Category: Classical music

“With Motion Pillow, metal music becomes classical music.”

Nose Metal

Snorers, rejoice! A startup has developed a pillow that they say detects snoring while a user is sleeping, and then physically moving their head in a bid to stop the ghastly noise, hopefully allowing snorers’ partners to get a good night sleep without the need for a mouthguard or headgear-laden machines.

The device, dubbed the Motion Pillow, seems pretty cool. According to the company’s absolutely wild ride of a website, it first uses machine learning to detect the sound of the users’ snoring, perfecting its profile over time.

When it detects snoring during the night, the pillow jumps into action, inflating to adjust the position of the user’s head. If the snoring subsides, the pillow deflates. Everyone, romantic partners especially, are happy.

“With Motion Pillow,” reads the startup’s site, which additionally claims that 93.7 percent of users experienced reduced snoring in clinical trials, “metal music becomes classical music.”

High Tech Dad

While reviews online are scarce, we did find one on a site called High Tech Dad that gave a glowing assessment of the device.

“From testing with my wife for about a week, I can say her snoring was not only reduced in volume but also in frequency,” le tech daddy in question wrote in praise of Motion Pillow. “This innovative device detects snoring and then magically inflates airbags inside the memory foam pillow to gently raise the snorer’s head slightly to prevent or reduce snoring.”

Magical-sounding indeed! And while our allegedly high tech father figure is aware of the product’s above-average-for-a-pillow price tag, he seems to think it’s worth it.

“While is it a bit pricy,” the techno daddio offered, “being able to get a better sleep, either as the snorer or the person next to them is worth the price.”

In any case, we’ve yet to try it, but it was a 2023 Consumer Technology Association Innovation Awards Honoree. Plus, snoring is a legitimate issue for a lot of folks — couples especially — out there. If you’ve got roughly 400 extra beans in the bank and either you or your partner struggle with, as Motion Pillow would say, “nose metal,” we wouldn’t blame you for giving it a whirl.

More on good sleep: Crypto Guy Says He’s Doing Fine After Losing Billions of Customers’ Money, Getting Plenty of Sleep

In a sold-out concert Tuesday, the society will present string octets by Mendelssohn and Bruch.

A home for future superstars of music, a place for schoolchildren and the elderly alike to find cultural nourishment, and a rehearsal space where young string quartets could be coached to ascend from the quotidian to the empyrean. 

Is that too much to ask from a modest chamber music concert series based in Palm Beach? 

Not according to Vicki Kellogg, who founded the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, or to Ahmad Mayes, the organization’s executive director. 

The society plans a special concert Tuesday to mark its 10^th anniversary, and with a budget in the black and the successful launch of a second concert series far from home, organizers are thinking big about the years ahead, including finding a space for the society that could also operate as an educational center. 

“We don’t have huge productions, and we run this organization very, very tightly,” Kellogg said Friday. “We’re very fortunate.” 

The sold-out concert, set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Norton Museum of Art, features two string octets; that is, chamber music pieces for eight players. The two octets each are scored for four violins, two violas, a cello and a double bass.  

Performing the violin parts will be celebrated violinist James Ehnes and Arnaud Sussmann, artistic director of the CMSPB, along with Amy Schwartz-Moretti and Grace Park; the violists will be Paul Neubauer and Brian Chen; Nicholas Canellakis will handle the cello duties; and Blake Hinson will play bass. 

The program consists of the best-known of all such pieces, the Octet (in E-flat, Op. 20) by Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote the work in 1825, when he was just 16 years old. By contrast, the other octet is a product of advanced age: The little-known Octet (in B-flat, Op. posth.) by Max Bruch was written in 1919 and completed in early 1920, when the German Romantic composer was 82. Bruch died later that year. The Octet was not performed until 1937, and it had to wait until 1996 to appear in published form.  

The Chamber Music Society hosted its first concert in November 2013 at Mar-a-Lago when the classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic presented a recital of music chiefly by South American composers. Since then, it has presented more than 100 artists, the society says, including internationally known performers such as Ehnes and the Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan, plus members of major symphonic ensembles including the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the New York Philharmonic.  

