by Daniel Hathaway

 HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

Only two events are on our radar for the last weekend of January.

On Sunday at 7:30 pm, Paul Ferguson and Bill Rudman will host a joint retrospective, “The Gershwins on Broadway” with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Musical Theater Project at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. Also on deck: the Joe Hunter Trio, and vocalists Treva Offutt & Evelyn Wright. Ticket prices include a live streaming option. Click here to reserve.

Another meeting of minds is scheduled for Sunday at 6 pm in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, when the Cleveland Chamber Choir (Scott MacPherson, artistic director) will team up with Cleveland State University’s composition programs (Andrew Rindfleisch, director), for a workshop of choral works written by CSU School of Music graduate and undergraduate Music Composition Majors. It’s free.

NEWS BRIEFS:

A reminder to music students: Tuesday Musical Scholarship Applications are due online on Monday, January 31. Details here.

Lisa Wong would like us to alert our readers to a job opening: The College of Wooster is receiving applications for Visiting Assistant Professor in Music-Voice. Read the details and download application materials here.

INTERESTING READS:

In an opinion piece, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Jeremy Reynolds (who served as ClevelandClassical.com‘s Nicholas Jones Young Writer Fellow for 2015) ponders the primacy of live performances, even in the age of COVID. Read his comments in a review of The Rose Elf here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

We’ll begin by noting the first performance of William Walton’s Partita for Orchestra, dedicated to George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra, which received its premiere on January 30, 1958.

Asked by Szell to provide program notes, Walton demurred. “It is surely easier to write about a piece of creative work if there is something problematical about it, Indeed — it seems to me — the more problematical, the greater the flow of words. Unfortunately from this point of view, my Partita poses no problems, has no ulterior motive or meaning behind it, and makes no attempt to ponder the imponderables.”

Online recordings give us the opportunity to compare performances both in musical and technical terms. Here’s a remastered recording of the piece by its original dedicatees, followed by a live performance Szell gave with the Royal Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra later in 1958.

Born on January 29, 1852, Jamaican-born British composer Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen represents a composer lauded in his lifetime for a large body of compositions — operas, oratorios, cantatas, orchestral suites, songs, and six symphonies — but now nearly completely forgotten. Of those Symphonies, No. 3, subtitled “Scandinavian” and dating from 1880, was widely performed in Europe and the U.S. Click here to hear a performance by the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra led by Adrian Leaper.

Cowen’s orchestral overtures — curtain-raisers for concerts — were among his most popular works. Click here to hear Leaper and his Slovak musicians play The Butterfly’s Ball, written in 1901 and based on a poem by William Roscoe partly quoted in the video notes.

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At 7:00 pm Dave Becker will lead the BW Symphony Orchestra in a program to be announced at Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. The concert is free. Click here to access the live stream.

At 7:00 pm organist Daryl Robinson (Christ Church Cathedral, Houston & University of Houston) will present a recital sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists at the Immaculate Conception Church, 4129 Superior Ave., in Cleveland. The event is free.

Also at 7:00 pm, the Somerset Trio, Danna Sundet, oboe, Mark Addleman, horn and Elizabeth Etter, piano, will present a program to be announced at the Church of the Western Reserve, 30500 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland. The performance is free.

IN THE NEWS: 

Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium  

Next month a consortium of area arts organizations will come together to present a series of events celebrating some of the major masterworks of silent cinema. To highlight the Cleveland connection, the Festival will focus on the music of Cleveland native and film music pioneer John Stepan Zamecnik.

The week-long Festival kicks off on February 13 at 3:00 pm at the Hermit Club, when violinist Isabel Trautwein and other members of the Cleveland Orchestra join Rodney Sauer, music director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, in a concert of chamber works by Zamecnik and his mentor, Antonín Dvorak. Click here for tickets.

Zamecnik’s music will accompany a screening of the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr., at the Apollo Theater in Oberlin on February 16, and at three Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque screenings: Wings(Feb. 18), The Wedding March, (Feb 19), and Sunrise, (Feb 20). Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Wedding March, and Sunrise will all feature live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, an ensemble nationally known for its definitive interpretations of historic film scores.

