by Daniel Hathaway
WEEKEND CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS:
On Friday evening at 7:30 at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Cleveland Hts., Apollo’s Fire continues a local, four-concert tour with its program “Winter Sparks from Bach & Vivaldi,” curated by assistant artistic director and concertmaster Alan Choo. Soloists include oboist Debra Nagy, flutist Kathie Stewart, and cellist Sarah Stone. Repeated on Saturday at 7:30 in the Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, and on Sunday at 4pm at Rocky River Presbyterian
On Saturday at 3 pm in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Opera will stage a double bill of chamber operas. Kamala Sankaram’s A. E. Reverie (with libretto by Jerre Dye) and Rise (with libretto by A. M. Homes) highlight the pioneering American spirit of determination, independence, and freedom. Read more about the productions here. Repeated on Sunday at 3 pm
On Sunday at 3 pm Music at Bath Concert Series will present The _ _ _ _ Experiment with Michelle Cusick, clarinets, Maya Grossman, bassoon, Andrew Hosler, saxophones, and Ava Wirth, oboe in a program of specially commissioned chamber works at The Bath Church UCC in Akron.
And on Tuesday at 7:30, Cleveland Chamber Music Society revives the time-honored but currently neglected tradition of the solo vocal recital when it hosts Hawaiian-born baritone and Metropolitan Opera Verdi star Quinn Kelsey with pianist Craig Ketter in song cycles by Aaron Copland, Gerald Finzi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and settings of Langston Hughes’ poetry by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and John Alden Carpenter. Emily Laurence gives the pre-concert talk at 6:30 at Disciples Church.
For details of these and other classical events, visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings.
WEEKEND HEADLINES:
Wynton Marsalis To Retire As Chief Of Jazz At Lincoln Center (The NY Times)
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
January 30 marks the death of French composer Francis Poulenc in Paris in 1963. His Gloria exemplifies his compositional style, aptly described by a YouTube commentator: “His ingenious ability to join the secular and the sacred, in this case, French cabaret and High liturgy is unmatched, except maybe for Mozart.” That comment was in response to a live performance by soprano Else Benoit, the Netherlands Radio Choir and Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Peter Cijksatra, that took place in Utrecht in November of 2019.
An earlier work that captures Poulenc’s urbane wit is the 1928 Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra — quite a large ensemble to pit against the soloist, but Poulenc was writing for the heavy Pleyel instruments championed by the dedicatee, Wanda Landowska (pictured with Poulenc), during the 20th century harpsichord revival.
Jory Vinikour was featured in the Concerto in Severance Hall with Stéphane Denève and The Cleveland Orchestra in March, 2018. Here’s a performance with a follow-along score by Aimée van de Wiele and the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conducted by Georges Prêtre.
