60 Copyright 2024 Minnesota Public Radio Composers Datebook en https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/composers-datebook American Public Media episodic No false American Public Media podcasts@americanpublicmedia.org https://img.apmcdn.org/1486eb29dcac7f11a5275eaa0d424ba7c6b9afc7/uncropped/8588a0-20210225-composers-datebook-2000.jpg Composers Datebook Harbison's 'Flight into Egypt' 01FK1S681KZ9G9DN4YENX0Y3VJ American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1986, at the New England Conservatory of Music, a new choral work by American composer John Harbison received its premiere performance. The Flight into Egypt was scored for soprano, baritone, chorus and chamber orchestra, and would win the Pulitzer Prize for Music the following year.


The text for Harbison’s cantata is taken from the Gospel of Matthew describing the Holy Family’s escape into Egypt after the birth of Jesus and King Herod’s subsequent slaughter of all newborn male children in an attempt to kill this prophesied threat to his throne.


The Flight began in a conversation with colleagues about Christmas texts. We talked about counseling experiences during Christmas season at Emmanuel Church, Boston, where we were all involved as musicians — a time when need, isolation, and anxiety increase. We agreed that the darker side of Christmas needs representation, especially now, as the distance widens between the privileged and the less fortunate,” Harbison recalled.


“At the beginning of The Flight into Egypt, is an oboe melody, exotic and forlorn, imitated by the other reed players,” Harbison continued. “The piece constantly hides and reveals its loyalty to the first oboe melody that guides the whole journey.”


Music Played in Today's Program


John Harbison (b. 1938): Flight into Egypt; Cantata Singers and Ensemble; David Hoose, conductor; New World 80395

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Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Meredith Monk 01FK1S3NM91NSKJYFZPE7VC1WT American Public Media Synopsis

American composer, singer, dancer and choreographer Meredith Monk was born in New York City on today’s date in 1942.


Monk attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied theatre, dance and music. After graduating in 1964, she began performing pieces that combined gesture and movement with vocal and visual elements. Around that time, a number of contemporary composers had begun stretching the boundaries of instrumental music, but, as she recalls, there wasn’t much happening regarding extended vocal techniques.


Monk began testing how she could stretch the range, timbre and character of her own singing, inventing a vocabulary based on her particular voice — as she explains it, just as a dancer would develop a vocabulary of movement particular to their body.


Considering her long-standing interest in integrating music with movement and visuals, opera seemed a natural outlet for Monk’s talents, and in 1993 she premiered a full-length opera, Atlas.


Atlas was inspired by the life of Alexandra David-Neel, a scientist who was the first Western woman to travel in Tibet. It seemed a natural choice for Monk, for whom exploration and curiosity are so important. “If I knew what I was looking for, it wouldn’t be that interesting,” she said.


Music Played in Today's Program


Meredith Monk (b. 1942): Atlas; Meredith Monk Ensemble; Wayne Hankin, conductor; ECM 1491

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Wed, 20 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Gershwin's last film score 01FK1RZZA0KM5PP8KQARQJYY8W American Public Media Synopsis

In the summer of 1936, the songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin settled their affairs in New York, put their furniture in storage, and flew off to Hollywood to fulfill a contract with the RKO Studios. The Gershwins were to supply music for a series of new movies, some starring an old friend of theirs, dancer Fred Astaire.


In those days the big movie studios moved quickly, and so did the Gershwins. The first film in the contracted series, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as the romantic leads, was Shall We Dance and was completed, scored and released in less than a year.


On today’s date in 1937, RKO Studios released their second Gershwin collaboration, Damsel in Distress. This starred Astaire and Joan Fontaine, and included two songs that would become Gershwin classics: “A Foggy Day in London Town” and “Nice Work if You Can Get It.”


The release of Damsel in Distress, however, must have been a bittersweet event for the friends and family of George Gershwin: it proved to be the last major project Gershwin had completed before his untimely death on July 11 that same year following surgery to remove a brain tumor.


Music Played in Today's Program


George Gershwin (1898-1937): Damsel in Distress Suite (An American in London); (Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, conductor; Philips 434 274

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Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
The Wagners attend a Brahms premiere 01FK1RWRWHV2S6J96NRXJVFMHY American Public Media Synopsis

Falling in love with someone else’s spouse can result in divorce, emotional turmoil, or (in the case of composers) some very Romantic music.