Last year, the society inaugurated the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival at the Boscobel House and Gardens, a historic early 19th-century house museum site north of New York City. The Emerson String Quartet, which is ending its career this year after 47 years, was featured in that festival, which drew about 1,000 people. A second festival is planned for this coming September, and it, too, will feature a major string quartet as a centerpiece of the music-making. 

“Chamber music has always been my greatest love as a musician, and in my day there weren’t that many chamber music societies,” said Kellogg, who studied the violin at Juilliard with Dorothy DeLay, at the New England Conservatory with Joseph Silverstein, and at Indiana University with Ruggiero Ricci. The Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center had just been formed when Kellogg was a student in New York (she now sits on its board), and lions of the genre such as the Guarneri Quartet were the biggest names on the chamber music scene. 

The chamber music genre has its origins in aristocratic circles, but by the mid-18^th century, music for small forces of instrumentalists — violin sonatas, piano sonatas, string trios and quartets — grew rapidly in popularity by finding a ready market in a new urban middle class that was interested in playing music at home. The great Viennese triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven took chamber music to a much higher level as they poured some of their most profound thoughts into the forms. 

“The average person doesn’t know anything about chamber music. They get their first taste of classical music with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or [Tchaikovsky’s] ‘1812 Overture,’ and then they seem to segue to opera, maybe because it’s the closest thing to Broadway musicals,” Kellogg said, adding that when she invited a new acquaintance to a chamber music concert, “she had to Google ‘what’s chamber music?’”  

But when they encounter it, that’s a different story. 

“When they come to chamber music, they find something that really feeds the soul,” she said. 

The society has crafted a three-year strategic plan with a new mission statement that is broader than just a desire to present great concerts, Mayes said Friday. 

“The mission, if you boil it down, is creating transformation, connection and inspiration,” he said. 

That means the performer in a chamber music setting is “an extremely important vehicle to a connected society,” Mayes said. “When I ask people why they come to our concerts, they tell me that this is already happening.”   

Central to that notion is diversity and inclusion, said Mayes, who came to the CMSPB in 2021 from his post as education director for the Cincinnati Symphony, the first major American orchestra to appoint a diversity and inclusion officer. The current effort to widen the field of classical music to include previously marginalized voices such as women and people of color, both as performers and writers, is the biggest story in the industry today.   

“Our job right now is to seek out performers and seek out composers that will represent the community we hope to attract,” he said. That’s a long-term project, he added, and he hopes that observers will look at the society 50 years from now and see that progress. 

“We want to be more connected to the society of the day, and less of a museum or a ‘preservatory,’ more of a reflection of society as it currently is,” Mayes said, which includes an informal approach at the concerts that “allows the art to be appreciated for what it is without the (societal) constructs that have been built around it over time. 

“It’s building a community, so that when someone comes to our concerts, they feel like they belong, that it’s not a stuffy experience. The other day, Arnaud told the audience, ‘You can clap whenever you want to,’ and I loved that,” he said. 

In a bid to diversify its audience, the CMSPB’s February concert is a performance by violinist Charles Yang and pianist Peter Dugan, multi-genre artists whose program, “Ravel to the Beatles,” explores the connections between a host of musical styles. Yang and Dugan’s concert is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Norton Museum. 

The Norton is the primary concert venue for the society these days, but the organization would like one day to be concertizing in a home of its own, where it could present and expand its educational outreach. Mayes said the group currently does about seven to eight school visits each season, but wants to triple that in the years ahead. 

Kellogg also would like the society to commission new works, and wants to add more video capability, also for educational purposes. 

“And then, of course, I’d love to have a place, a home for us,” she said, where schoolchildren could come and learn from the musicians. “We’d love to have a young artists’ program, a rising stars program for the person who is just getting ready for the mainstage.”  

Ultimately, a director of education would be hired and the society could also host visits from eminent violin makers, she said. 

