Composers Datebook

SynopsisIn December of 2020, during the first, bleak winter of the worldwide Covid pandemic, The New York Times ran a story about the English Renaissance composer John Sheppard, who, as a member of the Chapel Royal, the household choir of the English monarchs, was buried in London on today’s date in 1558.Shepard lived during the turbulent English Reformation, and as a church musician composed liturgical works in both English and Latin, probably reflecting whether the Protestant king Edward VI or the Catholic Queen Mary I was seated on the throne.We know little about Sheppard’s life and nothing about his own religious inclinations. His most famous work, an elaborately polyphonic compline setting of a Latin text, “Media vita in morte sumus” (In the midst of life we are in death), might have been written for the funeral for a fellow composer who died from what was called the “new ague,” a pandemic that swept England in 1557, and returned the following year in a devasting second wave, killing one in ten Londoners. One of them was John Sheppard. He died just after the strain claimed Reginald Pole, the archbishop of Canterbury, and probably Queen Mary as well.Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Sheppard (1515-1558): Media Vita; Tallis Scholars; Peter Phillips, conductor; Gimell 16

SynopsisAmerican composer John Harbison grew up listening to the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, so on today’s date in 1999 it must have been gratifying to celebrate his 61st birthday taking curtain calls there when his opera The Great Gatsby premiered at the Met.F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, a devastating evocation of America’s Roaring 20s, is a regular contender for the title of the “Great American Novel,” but Harbison says when he told his mother he was writing an opera based on it she wasn’t very enthusiastic, arguing that the novel’s characters were an unsympathetic bunch. Gatsby, the novel’s anti-hero is a both a fraud and a crook. Daisy, Gatsby’s lost love and the object of his obsessive desire, is selfish, spoiled and shallow.But Harbison saw it differently: “Yearning and despair are very big operatic themes,” he said. “As for the character of Gatsby, he takes a lot of risks and is steadfast and loyal to some vision that is not realistically possible. The opera provides many opportunities to look at to what degree he's an impostor, and to what degree his story is real, which is a big American theme in general.”Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Harbison (b. 1938): Remembering Gatsby; Minnesota Orchestra; Edo de Waart, conductor; Vol. 11, from Minnesota Orchestra at 100 special edition boxed CD set

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1930, Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms received its American premiere by the Boston Symphony. Russian-born conductor and new music impresario Serge Koussevitzky had commissioned the work to celebrate the Boston Symphony’s 50th anniversary.Stravinsky said later that for some time he had been carrying around the idea for a choral symphony based on Psalm texts. Since Koussevitzky’s commission was for “anything Stravinsky had on his mind” that is exactly what emerged.Even though Stravinsky is on record stating that “music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all,” in Symphony of Psalms, Stravinsky gave powerful expression to his own deep religious convictions. Koussevitzky’s performance was supposed to be the world premiere of the new work, but the conductor took ill, forcing the world premiere in Boston — originally scheduled for December 12 — to be postponed until the 19. By then, a European performance of Stravinsky’s new score conducted by Ernest Ansermet had already occurred.No matter. Koussevitzky had the satisfaction of knowing that he had commissioned a masterpiece. Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms has come to be regarded as one of the great sacred works of the 20th century.Music Played in Today's ProgramIgor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Symphony of Psalms; The Monteverdi Choir; London Symphony; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor; DG 436 789

SynopsisAny movie buff knows composer John Williams is the usual choice for director Steven Spielberg. But for The Color Purple, which was released on today’s date in 1985, Spielberg turned to jazz great and master orchestrator Quincy Jones. The Color Purple was based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker that tells the story of Celie Harris, graphically depicting the trauma of a young African-American woman during the early 20th century. Spielberg cast Whoopi Goldberg — better-known then for stand-up comedy — in the intensely dramatic role of Celie.For Spielberg, it was a movie without dazzling special effects or space aliens; for Jones, who had just finished producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, working on The Color Purple was, as he put it, “An amazing experience … the biggest of my life.”Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress — Quincy Jones, for both Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Neither Goldberg nor Jones won an Oscar, but Jones says he felt honored to participate in a project that, despite the many warnings of nay-sayers, he had absolute faith in, inspired by the passion of all those involved in its making. Music Played in Today's ProgramQuincy Jones (1933-2024): The Color Purple: Main Theme; Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pittsburgh Symphony; John Williams, conductor; Sony 63005

