by Jarrett Hoffman

ON TONIGHT:

At 7:30 pm, Les Délices’ SalonEra explores “Performer-Composers,” in particular the recent work, compositional viewpoints, and creative processes of three guest artists. Nicola Canzano introduces the 18th-century compositional practice of Partimento, Doug Balliett follows Bach’s legacy in composing a full year’s worth of cantatas, and Jonathan Woody previews his new commission for Les Délices. Watch a preview video here, and register here to view online and on demand for 48 hours after the debut.

THE CANON:

Three recent articles provide a snapshot into the grappling that is taking place over the idea of the classical music canon.

Joshua Kosman thoughtfully confronts the question of “which composers get one-name treatment” here in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Violinist Nigel Kennedy has withdrawn from a concert with the Chineke! Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall over disagreements that include programming: he says that the radio station Classic FM insisted that he and the ensemble perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons rather than the intended tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Read more here from The Guardian.

And the Metropolitan Opera reopens today with Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first presentation of a work by a Black composer in the organization’s 138-year history, as Zachary Woolfe writes in The New York Times.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today we zero in on Hänsel und Gretel, the most famous opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who died on this date in 1921. The work has a humble backstory: it originated as four songs accompanying a puppet show put on by the composer’s nieces. It then expanded to a Singspiel with sixteen songs, and later to an opera. Stylistically, it’s notable for synthesizing two distinct sides of German music: one part Wagnerian influence, one part German folk songs.

YouTube contains several performances of the entire work, and many also of the famous and beautiful Abendsegen (“Evening Benediction”). Here’s a particularly lovely rendition of that excerpt, sung by Anna Lucia Richter and Fiona Lang, accompanied by a string quartet from the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne in an arrangement by Martin Richter.

It’s fun to reminisce about some of the many local performances of Hansel and Gretel that have taken place over the past decade.

[Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Presenters seem to be taking Saturday off, but there are five varied concerts to choose from on Sunday afternoon: Tuesday Musical’s Al Fresco Passport series (Zydeco on the lawn of Akron’s Historic Barder House both at 1 and 3 pm), Divinity Lutheran’s Parma Heights recital by Cleveland Orchestra musicians Elanya Duitman, violin, and Carolyn Warner, piano at 3 pm, an American Guild of Organists, Cleveland Chapter retrospective of Music by H. Leslie Adams (pictured) for piano, voice, violin and trumpet in Rocky River, and Spanish Renaissance music performed by Duo Mignarda with EnsAmble Ad-Hoc and baritone José Gotera at St. John’s Cathedral, both at 3 pm, followed by the Cavani String Quartet’s latest “Beyond Beethoven” episode on the Music From the Western Reserve Series in Hudson at 5 pm (LvB’s Op. 18, No. 5 and Op. 59, No. 3 plus Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout.

Details in our Concert Listings.

INTERESTING READS:

In a September 22 entry on his blog, Unanswered Question, musical scholar and concert promoter Joe Horowitz discusses two examples of “Buried Treasure,” works by Black composers that he argues need to come into the mainstream.

Of the first, he writes, “It’s finally become inevitable that William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, premiered by Leopold Stokowski in 1934, will become known as a galvanizing achievement in American symphonic music. Incredibly, our major orchestras still haven’t gotten around to it – but they will.”

The second work, Arthur Farwell’s 1922 Hako String Quartet, will be released in October on Naxos in a performance by the Dakota String Quartet. Horowitz writes, “Farwell isn’t played for reasons political, not musical. As the leader of our Indianist movement in music, he’s today condemned as a cultural appropriator…He believed it was a democratic obligation of Americans of European descent to try to understand the indigenous Americans they displaced and oppressed — to preserve something of their civilization; to find a path toward reconciliation. His Indianist compositions attempt to mediate between Native American ritual and the Western concert tradition.” Read his article here.

And in an NPR story, Eleanor Beardsley writes about French pianist Colette Maze, who has just released her sixth album at the age of 107 (she records on Sundays in her 14th floor apartment overlooking the Seine, “when the neighbors are likely to be out and the building is quieter.”) Read or listen to the six-minute broadcast here.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

Two musicians born on September 26 figure in other entries in the weekend’s Diary. American composer and trombonist William Levi Dawson (1898 in Anniston, Alabama) is the composer of the Negro Folk Symphony mentioned in Joe Horowitz’s blog, and American composer Gabriela Lena Frank (1972, Berkeley, Caifornia) is the author of Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, to be played on Sunday by the Cavani Quartet.

