by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Farewell to Gabriel’s horns at Trinity

. Scottish Chamber Orchestra soloist Nicola Benedetti profiled, anniversaries of Ravel’s Pictures, Gershwin’s Lullaby, and the premature departure of Jacqueline du Pré

TODAY’S  EVENTS:

At noon, Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert features the popular big band Gabriel’s Horns (pictured). If you’re a fan, you should know that bandleader James Mays is retiring, so this will be the horns’ final appearance on the lunchtime series at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Freewill offering.

IN THE NEWS:

Violinist Nicola Benedetti, who will appear on Akron’s Tuesday Musical Series on Thursday with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Max Bruch Concerto, is profiled in The Guardian in conjunction with her recent appointment as director of the Edinburgh Festival. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway with Mike Telin

IN THIS EDITION:

. The weekend concert calendar gives you a multiplicity of options.

. CIM ventures outside University Circle in an expanded series of community concerts.

. Hamilton C. MacDougall and William Barclay Squire (who?) make their debuts while Leonard Bernstein and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (pictured above on a Dutch 25 guilder banknote) exit the scene.

WEEKEND EVENTS: 

On Friday, October 14 at 11:00 am Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads The Cleveland Orchestra with cello soloist Mark Kosower in Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand’s timely Lamentation On The Disasters of War, Ernst Bloch’s Schelomo (Solomon, Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra) & Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) at Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. Tickets are available online for this program, which will be repeated Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Read our preview article here.

On Friday at 7 pm, The Singers’ Club of Cleveland reprises a concert of reflective choral music in recognition of the global impact of the COVID pandemic. The featured work is British composer David Briggs’ Requiem for men’s voices and organ.. First Baptist Church, 3630 Fairmount Boulevard, Cleveland Heights. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. An engaging ritual celebrated nightly since 1549

. Contemporary  music at Oberlin

. Revisiting the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams

TODAY’S EVENTS: 

At 6pm, Trinity Chamber Choir will sing the traditional Anglican service of Choral Evensong commemorating Edith Cavell +1915, nurse and martyr. with Jeremy Jackman’s responses, William Byrd’s Fauxbourdon Service, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Valiant-for-Truth. The Rev. Peter Faass officiates and Todd Wilson conducts.

This 45-minute service will be sung by Trinity’s resident choirs and guests every Wednesday from October through May at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. On his blog, concert pianist and polymath Stephen Hough (himself a Roman Catholic), wrote about the engaging British ritual, which has been sung nightly around the world sinc 1549:

Evensong hangs on the wall of life like an old, familiar cloak passed through the generations. Rich with prayer and scripture, it is nevertheless totally nonthreatening. It is a service into which all can stumble without censure – a rambling old house where everyone can find some corner to sit and think, to listen with half-attention, trailing a few absentminded fingers of faith or doubt in its passing stream. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Something for everyone to enjoy in this weekend’s concert listings

. The guest list for this weekend’s birthday anniversaries could spin off some fascinating conversations (about that missing opera, Herr Schütz…)

WEEKEND EVENTS: 

On Friday, October 7, three intriguing concerts all begin at 7:30 pm. 

An Evening of Czech Vocal Music features students preparing to compete at the 10th annual American International Czech and Slovak Voice Competition in Wisconsin. Guzzetta Recital Hall at the University of Akron. Free.

Conductor Thierry Fischer leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Boulez’s Notations, Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, violin (replacing Vilde Frang, who will not appear due to travel complications), and Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) with Todd Wilson at Severance Music Center. The program is repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm. Tickets available online.

The third is a guest recital by The Unheard of Ensemble, Ford Fourqurean, clarinet, Matheus Souza & Erica Dicker, violins, Iva Casian-Lakoš, cello & Daniel Anastasio, piano, who plan an adventurous, free program of music using technology and interactive multimedia at Oberlin’s Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. SalonEra returns for a third season

. Birthday anniversary toasts to Steve Reich and Zenobia Powell Perry (pictured, with Darius Milhaud)

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Today, Les Délices has released the first episode of SalonEra Season 3, available for viewing here through the end of June 2023. The period instrument ensemble takes a plunge into the history of Venice’s Ospedali with baritone/scholar Lisandro Abadie as guide. In the 18th century, the orphaned girls of the Ospedali were unlikely stars in the musical firmament of Venice, and yet tourists and luminaries alike crowded into their concerts, with writers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Burney remarking on their sophisticated and touching concerts. Archival performances including an all-woman rendition of Vivaldi’s Gloria from Early Music Vancouver round out this episode.

From Case Western Reserve University, Eric Charnofsky hosts today’s episode of “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” featuring Steve Reich’s Tehillim, Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Flute and Strings, art songs by Clara Schumann, and music for percussion ensemble. Click here from 2:00-4:00 pm to listen to the WRUW internet feed. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Choices to be made as the calendar fills up, Soweto Gospel Choir (pictured) reschedules Tuesday Musical concert

. Denyce Graves Foundation announces Shared Voices Partnership

. Almanac lists an array of first performances and anniversaries from September 30 through October 2.

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Tonight at Severance, Franz Welser-Möst leads a stageful of musicians in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony (stop by to admire the composer’s autograph manuscript, recently gifted to the Orchestra), and in Warner Concert Hall, Tim Weiss leads the Oberlin Sinfonietta in more recent fare.

On Saturday, the Firelands Symphony plays at Sawmill Creek in Huron.

On Sunday come the choices. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. The Cleveland Orchestra receives autograph manuscript of Mahler 2

. Two American musical scholars and three contemporary composers share birthdays

NEWS: 

On Tuesday, André Gremillet, President and CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, announced in a press release, the historic gift to the Orchestra of the autograph manuscript of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” generously donated by one of its Trustees, the noted Austrian media executive and philanthropist Herbert G. Kloiber.

Written in the composer’s own hand in 1894, the 232-page, unaltered document is the only complete autograph manuscript of the complete symphony in existence, and it contains the invaluable marks of Mahler’s alterations and annotations. Long recognized for its affinity with the Austro-German repertoire, The Cleveland Orchestra will preserve the manuscript in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art, making it available to scholars, and accessible for public viewing in the future. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. Grandma’s classical playlists revisited

. Sirena Huang wins Indy violin contest, two live concerts (on Monday!) in Rocky River & Elyria

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Normally, Eric Charnofsky spends Mondays from 2-4 pm hosting a program “Not your Grandmother’s Classical Music” on the air from Case Western Reserve University.

Today, the lecturer, composer, and pianist turns that formula on its head and celebrates his grandmom’s birth anniversary with music by composers she actually knew or met — Leonard Bernstein, Dmitri Shostakovich, Elie Siegmeister, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Paul Robeson. As a bonus, music by George Gershwin celebrates his own natal day. Click here to listen to the WRUW internet feed, which is studded with rarities. [Read more…]