Composers Datebook

SynopsisToday’s date marks an important anniversary in the history of the American symphony. It was on January 26, 1876, that John Knowles Paine’s Symphony No. 1 premiered in Boston. This was the first American symphony to be generally acknowledged both here and abroad as being on a par with the symphonies of the great European composers.American musical life in the 19th century was heavily influenced by German models — and Paine’s Symphony No. 1 takes its key and much of its musical style from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Contemporary American composer and conductor Gunther Schuller once quipped that Paine’s Symphony No. 1 was “the best Beethoven symphony that Beethoven didn’t write himself.” Even so, Paine’s 1876 Symphony is a landmark in American musical history, as was one of Paine’s earlier works — a grandiose Mass for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, which was premiered in Berlin in 1867 and successfully revived by Gunther Schuller in Boston in 1972.  John Knowles Paine is remembered for other reasons as well: he was one of the founders of the American Guild of Organists, and he founded the music department at Harvard and became the mentor for a new generation of American composers.Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Knowles Paine (1839-1906): Symphony No. 1; New York Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta, conductor New World 374

SynopsisMany political deals started in smoke-filled rooms, but not many piano trios can claim such a venue for their inspiration. On today’s date in 1987, composer and pianist Paul Schoenfield joined a violinist and cellist from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for the premiere of one of them: Café Music, a new piano trio the orchestra had commissioned. Here’s how Schoenfield explains it: “The idea came to me in 1985 after sitting in one night for the pianist at Murray’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in Minneapolis. Murray’s employed a house trio which played entertaining dinner music in a wide variety of styles. My intention was to compose a kind of high-class dinner music — music which could be played at a restaurant but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall.” Much to Schoenfield’s surprise, Café Music did indeed become a concert hall hit.Schoenfield said he had two lasting memories of that night he filled in at Murray’s: first, a realization of what hard work it was to play dinner music for hours on end, and second — in the days before smoke-free restaurants — how his clothes smelled of cigars and cigarettes for days afterwards!Music Played in Today's ProgramPaul Schoenfield (1947-2024): Café Music; Eroica Trio; EMI 56482

Synopsis“We are not amused,” is the dour statement attributed to the matronly Queen Victoria in her later years, although some historians dispute she ever really said it.But as a young woman, in her diary Queen Victoria did write, “I was very much amused indeed!” after seeing Italian opera singer Giulia Grisi on stage. The young Queen was a fan, and made a drawing of the singer in a role she created: that of Elvira in Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Puritani, or The Puritans, which debuted in Paris on today’s date in 1835.When Bellini’s opera came to London later that same year, with Grisi in the cast, the young Queen attended several performances, and the opera she called Dear Puritani became a life-long favorite, perhaps because it was the first she attended with her husband-to-be, the young Prince Albert.The opera is set in 17th century England during the Civil War between Royalist supporters of the deposed King Charles I and Puritan rebels led by Oliver Cromwell. Its plot involves a Romeo and Juliet-like love story between a delicate Puritan soprano and a dashing Royalist tenor. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, however, Bellini’s opera provides a happy ending for its politics-crossed lovers.Music Played in Today's ProgramVincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835) — "A te, o cara, amor talora," fr I Puritani (Alfredo Kraus; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, cond.) EMI 09149