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1853, expectations both on stage and off must have been high when a 20-year-old German pianist and composer named Johannes Brahms made his public debut in Leipzig. Just two months earlier, the older composer Robert Schumann had published a glowing prediction that young Brahms was going to turn out to be the bright hope for the future of German music.Brahms played his big Piano Sonata No. 1, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He also met great French composer Hector Berlioz, who wrote, “Brahms has had a great success here and made a deep impression on me ... this diffident, audacious young man who has taken into his head to make a new music.”When his Piano Sonata No. 1 was first published by Breitkopf & Haertel, along with some early songs, Brahms immediately sent copies off to Schumann, with this note: “I take the liberty of sending you your first foster children (who owe to you their citizenship of the world). In their new garb they seem to me too prim and embarrassed — I still cannot accustom myself to seeing these guileless children of nature in their smart new clothes!”Music Played in Today's ProgramJohannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Sonata No. 1; Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Philips 438 477

SynopsisIn the spring and summer of 1921, Sergei Prokofiev was living in a quiet village on the coast of Brittany. He wrote, “I get up at 8:30, put on a collarless shirt, white pants, and sandals. After drinking hot chocolate, I look to see if the garden is still where it’s supposed to be. Then I sit down to work. I’m writing my Piano Concerto No. 3.”On today’s date in 1921, Prokofiev was the soloist in the premiere of the new work, which took place in America, with the Chicago Symphony under Frederick Stock.In a letter written to conductor Serge Koussevitzky before the premiere, Prokofiev wrote, “My third concerto has turned out to be devilishly difficult. I’m nervous and practicing hard three hours a day. But let the maestro be calm — there are no complicated meters, no dirty tricks. It can be conducted without special preparation — it is difficult for the orchestra, but not for the conductor.”Chicago audiences and newspaper critics gave the new concerto a warm, if not overly enthusiastic, reception at its first performance in America, and in time, the Piano Concerto No. 3 — despite its difficulty — became one of Prokofiev’s most popular works with performers as well as audiences around the world.Music Played in Today's ProgramSergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Piano Concerto No. 3; Alexander Toradze, piano; Kirov Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conductor; Philips 462 048

SynopsisSwiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch was born in 1880 and was in his 30s when he first came to America, where he achieved remarkable success with both critics and audiences. His most famous work, Schelomo, subtitled Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra, premiered in New York in 1917. Despite his popularity in America, Bloch returned to Europe for most of the 1930s. By the end of that decade, the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Germany and Italy led the Jewish composer, then approaching 60, to reconsider making America his permanent home.Bloch’s Violin Concerto premiered in America on today’s date in 1938, a month after he arrived, with violinist Joseph Szigeti and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos. The main theme of Bloch’s concerto was supposedly based on a Native American theme, but the tone of the whole work echoes the Hebrew themes in his other music.Bloch wrote: “Art for me is an expression, an experience of life, not a game or an icy demonstration of mathematical principles. In not one of my works have I tried to be ‘original’ or ‘modern.’ My sole desire and single effort has been to remain faithful to my vision.”Music Played in Today's ProgramErnest Bloch (1880-1959): Violin Concerto; Oleh Krysa, violin; Malmo Symphony; Sakari Oramo, conductor; BIS 639

SynopsisToday’s date in 1906 marks the birthday of Alexander Naumovich Tsfasman, a Ukrainian composer from pre-revolutionary Tsarist Russia who would become an important figure in Soviet jazz. Jazz first came to the Soviet Union in 1922, four years after Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution, and at first was welcomed as the music of the oppressed African-American minority, and therefore considered an expression of the worldwide class struggle. Tsfasman encountered jazz while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory and formed his own jazz band in 1926, the first to be heard on Soviet radio. In the decades that followed, Tsfasman made over 140 records, composed music for films, and gave concerts during WWII for Red Army soldiers.But after 1945, jazz fell out of favor in the USSR. During the Cold War, it came to be seen as a prime export of the decadent bourgeois West and performances were limited. “Today he plays jazz, tomorrow he’ll betray his country” was a widespread propaganda slogan in the Stalinist post-war USSR. Only in the 1960s did attitudes change, and we’re happy to report Alexander Tsfasman lived to see it before his death in 1971.This music is from his Jazz Suite for piano and orchestra.Music Played in Today's ProgramAlexander Tsfasman (1906-1971): Snowflakes and Polka (excerpts), from Jazz Suite;Zlata Chochieva, piano; BBC Scottish Symphony; Karl-Heinz Steffens, conductor; Naïve V-8448

