Composers Datebook podcast

Composers Datebook

Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.

Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.

 

#30

Schubertiades

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1828, Franz Schubert gave his first — and only — public concert in Vienna, which opened with the first movement of a recently composed string quartet. We don’t know for sure which one, since Schubert was writing a lot of new music then, but most likely it was from his String Quartet in G, which we know as No. 15.Schubert’s friends had tried to promote his music by holding “Schubertiades,” informal house concerts at which his music would be performed and wine and free food offered, but that didn’t help Schubert earn any money. And being a prolific composer — as Schubert certainly was — created its own problems. What publishers Schubert had couldn’t keep up with him.And then, as now, star performers — not composers — seemed to get all the money and attention. In Schubert’s day, it was Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini who got all the press and big fees. Schubert’s single concert earned him 800 florins, for example, while Paganini, who arrived in Vienna the same month as Schubert’s concert, made over 6,000 florins per concert, and by the time he left Vienna later in 1828 had netted 75,000 florins. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Franz Schubert (1795-1828): String Quartet in G; Emerson String Quartet; DG 459151 ... Read more

26 Mar 2024

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26 Mar 2024


#29

Made-to-order music by Stravinsky

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1946, Igor Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto was premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Woody Herman jazz band. It was Stravinsky’s most extended foray into the world of jazz — and he was a bit worried how it would turn out. A few months before the premiere, Stravinsky wrote to Nadia Boulanger in Paris that the new score would be tailor-made for Herman’s jazz band — and the two sides of a 78-rpm record. “I am composing a short concerto for the Woody Herman Band,” Stravinsky wrote. “Herman will record the music under my supervision,” he continued, “and it will be done on two sides of one record: first side, moderato (two and a half minutes) and andante (two minutes); second side: theme and variations (three minutes). The orchestra will consist of clarinet, oboe, five saxophones, five trumpets, horn, three trombones, double bass, harp, piano, guitar and percussion. I am somewhat unnerved by my lack of familiarity with this sort of thing.” He needn’t have worried. The fusion of the odd sonorities of Herman’s jazz band with Stravinsky’s neoclassical inclinations resulted in a work that sounds a little like a swing-era version of one of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): ‘Ebony Concerto’; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Columbia Jazz Combo; Igor Stravinsky, cond. Sony 64136 ... Read more

25 Mar 2024

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25 Mar 2024


#28

Glass' 'Akhnaten'

Synopsis -------- 14th-century B.C.E. pharaoh Akhnaten is remembered for his radical abandonment of the multiple gods of Egypt in favor of just one: the sun god Aten. Akhnaten’s heresy ended with his death when traditional beliefs were quickly reestablished and Akhnaten’s name was literally chiseled out of Egyptian history. Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism opined that Moses might have been an Egyptian priest of Akhnaten, and Immanuel Velikovsky, a once-popular but fanciful historian, suggested in his book Oedipus and Akhnaton that a garbled memory of Akhnaten’s reign was the source of the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King. American composer Philip Glass credits both those authors among the inspirations for his opera Akhnaten, which premiered on today’s date in 1984 at the Staatstheaer in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1984, the Stuttgart opera was undergoing renovations, so the premiere was moved to a much smaller hall, with a much smaller orchestra pit. Rather than scrimp on other instruments, Glass simply made a virtue of necessity and omitted the entire violin section from his score. The role of Akhnaten is sung by a counter-tenor, whose high voice provides a striking contrast to the a low, dark timbre of Glass’ violin-less orchestration. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Philip Glass (b. 1937): ‘Hymn to the Sun,’ from ‘Akhnaten’; Paul Esswood, ct; Stuttgart Opera Orchestra; Dennis Russel Davies, cond. CBS Masterworks/Sony 42457 ... Read more

24 Mar 2024

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24 Mar 2024


#27

Gao Hong

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 2012, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet — an ensemble committed to commissioning original works as well as performing new arrangements for four guitars — gave the premiere performance of a suite that took them far afield: to Guangxi province in China, to be exact. The new work, Guangxi Impression, took place at Sundin Hall in St. Paul, but the sounds the four guitarists produced evoked not only a far-off Chinese landscape, but Chinese instruments, as well.  That should not have been all that surprising, since the composer of the specially commissioned piece, Gao Hong, is a virtuoso performer on one of them: the pipa, the traditional pear-shaped, plucked lute of China. Hong has made the United States her home since 1994, and her Guangxi Impressions for a quartet of traditional Western guitars is a suite in three movements, played without pause. The third and final movement is titled ‘Celebrating the Harvest.’“A bountiful harvest is cause for celebration in Guangxi,” Hong writes, “and I depict this with sounds of percussion bands and people yelling with excitement as they dance. Near the end of the movement I [ask the performers to shout Chinese] words expressing happiness.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Gao Hong (b. 1964): 'Celebrating the Harvest,' from 'Guangxi Impression'; Minneapolis Guitar Quartet; innova 858 ... Read more