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1935, at the Church of Saint François-Xavier in Paris, organist Geneviève de la Salle gave the first complete performance of the three-movement Suite by French composer, teacher and virtuoso organist Maurice Duruflé.If you sing in a choir or are a fan of choral music, you’re probably familiar with Duruflé’s serene and tranquil Requiem, which premiered 12 years later.Duruflé’s Op. 5 premiered in 1935, his Op. 9 in 1947, so you might reasonably conclude the composer was a slow worker — which he was. He was also a very self-critical perfectionist whose catalog of works is rather small, but exquisitely crafted. In all, Duruflé’s output comprises less than 15 published works, of which seven are for organ.Duruflé’s music is firmly embedded in the French tradition of organ composers like César Franck and Louis Vierne, and orchestral composers like Debussy, Ravel and Duruflé’s own composition teacher, Paul Dukas. Great French organist Marie-Claire Alain, when asked to describe Duruflé’s music, replied “it is a perfectly honest art … he was not an innovator but a traditionalist … Duruflé evolved and amplified the old traditions, making them his own.”Music Played in Today's ProgramMaurice Durufle (1902-1986): Organ Suite; Todd Wilson, organ; Schudi organ at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Dallas, Texas; Delos 3047

SynopsisOne of the 20th century’s most important — and most lurid — operas had its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on today’s date in 1907.Richard Strauss’s Salome is a faithful setting of Oscar Wilde’s play about the decadent Biblical princess who, after her famous “dance of the seven veils,” demands the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward. She then confesses her love to the severed head and kisses it. This scene, accompanied by Strauss’s graphic music, proved too much for early audiences to take.“A reviewer should be an embodied conscience stung into righteous fury by the moral stench with which Salome fills the nostrils of humanity,” wrote The New York Tribune. The Met cancelled the rest of the scheduled performances, and Salome was not staged there again until 1934.Closer to our time, American composer Terry Riley put a more positive spin on the legend of Salome. In the 1980s, Riley wrote some string quartets collectively titled Salome Dances for Peace. “I conceived my quartets as a kind of ballet scenario, in which contemporary world leaders like Reagan and Gorbachev are seduced by a reincarnated Salome into realizing world peace,” said Riley. Music Played in Today's ProgramRichard Strauss (1864-1949): Dance of the Seven Veils, from Salome; New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, conductor; DG 7890Terry Riley (b. 1935): Good Medicine, from Salome Dances for Peace; Kronos Quartet; Nonesuch 79217

SynopsisEnglish lutenist and songwriter John Dowland is one of the best-known composers from the age of Shakespeare, but there’s much about him that we don’t know. Dowland wrote that he was born in 1563 but didn’t say where. Early biographies said he died in London on today’s date in 1626, but a mid-February date seems more likely. Dowland was 63 when he died — a ripe old age in a time of Plague.One early biographer described Dowland as “a cheerful person, passing his days in lawful merriment,” but his most famous works are deeply introspective in tone, in keeping with the then-fashionable cult of melancholy and its preoccupation with tears, darkness, and death.Dowland lived in a dangerous period of bitter religious conflict. He once wrote a frantic letter from Germany warning of a Catholic plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. But in that same letter Dowland confessed his own Catholic sympathies, yet at home and abroad worked for eminent Protestant families and royalty. The last record we have of him as a performer dates from May of 1625 when he played at the funeral of King James I — a fitting finale to a remarkable composer of that remarkable age.Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Dowland (1563-1626): Melancholy Galliard/Allemande; Ronn McFarlane, lute; Dorian 90148

SynopsisIn 1940, choreographer Léonide Massine, approached composer Paul Hindemith, with the idea of having him arrange pieces by 19th century Romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber into a ballet score. At first Hindemith was intrigued, but Massine wanted straight arrangements and Hindemith wanted to write something original in the spirit of Weber, so the ballet idea was scrapped. Oh well, what Hindemith finally did come up with turned out to be one of his most successful and popular orchestral works, Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, which received its premiere performance on today’s date in 1944 at a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Artur Rodzinski.Now, Hindemith had a reputation for being serious and rather “Germanic,” so The New York Times critic had a little fun with that image of the composer, writing:“Sometimes [Hindemith’s] counterpoint has been as busy and energetic as the works of an automobile — and as meaningless. Sometimes it has been thick and overstuffed in its style. This metamorphosis employs counterpoint as a matter only incidental to the gay development of ideas, and there is sunshine in every nook and cranny of the transparent, debonair score.”Music Played in Today's ProgramPaul Hindemith (1895-1963): Symphonic Metamorphosis; San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt, conductor; London/Decca 421523