Why not spend some time today visiting recordings of those two works. Click here for Leopold Stokowski’s performance of the Dawson Symphony with the American Symphony Orchestra, and here for a performance of the string orchestra version of Frank’s Leyendas by Lina Gonzaléz-Granados and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia live streamed on October 17, 2020 from NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston.

Other notables to acknowledge this weekend include Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (born on September 25, 1932, Toronto), and on September 26, French conductor Charles Munch (Strasbourg, 1891), and American composer George Gershwin (Brooklyn, New York, 1898. Those who left us on September 26 include colonial New England composer William Billings (Boston, 1800), and Bela Bartók (New York, 1945).

Archival recordings can put us directly in touch with these musical personalities. Click here to revisit the famous incident of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto involving Gould and Leonard Bernstein, here to watch Munch conduct Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique with the Boston Symphony, here to listen to Gershwin play excerpts from the F-Major Piano Concerto, and here to enjoy Bartók’s own interpretations of excerpts from Music for Children.

Billings departed the scene too early for recordings, but Ross W. Duffin and Quire Cleveland brought his infectious motet I Am the Rose of Sharon to life in a concert at Historic St. Peter’s Church in April, 2014. Watch here.

 

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

CIM violin professor Jaime Laredo celebrates his 80th birthday tonight at 7 by conducting the CIM Orchestra in works by Prokofiev, Mozart, and Brahms in a hybrid concert you can attend in person (free reservation required) or watch online.

CityMusic Cleveland’s Pantheon Ensemble goes live at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus tonight at 7 with a program featuring the world premiere of Denise Ondishko’s A More Perfect Union: Reflections on American Equality, Justice and Hope, along with pieces by Gershwin, Lili Boulanger, and Dvorák.

Pianist Gerardo Teissonnière joins the belated LvB 250th celebrations with a concert of Beethoven’s last three sonatas tonight at 7 in the Church of the Western Reserve.

More world premieres are on the docket for the first of three fall concerts by No Exit tonight at 8 in Drinko Hall at Cleveland State University, including works by Derrik Balogh,  Giuseppe Desiato, and Jiří Trtík that share the program with pieces by No Exit artistic director Timothy Beyer and Agata Zubel. (Catch later performances at SPACES on October 1 and Heights Arts on October 2 — all are free.)

JOELA JONES TO BE HONORED ON HER RETIREMENT:

The Cleveland Orchestra announced on Thursday that principal keyboard player Joela Jones (pictured above) will retire after performing Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony with the ensemble on October 17. At the performance on October 14,  she will be honored with the Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award. Its longest-serving principal player, Jones joined The Cleveland Orchestra 45 seasons ago in 1967.

In the announcement, the Orchestra noted that “her contributions go well beyond the countless notes played on stage. These were decades filled with Monday night rehearsals, accompanying the remarkable volunteers of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, afternoons or mornings in coaching sessions interacting with conductors and guest vocalists, countless chamber music rehearsals, and many Orchestra committee meetings, working tirelessly for the sake of her fellow musicians and the ensemble.”

Click here to watch a video about Joela Jones’s Distinguished Service Award, and here for more information about the keyboardist who has played piano, organ, harpsichord, celesta, synthesizer, and even accordion when required for nearly a half century.

ClevelandClassical.com’s Mike Telin interviewed Joela Jones in January, 2015 in conjunction with the 90th birthday celebrations for Pierre Boulez. Read that article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

British conductor and musical scholar Christopher Hogwood died of a brain tumor in Cambridge on this date in 2014. One of the forerunners in the early music revival movement, Hogwood relaunched the 18th-century Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, clearing a pathway for such later conductors as Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and Trevor Pinnock. The AAM eventually outgrew its concentration on Baroque music and recorded the complete symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as all of Mozart’s piano concertos with Robert Levin.

Hogwood was also noted for transforming Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society into a period instrument ensemble, along with his influential guest conducting appearances with a number of symphony orchestras. His career is detailed in Barry Millington’s obituary in The Guardian.