Take the case of Brahms, who for most of his adult life carried a torch for Mrs. Clara Schumann, the wife of his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 was conceived during an especially turbulent period in his relationship with the Schumanns. When finished, Brahms wrote to his publisher, “On the cover you must have a picture, namely a head with a pistol to it. I’ll send you my photograph, and since you like color printing, you can use blue coat, yellow breeches, and top-boots.”


That garb was favored by Young Werther, the Romantic hero in a novel by Goethe, who commits suicide after falling in love with a married woman.


Coincidentally, in the audience for the Viennese premiere of Brahms’ quartet on today’s date in 1875 were Richard and Cosima Wagner. Cosima had run off with Wagner while she was still married to famous conductor Hans von Bulow, but her diary entry for November 18 suggests she didn’t find anything Romantic in Brahms or his music. She wrote, “[Brahms], a red-faced, crude-looking man, his music dry and stilted.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Quartet No. 3; Ames Piano Quartet; Dorian 90217

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Mon, 18 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Hoover for flute and guitar 01FK1QPJ16S1T5BWBKV636SVCY American Public Media Synopsis

The intimate combination of flute and guitar has proven to be an attractive one for a number of composers — and if the composer herself plays the flute, so much the better.


Canyon Echoes, written by the American composer and flutist Katherine Hoover premiered on today’s date in 1991 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van.


Katherine Hoover gave her Canyon Echoes a subtitle: An Apache Folktale.


“This piece was inspired by a book called The Flute Player, a simple and beautifully illustrated retelling of an Apache folktale by Michael Lacapa,” Hoover explained. “It is the story of two young Apaches from different areas of a large canyon. They meet at a Hoop Dance, and dance only with each other. The next day, as the girl works up on the side of the canyon in her father's fields, the boy sits below by a stream and plays his flute for her (flute-playing was a common manner of courtship). She puts a leaf in the stream which flows down to him, so he knows she hears.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Katherine Hoover (1937-2018): Canyon Echoes (Duologue); Susan Morris De Jong, flute; Jeffrey Van, guitar; Gasparo 336

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Sun, 17 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
The Philadelphia Sound 01FK1QJSS316JQEC4NFWKZDR4C American Public Media Synopsis

In the year 1900, German-born conductor Fritz Scheel arranged for two orchestral programs in Philadelphia billed as the Philippines Concerts. These were benefits, as contemporary ads put it: “for the relief of families of the nation’s heroes killed in the Philippines.” The previous year U.S. troops had fought a guerrilla army in the Philippines and had suffered heavy casualties.  


The concerts proved so successful that Philadelphians decided Scheel’s pick-up orchestra should become instead a permanent ensemble, similar to the orchestras of New York and Boston. And so, on today’s date in 1900, the first official concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra took place at the Academy of Music, offering a program of Goldmark, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Weber and Wagner.


During the century that followed, the fame of the Philadelphia Orchestra spread worldwide via recordings made by the orchestra’s famous maestros Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, who gave many U.S. and world premiere performances of works by European and American composers.


In 1940, Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, on the occasion of the premiere of his Symphonic Dances by the Philadelphians, paid the orchestra this compliment: “Today, when I think of composing, my thoughts turn to you, the greatest orchestra in the world.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Act I Prelude, from Die Meistersinger; Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, conductor; CBS 38914


Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Symphonic Dances; Philadelphia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor; London 433 181

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Sat, 16 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Herschel looks up 01FK1QC0E0MRGTJRK12E9VA84Q American Public Media Synopsis

Today is the birthday of a quite remarkable 18th century British composer, Sir William Herschel, who was born in Hannover, Germany on this date in 1738.


Herschel’s father was a regimental oboist, and young William himself eventually joined papa’s regimental band — also as an oboist. In his early 20s he settled in England, was active in Newcastle, Leeds, Halifax and Bath, and in time became a prominent figure on the music scene, attracting the attention of the Royal Family. He composed 24 symphonies and a number of concertos.


In addition to music, Herschel had a passion for astronomy, and, beginning in the 1770s, concentrated more and more of his attention on scientific matters. In 1781, he discovered the planet Uranus, a feat that made him famous throughout Europe. Herschel was named Astronomer Royal to the British crown and given a pension that enabled him to give up music and devote himself entirely to astronomy.


Haydn, during his stay in England, paid Herschel a visit to take a peek through his impressive 40-foot telescope. Herschel was knighted in 1817 and became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1821. He died the following year, in 1822, at 83.