23 Mar 2024

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23 Mar 2024


#26

Andrew Lloyd Webber's birthday

Synopsis -------- Today’s date marks the birthday of Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer of blockbuster musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. In addition to winning Grammy and Tony Awards in our country, he’s racked up Olivier Awards in his own. He was knighted in 1992, and in 1997 was created a life peer as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire. Estimates of his net worth suggest a figure well over $900 million. Despite all that, Lloyd Webber has always had detractors, including those who accuse him of plagiarizing everyone from Mendelssohn to Puccini to Pink Floyd. His musicals are criticized for their supposed glitz and superficiality, and adversely compared with those of his American contemporary, Stephen Sondheim. Sarah Crompton, writing for the Telegraph, offered a more nuanced comparison between the two, referencing the Beatles, no less. “Lloyd Webber is McCartney to Stephen Sondheim's Lennon,” she wrote. “He suffers from just the same undervaluing as an innovator because his essential impulse to go for the big, thumping number with the catchy tune will always obscure the subtlety and bravery he is capable of.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948): ‘Memory,’ from 'Cats’; Julian Lloyd Webber, cello; Royal Philharmonic; Barry Wordsworth, cond. Philips 426 484-2 ... Read more

22 Mar 2024

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22 Mar 2024


#25

Strauss depicts 'family values' in music

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1904, during his first visit to America, German composer Richard Strauss conducted a program of his music at Carnegie Hall in New York. Featured were Strauss’ tone poems Don Juan, Also Sprach Zarathustra and the world premiere of Sinfonia Domestica, or A Domestic Symphony. After tone poems devoted to philanderers like Don Juan and philosophers like Zarathustra, Strauss apparently decided it was time to deal with family values. He dedicated his Domestic Symphony to “my beloved wife and our young one,” and the work supposedly depicts 24 hours in the Strauss household, complete with baby’s bath, temper tantrum and connubial bliss after baby settles down for the night. It raised eyebrows then and still does today. Strauss remained unflappable. “I see no reason why I shouldn’t write about myself,” he said. “I find the subject as interesting as Napoleon or Alexander the Great.” One waggish New York music critic, no doubt after meeting the formidable Mrs. Strauss, who accompanied her husband on his American tour, wrote: “If this were a true biographical sketch, we fancy that the wife would be portrayed by trombones and tuba, while the husband would be the second fiddle.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Richard Strauss (1864-1949): 'Sinfonia Domestica’; Minnesota Orchestra; Edo de Waart, cond. Virgin 61460 ... Read more

21 Mar 2024

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21 Mar 2024


#24

Kurt Weill's 'Silver Lake'

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1980, a new production of a seldom-heard work by German composer Kurt Weill was staged by the New York City Opera. Its production of Silver Lake, starring Joel Grey, opened on the eve of the 47th anniversary of Weill’s hasty departure from Nazi Germany after being tipped off that the Gestapo was hunting for him. Silver Lake, or Der Silbersee in its original German title, was Weill’s last work to premiere in Germany, shortly before the Nazis’ total ban of his music. As early as 1930, at a rally in Augsburg, Hitler had railed against anti-Nazi intellectuals and singled out by name novelist Thomas Mann, scientist Albert Einstein and Weill. Astonishingly, Weill happened to be in Augsburg observing the crowds that day. Despite violent Nazi protests at performances of his music, Weill courageously stayed in his native land until 1933. In 1935, after two unhappy years in Paris and London, Weill arrived in New York, applied for U.S. citizenship and reinvented himself as a successful Broadway composer, insisting on Anglicizing the pronunciation of his last name from “Vile” to “While” and refusing even to speak German. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Kurt Weill (1900-1950): Overture, 'Der Silbersee' ('The Silver Lake'); London Sinfonietta; Markus Stenz, cond. RCA 63447 ... Read more