Click here to watch Hogwood’s performance of Haydn’s last symphony with the NHK Symphony Orchestra (misidentified as the AAM!), and here to watch a performance he led of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 with Robert Levin, who provided his own improvised cadenzas.

To see Christopher Hogwood in action as a musical scholar who served on the faculty of London’s Gresham College, here are two lecture-concerts: London: Music Under the Shadow of Handel, and an analysis of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps.

by Mike Telin

HAPPENING TODAY:

At ​​7:30 pm it’s the Vanessa Rubin Quintet. Presented in partnership with Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, Rubin will sing classics, ballads and blues on the Maiden Lane Stage, 51 E. Market St. in downtown Akron. In case of rain, the concert moves next door into the Musica Club. The event is free.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cuyahoga Arts and Culture reports that while the wider economy is reopening, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to be devastating for local nonprofit arts organizations and creative workers.

According to a survey of 65 of General Operating Support grant recipients, steady job loss and revenue loss has continued in 2021. The organizations reported 1,636 total people laid off, furloughed or with reduced hours between January and June 2021.

And that after more than 15 months, 65 Cuyahoga County-based arts and culture nonprofits funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture continue to report layoffs as organizations operate with less capacity.

The survey finds that Federal funding is helping to make up some lost revenues and helping groups to adapt programming and connect with residents. But overall, the pandemic continues to negatively impact the creative economy and community quality of life.

From March 2020, when the 65 CAC-funded organizations began tracking, through June 30, 2021, the organizations reported:

• Total people laid off, furloughed, or hours reduced: 4,793
• Total revenue loss: $146,025,012
• Total federal funds (CARES Act, Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, etc.) received: $81,294,617
• Total revenue loss not recouped: $64,730,395

“The hard truth is that the creative economy will be one of the last to recover from the pandemic,” executive director of CAC, Jill M. Paulsen said. “Ohio’s creative industry continues to suffer from the highest unemployment rate among all sectors. CAC has accelerated payment of our grants and worked with Cuyahoga County to secure CARES Act funding, but it may not be enough for some organizations.”

Read the full report here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

INTERESTING READ:

Frequent Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor Jakub Hrůša (pictured left in a 2019 performance of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with soprano Joelle Harvey) is the subject of a New York Times interview this week in conjunction with the release of his recordings of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony with the Bamberg Symphony.

Obsessed with the piece, the composer left three distinct versions of the symphony, and Hrůša, unable to decide which he preferred, chose to commit all three to disc. The article also reveals some interesting facts about the Bamberg orchestra, which Hrusa regards as the “flagship” of its small Bavarian City, where one in ten of its residents holds season tickets for its concerts. (Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower was solo cellist in Bamberg before his translation to Ohio.) Read the article here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

British composer Gustav Holst was born on September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham. Prolific and inspired by such diverse influences as Hindu music and English folksong, he left a large catalogue of music, much of which has been overshadowed by works like The Planets that made his name famous.

Holst’s daughter Imogen recalls her father in a charming documentary, and this restored 1926 recording of The Planets with the composer conducting has been described as revelatory and surprising.

Explore some of Holst’s less familiar choral works with these recordings: His Two Psalms, sung by the Estudio Coral de Buenos Aires in 1981, his Hymn to Jesus, based on the Apocryphal Gospels and performed by the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus in 2012, and — continuing the metaphor of sacred dance — his folklike but sophisticated setting of the old Cornysh carol, This have I done for my true love, performed by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with scrolling score.

Or take a taste of his settings of hymns from the Rig Veda, with the Hymn of the Travellers, sung by the children’s choir and youth ensemble of the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris with harp accompaniment.

And English art song composer Roger Quilter took leave of this life on September 21, 1953, leaving a legacy of over a hundred songs, many setting texts by Shakespere, that still figure importantly in vocal recitals. His Three Shakespeare Songs of 1905 are probably at the top of the list, and composer Peter Warlock wrote that O Mistress Mine is “one of the very few things that very simply send me into ecstasies every time I play it.” This performance of the set is by baritone Zak Kariithi and pianist Lemuel Grave.

by Jarrett Hoffman

ON THIS WEEKEND:

Saturday brings the 7:30 pm Showcase Concert from the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, featuring performances by the Gruca White Ensemble, Jeremy Collins, and Andy Poxon with Jeanelle Brierley. Watch in person at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, or via stream — either way it’s free, but registration is required. Read our preview article here.