SynopsisWhen boomers wax nostalgic about the Kennedy Administration, it’s Lerner & Loewe’s musical Camelot they start to hum. After all, Camelot opened in 1960 just a month after John F. Kennedy was elected, and, a week after his assassination in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy told historian Theodore H. White that they owned the original cast album and liked to play it before retiring at night. She quoted a phrase — “one brief shining moment” —from Camelot’s title song as how she wished his presidency to be remembered.But early in 1961, everyone was looking forward, not backwards. The President-elect had asked Frank Sinatra to help arrange a musical gala to be held on January 19, 1961, the eve of his inauguration, and Leonard Bernstein was tapped to represent classical music. Bernstein had known Kennedy since the mid-1950s, and, after all, they both were Harvard men.As luck would have it, a rare blizzard hit Washington D.C. that night, snarling traffic, and a police escort had to rush Bernstein to the Gala. There was no time for him to change into formal attire, so Bernstein appeared onstage in a hastily-borrowed and much-too-large dress shirt to conduct the world premiere of his Fanfare for JFK.After the premiere of his Fanfare, Bernstein conducted a more familiar wind band standard —Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever.Music Played in Today's ProgramFrederick Loewe (1901-1988): Camelot: Overture; London Promenade Orchestra; Eric Hammerstein, conductor; Reader's Digest 16931Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Fanfare for the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy Jr.; National Symphony Orchestra; Cristoph Eschenbach, conductor; Ondine 1190

SynopsisComposers can be quite superstitious about numbers. Gustav Mahler, for example, was reluctant to assign the number 9 to his song cycle symphony, Das Lied von der Erde, fearing it would turn out to be his last: after all, Beethoven and Bruckner had only completed nine symphonies. Ironically, Mahler did go on to complete a ninth, but died before he could finish work on his tenth.Most American composers have avoided this problem by rarely if ever producing more than one or two symphonies of their own. Naturally there are exceptions.On today’s date in 1963, the Symphony No. 9 of American composer Roy Harris was given its premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, who had commissioned it. Like many other symphonies by Harris, his Symphony No. 9 has a patriotic program, with each movement having a subtitle from either the American Constitution or Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.Harris went on to write thirteen symphonies in all — although, perhaps submitting to a bit of numerological superstition himself — when his symphony No. 13, a bicentennial commission, was first performed in Washington, D.C. in 1976, it was billed as his Symphony No. 14!Music Played in Today's ProgramGustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No. 9; New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Sony 60597Roy Harris (1898-1979): Symphony No. 9; Albany Symphony; David Alan Miller, conductor; Albany 350

SynopsisWhen TIME magazine chose Albert Einstein as their Millennium Person of the Century in 1999, their profile catalogued his achievements in physics and philosophy but made no mention of Einstein’s interest in music — or music’s interest in him. That’s where we come in.In addition to being a brilliant thinker, Einstein was a talented amateur violinist. On this day in 1934, he even performed the second violin part of Bach’s Double Concerto at a private recital in New York to raise money for scientists who had suffered at the hands of Hitler.So, was Einstein any good? After that concert, the Musical America critic wrote, “The press had been asked not to criticize Professor Einstein’s playing. Unofficially, however, they confessed to being impressed. He played, according to their report, as all great artists play, with ‘technique,’ ‘expression’ and a complete absorption in his music.”And Einstein himself has inspired more than a few musical works. The 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass, for example, features a solo violinist dressed as Einstein who wanders in and out of scenes. Music from Glass’s opera was quoted as an in-joke during a TV commercial showing Einstein trying to choose between Coke and Pepsi.Music Played in Today's ProgramPhilip Glass (b. 1937): Cadenza, from Einstein on the Beach; Philip Glass Ensemble; Michael Riesman, conductor; Nonesuch 79323