Music Played in Today's Program


William Herschel (1738-1822): Oboe Concerto; Richard Woodhams, oboe; The Mozart Orchestra; Davis Jerome, conductor; Newport Classic 85612


Gustav Holst (1874-1934): Uranus, from The Planets; Philharmonia Orchestra; Simon Rattle, conductor; EMI 9513

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Fri, 15 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Waggoner's Second 01FK1Q8YTWCYT6K28CVQP2R608 American Public Media Synopsis

In fall 1995, American composer Andrew Waggoner received a commission from the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic of the Czech Republic for a new orchestral work, which was premiered on today’s date in 1996.


“I had a symphony in my mind for some time and decided that this was the chance I needed to see it through,” Waggoner wrote.


The resulting work, Waggoner’s Symphony No. 2, opens with a solo for the cello, an elegy, perhaps, for cellist Anna Cholakian, the founding member of the Cassatt Quartet, who had died from cancer while Waggoner was working on the piece.


“Quite unexpectedly, and for the first time in my life as a composer, the piece began to draw from everything around it,” Waggoner wrote, including some recycled elements from his own music, including a setting of one of the Holy Sonnets by 17th century British poet John Donne.


Waggoner was born in New Orleans in 1960, and studied music at the Eastman School and Cornell University. In addition to his composition work, he’s worked as an announcer and producer for public radio stations WXXI in Rochester and WNYC in New York. His Symphony No. 2 was recorded by the same Czech orchestra that premiered it.


Music Played in Today's Program


Andrew Waggoner (b. 1960): Symphony No. 2; Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic; Petr Pololanik, conductor; CRI 884

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Thu, 14 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Disney's 'Fantasia' 01FK1Q43CYAX7PA063SH67SV3Z American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1940, Disney’s animated film Fantasia opened at New York’s Broadway Theater.


Disney’s film was a milestone in cultural crossover, in which classical music — in the person of conductor Leopold Stokowski — shook hands (literally and figuratively) with pop culture — in the person of Mickey Mouse.


It was also a milestone in cinematic sound. For its initial East and West Coast release, the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded nine special tracks, one for each section of the orchestra. These were mixed by Stokowski into a 4-track stereo soundtrack to be played in synchronization with the film on special equipment made by RCA for a multiple-loudspeaker theater installation called “Fantasound.” Three large speakers were positioned behind the projection screen, and no fewer than 65 smaller speakers were placed around the walls of the theater.


The resulting surround-sound was stunning by 1940 standards, but cost $85,000 to set up. After the second full installation at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, “Fantasound” was not employed anywhere else. Instead, eight reduced “Fantasia Road Show” speaker set- ups toured American movie theaters until 1941, when, following the outbreak of World War II, Disney diverted his funds, technology and even Mickey Mouse toward the war effort.


Music Played in Today's Program


Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Mussorgsky and Schubert: excerpts from Fantasia soundtrack; Philadelphia Orchestra; Leopold Stokowski, conductor; Buena Vista 600072

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Wed, 13 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Crumb goes Macro 01FK1Q144R3305PX9V2GS22YTV American Public Media Synopsis

For the ideal performance of Makrokosmos II: Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac, by American composer George Crumb, one should perhaps be outdoors in a remote clearing under a crystalline canopy of stars.


For the record, the premiere performance of Crumb’s suite for amplified piano took place indoors at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on today’s date in 1974, at a recital of new American works given by pianist Robert Miller.


In his program notes, Miller offered these words about Crumb’s Makrokosmos II:


“Each of the 12 pieces is associated with a different sign of the Zodiac, and is written out in a very precise notation, but the music will at times sound … almost improvisatory. The piano has become an orchestra unto itself. There is an enormously wide range of sound, timbre, touch, dynamics, etc.”


One use of quotation by Crumb is beautifully subtle. In the eleventh piece, Litany of the Galactic Bells, the opening music — a shimmering bell effect which recalls the coronation scene from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov — gradually subsides and moves almost imperceptibly into a short excerpt from Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. The effect is somewhat like the changing colors of a prism.”


Music Played in Today's Program


George Crumb (1929-2022): Makrokosmos No. 2 (Laurie Hudicek, piano) Furious Artisans 6805

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Tue, 12 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Bloch's Quintet 01FK1PWQ3EBPKEF9QJ72C49HJ2 American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1923, the League of Composers presented its first chamber concert in New York City. Their stated mission was to present music by living composers whose works represented new trends in music.


Their opening concert included a world premiere: a piano quintet by Swiss composer Ernest Bloch, who was then living in America. While not a radical work, Bloch’s quintet was strong stuff for 1923, and even included some quartertone elements.


