Composers Datebook

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1961, French composer Francis Poulenc was in Boston for the premiere of his new choral work. It was a setting of a Latin text “Gloria in excelsis Deo“ or “Glory to God in the Highest.”These days Poulenc’s Gloria is regarded as one of his finest works, but back in 1961, some critics shook their heads and tut-tutted about the perceived irreverence of sections of the new work which to them came off as too light-hearted and out of place in a presumably “serious” religious work. Poulenc’s setting of the Latin text “Laudamus te, Benedicimus te” (We praise you, we bless you), seemed downright giddy to those critics.In his defense, Poulenc said: “I was thinking when I composed it of these frescoes by Gozzoli with angels sticking out their tongues, and of Benedictine [clergy] I once saw playing soccer.”In retrospect, it seems odd that anyone should have been surprised by the coexistence of the serious and the silly in the music of Poulenc, since both moods had been evident in his music for decades. In 1950, critic Claude Rostand described the composer as “A lover of life, mischievous and good-hearted, tender and impertinent, melancholy and serenely mystical, half monk — and half delinquent.”Music Played in Today's ProgramFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963): Gloria; Tanglewood Festival Chorus; Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seiji Owaza, conductor; DG 427304

SynopsisEach January, Martin Luther King Day is observed on the third Monday of the month, and in 2009, MLK day fell on January 19.To celebrate, the director of the Boston Children’s Chorus commissioned and premiered a new work from the American composer Trevor Weston. Rather than set words spoken by King, Weston took a different course:“[Dr. King’s] speeches speak to … the beauty of living in a society where the truth of equality is actually realized and often demonstrate a broad historical perspective, so I celebrated King by using texts from the African Saint Augustine and the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar,” he said. From Saint Augustine’s Confessions, Weston includes the line, “O Truth, you give hearing to all who consult you … you answer clearly, but all men do not hear you,” and from a Dunbar work, The Poet, this line: “He sang of life, serenely sweet/With now and then a deeper note.”Musically, Weston echoes works both medieval and modern, specifically the 12th century composer Hildegard von Bingen and the 20th century composer Morton Feldman, with a variation on the spiritual “Wade in the Water” tossed in for good measure.The result is Truth Tones, a haunting, inward-looking choral work. Music Played in Today's ProgramTrevor Weston: Truth Tones; Trinity Youth Chorus; Julian Wachner, conductor; Acis 72290

SynopsisOn today's date in 1958, Leonard Bernstein asked, “What does music mean?” He posed the question to an audience of kids assembled at Carnegie Hall for the first of his Young People’s Concerts — but since the concert was televised, it was a question he posed as well to a nationwide audience of all ages.That 1958 concert opened with Rossini’s William Tell Overture — music that meant The Lone Ranger to TV audiences back then, or as Bernstein put it: “Cowboys, bandits, horses, the Wild West.”But, Bernstein argued: “Music is never about anything. Music just is. Music is notes and sounds put together in such a way that we get pleasure out of listening to them, and that's all it is.” Bernstein then demonstrated how the same music could plausibly be the soundtrack to any number of different stories.Bernstein concluded his first Young People’s Concert with Ravel’s La Valse and these comments: “Every once in a while we have feelings so deep and so special that we have no words for them. Music names them for us, only in notes instead of in words. It’s all in the way music moves and that movement can tell us more about the way we feel than a million words can.”Music Played in Today's ProgramGiaocchino Rossini (1792-1868): William Tell Overture; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 48226Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): La Valse; New York Philharmonic; Pierre Boulez, conductor; CBS/Sony 45842