SynopsisToday marks the anniversary of the creation of a famous classical music nickname, “Les Six” — French for “The Six.” That’s what Parisian music critic Henri Collet dubbed six composers in a magazine article on this day in 1920.Three of the composers Collet named are performed more often these days — Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Francis Poulenc — while the other three composers — George Auric, Louis Durey and the only woman in the group, Germaine Tailleferre — are heard less frequently.Though Tailleferre is counted among the neglected half of Les Six, her music has been having something of a revival lately, perhaps it’s a belated recognition that much of her work remains fresh and appealing. This music is from her Violin Sonata No. 1, composed in 1921 and dedicated to great French violinist Jacques Thibaud.Born near Paris in 1892, Tailleferre was a prodigy with an astounding memory. Erik Satie proclaimed her his “musical daughter,” and she was also close friends with Maurice Ravel. Two unhappy marriages and resulting financial insecurity inhibited Tailleferre’s talent in later years, and dimmed her fame, but she continued to compose and teach until her death at 91, in 1983.Music Played in Today's ProgramGermaine Tailleferre (1892-1983): Violin Sonata No. 1; Renate Eggebrecht, violin; Angela Gassenhuber, piano; Troubadisc 1406

SynopsisFrench composer Olivier Messiaen played the piano part in one of the strangest premiere performances of the 20th century on today’s date in 1941. As the composer put it, “My Quartet for the End of Time was conceived and written during my captivity as a prisoner of war and received its premiere at Stalag 8a in Görlitz, Silesia.”One of the four performers was cellist Etienne Pasquier, who offered this recollection: “We were captured at Verdun. Our entire company was initially held in a large field near Nancy. Among our comrades was a clarinetist who had been allowed to keep his clarinet. Messiaen started to write a piece for him … as he was the only person there with an instrument. [That] solo was later to become the third movement of the quartet. The clarinetist practiced in the open field and I acted as his music stand. The piece seemed too difficult … and he complained about it to Messiaen. ’You’ll manage,’ was Messiaen’s only reply.”Pasquier said the quartet’s premiere was a great success and led to the release of Messiaen and his three colleagues, because the Germans assumed — wrongly, it turns out — that the four musicians must have all been non-combatants.Music Played in Today's ProgramOlivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Quartet for the End of Time; Tashi; RCA/BMG 7835

SynopsisSome instruments seem to have all the luck — or at least all the concertos!If you play piano or violin, you have hundreds of concertos to choose from. But if your instrument is the harp — and you will forgive the pun — the pluckings are slim.This hardly seems fair to one of mankind’s oldest instruments, depicted on murals from ancient Egypt and traditionally associated with King David in the Bible. In the 18th and early 19th century, there are a handful of great classical harp concertos by Handel, Mozart, and others. In the 20th century, things start to improve a little, with modern concertos by Gliere, Pierne, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Rodrigo.On today’s date in 1955, we’re happy to report, one of the finest modern works for harp and orchestra had its premiere performance when harpist Nicanor Zabeleta premiered a new harp concerto by prolific Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos — with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by the composer.One more recent addition came in 2000 from the pen of Finnish composer Einojuhanni Rautavaara. His harp concerto was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, who premiered the new work with Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä and Kathy Kienzle as soloist.Music Played in Today's ProgramHeitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959): Harp Concerto; Catherine Michel, harp; Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra; Antonio de Almeida, conductor; Philips 462 179Einojuhani Rautavaraa (1928-2016): Harp Concerto; Marielle Nordmann, harp; Helsinki Philharmonic; Leif Segerstam, conductor; Ondine 978