SynopsisIn 1935, when he was 25 years old, American composer Samuel Barber was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome. This meant that Barber could study at the American Academy in Rome for two years, with free lodgings and an annual stipend of $1,400 — a considerable sum of money in the 1930s. Barber found his Italian studio, a little yellow house approached through a garden, to be a good place to work.While in Italy, Barber finished his Symphony No. 1. The premiere took place in Rome on today’s date in 1936, with an Italian conductor and orchestra. Years later, he recalled that the orchestra played well, but also that the Italian audience members were “not shy about expressing their feelings ... 50% applauded and 50% were hissing.” In Barber’s opinion, the Italians found the new work “too dark-toned, too Nordic.”The Cleveland Orchestra gave the symphony’s American premiere early the next year, followed by a New York performance under the direction of Arthur Rodzinski, who was so impressed he conducted the work with the Vienna Philharmonic at the opening concert of the 1937 Salzburg Music Festival in Austria. That performance was more warmly received, and Barber was called back to the stage three times.Music Played in Today's ProgramSamuel Barber (1910-1981): Symphony No. 1; Saint Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; RCA/BMG 60732

SynopsisOn today’s date in 2001, the San Francisco Symphony, under conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, gave the first performance of Ice Field, a new work by American composer Henry Brant. The piece was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2002, the year Brant turned 89.The prize was an acknowledgment of five decades of Brant’s work as one of America’s great experimental composers. In the 1950s, when he turned 40, Brant became fascinated with the possibilities inherent in spatial music — music that positioned various groups of performers in all the corners of performing space. Moreover, he felt his music should reflect a wide variety of musical styles. As Brant put it, “I had come to feel that single-style music… could no longer evoke the new stresses, layered insanities and multi-directional assaults of contemporary life on the spirit.”Brant cites earlier American composer Charles Ives as his major model, but also credits the experience of hearing extravagant French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz’ Requiem Mass in Paris. In the 19th century, Berlioz positioned an orchestra, brass choirs, and vocalists around a vast cathedral for a unique “surround sound” experience.Music Played in Today's ProgramHenry Brant (1913-2008): Western Springs; La Jolla Symphony and Chorus; Henry Brant, et. al. conductor; CRI 827

SynopsisThe Great Depression put many Americans out of work, and in 1935 the Roosevelt administration created the Works Progress Administration, offering employment on various public projects. The Federal Music Project created 34 new orchestras across the country. American composers weren’t neglected either. A program called the Composers Forum Laboratories showcased new chamber works and invited audiences to offer their feedback directly to the composers involved. On today’s date in 1935, at the seventh Composers Forum Laboratory held in New York, Henry Cowell was the featured composer and took questions and comments following the premiere of his String Quartet No. 3. Typical of this “laboratory” situation, the chamber piece was highly experimental. Cowell conceived it as a kind of musical kaleidoscope or crazy quilt, in which five predetermined musical patterns can be played in any order. Cowell called this work his Mosaic Quartet, and, theoretically, no two performances would ever be the same.America’s entry into World War II eventually brought all the WPA’s musical projects to a close, but not before Federal Music Project orchestras had premiered a number of new symphonic works by American composers and dozens of new chamber works, like Cowell’s Quartet, and had been workshopped at Composers Forum Laboratories.Music Played in Today's ProgramHenry Cowell (1897-1965): String Quartet No. 3 (Mosaic Quartet); Colorado String Quartet; Mode 72/73

SynopsisDuring his 26 seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the charismatic conductor Leopold Stokowski often programmed new music by contemporary composers. On today’s date in 1937, for example, Stokowski and the Philadelphians performed works by two American composers.  First up was some ballet music by Robert McBride, which The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer found “of indifferent interest.” The same critic, however, was enthusiastic about the second work, the premiere performance of the William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race. “[It] was of absorbing interest, unmistakably racial in thematic material and rhythms, and triumphantly articulate in expression of moods, ranging from the exuberance of jazz to brooding wistfulness.” Still contrasted his Symphony No. 2 with his Symphony No. 1, the Afro-American Symphony. “[If my Symphony No. 1] represented the Negro of days not far removed from the Civil War,” his Symphony No. 2, said Still, represented “the American colored man of today, in so many instances a totally new individual.”One striking feature of Still’s Symphony No. 2 is the expansive, lyrical writing for strings, perhaps a nod to the Philadelphia’s famously silky string sound; another is the brass choir call and response gestures, reminiscent of African-American church music traditions.Music Played in Today's ProgramWilliam Grant Still (1875-1978): Symphony No. 2 (Song of a New Race); Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Neeme Jarvi, conductor; Chandos 9226