20 Mar 2024

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20 Mar 2024


#23

Dvorak's last 'American' work

Synopsis -------- In London on today’s date in 1896, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák conducted the first performance of his Cello Concerto. Two years earlier, while teaching at the National Conservatory in New York, Dvořák attended the Brooklyn premiere of a cello concerto by American cellist and composer Victor Herbert. Herbert had been the principal cellist for the premiere performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall and was a superb player and the soloist in the premiere of his own concerto. After the concert, Dvořák rushed backstage, embraced Herbert, and told him his concerto was “splendid — simply splendid.” Inspired by Herbert’s example, Dvořák began a cello concerto of his own, completing it in just three months. It was the last work he completed during his three-year stay in America, but on the final page of his manuscript score, he wrote, “I finished the concerto in New York, but when I returned to Bohemia I changed the end completely the way it stands here now.” The concerto was written for and dedicated to Dvořák’s countryman, Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan, but due to a scheduling conflict, British soloist Leo Stern played its world premiere in London. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904): Cello Concerto; Yo Yo Ma, cello; New York Philharmonic; Kurt Masur, cond. ... Read more

19 Mar 2024

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19 Mar 2024


#22

Beethoven's 10th?

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1827, Ludwig van Beethoven dictated and signed a letter in which he mentions “a new symphony, which lies already sketched in my desk.” This new work would have been Beethoven’s 10th Symphony. But in March 1827, Beethoven was ill and his friends feared the worst. Even so, he seemed optimistic that he could finish a new symphony as a thank you for the Philharmonic Society of London. The society had recently sent him 100 pounds in the hopes it would ease his sickbed, and Beethoven was touched by their kindness. “I will compose a grand symphony for them,” he told visitors. But eight days later Beethoven died, and for the next 150 years most people disputed that he had in fact sketched out such a new symphony. It wasn’t until the 1960s that scholars started sorting through his sketchbooks and not until the 1980s that evidence surfaced to prove it. British Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper went so far as to assemble a performing version of Beethoven’s sketches for the first movement of his 10th Symphony. Appropriately enough, as Beethoven intended his new symphony for a British premiere, the first recording of Cooper’s reconstruction was made by the London Symphony. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 10 (arr. Barry Cooper); London Symphony; Wyn Morris, cond. MCA 6269 ... Read more

18 Mar 2024

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18 Mar 2024


#21

Handel and 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'

Synopsis -------- One of Handel’s “greatest hits” had its premiere on today’s date in 1749 at London’s Covent Garden Theatre, as part of his new biblical oratorio, Solomon. The text of Handel’s oratorio praises the legendary Hebrew king’s piety in Part 1, his wisdom in Part 2 and the splendor of his royal court in Part 3. As the instrumental introduction to the third part of Solomon, Handel composed a jaunty sinfonia he titled “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.” In the Book of Kings, the Queen of Sheba travels from afar to visit the splendid court of King Solomon, arriving, as the Bible puts it, “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, very much gold, and precious stones.” Handel’s music admirably captures the excitement of a lavish state visit of an exotic foreign queen, and first-night London audiences would have had no problem reading into Handel’s depiction of an elaborate compliment of their reigning monarch, King George II. Speaking of reigning monarchs, at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, Handel’s Sinfonia was used to accompany a video of James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) arriving at Buckingham Palace, where 007 was received by Queen Elizabeth II. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- George Frederic Handel (1685-1757): excerpt from ‘Solomon’; English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, cond. Philips 412 612 ... Read more

17 Mar 2024

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17 Mar 2024


#20

The morning after for Sergei Rachmaninoff

Synopsis -------- In St. Petersburg on today’s date in 1897, the First Symphony of Sergei Rachmaninoff had its disastrous premiere. Now, there are bad reviews and then there are really bad reviews. When Rachmaninoff opened up a newspaper the next day he read, “If there were conservatory in hell, and if one of its students were instructed to write a symphony based on the seven plagues of Egypt, and if he were to compose a symphony like Rachmaninoff's, he would have fulfilled his task brilliantly and delighted the inmates of hell.” Ouch! What must have really hurt was that the review was written by a fellow composer, Cesare Cui, and the premiere was conducted — poorly, it seems — by another composer colleague, Alexander Glazunov. The whole affair was so painful that Rachmaninoff needed therapy before he could compose again, and when he left Russia for good in 1917, he left the symphony’s manuscript behind, and in the turmoil of the Bolshevik revolution it was lost. However, the original orchestral parts for the 1897 premiere survived. They were rediscovered in 1945, two years after Rachmaninoff’s death, and a belated — and this time successful — second performance took place that same year. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Symphony No. 1; St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Mariss Jansons, cond. EMI 56754 ... Read more

16 Mar 2024

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16 Mar 2024


#19

Roman's 'Musica de Palladium'