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1945, Sergei Prokofiev conducted the Moscow Philharmonic in the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 5. Written when the tide of World War II was turning in the favor of the Allies, the premiere came one day after news reached Moscow that Soviet troops had begun a successful counteroffensive against the Germans.The symphony proved to be one of Prokofiev’s strongest works, and in the context of 1945 must have had an incredible emotional impact. It was a tremendous success in Moscow, and also in Boston, where Serge Koussevitzky conducted the American premiere later that same year. Prokofiev even made the cover of Time magazine. As musicologist Michael Steinberg put it, “No question, the Fifth was a repertory piece from day one.”How sad, then, to realize how soon things would change for the man who wrote it. In three years Prokofiev — along with Shostakovich and others — would be denounced by Soviet authorities for supposedly straying from the party line. In five years, when the Red Scare in America turned our one-time Ally into public enemy No. 1, conductor Maurice Abravenel received a death threat when the Utah Symphony announced the Salt Lake City premiere of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.Music Played in Today's ProgramSergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Symphony No. 5; St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Yuri Temirkanov, conductor; RCA/BMG 60984

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1961, a new work by German-born American composer Ingolf Dahl received its premiere performance in Los Angeles. Sinfonietta for Concert Band was commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association, who were eager to expand band repertory with major new works of the highest quality.Dahl had emigrated to the United States in 1938 and settled in Los Angeles, where he met and befriended Igor Stravinsky, who gave him some practical advice about composing for wind band. “You must approach this task as if it had always been your greatest wish to write for these instruments,” suggested Stravinsky, “as if all your life you had wanted to write a work for just such a group." “This was good advice,” recalled Dahl. “[And] after the work was done that it turned out to be indeed the piece that I had wanted to write all my life. I wanted it to be a substantial piece that, without apologies for its medium, would take its place alongside symphonic works of any other kind.” Dahl and the College Band Directors National Association must have been pleased to see their Sinfonietta rapidly become an established classic of the wind band repertory.Music Played in Today's ProgramIngolf Dahl (1912-1970): Sinfonietta; DePaul University Wind Ensemble; Donald DeRoche, conductor; Albany 435

SynopsisAs 1999 drew to a close, it was a matter of debate whether — chronologically speaking — the new Millennium really began in 2000 or 2001. As far as the musical world was concerned, why wait? The shift from 1999 to 2000 occasioned hundreds of celebratory concerts and special commissions worldwide.While not originally intended as a Millennium commission, a major new work by American composer John Adams had its European premiere in December of 1999 and its American debut in January of 2000. Years before, the San Francisco Symphony had asked Adams to write a big work for their chorus and orchestra. Then came a request from the Châtelet Theater in Paris for a new opera. Adams combined both requests, folding in a dream of his own. As he put it, “I wanted to write a Messiah.” The result was El Niño, a Nativity oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra that could be performed as either a concert hall piece or a fully staged theatrical work.Kent Nagano conducted El Niño’s world premiere in Paris on December 15, 1999, and the same cast and conductor gave its American premiere in San Francisco on today’s date in 2000.Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Adams (b. 1947): excerpts from El Niño; soloists; Kent Nagano, conductor; Nonesuch 79634

SynopsisFranz Berwald was a Swede who lived in the early 19th century and who made his living first as an orthopedic surgeon and later as the manager of a sawmill and glass factory. But these days, nobody cares very much about all that. Berwald’s true passion was music, and in addition to operas and concertos, he wrote four symphonies, only one of which was performed during his lifetime, and that to mixed reviews.Berwald spent some years in Vienna, where a few of his works were performed. After Berwald’s death in 1868, the crusty, conservative Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick appraised him as “a man stimulating, witty, prone to ‘bizarrerie,’ [but who] as a composer lacked creative power and fantasy.”Oddly enough, it’s exactly Berwald’s “bizarrerie,” or amusing strangeness, that appealed to later generations — and likewise his creative power and fantasy. For many music lovers today, Berwald ranks as Sweden’s first great Romantic composer and symphonist.This did not happen overnight, however. Berwald’s Symphony No. 3, (Singulière), was written in 1845, but had to wait 37 years after the death of its composer for its first public performance in Stockholm on today’s date in 1905.Music Played in Today's ProgramFranz Berwald (1796-1868): Symphony No. 3 (Singulière); Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra; Okko Kamu, conductor; Naxos 8.553052