In short, a great deal of outer-directed activity for a music that at its heart is the most intimate and private in the art form. A “dear friend” of Kellogg’s put the difference between chamber music and other genres this way: 

“’There’s entertainment, and then there’s ‘inner-tainment,’” she said. 

IF YOU GO 

Tuesday’s 10^th anniversary celebration at the Norton Museum of Art is sold out. Tickets are available for the Charles Yang-Peter Dugan concert, titled “Bridges: Ravel to the Beatles,” set for 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Norton. Tickets are $75. Visit www.cmspb.org or call 561-379-6773 for more information.  

Long Beach’s nine-member Baroque chamber orchestra Kontrapunktus returns with five performances of “BACH & HANDEL: Soli Deo gloria,” a series of early 18th-century musical compositions written “in praise of God alone” by two master composers of the Baroque era.

The classical music ensemble will be performing in Long Beach on Friday, Jan. 13, at the Grace First Presbyterian Church – the third concert of its winter concert season.

Kontrapunktus (Latin for “counterpoint,” a structure in music composition) was formed in Long Beach in 2015 and began recruiting musicians for live performances in 2017, under the leadership of Executive Director Raymond Jacobs.

The nonprofit orchestra performs a “unique repertoire of Baroque music intended to inspire people from all walks through their exemplary execution and sublime artistry,” the Kontrapunktus website says.

“You don’t have to be a classical music lover to enjoy our performance, which is what makes our concerts so unique,” said Jacobs. “You really just have to appreciate music and be prepared to be swayed by the emotional power of our performances.”

Led by concertmaster Hannah White and featuring soloist Aubree Oliverson, “BACH & HANDEL: Soli Deo Gloria,” will comprise works from contemporary German composers George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, who are arguably two of the most influential composers in Western music, according to a Kontrapunktus press release.

Each production is created to  bring new life into 18th-century masterpieces and turn them into contemporary Baroque treasures, according to the press release.

“Our technical ability combined with our artistic prowess as a chamber orchestra is engaging and sublime on so many different levels,” Jacobs said. “This fact is what sets Kontrapunktus apart from other classical groups, big or small.”

Some of the numbers Kontrapunktus will be performing include Handel’s “Trio Sonata in G Minor, HWV 1041,” and Bach’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, BWV 1041” – a piece Jacobs said is excited for audiences to experience.

“We want to bring something fresh to the table – taking the music and turning it into our own with a little flare of Baroque music taste to it,” said Hannah White, 23-year-old acclaimed Sphinx Competition First Place Laureate and concertmaster.

At age 7, White took up the violin and grew a passion for performing. By age nine, White performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and she has become a featured performer on stages across the globe ever since.

As a featured artist at Carnegie Hall, White performed twice to sold-out audiences. She has since soloed with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Noir among many others.

She graduated from the Colburn Conservatory and is pursuing her graduate studies with renowned teacher, Robert Lipsett, with whom she presently studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.

White joined Kontrapunktus in May 2022, this will be her second season with the ensemble.

Jacobs said he “took a risk” in appointing her as concertmaster – which is essentially the leader of an orchestra or chamber group – but her talent and the way she brought the group together as a family more so than a music unit made her the right choice.

“She’s the soul of Kontrapunktus,” he said.

White is excited for audiences to hear each one of the orchestra’s compositions, especially Handel’s “Admeto Overture” which Osheen Manukyan, cellist and co-artistic director, did a special arrangement for to make it work for the group to play, she said.

“I’m mostly enjoying and looking forward to performing with the group again,” White said, “because everyone pushes each other and the energy is good and fun.”

She also hopes people who attend take away what they need to better their day from the Kontrapunktus performances.

“I think music is so personal,” White said, “I’m hoping that the audience has their own personal needs that this music we’re bringing to them can help them with.”

Tickets are available for the Long Beach performance at the Grace First Presbyterian Church on Friday, Jan. 13, on Eventbrite or at kontrapunktus.com.

General admission tickets start at $24.95 and are discounted to $19.95 for senior citizens, veterans and students.

Kontrapunktus will also be performing on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the Laguna Presbyterian Church in Laguna Beach and on Sunday, Jan. 15 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Pasadena.