During the festival, Mont Alto will be working with Oberlin students in a Winter Term project on locating, selecting, and compiling historic photoplay music for silent film accompaniment. An end of term free performance will be held at the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space on February 15 at 7:00 pm.

Click here to access the Festival Facebook Page. COVID protocols will be in place for all events. Proof of vaccinations/booster will be checked at the door and masks must be worn at all times.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

In a year that was full of unexpected events, it appears that January 28 was left alone although our Daily Diary archives reveal two debuts and one final curtain call of note.

Today marks the birth of Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein in 1887 in Łódź, Poland. With a career spanning eight decades, he is regarded as one of the greatest pianists — and the greatest interpreter of Chopin — of all time. Relocating to California during WWII, he became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1946. He also lent his talents to Hollywood, providing piano soundtracks for films, including Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn, and playing himself in Carnegie Hall and Of Men and Music. Click here to watch a documentary of his life with historic film footage.

On this date in 1944, British avant-garde composer John Tavener was born in London. We featured his life in our Daily Diary last November 12, marking the date of his death. The English composer achieved wide renown for his religious works, many of which reflected his conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1977. Among his best-sellers: The Protecting Veil (recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis), Song for Athene (sung at the end of the funeral for Princess Diana in Westminster Abbey in 1997), and the haunting little setting of William Blake’s The Lamb, inspired by his 3-year-old nephew and premiered at the 1982 King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Watch Quire Cleveland perform The Lamb at Trinity Cathedral in December, 2013.

The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge included The Lamb in a 2013 tribute to Tavener, along with his Mother of God, Today the Virgin, Funeral Ikos, and Song for Athene. Stephen Layton conducted the ensemble at the European Festival of Church Music in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany in July 2013. Watch here.

Finally, today we note the passing of violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler on this date in 1962. Like Rubinstein, he was regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Listen to a WQXR interview on his 80th birthday in 1955 here. Kreisler was famous for his encores, and you can binge-listen to two hours of them here.

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Pianist Melody Quah, faculty member at Penn State University, will play a double-header at Youngstown State University today. Both her Music at Noon program at the Butler Institute or American Art and her 7:30 pm recital on the Muse Concert Series at the McDonough Museum of Art will include Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and the evening performance will add works by Malaysian, Chinese, and Australian composers. Both are free.

INTERESTING READS:

Among the African American musicians who found Europe more promising for their careers than the United States, was conductor Everett Lee, who passed away on January 12 in Sweden at the age of 105. Growing up in Cleveland, he was mentored by Cleveland Orchestra music director Artur Rodzinsky, and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Joseph Fuchs, the Orchestra’s concertmaster.

Lee attracted the attention of many conductors and musical institutions, but was continuously passed over when appointments were made, even being denied auditions because of his race. New York Times writer David Allen chronicled Lee’s life and career on January 20. Click here to read “Everett Lee, Who Broke Color Barriers on the Conductor’s Podium, Dies at 105.”

And except for occasional outliers like Cameron Carpenter, performers in the organ demi-monde aren’t often regarded as newsworthy by a wider musical audience. Enter Swedish organist and songwriter Anna von Hausswolff, who has been making waves in Europe for a decade now — notably upsetting religious conservatives by performing in churches, where most organs are located. Click here to read Alex Marshall’s New York Times article,  “A ‘High Priestess of Satanic Art’? This Organist Can Only Laugh.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Is there something auspicious about January 26 as a date for opera premieres? How about this list: Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 1790 and Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande in 1905, both in Berlin, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (Dresde,n, 1911), and Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (La Scala, Milan, 1957). [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

The last unhosted weekly episode of WRUW’s Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music airs today between 2:00 & 4:00 pm (Eric Charnovsky returns in February). Today’s program includes George Walker’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, William C. Banfield’s Symphony No. 3, C.P.E. Bach’s Clavichord Sonata in f-sharp, Martin Scherzinger’s Etudes for Piano (selections), Alan Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 20 (“Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain,”) Nicolo Paganini’s Moto Perpetuo (arr. for trumpet), Paul Ben-Haim’s Three Songs Without Words (violin and piano) & Igor Stravinsky’s Scènes de Ballet (orchestra). Free on WRUW, Case Western Reserve University. Click here to listen to the internet feed.