The New York Times critic was impressed, but not won over, writing, “To the inevitable question, ‘Do you like it?’ it seems almost impossible to answer, but if pressed I should say, no, not for any fault in the work but simply because of its too apparent determination to be emotionally stirring.”


British critic Ernest Newmann, on the other hand, singled out Bloch’s First Quintet for special praise. “No other piece of chamber music produced in any country during that period can be placed in the same class with it.”


For his part, Bloch said simply, “I write without any regard to please either the so-called ‘ultra-moderns’ or the so-called ‘old-fashioned.’”


Music Played in Today's Program


Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): Piano Quintet No. 1; Portland String Quartet; Paul Posnak, piano; Arabesque 6618

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Mon, 11 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
The historically informed Mahler 01FK14XGFMZYDAVAKHZ0VTRXVH American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the New York Philharmonic in a concert billed as “the first of a series arranged in chronological sequence, comprising the most famous composers from the period of Bach to the present day.”


Mahler’s program included works of Handel, Rameau, Gretry and Haydn, and opened with his own arrangement of music from Bach’s Orchestral Suites.


Now, Bach’s music had been appearing on Philharmonic programs for decades, but some were shocked to see how Mahler presented it. Rather than standing in front of the orchestra with his baton, Mahler led the orchestra seated at the keyboard of a Bach-Klavier (a Steinway piano whose action had been tinkered with to make it sound more like a harpsichord). That bit of “historically informed performance” was something brand new back then.


In a letter to a friend back in Europe, Mahler wrote, “I had great fun recently with a Bach concert, for which I worked out the basso continuo conducting and improvising quite in the style of the old masters … this produced a number of surprises for me — and also for the audience. It was as though a floodlight had been turned on to this long-buried literature.”


Music Played in Today's Program


J.S. Bach (1685-1750) (arr. Gustav Mahler): Orchestral Suite; Berlin Radio Symphony; Peter Schwarz, conductor; Schwann 11637

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Sun, 10 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Corigliano tunes up 01FK14E5NS28WTTWZAR3RDF1P8 American Public Media Synopsis

If you’ve ever attended a live symphony concert, you’re familiar with the routine: before anyone starts playing, before the conductor even steps on stage, the principal oboist sounds an “A” — and the other musicians tune their instruments to that pitch.


On today’s date in 1975, a few people in the audience at Carnegie Hall might have been surprised to hear this familiar ritual segue directly into the opening of John Corigliano’s new Oboe Concerto, which was receiving its premiere performance by oboist Burt Lucarelli and the American Symphony orchestra.


The first movement of Corigliano’s Concerto is titled Tuning Game, followed by a Song-Scherzo, Aria and a final Dance. This form, Corigliano said, arose “from the different aspects of the oboe … the coloratura qualities of the oboe are emphasized in the Aria movement, for example, but the whole Concerto is highly theatrical, virtuoso music for both soloist and orchestra.”


Theatrical is right! The final dance movement was inspired by the sound of the rhaita, or Morrocan oboe. According to Corigliano: “I was fascinated by the rhaita’s sound, heady and forceful ... but having an infectiously exciting quality. I first heard the instrument in Marrakech in 1966, serenading a cobra.”


Music Played in Today's Program


John Corigliano (b. 1938): Oboe Concerto; Humbert Lucarelli, oboe; American Symphony; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor; RCA/BMG 60395

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Sat, 09 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Stomping with David Schiff 01FK146XTC8717DJD4JT9JKGSX American Public Media Synopsis

Okay, here’s a cocktail party question for music fans: “What do James Brown — the master of funk — and Soviet symphonic composer Dmitri Shostakovich have in common?”


The answer is Stomp, a piece by Seattle-based composer David Schiff that premiered on today’s date in 1990 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City at a concert by Marin Alsop’s Concordia orchestra.


For starters, on the score of Stomp, Schiff includes a reference to James Brown’s music, instructing the players, “Every instrument is treated like a drum.” Also, during its opening, there’s a staccato rhythm based on Brown’s iconic tune, “I Feel Good.”


And the Shostakovich connection? Well, Schiff confesses to modeling Stomp on the opening movement of that composer’s Symphony No. 9, right down to a strict imitation of Shostakovich’s repeat of the exposition, in sonata-form style.


On the origin and subsequent use of Stomp, Schiff said, “Marin Alsop conducted one of my pieces at Tanglewood in 1988 and later asked me for a new orchestral piece for her Concordia orchestra; since then, Stomp has since been played by many orchestras including the L.A. Philharmonic, who took it to high schools to demonstrate that classical music could be really loud.”