SynopsisIn Rochester, New York, on today’s date in 1957, there was a concert at the Eastman School of Music, conducted by the school’s famous director Howard Hanson, showcasing new works composed by Eastman graduate students. Included on the program was a brand-new Trombone Concerto by George Walker.Back then, Walker was better known as a remarkable pianist. He was a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, after all, a student of Rudolf Serkin, and an impressive recording exists from his Eastman days of Walker as soloist in the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. But for Walker, as an African-American, a successful career as a concert pianist in a still-segregated America was not possible — it would be 10 years before Andre Watts broke that taboo, remember, so he opted for a musical career as a composer and educator, and proved remarkably accomplished at both.  Walker’s early Trombone Concerto was a hit from the start. “The composer evidently had a soloist of superior ability in mind in writing this difficult and complex work,” wrote a reviewer at the premiere. “It is music of sound and fury, with lots of dissonance and imaginative drive. Soloist and composer shared in prolonged applause.”Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Walker (1922-2018): Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra; Denis Wick, trombone; London Symphony; Paul Freeman, conductor; in Sony Black Composers Series CD set 19075862152

SynopsisIn 1916, Imperial Russia was still using the old Julian calendar. In Russia, as Hamlet might have put it, “time was out of joint,” lagging 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used everywhere else.Well, Saint Petersburg’s January 16 might have Paris’s January 29, but on that date Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre premiered a wild, decidedly forward-looking orchestral work with its composer, Sergei Prokofiev, conducting.The music had been commissioned in 1914 by another Russian, the Paris-based ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who had asked Prokofiev for “a ballet on a Russian fairy tale or a primitive prehistoric theme,” hoping for something along the lines of Igor Stravinsky’s colorful Firebird or scandalous Rite of Spring, both earlier Diaghilev commissions. Thinking of those two successful ballets perhaps, Prokofiev set to work on one set in ancient Russia about a forest princess rescued from an evil ogre by a Scythian prince, with a big orgy of evil spirits tossed in as well just to spice things up. But Diaghilev nixed the ballet even before Prokofiev had finished it, so its composer reworked the music into a wild concert hall score, Scythian Suite. Even today it remains — for some — a strongly spiced cup of Russian tea!Music Played in Today's ProgramSergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Scythian Suite; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 447 419

SynopsisIn the fall of 1784, Mozart and his wife moved into an elegant apartment near St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. The house belonged to the Camesina brothers, whose father made ornamental rococo plasterwork, and the ceiling of one of the larger apartments in the house was decorated in a lavish style as a kind of show room for prospective clients.In that apartment on today’s date in 1785, Haydn heard a few of the new string quartets Mozart had recently completed and would eventually dedicate to the older composer. It’s likely Mozart performed the viola part on that occasion.A month later, when Mozart’s father paid a visit to Vienna, the rest of the new quartets were performed, again with Haydn present. That was the occasion that Haydn turned to him and said: “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.”It was probably the most deeply appreciated compliment Mozart ever received, but one the following evening wasn't too shabby either. After a performance of one of his Piano Concertos, his majesty the Austrian emperor waved to Wolfgang as he left the stage and called out: “Bravo, Mozart!”Music Played in Today's ProgramWolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): String Quartet No. 14; Juilliard Quartet CBS/Sony 45826Wolfgang Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 18; Richard Goode, piano; Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Nonesuch 79439

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1900, Tosca, a new opera by Giacomo Puccini had its premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Rome was, in fact, the opera’s setting and those in the audience would have instantly recognized the real-life landmarks depicted on stage.Puccini composed Tosca at the height of the “verismo” or “realism” craze in opera. It might seem downright silly that a theatrical form as unreal and stylized as opera could ever be described as “realistic” – but the idea was to depict “a slice of real life” – even if that slice includes melodramatic characters like a sadistic, lecherous police chief and a beautiful opera diva he lusts for.To be as realistic as possible, Puccini visited Rome to listen to the early morning church bells from the ramparts of the Castel Sant’Angelo, the setting of his opera’s third act and to consult with a Roman priest on the details of the liturgy for the “Te Deum” that concludes Act I.Some early audiences for Tosca thought Puccini had taken this realism thing way too far. One proper British reviewer wrote: “Those who were present were little prepared for the revolting effects produced by musically illustrating torture ... or the dying kicks of a murdered scoundrel.”Music Played in Today's ProgramGiacomo Puccini (1858-1924): Tosca; Soloists and Philharmonia Orchestra; Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor; DG 431 775