COVID-19 UPDATES:

The Cleveland Chamber Music Society regrets that the concert by the Danish String Quartet scheduled for Tuesday, January 25 has been cancelled due to positive COVID-19 test results from one of the performers. The concert will not be rescheduled this season. Patrons who purchased tickets with a credit card (online or by phone) will receive an automatic refund to that card. Those who purchased tickets by mail should contact the office to receive a refund. Those who prefer to exchange their ticket(s) for another concert this season should be in touch by the end of this week.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Jazz organist Eddie Baccus Sr. (pictured above), passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, January 23, the very day he was to be honored with a concert at the Bop Stop. That event turned into a tribute evening and a benefit for his family.

Announcing the change of plans, the jazz club wrote

Eddie Baccus Sr. has been a beloved part of the Cleveland music scene since just about forever (the 60s). He met a fellow blind musician, the great flute/sax player Roland Kirk, at the Ohio State School for the Blind in late 40s, but chose a different path and opted to stay closer to home than Kirk. While Kirk toured the world and died young at age 41 of a stroke in 1977, Baccus has continued to roll his Hammond B-3 into area clubs, performing in a range of jazz styles, and collaborating with and mentoring other players, such as Joe Lovano, Ernie Krivda and his sax-playing son Eddie Baccus Jr.

Donations can be made here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Among the entrances and exits on the classical music stage on January 24: the births of Frederick the Great (in 1712 in Berlin, the flute-playing king of Prussia who challenged the father of his court musician C.P.E. Bach to improvise a fugue on the spot during a visit in 1747. Also of the English oboist Evelyn Barbirroli in 1911 (spouse of conductor Sir John), and of Klaus George Roy in 1924, long-time program editor and annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

On Saturday, CityMusic Cleveland repeats its “Tales and Scenes” program featuring Pantheon at St. Jerome at 7 pm, the UA Wind Symphony performs in Guzzetta Recital Hall in Akron at 7:30 pm, and Cleveland Pops features trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling in Mandel Hall at Severance (for which you’ll need tickets).

On Sunday at 3, the Cleveland Cello Society will showcase its current scholarship winners in an online only, live performance from the Bop Stop. Read more about those magnificent seven in our Concert Listings.

R.I.P. VIOLIST ROGER TAPPING:

British-born violist Roger Tapping succumbed to cancer on January 20 in New York at the age of 61. Known to Cleveland Chamber Music Society audiences as a member of the Takács Quartet from 1995 to 2013, and then the Juilliard Quartet, he also held a number of orchestral positions including principal viola with the London Mozart Players, as well as serving as a member of the English Chamber Orchestra, and a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. A dedicated teacher, he served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Longy School, and Boston Conservatory, as well as the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Tapping’s charming personality comes through clearly in an interview I did with him before a Cleveland Chamber Music Society performance by the Juilliard Quartet in November, 2014.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

While it’s amusing to note the anniversary this weekend of Wolfgang and Nannerl Mozart’s recovery from intestinal flu just in time for a performance in The Hague in 1766, and bizarre to recall the death of American composer Marc Blitzstein from brain injuries in a barroom fight in Fort-deFrance, Martinique in 1964, two opera premieres and an historic concert featuring Black musicians make it to the front of the pack.

On January 22, 1907, Richard Strauss’s opera Salome received its U.S. premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, followed by its cancellation after a single performance and subsequent absence from the stage of the Met until 1930.

As an article in the Met archives sums it up, “No opera premiere in Met history has created a scandal to equal the one that greeted Richard Strauss’s Salome on January 22, 1907.” Read all about it — and the opera’s later history with the company here.

On January 22, 1934, Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District opened in Leningrad at the Maly Operny, where Cleveland Orchestra music director Artur Rodzinski saw the production several times and vowed to bring it to the recently completed Severance Hall. Cleveland audiences first enjoyed it there on January 31, 1935, but not without some troubles along the way — and more to come. [Read more…]