Synopsis -------- The Palladium Ballroom once stood at the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City. It opened on today’s date in 1946, and in its heyday, was the mambo capital of the world, showcasing performances by Latin superstars like Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and Machito. The Palladium closed in 1966, but its dance floor and bandstand were re-created for the 1992 film The Mambo Kings, in which Puente plays himself. The spirit of the Palladium was also evoked in a more recent chamber work by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román. Fascinated by both the music of contemporary minimalist composers and the popular dance forms of Puerto Rico, he combines the two in his four-movement work Musica de Palladium for violin, viola, cello and piano. The work’s final movement, “Sensacional,” is, according to Román, “a collage of aural images taken from mambos and other dance music of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez.” Musica de Palladium was written for the New World Trio and recorded by them, joined by violist Steve Larson. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Dan Román (b. 1974): ‘Musica de Palladium’; New World Trio (Annie Trepanier, vn; Carlynn Savot, vcl; Pi-Hsun Shih, p); Steve Larson, vla. innova CD 904 ... Read more

15 Mar 2024

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15 Mar 2024


#18

Johann Strauss the Elder

Synopsis -------- Johann Strauss the Elder, patriarch of the famous waltz dynasty, was born in Vienna on this day in 1804. His music became immensely popular across Europe, and he dreamed of — but never realized — a tour of America. At the height of his fame, Strauss visited Britain, providing music for the state ball on the occasion of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. His waltz Homage to the Queen of England, quotes Rule, Britannia at its start and God Save the Queen — in waltz tempo, of course — for its finale. The Times reported that in this case, Victoria was amused, as were her subjects. In the spring and summer of 1838, the Strauss orchestra gave 79 performances in London alone. Unfortunately, back home, Strauss was something of a cad. He abandoned his wife and his three talented musical children, Josef, Eduard and Johann Jr. for a mistress with whom he started a new family. He died at 45 of scarlet fever, contracted from one of his illegitimate children. Strauss wrote about 300 works, the most famous being his Radetzky March, the obligatory clap-along selection on every Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Day Concert. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Johann Strauss Jr. (1827-1870): ‘Radetzky March’; Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; Erich Kunzel, cond. Vox 5132 ... Read more

14 Mar 2024

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14 Mar 2024


#17

Terence Blanchard's birthday

Synopsis -------- Today’s date in 1962 marks the birthday in New Orleans of Terence Blanchard, American jazz trumpeter, composer and educator. “I come from a family of musicians,” Blanchard says. “My father was an opera singer, my mother played piano and taught voice, my grandfather played the guitar. What I wanted was to be a jazz musician, have a band, travel and create music.” Well, he got his wish! Blanchard started piano at 5 and trumpet at 8, playing music with childhood friends Wynton and Branford Marsalis at summer music camps and studied composition with their father, Ellis Marsalis. In 1980, while still in his teens, Blanchard began performing with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and later Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In the 1990s, Blanchard started writing film and TV scores and has composed more than 40 of them to date. In 2019, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his music for Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. He holds major teaching positions and tours with his quintet, the E-Collective. In 2021, his opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Terence Blanchard (b. 1962): ‘Ron’s Theme,’ from BlacKkKlansman Suite; the E-Collective, with a 96-piece orchestra Back Lot Music CD 779 ... Read more

13 Mar 2024

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13 Mar 2024


#16

Copland's fanfare for America's 'Greatest Generation'?

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1943, at the height of World War II, Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man had its premiere performance in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Symphony’s conductor in those days, British-born Eugene Goosens, had commissioned 18 fanfares for brass and percussion. “It is my idea,” he wrote, “to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war effort.” Besides Copland, composers commissioned included Henry Cowell, Paul Creston, Morton Gould, Howard Hanson, William Grant Still and Virgil Thomson. Most of the composers dedicated their fanfares to a unit of the U.S. military or one of its wartime allies. But Copland’s fanfare stood out, both musically and by virtue of its title. Among the titles Copland considered — and rejected — were Fanfare for the Spirit of Democracy and Fanfare for Four Freedoms, the latter in reference to President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address that called for the freedom of speech and religion, and from want and fear. He settled on Fanfare for the Common Man. “It was the common man, after all, who was doing all the dirty work in the war and the army,” Copland recalled. “He deserved a fanfare.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Aaron Copland (1900-1990): ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’; San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas, cond. RCA/BMG 63888 ... Read more