SynopsisToday’s date in 1904 marks the birthday of Richard Addinsell, a versatile British musician who became one of the most famous film score composers of his generation.Addinsell was born in London, studied music at the Royal College of Music, and pursued additional studies in Berlin and Vienna before heading off to America in 1933 for some practical education at Hollywood film studios. He put both his theoretical and practical learning to good use when he returned to England, where he began composing for a series of successful British movies, like the Oscar-winning 1939 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.Addinsell also became a popular songwriter and accompanist for British comediennes and cabaret singers of the day.But Addinsell is best known as the composer of the Warsaw Concerto, a piano concerto consciously modeled on the big Romantic scores of Rachmaninoff. This music originally appeared in the 1941 British adventure film Dangerous Moonlight, retitled Suicide Squadron when it was released in the U.S. in 1942.After that mega-hit, Addinsell’s fluent and versatile writing continued to grace a goodly number of Post-War British films and TV dramatizations, ranging from historical epics to psychological thrillers, gritty “slice-of-life” dramas, and whimsical, light-hearted comedies.Addinsell died in London at 73 in 1977.Music Played in Today's ProgramRichard Addinsell (1904-1977): Goodbye, Mr. Chips; BBC Concert Orchestra; Kenneth Alwyn, conductor; Marco Polo 8.223732Richard Addinsell (1904-1977): Warsaw Concerto; Cristina Ortiz, piano; Royal Philharmonic; Moseh Atzmon, conductor; London 414 348

SynopsisComposers and publishers don’t always see eye to eye. Simrock, the German publisher of Dvořák’s music, irritated the patriotic Czech composer by issuing his scores with his first name printed in its Germanic form “Anton” rather than its Czech form “Antonín.” They finally came up with a compromise: Simrock abbreviated Dvorak’s first name, printing it as “A-N-T-period” on the music’s title page: Germans could read that as “Anton” and Czechs as “Antonín.” Everyone was happy.Simrock would also have liked Dvořák to stick to writing small-scale chamber works — which sold well — rather than large-scale symphonic works — which didn’t.“You counsel me that I should write small works, but this is very difficult … At the moment my head is full of large ideas and I will have to do as dear Lord wishes,” he wrote in 1891. A few years later, he would make Simrock very happy by sending them some large- and small-scale works that would sell tremendously well, including his New World Symphony and American String Quartet … plus this music — an American String Quintet published by Simrock as Dvořák’s Op. 97.Dvořák’s quintet was composed in Spillville, Iowa, in the summer of 1893 and was first heard at Carnegie Hall in New York on today’s date in 1894.Music Played in Today's ProgramAntonín Dvořák (1841-1904): American String Quintet; Smetana Quartet; Josef Suk, viola; Denon 72507

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1998, the Lark Quartet gave the first performance of the String Quartet No. 2 by American composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Like much of his music, the new quartet drew upon an eclectic variety of influences.As he put it: “My String Quartet No. 2 uses elements of Renaissance and Baroque dance music and dance forms as its basis and inspiration. For years I’ve played various Bach suites and pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book at the piano for my own pleasure, and I suspected for some time that their influence would eventually show up in my own work.”The Lark Quartet had commissioned Kernis’ String Quartet No. 1, and, like the composer, were over the moon when they learned No. 2 had won the Pulitzer Prize for music. Just three months after its premiere, he got the news by phone as he was headed to the airport to catch a flight to Spain. “I haven’t had a martini in years, but that’s sort of what it felt like,” he recalled. Kernis’ String Quartet No. 2 was a triple commission from Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Ohio University, and The Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, and was dedicated to Linda Hoeschler, the former Executive Director of the American Composers Forum.Music Played in Today's ProgramAaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960): String Quartet No. 2 (musica instrumentalis); The Lark Quartet; Arabesque 6727

