jackiw for Benjamin Britten’ s Violin Concerto No. 1 & Igor Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon at Severance Music Center. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. COYO receives $5 million gift

. No Exit concert back online after silly snafu

. R.I.P. composer Ned Rorem at 99

. Henry Purcell neatly timed his all-too-early demise

TODAY’S EVENTS:

From 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm today it’s “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” hosted by Eric Charnofsky. The playlist includes Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone, several choral selections by Randall Thompson, Out Yonder by Terry Riley, Ernest John Moeran’s Fantasy Quartet, and orchestral music by Silvestre Revueltas and art songs by Edvard Grieg. Click here to listen to the internet feed: or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.

IN THE NEWS:

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) announced on Saturday that it will receive a $5 million gift from Geoffrey and Sarah Gund to The Cleveland Orchestra’s endowment, helping to ensure that this unique musical training experience continues for generations of young people. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Final performances of operas

. Other concerts of note

. Remembering the end of the “Great War”

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

This weekend  sees the final performances of three shows: Apollo’s Fire’s Storms and Tempests, Oberlin Opera Theater’s Offenbach and Rossini double bill, and CIM Opera Theater’s Cendrillon, and the only performance of Opera Western Reserve’s La Bohème. [Read more…]

The Diary  will return on Tuesday, November 8

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Visiting cellist and saxophonist

. Piano Cleveland at Phunkenship

. An Austrian, a Russian and a Greek to memorialize

TODAY’S EVENTS: 

12:00 pm – Trinity Brownbag Concert. John Waltz, principal cello, Los Angeles Opera & Elizabeth DeMio, piano. Beethoven and Brahms cello sonatas. Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering.

7:30 pm – CIM Faculty Recital, featuring Steven Banks, saxophone, with Xak Bjerken, piano. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oboe Sonata, Op. 166, Carlos Simon’s hear them (2020) & Sergei Rachmninoff’s Cello Sonata, Op. 19. Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music, 11021 East Boulevard, Cleveland. Free seating passes required. Click here to reserve. The performance will be live streamed here [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Music to raise goose bumps and stand your hair on end

. G. Schirmer’s plans to publish music by Holocaust composers

. Remembering Roget Quilter, Hugo Distler, and Anthony van Hoboken

TODAY’S EVENTS:

2:00 pm – Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music, Eric Charnofsky, host. A special Halloween-themed program, including music about haunted landscapes, witches, gnomes, apparitions, hallucinations, the moon, and nighttime. Composers include Arthur Bliss, György Ligeti, Robert Gibson, Ottorino Respighi, Lei Liang, Mathew Rosenblum, George Crumb, and John Corigliano. Listen on WRUW (via the internet feed) or at 91.1 FM in Cleveland. [Read more…]

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). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. featured keyboard music by (Domenico) Scarlatti & George Walker

. the Beatles and Jacques Lousssier push at stylistic borders

TODAY’S EVENTS:

At 7:30 tonight, pianist Alexandre Dossin takes his program “Piano Soundscapes: A Journey through Six Decades in the Music of George Walker” to Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program includes his Prelude and Caprice, Variations on a Kentucky Folk Song, Piano Sonata No. 2, Spatials, Spektra, Piano Sonata No. 3, Guido’s Hand — Five Pieces for Piano & Piano Sonata No. 5. Click here to watch a live stream.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

The prolific keyboard composer Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples on this date in 1685, the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, and the third eminent member of the Class of ‘85 that includes Handel and J.S. Bach. [Read more…]