12 Mar 2024

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12 Mar 2024


#15

Mendelssohn dusts off an old classic

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1829, a 20-year-old German composer named Felix Mendelssohn conducted the first public performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in almost a hundred years. Earlier, Mendelssohn had written to a friend: “You may know from the papers that I intend to perform the Passion, by Sebastian Bach, a very beautiful and worthy piece of church music from the last century, on March 11 at the Berlin Academy of Music. I ask if it would be possible for you to grant us the pleasure of your company that evening ... to honor an old master and dignify our celebration by your presence.” Mendelssohn’s 1829 performance sparked a revival of interest in Bach’s music, generally considered too unmelodic, mathematical, dry and incomprehensible for the audiences in Mendelssohn’s day. It really took some doing for Mendelssohn to pry the score of Bach’s Passion from the Berlin musician who owned it, and who said it was a total waste of time to perform such an outmoded, unfashionable piece of music. But, in fact, the performance was so well received that Bach’s Passion was performed again 10 days later, to even greater acclaim, on March 21, the anniversary of Bach’s birth. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): St. Matthew Passion; Netherlands Bach Society; Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman, cond. ... Read more

11 Mar 2024

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11 Mar 2024


#14

Mozart says, 'Call me Amade'

Synopsis -------- On this date in 1785, a new Piano Concerto in C major was given its premiere at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with its composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at the keyboard. Years later, this piano concerto was labeled as Mozart’s 21st, and given the number 467 in the chronological list of his works compiled by Ludwig Ritter von Koechel, an Austrian botanist, mineralogist and Mozart enthusiast. Today, this work is popularly referred to as the Elvira Madigan Concerto, for the simple reason that its romantic slow movement was used to great effect in a 1967 Swedish film of that name to underscore a passionate love story. That Swedish movie helped to bring Mozart’s concerto to the attention of a far wider audience than ever before, as did the 1984 movie Amadeus, with Mozart’s music in general. Musicologists might wince when they hear the title Amadeus. It’s a matter of historical record that Mozart signed his name “Amadeo” or “Amadé.” Others object that a Swedish film should provide a nickname for one of Mozart’s most sublime works — but, for better or worse, both Amadeus and Elvira Madigan are labels that seem to have stuck to Mozart’s name and his concerto. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Piano Concerto No. 21; Alfred Brendel, piano; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Neville Marriner, cond. Philips 412 856 ... Read more

10 Mar 2024

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10 Mar 2024


#13

Mahler's musical love letter?

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1902, composer Gustav Mahler, 41, married Alma Schindler, 22. Mahler was the famous director of the Vienna Court Opera, and by 1902 had written four symphonies. Schindler was considered one of the most beautiful women in Vienna, and also independent, unpredictable and remarkably free-spirited. Perhaps that, as much as her beauty, appealed to Mahler, but many of the composer’s longtime friends did not approve and predicted disaster. One of them even suggested the composer convert to Protestantism, which would make getting a divorce easier in ultra-Catholic Vienna. On today’s date in 1902, a large crowd of curious onlookers gathered in Vienna’s majestic Baroque Karlskirche at 5:30 p.m., the time the wedding was thought to take place, only to discover the couple had been married hours earlier in the privacy of its sacristy with just the immediate family present. The next symphony that Mahler wrote, his Fifth, contains a lovely adagietto movement that Mahler’s friend Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg claims was inspired by Alma. “It was his declaration of love. Instead of a letter, he confided it in this manuscript without a word of explanation,” Mengelberg said. “She understood. He tells her everything in music.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No. 5; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly, cond. London 458 860 ... Read more

09 Mar 2024

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09 Mar 2024


#12

Carter's last premiere

Synopsis -------- At Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 2015, the Met Chamber Ensemble gave the posthumous premiere of a new work by American composer Elliott Carter, who died in November 2012, a month or so shy of what would have been his 104th birthday. The debut of The American Sublime marked the last world premiere performance of Carter’s 75-year-long composing career. Hearing Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at Carnegie Hall in the 1920s inspired Carter to become a composer. A high school teacher introduced him to Charles Ives, who became a mentor. By the mid-1930s, Carter was writing music in the “populist modern” style, à la Copland, but during a year spent in the Arizona desert in 1950, Carter finished his String Quartet No. 1 — 40 minutes of music uncompromising in both its technical difficulty and structural intricacy. "That crazy long first quartet was played in Belgium," Carter recalled. "It was played over the radio, and I got a letter from a coal miner, in French, who said, 'I liked your piece. It's just like digging for coal.' He meant that it was hard and took effort." Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Elliott Carter (1908-2012): Horn Concerto (2006); Martin Owen, fh; BBC Symphony; Oliver Knussen, cond. Bridge 9314 ... Read more

