by Daniel Hathaway
UPDATE TO REBECCA CLARKE:
In yesterday’s Almanac, we noted the anniversary of the birth of British-American composer and violist Rebecca Clarke, to which Christopher Johnson replied: “If you want the most accurate, up-to-date information on Rebecca Clarke, please refer to her official website. I am a great-nephew of Clarke’s and the owner of her rights as composer and author. The so-called Rebecca Clarke Society has nothing whatsoever to do with Clarke’s actual business, and has done much to harm her reputation.”
We welcome responses from our readers, who can contact us here.
EVENTS OF NOTE THIS WEEKEND:
Cleveland Pops Orchestra invites you to conductor Carl Topilow’s backyard for a Virtual Gala and Concert on Saturday at 7:00 pm. “Hot Jazz for your Summer Evening performed by the Jazz Ensemble” utilizes “state of the art, multi-camera streaming.” Click here for tickets and details.
And on Sunday at 2:00 pm, the Dana Piano Trio (Wendy Case, violin, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello & Cicilia Yudha, piano) will give a free, pre-recorded Virtual Concert including works by Webern & Clara Schumann on Youngstown’s McDonough Museum of Art 2020 Muse Series. Click here at start time.
Other local streaming and broadcast events are noted in our Concert Listings. Have a look also at Musical America’s weekly list of streams, which include a number of nationwide performances — both free and ticketed — by artists who are well-known to Northeast Ohio audiences.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
British pianist Imogen Cooper was born on August 28, 1949, in London. Cooper, who played Beethoven’s First Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor Jane Glover in 2014, celebrated her 70th Birthday in 2019 with a performance of Schubert’s last three Sonatas at London’s Wigmore Hall.
As Humanitas Visiting Professor in Classical Music and Music Education at Oxford, Cooper gave a lecture in May of 2013 exploring “great musical performance: the focus and preparation demanded of the performer, the silent but potent participation of the audience, and the genius of the composer in wordlessly and eloquently capturing genuine human experience.” Listen here.
On August 28, 1959, Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů died in Liestal, Switzerland. The prolific composer of more than 400 works, his output included the oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh, half a dozen symphonies, some thirty concertos, chamber music (including eight string quartets), and an anti-war opera.
Cleveland Orchestra musicians Katherine Bormann and Lembi Veskimets visited WCLV’s studios in 2016 to play Martinů’s Three Madrigals for violin and viola. And one of Severance Hall’s favorite guest artists, Julia Fischer, has performed his Violin Concerto with David Zinman and the Czech Philharmonic. Watch here (the clip begins with an ovation for the previous work on the program).
On August 30, 1661, French composer, harpsichordist and organist Louis Couperin died in Paris at the age of 35. The first member of the Couperin dynasty to serve at the Church of St. Gervais in Paris, he left an extensive legacy of keyboard music, among which is the Pavane in f-sharp, played here by Oberlin Professor Mark Edwards in Warner Concert Hall in 2018.
And on August 30, 1943, American composer and 1965 Oberlin Conservatory graduate David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Watch a panel discussion from 2018 about Maslanka’s relationship to nature and Buddhist thought, and click here for a performance of one of his many works for wind ensemble, his Symphony No. 10: the River of Time. Maslanka’s son Matthew, who orchestrated the work after his father’s death, conducts the Ohio State University Wind Symphony.