©2023 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit dailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

I can’t help myself: Taking stock of the arts calendar, again and again, I find it hard to limit these lists to just 10 recommendations. But it’s a good problem to have, and — with many knocks on wood — a far cry from last year’s winter guide, when the omicron variant swept many venues’ gig calendars clean.

Below, our guide to the season’s can’t-miss shows in the city and ‘burbs:

A string sing at Northwestern: Bassist Xavier Foley was not just a MusicNOW highlight but a Symphony Center highlight when he performed at November’s “Common Ground” program. On Jan. 6, Foley joins the Calidore String Quartet to kick off the annual Winter Chamber Music Festival. As in previous years, the headlines tilt toward string quartets: The Isidore (Jan. 13), New Orford (Jan. 15) and Jupiter (Jan. 22) quartets are also among this year’s visiting artists. Jan 6-22, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; tickets are $30 at music.northwestern.edu

Symphonic seekers: If orchestral works by living composers are your thing, Chicagoland’s regional ensembles have a better batting average than the big guys at 220 S. Michigan. This winter, the Chicago Philharmonic and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra present an impressive run of local and world premieres, even by their own adventurous yardstick. On Jan. 14, the Chicago Philharmonic and guitar titan Sharon Isbin perform the North American premiere of Tan Dun’s guitar concerto “Yi2″; the program also features cellist Joshua Roman in Tan’s Crouching Tiger concerto and a commission by resident composer Reinaldo Moya. The Illinois Philharmonic’s Feb. 25 concert spotlights a new work by its own composer-in-residence Jonathan Cziner and cellist Inbal Segev plays the Midwest premiere of “Human Archipelago” by pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, among the commissionees for her ambitious “20 for 2020″ recording project. Then, on March 11, the IPO premieres Augusta Read Thomas’ new setting of Gwendolyn Brooks poems.

• “Tan Dun: Yi2 and Crouching Tiger Concerto,” 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets are $35-$75 at chicagophilharmonic.org
• “Iyer & Sibelius,” 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25; “Debussy, Ravel & Thomas,” 3 p.m. March 11. Ozinga Chapel at Trinity Christian College, 6601 W. College Drive, Palos Heights; tickets are $10-$74 at ipomusic.org/2022-23season

Opera stars, in recital: Met Live in HD who? In a single week, you can catch solo engagements by both tenor Juan Diego Flórez and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, no opera glasses required — the former at Symphony Center, the latter at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville.

• Symphony Center Presents: Juan Diego Flórez, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., tickets are $39-$150 at cso.org
• Denyce Graves at North Central College, 3 p.m. Feb. 5, Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville, tickets are $55-$65 at finearts.northcentralcollege.edu

New operas ‘R us: Chicago Opera Theater is a prolific commissioner of new work, and it keeps up that streak with Justine F. Chen and David Simpatico’s biographical “Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing” in March. On the other hand, Lyric Opera last commissioned a new opera in 2015 — Jimmy López Bellido and Nilo Cruz’s “Bel Canto” — and even that world premiere had been Lyric’s first in decades. Lyric doubly breaks that drought this season, first with “The Factotum,” which reimagines “The Barber of Seville” in a Black South Side barbershop. Will Liverman of “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” stars, but he also dons a new hat (or maybe a fresh fade?) for “Factotum”: that of composer/creator, alongside his longtime pal DJ King Rico. Lyric follows that up a month later with “Proximity,” three mini-operas by no less luminous composerly lights than John Luther Adams, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Caroline Shaw.