08 Mar 2024

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08 Mar 2024


#11

Piston's Viola Concerto

Synopsis -------- Perhaps there is some poetic justice in the fact that maverick American composers like Charles Ives had a hard time getting performances of their music during their lifetime, only to be both lionized and frequently performed after their deaths. Conversely, many mainstream American composers who were lionized and frequently performed when they were alive seldom show up on concert programs anymore — and in some cases, that’s a darn shame.Take Walter Piston, for example, who in his day was regarded as one of America’s premier composers. On today’s date in 1957, his Viola Concerto received its premiere performance by the Boston Symphony, in a concert conducted by Charles Munch, with soloist Joseph de Pasquale, a Curtis Institute professor and first-chair violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.It’s a lovely, lyrical work and a terrific showcase for a great violist. But have you ever heard it in concert — or on the radio, for that matter? A British reviewer, writing in the UK’s Gramophone magazine, was bowled over by this music, writing, “Piston's concerto opens pensively, quickly builds to an aching climax … in the final pages, a sweeter lyricism that prepares the listener perfectly for the playful syncopations of the exuberant finale.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Walter Piston (1951-1987): Viola Concerto; Randolph Kelly, viola; Latvian National Symphony; Alexandrs Vilumanis, cond. Albany TROY-558 ... Read more

07 Mar 2024

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07 Mar 2024


#10

Sleep on it, Giuseppe

Synopsis -------- Have you ever sent someone an email you regretted the second you hit send? Even in the 19th century, it was often prudent to sleep on a message before sending off words written in the heat of passion. On today’s date in 1853, Giuseppe Verdi sent a barrage of short notes to friends after what he felt was the disastrous premiere of his latest opera at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. “I am sorry,” Verdi wrote to his publisher, “but I cannot conceal the truth from you. Let's not investigate the reason. It happened. Goodbye, goodbye.” To another colleague Verdi wrote: “It was a fiasco. My fault. Or the singers? Time alone will tell.” But, apparently after a little more thought, he wrote to another friend, “The audience laughed. Well, what of it! Either I’m wrong or they are. I personally don’t think that last night’s verdict will be the last word.” After a year waiting for just the right cast, Verdi allowed his new opera to be restaged — in Venice once again, but this time at a different theater. Much to his satisfaction, this time, his new opera La Traviata was a big hit. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): ‘La Traviata’; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Georg Solti, cond. London 448 119 ... Read more

06 Mar 2024

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06 Mar 2024


#9

Mozart, Stalin and Yudina

Synopsis -------- What’s your favorite recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23? It is said that Joseph Stalin’s was one with Russian pianist Maria Yudina, and that recording was spinning on his turntable when the dictator was found dead on today’s date in 1953. In 1944, Stalin had heard Yudina perform this concerto on the radio and called the Soviet broadcaster and asked for the recording. Now, no one dared say “no” to Stalin, so, even though the performance had been live and had not been recorded, the performers were hastily called back to the studio, and by morning a private recording was ready for delivery.Stalin was so pleased, that — again, according to the stories — he sent Yudina 20,000 rubles. In defiance of state-imposed Soviet atheism, the pianist was a devout Orthodox Christian who always wore a cross while performing and considered her music an expression of faith. Stalin really must have liked her playing, since he did nothing — so the story goes — when she sent him a thank-you note letting him know that she gave all the money to her church and that she would pray for him and ask God to forgive all his great sins against his own people. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): 2nd Movement from Piano Concerto No. 23 Marina Yudina, piano; USSR Radio Symphony; Alexander Gauk, cond. Melodiya MELCO0377 ... Read more

05 Mar 2024

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05 Mar 2024


#8

Happy birthday, Antonio Vivaldi

Synopsis -------- Antonio Lucio Vivaldi came into the world on today’s date in 1678 a few days after an earthquake shook Venice. The newborn was baptized immediately — just in case little Antonio’s first day also turned out to be his last. Vivaldi’s father was a violinist, and even though Antonio quickly became a virtuoso on that instrument himself, he became a Roman Catholic priest. Vivaldi complained of chest pains whenever he celebrated Mass — a medical excuse that allowed him to forgo his priestly duties and to concentrate on writing music, including dozens of operas and hundreds of concertos. By his mid-40s, Vivaldi was a major figure on the European musical scene, but his fortunes gradually took a turn for the worse. The church ordered him to stop composing music for the theater and, for heaven’s sake, to stop gadding around Europe in the company of female opera singers! Vivaldi went to Vienna in 1740, hoping to find a court position with Emperor Charles VI, a big fan of his music, but after eating some bad mushrooms, the emperor died. And the following year, Vivaldi died — from an internal infection, not an earthquake — at 63 and heavily in debt. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): ‘The Four Seasons’; Enrico; Onofri, violin; Il Giardino Armonico; Giovanni Antonini, cond. Teldec 97671 ... Read more

