by Daniel Hathaway

Today’s entries:

• Cleveland Orchestra matinee, piano concerts at Fine Arts Willoughby and U. of Akron, Chinese traditional music for sheng at CMA

• Touching announcement by Michael Tilson Thomas, controversial cancellation in Montréal

• A single summer concert brings today’s Almanac celebrations of Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, Bobby McFerrin — and a large outdoor crowd — together in the Marketplace in Leipzig [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S EVENTS:

No live performances to raise up today, but Eric Charnofsky will host an homage to Ukraine on his WRUW radio show Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from 2 pm to 4 pm, and at 7:30 pm, Les Délices will revisit works by women composers across the centuries in “Women’s Herstory,” the latest episode in its SalonEra series. Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

English composer Henry Purcell may have been born on this date in 1659 (records are sketchy, to say the least), and in his brief 36-year career distinguished himself in a large body of music written both for church and theater after the restoration of the monarchy.

One of Purcell’s most popular works is his Dido and Aeneas, with a libretto by Nahum Tate based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. [Read more…]

by Mike Telin

In today’s issue:

• Concerts by carillonneur George Leggiero, The Cleveland Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra, and Quire Cleveland.
• Herbert Blomsted discusses the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
• The Cleveland Orchestra debuts the next installment of their In Focus series, DANCECleveland  performance to feature pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and Anna Netrebko will not appear at the Metropolitan Opera this season or next.
• Almanac: We celebrate the births of Antonio Vivaldi and MarioDavidovsky.

FRIDAY’S CONCERTS:

At 12:15 pm carillonneur George Leggiero performs a McGaffin Carillon Concert and Live Stream in support of the People of Ukraine. The concert is one of many from the 680 carillons worldwide this weekend. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

In this entry:

• Concerts at YSU, CIM, and CMA

• In the news: more sanctions for Gergiev, a new recording by guitarist Jason Vieaux (pictured), and coming events at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

• Almanac: celebrating composers Kurt Weill, Marc Blitzstein, and Bernard Rands, and the founder of the world’s oldest music publisher (they’re still in business).

TODAY’S EVENTS:

Today’s agenda begins and ends at Youngstown State University, where Dana School of Music faculty Misook Yun, soprano, Caroline Oltmanns, piano, and  Sean Yancer, horn, perform at 12:15 noon at the Butler Institute of American Art, and where Texas A&M University (Kingsville) piano professor Joachim Reinhuber plays a guest recital in Bliss Hall at 7:30 pm. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

In this entry:

• On today: Eric Charnofsky hosts an unusual playlist from CWRU, Rocky River Chamber Music Society concert features Oberlin clarinet professor & friends

• Concert updates from Tuesday Musical & the ReSound Festival

• An amusing story about pianist Richard Goode’s trip to the dentist

• Anniversaries of a composer who bred famous horses and another who retired at the age of 37 after penning 34 stage works since he turned 18

HAPPENING TODAY:

Today’s edition of Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music from Case Western Reserve university visits a violin concerto by Michael Torke, Piano Preludes by William Grant Still, a Rossini String Sonata, Paul Harvey’s Concertino for tenor saxophone and piano, and John Alden Carpenter’s jazz ballet score Krazy Kat, inspired by a famous cartoon strip. [Read more…]

by Mike Telin

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.— Charles Mingus

IN TODAY’S ISSUE:

• Concerts by Carillonneur George Leggiero, pianist Caroline Oltmanns, the Krantz/Carlock/Lefebvre trio, The Cleveland Orchestra, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Les Délices.

• Ian Pomerantz says that it’s time to talk about antisemitism in the early music field.

• The Cleveland Cello Society has rescheduled their annual fundraiser, i Cellisti, And Valery Gergiev will not conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in concerts at Carnegie Hall.

• Almanac: the births of Dame Myra Hess (pictured) and Maryanne Amacher. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

Featured today: Noonday concerts in Cleveland and Youngstown, CIM’s Music for Food Benefit, one in a string of Oberlin faculty concerts to open a new semester, and replays of ChamberFest performances. Also, links to articles about a Grammy nomination controversy, the future of international orchestra tours, and the legacy of conductor Michael Gielen. And a nod to the birthday of Handel and the passing of Elgar.

Today’s events: Lunchtime concerts feature the CIM Guitar Studio at Trinity Cathedral and voice area students at Youngstown State. This evening, CIM students and faculty present a benefit concert for the Cleveland Kosher Food Pantry, and Oberlin faculty duo pianists Haewon Song and Robert Shannon play Schubert, Stravinsky, J.S. Bach, Saint-Saëns, and Liszt as part of a flood of recitals at the beginning of the spring semester. The evening ends with a retrospective of ChamberFest Cleveland performances on WCLV’s Cleveland Ovations. Details in our Concert Listings. [Read more…]