SynopsisIn January of 1939, famous jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman was playing each night at New York’s Paramount Theater. On today’s date that year, he also appeared on the stage of Carnegie Hall.The occasion was the American premiere of a new chamber trio by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, commissioned by Goodman at the suggestion of Bartok’s compatriot, violinist Joseph Sizgeti. The work was billed as a two-movement “Rhapsody” for clarinet, violin and piano.Now, in 1939 Goodman was at the peak of his popularity with the swing-crazed youth of America, and the New York Times music critic felt the need to write: “There is no indication that Bartok wrote the clarinet part for Benny’s clarinet, so jitterbugs reading this review have been simply wasting their time. The work is as Hungarian as goulash, and Mr. Goodman was artist enough to restrain himself from any insinuation of swing. Indeed, considering that he had probably left the stage of the Paramount Theatre some minutes before he appeared on that of Carnegie Hall, the purity of his style and the bright neatness of his technique were particularly admirable.”The following year, Goodman and Szigeti recorded the trio with Bartok himself at the piano. For that occasion, Bartok added a third movement, and the resulting work was re-titled Contrasts.Music Played in Today's ProgramBéla Bartók (1881-1945): Contrasts; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Joseph Szigeti, violin; Bela Bartok, piano; CBS/SONY 42227

SynopsisIf the late 18th century is the Classical Age, and the 19th The Romantic, then perhaps we should dub our time “The Eclectic Age” of music. These days, composers can — and do — pick and choose from a wide variety of styles.American composer William Bolcom was loath to rule anything out when he approached the task of setting William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience to music. Bolcom calls for a large orchestra, multiple choruses, and more than a dozen vocal soloists versed in classical, pop, folk, country, and operatic styles. There are echoes of jazz, reggae, gospel, ragtime, country and rock idioms as well.As Bolcom put it: “At every point Blake used his whole culture, past and present, high-flown and vernacular, as sources for his many poetic styles. All I did was use the same stylistic point of departure Blake did in my musical settings.”The massive work received its premiere performance in Stuttgart, Germany, on today’s date in 1984.Most of the work was completed between 1973 and 1982, after Bolcom joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and it was there that the work received its American premiere a few months following its world premiere in Germany.Music Played in Today's ProgramWilliam Bolcom (b. 1938): Songs of Innocence and of Experience Soloists; Choirs; University of Michigan School of Music Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Naxos 8.559216/18

SynopsisIn 1935 Aaron Copland finished a new orchestral work that was to be premiered by the Minneapolis Symphony and its young conductor Eugene Ormandy.The work, Statements for Orchestra, consisted of six short movements, each with a descriptive title, namely: Militant, Cryptic, Dogmatic, Subjective, Jingo and Prophetic. The Jingo movement alludes to the popular tune Sidewalks of New York — where Copland completed the orchestration of his new score.The last two movements were premiered by the Minneapolis Symphony early in 1936, first on an NBC radio broadcast, then on one of the orchestra’s subscription concerts. The conductor, however, was not Ormandy but rather Dimitri Mitropoulos, who would become the Music Director of the Minneapolis Symphony the following year. And it was Mitropoulos who would lead the first complete performance of all six of Copland’s Statements on today’s date in 1942 during a concert by the New York Philharmonic.The new piece got good reviews, and Copland quoted with pride one given by his friend and colleague Virgil Thomson, which called the music “succinct and stylish, cleverly written and very, very personal.”Much to his surprise this music never really caught on with orchestras or audiences. “To my disappointment, Statements remains one of my lesser-known scores,” Copland wrote. Music Played in Today's ProgramAaron Copland (1900-1990): Statements; London Symphony; Aaron Copland, conductor; Sony 47232

SynopsisAmerican composer Ned Rorem liked to classify music as being either French or German — by “French,” he meant music that is sensuous, economical and unabashedly superficial; by “German,” he meant music that strives to be brainy, complex and impenetrably deep.On today’s date the Boston Symphony gave the premiere performances of two important 20th century piano concertos.The first, by Francis Poulenc, had its premiere under the baton of Charles Munch in 1950, with the composer at the piano. Poulenc’s concerto is a light, entertaining with no pretension to profundity. It is quintessentially “French” according to Rorem’s classification.The second Piano Concerto, by American composer Elliott Carter, had its Boston premiere in 1967, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, with soloist Jacob Lateiner. The concerto was written in Berlin in the mid-1960s when the Wall dividing that city was still new. He said he composed it in a studio near an American target range, and one commentator hears the sounds of machine guns in the work’s second movement. Carter compared woodwind solos in the same movement to the advice given by three friends of the long-suffering Job in the Bible.Needless to say, Rorem would emphatically classify Carter’s concerto as “German” to the max!Music Played in Today's ProgramFrancis Poulenc (1899-1963): Piano Concerto; Pascal Roge, piano; Philharmonia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor; London 436 546Elliott Carter (1908-2012): Piano Concerto; Ursula Oppens, piano; SWF Symphony; Michael Gielen, conductor; Arte Nova 27773