Sunday’s schedule is more packed, with possibilities in Berea, Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown. At 3:00, tenor JR Fralick gives a BW faculty recital at the University’s Kulas Music Hall (free). And at 4:00, there are three options: the Cavani Quartet continue their “Beyond Beethoven” project at CSU’s Drinko Auditorium (free), organist Anthony Newman plays a recital on the Arts at Holy Trinity Series (freewill offering), and Miriam Burns leads the Youngstown Symphony at DeYor PAC in a performance that features cellist Miriam K. Smith (tickets). The Cavani, Newman, and Smith pictured above.

More details in our Concert Listings.

LOCAL NEWS:

On November 15, The Cleveland Orchestra will release a new recording of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings (with Yefim Bronfman) and Prokofiev’s Second Symphony. The Schnittke was recorded in October 2020 at Severance Hall and was part of the Orchestra’s In Focus series, while the Prokofiev was recorded in January 2020 at the Knight Concert Hall while on tour in Miami. The album will be available via streaming, download, and CD, and pre-ordering begins October 15. 

Many of us take for granted the opportunity to enjoy recordings such as that one above, in addition to all the filmed concerts that have been shot during the pandemic. Taking us behind the scenes, Les Délices has published an interview with audio producer Elaine Martone and video producer Erica Brenner to reveal what a recording project with the ensemble is like from their perspectives.

FURTHER AFIELD:

Management is proposing steep cuts to the San Antonio Symphony, which would bring it from 71 full-time musicians to 42 (San Antonio Report). In more positive news, ClevelandClassical.com correspondent Jeremy Reynolds covers Pittsburgh’s resurgence as a national hotspot for jazz in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And turning to the wonderfully absurd, enjoy the talents of the South Korean a capella group MayTree as they mimic digital sounds such as cell phone ringtones and computer error messages, as heard in an audio story from The World.

WEEKEND ALMANAC:

One for Saturday, one for Sunday. We’ll start with Francesca Caccini (born on September 18, 1587 in Florence), the Italian composer, singer, lutenist, and poet whose opera La liberazione di Ruggiero is believed to be the first entry in that genre by a woman, and possibly the first Italian opera to be performed outside of Italy.

Last March, during the “Women in Music” episode of Les Délices’ SalonEra series, soprano Michelle Kennedy sang the role of the Siren in “Chi nel fior di giovinezza,” a scene from that Caccini opera. I spoke to Kennedy before the episode aired, and among our topics of discussion was the composer’s distinctive ornamentation.

“It’s kind of a signature of hers — she was a master of ornamentation as a performer, and also compositionally,” Kennedy said. Though the episode is no longer freely accessible, it’s worth noting that SalonEra subscribers now get on-demand access to the entire first season.

Caccini’s signature ornamentation is most evident in her famous collection of solo songs and duets Il primo libro delle musiche. Soprano Henriette Feith and theorbist David Van Ooijen choose a selection of songs from that work in their album La Cecchina (the composer’s nickname) — listen in this playlist on YouTube.

And Sunday brings what would have been the 91st birthday of pianist and composer Muhal Richard Abrams, who was born in Chicago, and died in 2017.

A Jazz Master as named by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2010, his compositions and improvisations are often classified as, well, unclassifiable. At the keyboard he was known to suddenly reference historical jazz styles, woven into his own brand of modernism. And as a composer, his ouevre reveals both his background in the blues and his interest in chamber music and orchestra. He’s also famous for helping to found the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (A.A.C.M.), and was its first president.

[Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

IN THE NEWS:

Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic’s music director, has announced that he will leave his post at the end of the 2023-24 season. The Dutch conductor and violinist started with the Philharmonic just three years ago, but the pandemic derailed his second season. His agreement to stay on an extra year than his contract required gives the ensemble ample time to search for a successor.

Van Zweden said the experiences of the past year and a half led him to rethink his priorities. “So much has changed because of COVID, including thoughts about my own future, my life, and my family,” he wrote in a letter to the musicians. “In life, I think timing is critical: it’s important to know when to say yes and when to move on.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

As any music fan who still listens to music in a physical format might tell you: vinyl is making a comeback, and in a big way. In 2020, vinyl records trumped the annual revenue of CDs for the first time in 34 years.