04 Mar 2024

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04 Mar 2024


#7

Margaret Bonds

Synopsis -------- Today marks the birth in 1913 of American composer Margaret Bonds. Her mother was a church musician in Chicago; her father was a physician and one of the founders of a medical association for Black physicians denied membership in the American Medical Association. One of the visitors to Bonds’ childhood home was composer Florence Price, with whom she studied composition. At 16, Bonds became one of the few Black students enrolled at Northwestern University, although she was not allowed to live on campus. At the 1933 World’s Fair, Bonds performed Price’s Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony, becoming the first African-American woman soloist to appear with a major American orchestra. After earning her master’s degree, she moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School. She met and became a close friend of poet Langston Hughes, with whom she collaborated on many projects. Bonds wrote about 200 works, but only 47 were published during her lifetime, and only about 75 of her scores are known today. The rest exist as privately held manuscripts scattered all over the country. One of her best-known works is Troubled Water, a solo piano fantasia on the spiritual “Wade in the Water.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Margaret Bonds (1913-1972): ‘Troubled Water’; Joel Fan, piano; Reference Recordings RR-119 ... Read more

03 Mar 2024

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03 Mar 2024


#6

One of our 'Favorite Things'?

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1965, the now-classic and mega-iconic musical film The Sound of Music officially debuted at the Rivoli Theater at Broadway and 49th Street in New York City. Since we at Composers Datebook are notorious for mentioning “little known facts,” let us state, for the record, that the first test audiences to see the film did so in flyover country — first in Minneapolis and subsequently in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about a month before the film’s New York debut. The Midwestern audiences were ecstatic, and director Robert Wise knew he'd have a hit on his hands when his film, starring Julie Andrews, opened on Broadway, not far from where the stage version, starring Mary Martin, had originally debuted back in 1959. The 1965 New York Times film review was a little snarky — well, what else is new? It began by referring to “the perceptible weakness of its quaintly old-fashioned book,” while grudgingly admiring, “the generally melodic felicity of the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein score,” and ended by opining, “Business-wise, Mr. Wise is no fool.” No fool, indeed. Wise’s film won five Oscars and displaced Gone With the Wind as the highest-grossing film of all-time. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): ‘My Favorite Things,’ from ‘The Sound of Music’ (arr. Hough); Stephen Hough, p. MusicMasters 60135 and/or Virgin 59509 and 61498 ... Read more

02 Mar 2024

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02 Mar 2024


#5

A fanfare for Women's History Month

Synopsis -------- For most of the 20th century, women’s history was almost totally ignored in American schools. To address this situation, an education task force in Sonoma County, California, initiated a women’s history celebration in March 1978. What began as an annual Women’s History Week grew over the years into a national celebration, and in 1987, Congress declared the whole of March to be Women's History Month. Appropriately enough, 1987 also saw the premiere performance of Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman — music written for the same instrumentation as Aaron Copland’s famous Fanfare for the Common Man. Originally, Tower chose to let the title of her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman serve as a generic, built-in dedication to all the unsung heroes of women’s struggles past and present. But eventually, Tower added a specific dedication to conductor Marin Alsop, a champion of new music. “I don’t think you can play a piece of music and say whether it’s written by a man or a woman,” Tower says. “I think music is genderless.” But festivals and celebrations of women in music remain important, in Tower’s view, in helping to get the word out about their accomplishments. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Joan Tower (b. 1938): ‘Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman’; Colorado Symphony; Marin Alsop, cond. Koch International 7469 ... Read more

01 Mar 2024

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01 Mar 2024


#4

Rorem's 'Book of Hours'