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1932, Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Piano Left Hand received its public premiere in Vienna. It was one of several concertos for piano left hand commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a wealthy Austrian pianist who lost his right arm during World War I. He also commissioned concertos from Richard Strauss, Prokofiev, Korngold, and Britten.In the fall of 1931, Ravel presented Wittgenstein with the score of his new concerto, and together they gave it a private read-through with Ravel playing the orchestra part on one piano, and Wittgenstein the solo part on another. At first he was not impressed and offended Ravel by suggesting a few changes, which Ravel flatly refused to make. “Only after I had studied the concerto carefully did I realize what a great work it was,” he said. Wittgenstein performed the premiere with the Vienna Symphony led by Robert Heger.A few days later, on January 14th that same year, Ravel himself conducted the premiere of his other piano concerto, this one written for the two hands of French pianist Marguerite Long. In stark contrast to the brooding Concerto for Wittgenstein, the Concerto for Long is light-hearted, with a blues-y slow movement inspired by the Harlem jazz sampled by Ravel during a visit to New York in 1928.Music Played in Today's ProgramMaurice Ravel (1875-1937): Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Leon Fleisher, piano; Baltimore Symphony; Sergui Commissiona, conductor; Philips 456 775Piano Concerto in G Krystian Zimerman, piano; Cleveland Orchestra; Pierre Boulez, conductor; DG 449 213

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1961, the New York City Ballet presented a new work scored by 35-year old composer Gunther Schuller, who was conducting the pit orchestra. On stage, in the middle of the green- and purple-garbed dancers, were four additional musicians: namely, the Modern Jazz Quartet, decked out in their usual white ties and tails. Schuller’s score, Variants, was an attempt to fuse modern music and jazz into a style he labeled “Third Stream.””I had this idea of the First and Second streams [classical and jazz] getting married and giving birth to a child, which is the Third stream,” recalled Schuller years later, ruefully noting that today one would have to call it the “10,000th stream” as composers have since introduced a multitude of ethnic, folk and vernacular music into the mix as well.But back in 1961, the idea attracted a lot of press — not all favorable. The New Yorker, for example, thought it odd that the MJQ “sat like a quartet of hunters in a duck blind, anxiously shooting out carefully calculated notes.” Time magazine wrote: “Schuller’s score was the essence of the cool — spare, fragmentary, but resembling jazz only in its rhythmic drive.” If this was the Third Stream, the reviewer concluded, “it never seemed to be flowing anywhere.”Music Played in Today's ProgramGunther Schuller (1925-2015): Conversation; Modern Jazz Quartet and ensemble; Gunther Schuller, conductor; Wounded Bird 1345

SynopsisIn 1885, 20-year old violinist Franz Kneisel came to America to become concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. That same year he formed the Kneisel Quartet, the first professional string quartet in America. For the next 30 years, their concerts were major musical events.On today’s date in 1894, this review of a Kneisel Quartet performance appeared in the Boston Globe:“It was one of the most interesting concerts ever given in Chickering Hall. First on the program was the Dvořák Quartet in F Major, which has never before been played in public. It was given a private performance in New York recently, and the composer was so pleased with the playing of the Kneisels that he gave them the manuscript which they used last night. This composition was written last summer and … the melodious parts strongly recall the type of music that the composer says he had in mind when he wrote the quartet … [The performance] was exceptionally good, and the listeners were stirred to a high pitch of enthusiasm. It is safe to say that the Dvořák quartet is a success.”Not a bad “morning after” review for the premiere of Dvorák’s famous American String Quartet. Music Played in Today's ProgramAntonín Dvořák (1841-1904): String Quartet No. 12 (American); Keller Quartet; Warner 44355