• “Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing,” 7:30 p.m. March 23 and 3 p.m. March 25, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $25-$165 at chicagooperatheater.org
• “The Factotum,” Feb. 3-12, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets are $35-$125 at lyricopera.org. “Proximity,” March 24-April 8, Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive; tickets are $40-$330 at lyricopera.org

Bard of the blues: Any chance to catch Mavis Staples live is a drop-what-you’re-doing affair. So, clear your calendar for Feb. 4, when this homegrown icon headlines Symphony Center. Opening for her is singer-songwriter Celisse, who, in addition to performing her own music, has supported acts like Mariah Carey, Lizzo, Kesha and Melissa Etheridge. 8 p.m. Feb. 4, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets are $40-$199 at cso.org

A Finnish phenom takes Chicago: Klaus Mäkelä made a sensational podium debut with the CSO last season, leaving eddies of music director buzz in his wake. This time, the 26-year-old Orchestre de Paris and Oslo Philharmonic honcho comes toting Mahler 5 and a U.S. premiere by “Bel Canto” composer Jimmy López Bellido, a Sibelius Academy alum whose music Mäkelä has enthusiastically championed. Feb. 16-18 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., tickets are $45-$350 at cso.org

An uncommon connection between man and instrument: For once, it’s not a cliché to say the sarod runs in Amjad Ali Khan’s blood. His family is credited with reinventing the instrument as we know it today, a fretless lute that’s a core melodic voice in Hindustani music; his sons, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, are the latest in seven generations of sarodiyas. Khan himself revolutionized sarod playing with his unusual left hand technique and pyrotechnic virtuosity, which will be on full display in this concert with his sons. 3 p.m. Feb. 5, Logan Center Performance Hall, 915 E. 60th St., tickets are $20-$30 at chicagopresents.uchicago.edu

A new sax guard swings through town: This winter, we play host to quartets led by Melissa Aldana and Immanuel Wilkins, young saxophonists who released some of the most essential jazz albums of 2022. Aldana’s “12 Stars” less draws your attention than commands it, priming listeners’ expectations before feinting into a new direction entirely; Wilkins’s “The 7th Hand” is a feat of un-self-conscious spiritualism and precocious musicianship.

Sounds too infrequently heard: The holidays come but once a year, but for lovers of music thought-provoking and new, the annual Frequency Festival blows Christmas out of the water. Whereas previous years have been wholly eclectic, the 2023 fest largely coalesces around some recurring themes. For one, guitarist-composers take pride of place — Bill Orcutt, Eli Winter (both Feb. 21 at Constellation) and Julia Reidy (Feb. 23 at the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society) — though the three’s approaches to the instrument couldn’t be more different. Then, violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Judith Hamann headline two back-to-back days of the festival, realizing French composer Pascale Criton’s three “Sounding Limits” compositions together (Feb. 25 at Constellation) and playing solo sets (Feb. 25 at Corbett vs. Dempsey). Chicago’s own a.pe.ri.od.ic and Ensemble Dal Niente (Feb. 24 and 26 at Constellation, respectively) also headline. Various venues. Times, ticket prices and more details available soon at frequencyfestival-chicago.com

Anti-jazzers of a certain age: Ask members of Snarky Puppy what kind of music they play, and they’ll likely offer some variation of their Instagram bio: “We are a band of musicians playing music on instruments.” But the collective’s approach to improvisation and the architecture of their songs has drawn a dedicated fan base of jazzheads since their star rose in the early 2010s. They tour Chicago in support of their most recent album, “Empire Central.” Show 8 p.m., doors 7 p.m., March 31, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave.; tickets are $40-$175 at jamusa.com

Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.

The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.

When Daniel Barenboim arrived as Generalmusikdirector of Berlin’s State Opera 30 years ago both he and the company were looking a bit shabby. The opera house on Unter den Linden was struggling to recover from an insidious East German mentality and Barenboim was still reeling from being sacked in Paris as music director of the Bastille Opera before it even opened.

Conductor and opera comany felt an affinity of grievance and an ambition to improve. Barenboim had an away job as music director of the Chicago Symphony. He also knew that a segment of the Berlin Philharmonic would want him to succeed Claudio Abbado. When Abbado resigned in 1998 and the players chose Simon Rattle over Barenboim, he showed no resentment. On the contrary, he carried on conducting the Philharmonic in non-Rattle repertoire and formed a wacky friendship with the British conductor.

The mature Barenboim had larger plans. He made the Staatsoper Berlin’s #1 opera house, outshining the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin, and raised support locally for the Said Barenboim Akademie that he saw as a lasting legacy to music education and Middle East harmony.