Synopsis -------- Happy Leap Year! Once every four years, we have the opportunity to wish the great Italian opera composer Giacomo Rossini a happy birthday — he was born on Feb. 29 in 1792 — and to note some other musical events that occurred on this unusual but recurring calendar date. The American Bicentennial Year 1976, for example, also was a leap year, and 12 months were cram-packed with specially commissioned works written on a grand scale to celebrate that major anniversary of our nation. But at Alice Tully Hall on Feb. 29, 1976, a more modest celebration was in progress: an afternoon of new chamber works for flute and harp, including the premiere performance of a piece by American composer Ned Rorem. This piece was titled Book of Hours, referring to the prayers that the clergy read at various times of the day. In 1976, when avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez was the music director of the New York Philharmonic and dense, complicated music was considered fashionable by the critics, and the reviewer for the New York Times was struck by Rorem’s deceptive simplicity: “Many contemporary composers flaunt their abilities to make music complex,” he wrote, “but Rorem waves an altogether different flag. His Book of Hours seemed determined to be uneventful. Its calculated simplicities and unassertive manner recalled the bare-walls asceticism of Erik Satie, though Mr. Rorem’s phrases and colors are more sensuous and do not quite evoke Satie’s mood of monastic rigor.” Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Ned Rorem (1923-2022): Book of Hours; Fibonacci Sequence; Naxos 8.559128 ... Read more

29 Feb 2024

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29 Feb 2024


#3

Pizzetti in New York

Synopsis -------- For most music lovers, the phrase “Italian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries” means, first and foremost, opera composers. But during the 1920s and 1930s, when great Italian opera conductor Arturo Toscanini was music director of the New York Philharmonic, American audiences heard many nonoperatic, symphonic works by modern Italian composers. On today’s date in 1929, for example, Toscanini led the New York Philharmonic in the world premiere performance of Concerto dell ‘Estate (Summer Concerto), by contemporary Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti. In addition to premieres by Pizzetti, New York audiences heard recent Italian symphonic works by Respighi, Tommasini, Martucci, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Wolf-Ferrari and others. Absent from Toscanini’s New York programs were new works by the rising American composers of the day. There were no Toscanini premieres — or even performances — of works by Copland, Harris or Piston. Those composers had to look to the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky if they wanted a hearing. American composer Daniel Gregory Mason complained in 1931 that the Philharmonic was run by “fashion-enslaved, prestige-hypnotized minds ... totally devoid of any American loyalty to match the Italian loyalty” that was, as Mason admitted, “rather likeable” in the charismatic Italian maestro. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968): Rondo Veneziano; BBC Scottish Symphony; Osmo Vänskä, cond. Hyperion 67084 ... Read more

28 Feb 2024

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28 Feb 2024


#2

Viktor Kalabis

Synopsis -------- Today’s date marks the birthday of a 20th-century Czech composer you perhaps have never heard of. Viktor Kalabis was born in 1923 and by 6 was giving public piano performances. All signs pointed to a brilliant career. But first, Kalabis had to face — and surmount — two major political hurdles. First, his formal musical studies were delayed by the Nazi occupation of his country in 1938, when he was forced into factory work; then, after the war, Kalabis met and married young harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova, who was a concentration camp survivor. Kalabis was a gentile, but in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, anti-Semitism was rampant and marrying a Jew was frowned upon. To make matters worse, they refused to join the Communist Party, hardly what one would call a smart career move in those years. Even so, Kalabis began to attract commissions and performances of his music at home and abroad, and following the 1989 Velvet Revolution, he assumed a more prominent position in his country’s musical life. His symphonies, concertos and chamber works are now regarded as some of the most important contributions to Czech music in the late 20th century. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006): Piano Concerto No. 1; Zuzana Ruzickova, p; Czech Philharmonic; Karel Sejna, cond. MRS Classics MS-1350 ... Read more

27 Feb 2024

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27 Feb 2024


#1

Chopin debuts in Paris

Synopsis -------- On today’s date in 1832, Polish pianist and composer Frederic Chopin made his concert debut in Paris at the Salle Pleyel. Among the enthusiastic audience members was another composer-pianist by the name of Franz Liszt, who would rapidly become Chopin’s close friend and advocate. Chopin dedicated his recently completed Piano Etudes to Liszt, and Chopin once wrote to a friend, “I am writing without knowing what my pen is scribbling, because at this moment Liszt is playing my etudes and putting honest thoughts out of my head. I should like to rob him of the way he plays them!” The failure of the Polish Insurrection of 1831 had driven a large number of Polish refugees to Paris, where they joined émigré groups of Italians and Austrians who had also fled political repression at home for the more liberal, welcoming atmosphere of the French capitol. Increasing ill health and crippling stage fright made Chopin’s public concert appearances in Paris rare events. When Chopin did perform in public, he liked to share the stage with a sympathetic singer like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, or a fellow pianist like Liszt. Despite his fame, Chopin’s concert appearances in Paris numbered less than a dozen. Music Played in Today's Program ------------------------------- Frederic Chopin (1810-1949): Etude No. 10; Maurizio Pollini, piano DG 413 794 ... Read more

26 Feb 2024

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26 Feb 2024