SynopsisOkay, raise your hand if you have ever stayed up til midnight to attend the premiere showing of a new film — extra points if you attended in costume as a Hogwarts student! Well, opera fans are no slouches, either. On December 31, 1913, Wagner fanatics arrived at the opera house in Budapest in time to attend a performance of Wagner’s five-hour opera Parsifal that began at one minute after midnight!January 1, 1914 was the date on which the official copyright protection for Wagner’s last opera ran out. Before then, staged performances of Parsifal were forbidden to take place anywhere else than Wagner’s own festival theater in Bayreuth, Germany.Parsifal had premiered there in 1882, but since international copyright laws proved unenforceable in many countries, some opera companies just ignored them. The Met in New York, for example, extensively renovated its stage machinery for the sole purpose of staging Parsifal on Christmas Eve in 1903, and there were also pirated pre-1914 performances in Canada, the Netherlands, Monaco, and Switzerland.One interesting note about that midnight Parsifal in Budapest — the conductor was 25-year-old musical wizard Fritz Reiner, who would eventually be waving his wand — okay, his baton — to lead the Chicago Symphony.Music Played in Today's ProgramRichard Wagner (1813-1883): Parsifal excerpts; Welsh National Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Reginald Goodall, conductor; EMI 65665

SynopsisOn New Year’s Eve, 1948, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the first performance of the Symphony No. 5 by the American composer George Antheil. Now, in his youth, Antheil was something of a wild man, composing a Ballet Mechanicque for a percussion ensemble that included electric bells, sirens and airplane propellers. It earned him a reputation, and Antheil titled his colorful 1945 autobiography what many called him: The Bad Boy of Music.But the great Depression and World War II changed Antheil’s attitude. Rather than write for small, avant-garde audiences, Antheil found work in Hollywood, with enough time left over for an occasional concert work, such as his Symphony No. 5. In program notes for the premiere, Antheil wrote: “The object of my creative work is to disassociate myself from the passé modern schools and create a music for myself and those around me which has no fear of developed melody, tonality, or understandable forms.“Contemporary critics were not impressed. One called Antheil’s new Symphony “nothing more than motion-picture music of a very common brand” and another lamented its “triviality and lack of originality,” suggesting it sounded like warmed-over Prokofiev. The year 2000 marked the centennial of Antheil’s birth, and only now, after years of neglect, both Antheil’s radical scores from the 1920s and his more conservative work from the 1940s is being performed, recorded and re-appraised.Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Antheil (1900-1959): Symphony No. 5 (Joyous); Frankfurt Radio Symphony; Hugh Wolff, conductor; CPO 999 706

SynopsisOn this date in 1905, Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár conducted the first performance of his new operetta, The Merry Widow. He was sure it would be a success, but others did not share his confidence. The show’s librettist, lawyer in tow, urged him to cancel the premiere, and the nervous theater manager banned Viennese reporters from dress rehearsals, fearing bad advance press.After a lukewarm debut at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, The Merry Widow moved to a smaller, suburban theater, where it suddenly caught on. Within a year it had become a sensational hit throughout Europe.Lehár’s contemporary, Gustav Mahler, was a Merry Widow fan, although he sent his wife, Alma, to buy the music rather than risk the embarrassment of having the director of Vienna’s Imperial Opera House seen buying such a shamelessly “pop” score.Ironically, another great fan of Lehár’s music was Adolf Hitler. Despite the fact that his wife and many of his professional associates were Jewish, his music continued to be performed in Nazi Germany. He was 68 when Austria became part of the German Reich, and continued to conduct in Vienna and Berlin.Lehár’s family was spared, but many of his former associates were forced into exile. Others were not so lucky: In 1942, Louis Treumann, who first sang The Merry Widow Waltz at the 1905 premiere in Vienna, died in the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.Music Played in Today's ProgramFranz Lehár (1870-1948): The Merry Widow excerpts; Budapest Philharmonic; Janos Sandor, conductor; Laserlight 15046