On this day in 1931, record company RCA Victor introduced a new product to the consumer market: the long-playing 33 1/3 rpm vinyl. These discs were called Project Transcription, and they represent one of the earliest efforts to bring the long-playing (or LP) record to market.

With the capacity to hold fifteen minutes of music per side, these discs were a prime opportunity for classical music content like symphonies. The first record in this format to be released was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski.

Despite the economic pressures for hiring large orchestras caused by the Great Depression, RCA Victor continued to record the Philadelphia Orchestra during the 1930s. To save money, many of these sessions were moved to the Victor Camden Church Studio and involved less musicians than normal  — the Beethoven, however, was recorded in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia (pictured below) with the full orchestra. Though the audio quality was limited by the current technology, this performance is impressive for how it was recorded in extended first takes. Listen to that recording here.

[Read more…]

by Stephanie Manning

LOCAL NEWS:

Public radio in Northeast Ohio is about to undergo a dramatic change. Ideastream Public Radio and WKSU have announced they will enter an operating agreement, which will go into effect on October 1. This collaboration will create one of Northeast Ohio’s largest news organizations, and in 2022, WKSU will become the area’s sole NPR and local news station.

As a result, 104.9 FM (WCLV), Ideastream’s classical service, will move to 90.3 FM. In addition to WCLV’s usual coverage of The Cleveland Orchestra and other local ensembles, “90.3 FM programming will spotlight more performances by musicians in Akron and Kent as well.” For now, however, the two stations will continue to operate separately. Learn more here.

CONCERT UPDATE:

The Canton Symphony String Quartet concert, originally scheduled for tonight at 7:30 at The Auricle, has been postponed. No news yet on when and where a potential rescheduled concert will be, but we will keep you updated.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Composing, conducting, and pedagogy — Nadia Boulanger did all three, and she did them incredibly well.

Born on this date in 1887 in her home country of France, Boulanger (pictured left with her sister Lili) is well-known for influencing an entire generation of composers, with her list of students including Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, and Astor Piazzolla. Her conducting career was equally impressive, as she was the first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and other major ensembles.

Though she was also a composer, Boulanger stepped back from writing music after the untimely death of her younger sister Lili. However, Nadia Boulanger would go on to program and share both her and her sister’s music in concert throughout her life. Enjoy this performance of her Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre on YouTube, and check out the Boulanger Initiative for more resources about women in music.

On this day in 1966, the Metropolitan Opera opened its doors at the company’s new opera house at Lincoln Center. Fitting for the occasion, the Met kicked off the season with a world premiere — Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, starring soprano Leontyne Price. Librettist, designer, and director Franco Zefferelli staged an extravagant production, but technical issues, “gaudy” costuming, and an overall clash between Zeffirelli and Barber’s artistic visions resulted in a rocky start for the Met’s new era.

[Read more…]

by Jarrett Hoffman

ON TODAY IN PERSON:

First, two early-afternoon options. On the Music at Noon series, the Dana School of Music presents the final concert of the Northeast Ohio Keyboard Festival at 12:15 pm at the Butler Institute of American Art at Youngstown State. Also at 12:15, Florence Mustric takes to the Beckerath organ at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cleveland for “A Tribute to Karl Hass.”

Then at 7, it’s back to Youngstown — to Harrison Commons Field — for the YSU Wind Ensemble Outdoor Pops Concert. Conductors Michael S. Butler and Kate Ferguson will lead you through music by Gershwin, Ticheli, and Sousa. If it rains, the concert moves to Ford Theater in Bliss Hall.

More details in our Concert Listings.

LOCAL NEWS:

Last week, CityMusic Cleveland announced its 2021-22 chamber music series, titled Justice, Equality, and Hope. One highlight of the ten-concert series is the abundance of newly-commissioned works by women composers: Denise Ondishko, Kotoka Suzuki, Michi Wiancko, Elena Ruehr, Jungyoon Wie, Daixuan Ai, Jasmine Barnes, Jessica Meyer, Margaret Brouwer, Fusun Koksal, and Dawn Avery (all pictured above).