Other conductors came and went – Thielemann, Ivan Fischer, Kirill Petrenko, Nagano, Sokhiev, Runnicles, to name a few – but Barenboim has been the fulcrum of musical life fo three decades in the reunited German capital, the one who could call up the Chancellor and get what he wanted. If his management style was at times autocratic, people knew where they stood with Barenboim. There was no duplicity, no intrigue.

His departure is epochal. When we look back on this era in times to come, it will be evident that Barenboim, more than anyone, made Berlin the music capital of the world.

Celebrated American composer (and Massachusetts native) Leonard Bernstein once said, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” Anyone who has pulled an “all-nighter” in college, studying for a test or writing that paper to make deadline, is smiling knowingly at the Bernstein quote. And at the start of a new year, it’s amazing to see that when I ask people, “What do you hope the new year will bring you?” the answer is usually “more time.”

But that’s not something new. Wanting more time to do the things we need and want to do likely goes back to the dawn of humankind. Composers have also been concerned with time since, well, the beginning of musical time. To a musician, time can have a couple of different meanings, from how a time signature indicates the number of beats in a measure and the note value that gets one beat, to the length of a piece.

When I sang in the Boston College Chorale, “coming in on time” was an often-stated phrase by our conductor. And getting to a gig to help with equipment load-in is important because the show can’t begin without everyone and everything being there “on time.”

In the spirit of the New Year’s “more time” wishes, here are some musical pieces about Time, in, if I may, chronological order.

English Renaissance composer John Dowland wrote “Time Stands Still” for his Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires in 1603. Dowland wants to assure us of the timelessness of beauty and love: “All other things shall change but she remains the same.” This version with soprano Michal Bitan and lutenist Earl Christy shows the lyrics.

Some have speculated that Dowland wrote this piece about Queen Elizabeth I. As she aged, and even after her death, writers, painters and musicians of the period portrayed her as perfection and timeless.

An oratorio by Handel takes . . . some time . . . to explain the passage of time. It all started in 1707 when Handel wrote his first oratorio, based on an Italian libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili. The original title was The Triumph of Time and Disillusion, HWV 46a. It took another 30 years, but Handel reworked the piece and retitled it, The Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV 46b. But wait – there’s more! Time marched on, and in 1757 the piece was translated into English and reworked, mostly by Handel’s last librettist, Thomas Morell, although this time it kept its second title and later given the catalog number HWV 71.

The basic story is that the characters Time and Counsel (Truth) confront the characters Pleasure and Deceit in a fight for the soul of Beauty. The oratorio opens with Beauty staring into her mirror, wishing to stall Time. Although Pleasure and Deceit make a persuasive case, in the end, Beauty understands Truth’s warning that youth won’t last forever.

I’ve always loved the aria “Guardian Angels, oh, protect me” and this is a lovely version with soprano Danielle de Niese and The English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket.

It’s interesting to me that from inception to final version, Handel took 50 years to complete the musical journey. By the time he was working on the final version, he was battling poor eyesight and age-related poor health. He wanted to flesh out the character of Deceit more, but instead of adding brand new arias and choruses, he borrowed musical themes from some of his other works.

So where did the concept of “time” come from? Historians point to measurement of time as an important mark of progress, and in particular, the ancient Egyptians and their invention of the sundial. Then there’s the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Old Testament, taking on the question in the first chapter, Genesis: “In the beginning,” and painting a picture of God creating the world in six days.

In 1795, Joseph Haydn was looking for a subject for a large oratorio. The story goes that when he was traveling in England, he was handed a poem called The Creation of the World, by an unknown author. When he got back to Vienna, Haydn began his preparation of a musical setting by giving the lengthy piece to librettist Gottfried van Swieten, who added to it a variety of Bible quotes, including some from the English King James Version. When the piece was premiered in 1798 it ran for almost two hours. “In the interest of time,” here is just the Prelude, “The Representation of Chaos,” with conductor Christopher Hogwood leading The Academy of Ancient Music.