SynopsisOn this day in 1947, Pierre Monteux led the San Francisco Symphony in the premiere performance of the Symphony No. 2 by American composer Roger Sessions. Prior to this work, Sessions had written in a more broadly accessible style, but this new symphony proved more dissonant and challenging. At the time, Sessions cautiously stated, “Tonality is complex and even problematical nowadays.” For their part, the San Francisco audiences found the new work both complex and problematical. There was hardly any applause. Musical America’s critic wrote that Sessions “seemed to express the epitome of all that is worst in the life and thinking of today.”Ouch! Today, Sessions’ Symphony No. 2 doesn’t sound all that challenging, but performances of this or any of his symphonies remain rare events.While Sessions’ symphony was being panned in San Francisco, a new stage work by expatriate German composer Kurt Weill opened to rave reviews in New York. Kurt Weill’s Street Scene opened on Broadway on this same date in 1947. “[It’s] the best contemporary musical production to grace any American stage,” enthused the Musical America critics. “We cannot imagine that an audience from any walk of life would not enjoy it. It has everything.” Music Played in Today's ProgramRoger Sessions (1896-1985): Symphony No. 2; San Francisco Symphony; Herbert Blomstedt, conductor; London 443 376Kurt Weill (1900-1950): Act 1 Intro from Street Scene; Scottish Opera Orchestra; John Mauceri, conductor; London 433 371

When you were a kid, did your mother warn you about playing with sharp sticks?Well, conductors play with sharp sticks, and it can prove dangerous. In 1976, while conducting Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, conductor Georg Solti managed to stab himself in the forehead with his own baton during the third act, causing quite a bloody mess. It’s said Solti had already broken two batons during Acts I and II but managed not to hurt anyone. Before batons came into common use in the early 19th century, musicians just used their hands or a rolled-up piece of music paper to keep time.Unfortunately for him, Italian-born French Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully chose to employ a long, heavy staff when he was conducting. He was thumping out the beat during a performance of his own Te Deum on today’s date in 1687, and, like Solti, must have gotten carried away and accidentally smashed the staff into his toe. He continued conducting, but an abscess soon developed in the self-inflicted wound, followed by gangrene which spread through his lower leg and Lully died a few weeks later.Music Played in Today's ProgramJean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687): Galliarde from Trios pour le Coucher du Roi; Chicago Baroque Ensemble; Cedille 043

SynopsisThe fairytale opera Sadko by Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov had its first performance in Moscow on today’s date in 1898. This opera is still staged in Russia, but rarely anywhere else — even though some of its wonderful melodies have proven extremely popular. One of the opera’s arias had a tune so catchy that it was set to English words as “Play That Song of India Again” and became a best-selling Paul Whiteman recording in the 1920s. In the big-band era, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Song of India even made the American hit parade.The line between popular culture and classical music has often been blurred — and seldom so wickedly as in the works of American composer Michael Daugherty. Take his Le Tombeau de Liberace, for example. Now, in classical music terminology, a “tombeau” is a memorial tribute to an eminent musician or composer — in this case, it’s Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the flamboyant, rhinestone-encrusted pianist and showman who died in 1987.Many of Daugherty’s other concert pieces have also been inspired by pop icons, real and imaginary, ranging from Desi Arnaz to Superman.Music Played in Today's ProgramNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Song of India from Sadko (arr Kreisler); Gil Shaham, violin; Akira Eguchi, piano; DG 447 640Michael Daugherty (b. 1954): Candelabra Rhumba from Le Tombeau de Liberace; Paul Crossley, piano; London Sinfonietta; Markus Stenz, conductor; Argo 458 145