The opening concert, “American Dream,” takes place on Friday, September 24 at 7:00 pm at Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, when the Pantheon Ensemble — Masha Andreini and Mari Sato, violins, Yael Senamaud-Cohen, viola, Helen Hawersaat, cello, Tracy Rowell, bass, and Elizabeth DeMio, piano — will play works by Gershwin, Ondishko, Boulanger, and Dvorák.

See the full season schedule here. All concerts are free, no registration needed. Masks and social distancing are required. For those unable to attend in person, select programs will also be recorded for release on CityMusic’s YouTube Channel.

One last bit of news: individual tickets for the 2021-22 Cleveland Orchestra season, which opens October 14, are now on sale. An update to the docket of guest artists: pianist Jeremy Denk replaces previously-announced soloist Yuja Wang in the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of John Adams’ Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? with Adams on the podium at Severance Hall on February 3, 5, and 6, 2022.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this day last year, we paid tribute to four musicians who entered or exited from this world on September 15 in music history: Swiss composer Frank Martin (born in Geneva in 1890), Austrian organist, conductor, composer, and influential teacher Anton Heiller (born in Vienna in 1923), American soprano Jessye Norman (born in Augusta, Georgia in 1945), and Austrian composer Anton Webern (died in Mittersill, Austria in 1945).

This go-around, we’ll add one name to that list: French composer and pianist Louise Dumont Farrenc, who died on this date in Paris in 1875.

Farrenc built up a stellar reputation at the keyboard during the 1830s, leading to her appointment in 1842 as piano professor at the Paris Conservatory, a position in which she remained for 30 years — making her the only female tenured professor at the Conservatory during the entire 19th century.

As a composer, it was in chamber music where she left her strongest legacy. Her two piano quintets, Op. 30 and 31, were especially renowned, and she won the Académie des Beaux-Arts’ Chartier Prize twice.

Her chamber music even played an important role in helping her beat the gender pay gap. Despite being known as an excellent teacher, one of the best in Europe, she was paid less than her male colleagues — that is, until the triumphant premiere of her 1849 Nonet in E-flat, Op. 38, when she was finally granted equal pay.

If only she didn’t have to go above and beyond for that to be the case.

by Stephanie Manning

LOCAL NEWS:

Youngstown State University has announced the fourth season of the Pipino Performing Arts Series, hosted by the University’s Cliffe College of Creative Arts. The six performances, one per month starting this month, will kick off on September 22 with a virtual presentation by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Learn more here.

THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION:

As a companion to yesterday’s diary, which included a New York Times piece exploring the careers of women conductors in the country’s top orchestras, this article in the Los Angeles Times explores a particular program where many of these up-and-coming conductors have received training. That is Gustavo Dudamel’s Fellowship Program, established in 2009.

“A striking aspect of the former fellows, however, is how little they are like Dudamel — or each other,” writes Mark Swed. He goes on to note that out of the five conductors from the program that made their Hollywood Bowl debuts this summer, four were women — including Marta Gardolinska (pictured). “The glass ceiling doesn’t stand a chance.”

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Artists, it looks like September 14 could be a good day to finish that project you’ve been working on — just ask George Frideric Handel or Francis Scott Key.

On this day in 1741, Handel (pictured) put the finishing touches on his Messiah, a composition he had been working on non-stop for the last 23 days. This great oratorio, now a fixture of the Christmas season, was first proposed to him by librettist Charles Jennens in July of that year.

Jennens, who had previously worked with Handel on the oratorio Saul, wrote to a friend that “I hope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excel all his former Compositions, as the Subject excels every other Subject.” Surely the librettist would have been pleased to know that the composer worked on it morning and night until its completion, and that it would eventually become Handel’s best-known work.

The well-known recordings of Messiah are almost too many to list, so let’s focus on a specific type of performance that’s uniquely connected to this piece — the “sing-along Messiah.” Open to singers of all skill levels, these performances prioritize the joy of singing over musical perfection.

In Northeast Ohio, Credo Music has made a Messiah sing-along an annual tradition. Hosted at Oberlin Conservatory, this year’s event is on December 12. Learn more, and take a listen to the “Hallelujah” chorus from the 2017 performance, here.

[Read more…]