Haydn did consider The Creation to be his greatest masterpiece, and it received acclaim and performances at least 40 times during his lifetime. (You can hear a complete performance of The Creation by the Handel and Haydn Society, led by Harry Christophers in his last concert as Artistic Director, on demand.)

One of Haydn’s students also tried to compose a work about “time” in 1812. The second movement, Allegretto scherzando, from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 sounds like a clock keeping time. There seems to be a debate about whether Beethoven was imitating another time-related instrument, a metronome, or whether he might have been paying homage to Haydn’s Symphony No. 101, “The Clock.” Whatever the true inspiration, you get the time-keeping idea as soon as you start listening. Here’s Claudio Abbado conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

In November of 2022, in a post entitled “Classical Music Responds to the Times,” I told the story of French composer Olivier Messiaen, who wrote Quartet for the End of Time while in a German prisoner of war camp in 1941. The instruments he used in the piece were for what was available at the camp. Messiaen wrote that the Book of Revelation (King James Version) inspired the work: “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever … that there should be time no longer.” The Playground Ensemble plays the second movement, the Vocalise, depicting the Angel.

Although the subject and the mood are dark, this is one of Messiaen’s finest works.

In 1945, Sergei Prokofiev took a different approach towards time when he wrote the ballet Cinderella, Op. 87, based on the old fairy tale. In two instances, time is a major factor in the story. The first instance is familiar to all who know the tale: Cinderella had been warned by her Fairy Godmother that even though she is at the Royal Ball, she must keep an eye on the clock, for when it strikes midnight the spell will break, and she will be returned to rags. You can hear the confusion and desperation at the stroke of twelve. The Cleveland Orchestra is conducted here by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Prokofiev tackled the passage of time in Act 3. The Prince travels the world by bending space and time in order to find his beautiful Princess. Although he is seen trying on the glass slipper on young women from Europe to Asia, the time travel turns out to be something he accomplishes by magic. The audience realizes that from Cinderella’s perspective, it is only the next day when the Prince arrives at her family’s home to see if there are any local maidens who fit the slipper. Here is “The Morning After the Ball,” complete with the “march of time,” with André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Another piece from 1945 takes a very lighthearted approach to time. American composer Leroy Anderson was in the U.S. Army at the time, assigned to the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence in Washington. Arthur Fiedler invited him to guest conduct the Boston Pops during the upcoming annual Harvard Night. Anderson wrote “Syncopated Clock” in just a few hours and mailed it off to Fiedler, who in turn, had the orchestra parts copied from the score. Anderson traveled to Boston on a 3-day leave and conducted the piece, which became an instant hit. Here’s the recording with Arthur Fiedler and the Pops, released in 1951.

There have been many other orchestras who recorded the piece, but the Boston Pops version stayed on the charts for two weeks, climbing to 28!

Motivational speaker Stephen Covey’s most often quoted line is “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important,” a good line upon which to reflect as the new year launches. And here’s another: “6:30 is the best time, hands down!” Happy New Year!

CODA:  One of the most talked about “time pieces” was written by American composer John Cage in 1947-48. Cage said that “4’33” (spoken as “4-33,” or “4 Minutes 33-Seconds”), embodied his idea that any auditory experience constituted music. Here’s a performance by William Marx. See if you understand what Cage meant.

Binna Kim’s work “Stacked Emotions” is music that imagines a conversation – at times, an argument, other times, an agreement – between two individuals, such as a married couple. And she enhances the music by setting the text of 19th-Century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

And, we’ll hear music by Nico Muhly that draws upon and blends together English and Latin texts from the 12th to 18th centuries. It’s titled “Hymns for Private Use,” and it’s a collection of five spiritual songs for voice and wind quintet.

Plus music by Elijah Daniel Smith, Adam Schoenberg, Carlos Simon, Gity Razaz, Jessica Rudman, and others; and performances by GHOSTLIGHT Chorus and Chelsea Music Festival Strings, Cellist Claire Bryant, pianist Eunmi Ko, saxophonist Julian Velasco, clarinetist Andy Hudson, vocalist Shara Nova with the Akropolis Reed Quintet, and more.