SynopsisNineteenth-century Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka founded a distinctive national style of Russian classical music, and he wrote first great Russian opera, which premiered in St. Petersburg on today’s date in 1836. That opera tells the story of Ivan Susanin, a folk hero of the early 17th century, who gave his life to protect the newly elected Tsar Mikhail, the first of the Romanov dynasty. Glinka’s original title for his opera was Ivan Susanin, but after the then-current Tsar Nicholas I attended a rehearsal, Glinka changed it to A Life for the Tsar, to honor — and frankly flatter the current ruler in the Romanov line.  After the Bolshevik Revolution deposed Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 and executed his whole family, any opera praising the Romanovs, no matter how culturally significant, was unperformable in the Soviet Union. But in 1939, Glinka’s opera returned to Russian stages under its original title Ivan Susanin, thanks to a Soviet poet who removed all references to the Tsar from its libretto and adjusted its storyline to be “politically correct” for Stalinist Russia.These days, when Glinka’s landmark opera is staged, it’s under its original title and with its original, pro-Tsarist storyline restored.Music Played in Today's ProgramMikhail Glinka (1804-1857): A Life for the Tsar Overture; USSR State Symphony; Yevgeny Svetlanov, conductor; Regis RRC 1142

SynopsisGreat Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was born on this date in 1865.In 1990, on Sibelius’ 125th birthday, Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä led the Lahti Symphony in the belated world-premiere of a previously unknown work by the composer, a Suite for Violin and Orchestra that Sibelius finished around 1929, but never published. Now, Sibelius was a prolific composer through his fifties, but during the last 30 years of his life, he wrote very little. He had completed his Symphony No. 7, his last, in 1924, and the world waited in vain for an eighth. Perhaps it was due to depression, perhaps it was due to drink — or maybe, creatively speaking, Sibelius had just dried up. In any case, what works he did complete as a senior citizen were either revisions of much earlier pieces, or minor incidental works.Which makes this genial little suite rather interesting. It’s landscape music, evoking the Finnish countryside, but in a less bleak and abstract manner than usual. It may not be top-drawer Sibelius, but even so, we’re grateful that he decided to put his Suite for Violin in a bottom drawer — and not in the fireplace!Music Played in Today's ProgramJean Sibelius (1865-1957): Suite for Violin and Orchestra; Dong-Suk Kang, violin; Lahti Symphony; Osmo Vänskä; BIS 1125

SynopsisIt’s perhaps not surprising that a solitary, iconoclastic 20th century composer should identify with a solitary, iconoclastic 18th century poet. Ultra-modernist American composer Carl Ruggles took as the title for one of his most famous orchestral pieces, a phrase from a motto by early Romantic British poet William Blake which ran, “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”On today’s date in 1924, Ruggles’ Men and Mountains received its premiere performance at a New York concert of the International Composers’ Guild.The music critic of the New York Times was in attendance and wrote: “Mr. Ruggles … leaps upon the listener with a yell. There is a wild shriek of the brass choir, and thereafter no rest for the wicked. It is as if the irate composer had seized a plump, disparaging critic by some soft and flabby part of his anatomy, and pinched him blue, crying the while, ‘You will hear me and you’ll not go to sleep, either!’”By the time of his death in 1971, at 95, Ruggles was seldom performed, yet he was still revered as the craggy, last-standing survivor of the craggy ultra-modernist movement of the early 20th century.Music Played in Today's ProgramCarl Ruggles (1876-1971): Men and Mountains; Buffalo Philharmonic; Lukas Foss, conductor; Vox 8155

SynopsisTwo famous pieces of chamber music had their premieres on today’s date, both at private readings prior to their first public performances.On today’s date in 1842, German Romantic composer Robert Schumann arranged for a trial reading of his new Piano Quintet at the Leipzig home of some of his friends. Schumann’s wife, Clara, was supposed to be the pianist on that occasion, but she took ill, and Schumann’s friend and fellow composer Felix Mendelssohn stepped in at the last moment for the informal performance, reading the work at sight.After this preliminary reading, Mendelssohn praised the work, but offered some friendly suggestions concerning part of the trio section in the new work’s Scherzo movement, which prompted Schumann to write a livelier replacement movement for the work’s first public performance.About 100 years later, on today’s date in 1949, a cello sonata by Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev received a similar private performance in Moscow, for an invited audience at the House of the Union of Composers. Two of the leading Soviet performers of the day, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Sviatoslav Richter, gave the work its first performance. The following spring, it was again Rostropovich and Richter who gave the Sonata its public debut at the Moscow Conservatory.Music Played in Today's ProgramRobert Schumann (1810-1856): Piano Quintet; Menahem Pressler, piano; Emerson String Quartet; DG 445 848Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Cello Sonata; David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano; Artist Led 19901