Hear it all on Sunday night from 8 to 10 ET on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9. Streaming at wsmr.org.

Hour 2 Animus by Elijah Daniel Smith. Jessica Rudman’s Twisted Blue. Hymns for Private Use by Nico Muhly. Helen Grime’s Virga.

Each week, Tyler Kline journeys into new territory and demystifies the music of living composers on Modern Notebook. Listen for a wide variety of exciting music that engages and inspires, along with the stories behind each piece and the latest releases from today’s contemporary classical artists. Discover what’s in store on Modern Notebook.

Each January since 2016, Greater Columbus concertgoers have gone on a musical journey to Russia in the company of the Columbus Symphony.

During the past seven years, the symphony has presented a “Russian Winter Festival” highlighting the often-dramatic, always emotional compositions of Russian-born composers.

“This genre represents some of the most popular works of the classical literature that we have, from Tchaikovsky to Prokofiev,” said Daniel Walshaw, the symphony’s chief operating officer. “Compared to some other composers, these composers have had a long-lasting power in the history of music.”

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This year, however, the content of the annual program will be much the same, but — in an acknowledgment of the nearly year-long war between Russia and Ukraine — it will be presented under a different title.

The “Winter Festival” — presented without a reference to Russia in its title — will take place Friday and Saturday in the Ohio Theatre. The concert will be conducted by Music Director Rossen Milanov.

“We decided . . . this music comes from a certain time and a certain place, and often represents its own pushing back against oppressive authority,” Walshaw said. “It’s important that we do this music — that, we’re not going to back down on.”

© Randall L. Schieber, Randall L. Schieber
Columbus Symphony Music Director Rossen Milanov will conduct the “Winter Festival” Friday and Saturday in the Ohio Theatre.

The removal of the word “Russian” from the concert title was a kind of “quiet protest” against the war, Walshaw said.

“We’re not putting the company formally in any kind of public display of protest,” said Walshaw, noting that the symphony is made up of members with roots around the world.

“We have an incredibly international organization, as far as the employees that we have onstage, who have family all over the world,” he said.

What will remain constant, however, is the power of the underlying works, which are part of a unified musical tradition.

“In Europe, especially during the late 19th century, every region had its different voice,” Walshaw said. “(There were) Czech composers and German composers and French composers all creating their own cultural identity through their music.”

Many Russian composers drew upon the folk music of their country.

“You can’t get away from it in that style of music,” said Walshaw, noting that the formation of the Soviet Union consolidated this inward-looking tendency among many Russian composers.

“At a time when the Soviet Union was clamping down on anything international, (composers) were immersed in this only-Soviet, only-Russian history,” he said. “They were not permitted to even explore the music of the rest of the world.”

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To be performed Friday and Saturday is a suite from “The Snow Maiden” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and “Violin Concerto No. 1” by Sergei Prokofiev, the latter featuring guest violinist Bella Hristova, a native of Bulgaria.

The concluding work on the bill, however, reflects an artist grappling with government-imposed pressures: In “Symphony No. 6,” Dmitri Shostakovich produced a work far more abstract — and far less nationalistic — than had been anticipated by Soviet authorities.

“(Shostakovich’s) Fourth Symphony was considered too avant-garde, too far-reaching, and his Fifth Symphony was . . . written as an apology,” Walshaw said. “I think the Soviets thought that they had (Shostakovich) under their thumb at the time. And the Sixth Symphony came out and it was not at all what they thought they were going to get.”

No matter the title of the program, the concerts promise a musically rich and intellectually stimulating experience.

“We’ve all spent time in the house over the holidays, and it’s still cold outside . . . so let’s go experience the great joys of this city,” Walshaw said. “We have such wonderful art happening.”

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At a glance

The Columbus Symphony will perform the “Winter Festival” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. Tickets start at $9.84. For more information, visit columbussymphony.com. A dress rehearsal performance, open to the public and featuring complimentary coffee and donuts, will take place at 10 a.m. Friday and costs $14.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Symphony’s program of Russian music returns under new name