Synopsis“Snuff” is a finely pulverized tobacco that can be, well, “snuffed” through the nose. In the 19th century, taking snuff was a common practice, and on today’s date in 1837, the most notorious example of snuff-taking in music history occurred — or didn’t, depending on who you believe – during the premiere in Paris of the massive Requiem Mass of the French composer Hector Berlioz.As Berlioz tells it in his Memoirs, the conductor of the performance, Francois-Antoine Habeneck, decided to take a pinch of snuff during an especially tricky passage, at the very moment he should have been giving an important cue to the orchestra. To avert disaster, Berlioz jumped up, gave the cue, and afterwards accused Habeneck of sabotage. Some eye-witnesses are on record saying, “Yes, that’s just how it happened,” while others, equally emphatic, state, “Preposterous! Nothing of the sort occurred.”Whom to believe? Well, it is known that once the basic tempo was set, Habeneck was in the habit of putting down his baton to let the orchestra play on by themselves. He would then calmly take a pinch of snuff. Sometimes, it’s said, he even offered snuff to his neighbors, so perhaps those performances were indeed sabotaged — by an especially loud sneeze!Music Played in Today's ProgramHector Berlioz (1803-1869): Requiem; French Radio Chorus and Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Sony 47526

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1885, at a public rehearsal at the Old Metropolitan Opera House, the New York Symphony, led by fresh-faced 23-year-old conductor Walter Damrosch, performed 61-year-old Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 for the first time in America.The New York Times critic, in fairness to this unfamiliar composer, attended both the rehearsal and concert before venturing an opinion:“As to form and workmanship, it is a highly commendable achievement,” he wrote. “The composer’s motives are distinct and fluent, the instrumentation is rich, though not cloying … Unfortunately, there is not in the whole composition a measure in which a spark of inspiration, or a grain of inventiveness is discernible.” Other New York papers were more blunt: “A dreary waste of sound … formless, weird, flimsy, uncongenial and empty” according to The Sun. The Post observed, “The first movement is marked ‘misterioso’, but the only mystery about it is how it ever came to be written, printed and performed.”In fairness to those critics of 1885, it would take many decades before American audiences started to acquire a taste for Bruckner’s particular blend of music and mystery.Music Played in Today's ProgramAnton Bruckner (1824-1896): Symphony No. 3; BBC Scottish Symphony; Osmo Vänskä, conductor; Hyperion 67200

SynopsisIn many denominations, the Christian calendar or liturgical year begins with the season of Advent, the four Sundays preceding Christmas. The word “advent” comes from the Latin “adventus,” which means “arrival” or “coming,” because Advent celebrates both the joyful anticipation of the arrival of the baby Jesus and the need for believers to prepare for the second coming of their Savior at the Last Judgement.In 1724, a devout German Lutheran church musician named Johann Sebastian Bach crafted a cantata, a work for a small instrumental ensemble with solo voices and chorus, to be performed on the First Sunday of Advent, which fell on today’s date that year.At Bach’s church, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, there would have been readings from Luther’s translation of the Bible appropriate for the day, so Bach asked a poet friend for a text meditating on them, and took for his musical inspiration Luther’s Advent hymn, Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, which in English means Now Come, Savior of the Heathens.That hymn appeared as the first in the Thomaskirche’s hymnal, which meant the church year was off and running once again. Now, it was Bach’s responsibility to provide a cantata for performance each Sunday, and during his time in Leipzig he would write over 200 of them — which no doubt made him a favorite customer with anyone in Leipzig selling music manuscript paper!Music Played in Today's ProgramJ.S. Bach (1685-1750): Cantata No. 62 Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor; Archiv 463 588

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1949, Leonard Bernstein conducted the Boston Symphony in the first complete performance of Olivier Messiaen’s ten-movement, 75-minute long Turangalila Symphony.“Turangalila” is the Sanskrit word for love, and Messiaen’s score is meant to be a voluptuous evocation of the emotion at its most exalted state.Messiaen had spent the summer of 1949 as composer-in-residence at Tanglewood at the invitation of Russian conductor and new music impresario Serge Koussevitzky, who was also Bernstein’s mentor. Before arriving in Tanglewood, Messiaen had written to Bernstein as follows: “I have put into my symphony all of my strengths of love, of hope and of musical research. But I know you are a man of genius and that you will conduct it the way I feel it.” The exotic French score was a modest success in Massachusetts. At least it provoked no riot, but then, as The Christian Science Monitor noted, “If Bostonians suffer, they suffer in silence.” When Bernstein and the Boston Symphony took the new score to New York’s Carnegie Hall, however, critical reaction ranged from “a really rousing experience” to the view that “the trashiest Hollywood composers have met their match.”Music Played in Today's ProgramOlivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Turangalila Symphony; Concertgebouw Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly, conductor; London 436 626