Music Played in Today's Program


David Schiff (b. 1945): Stomp; Baltimore Sym; David Zinman, conductor; Argo 444 454-2

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Fri, 08 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Stravinsky in C Major 01FK143RTTYN9N4SQR6C100AD1 American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1940, the Chicago Symphony helped celebrate their 50th anniversary with the premiere performance of a specially commissioned symphony from famous Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.


Stravinsky himself was on hand to conduct his Symphony in C — a work that attracted a great deal of attention at the time. For starters, writing a symphony in the key of C Major seemed a defiantly anti-modern gesture at a time when Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve tone method of composition was gaining ground with prominent American musicians and critics.


Traditionally, C Major was deemed a “happy” or “bright” key, but Stravinsky composed his Symphony during one of the unhappiest periods of his life, when his wife, his mother and one of his daughters had all died in rapid succession.


“It is no exaggeration to say that in the following weeks I was able to continue my own life only by my work on the Symphony in C,” Stravinsky wrote. “But I did not seek to overcome my grief by portraying or giving expression to it in music, and you will listen in vain, I think, for traces of this sort of personal emotion.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Symphony in C; Chicago Symphony; Georg Solti, conductor; London 458 898

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Thu, 07 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Beethoven and Brusa take it slow 01FK13XWP90EC1XY2A5WT96E2J American Public Media Synopsis

For later Romantic composers like Richard Wagner, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was “the apotheosis of the dance,” and certainly sitting still during the Symphony’s dizzying finale is not always easy.


But for those in the audience at its premiere in 1813, as part of a benefit concert for wounded Bavarian and Austrian soldiers, it was the somber slow movement that proved most attractive. Perhaps audiences read more into it than Beethoven intended, given the occasion, but over time, the slow movements of many symphonies not only got longer, but by the time of Bruckner and Mahler also became the emotional “heart” of the composition, and are sometimes performed as stand-alone concert pieces.


On today’s date in 1999, this Adagio by Italian composer Elisabetta Brusa received its premiere performance by the Virtuosi of Toronto. Brusa was born in 1954 in Milan and studied music at the Milan Conservatory.


“My Adagio is a freely structured composition in a single movement inspired by well-known masterpieces, such as those by Albinoni, Mahler, and Barber. Independent of a pre-established form, sonata, or suite, it originated as an autonomous composition in the expressive style which have distinguished the numerous Adagios of the past,” she wrote.


Music Played in Today's Program


Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7; Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 471 490


Elisabetta Brusa (b. 1954): Adagio; Ukraine National Symphony; Fabio Mastrangelo, conductor; Naxos 8.555267

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Wed, 06 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
The Minneapolis Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra 01FK13PX3RKTHXJJPHM67XR7J3 American Public Media Synopsis

At the dawn of the 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt was president and America was in an upbeat, prosperous mood. Cultural affairs were not forgotten, either. To the already established American symphony orchestras in cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati and San Francisco, new ensembles would spring up in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Seattle.


In 1903, it was Minneapolis’ turn. On November 5 of that year, German-born musician Emil Oberhoffer led the first concert of the newly formed Minneapolis Symphony. In those days it was a 50-piece ensemble, but in the course of the next 100 years, would double in size and change its name to the Minnesota Orchestra.


As this is the Composers Datebook, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Minnesota Orchestra has enjoyed a special relationship with a number of leading American composers.


Aaron Copland conducted the orchestra on a memorable and televised Bicentennial Concert in 1976, and two young American composers, Stephen Paulus and Libby Larsen, served as composers-in-residence with the orchestra in the 1980s. The orchestra has also given the premiere performances of works by Charles Ives, John Adams, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Dominick Argento and Aaron Jay Kernis, among many others.


Music Played in Today's Program


Dominick Argento (1927-2019): A Ring of Time; Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor; Reference 91

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Tue, 05 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Schoenberg and Sheng 01FK13KPBQERKR2BFQJKXV02AM American Public Media Synopsis

Today’s date marks the premiere of two works written by émigré composers: one Austrian, the other Chinese.


On Nov. 4, 1948, the Albuquerque Civic Symphony gave the first performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, a powerful piece for narrator, chorus and orchestra. Schoenberg had met some survivors of the Nazi pogroms in the Warsaw ghetto. He was profoundly moved as they recounted their harrowing experiences, so he set their recollections to music, utilizing a twelve-tone theme which is revealed only at the end of the work, where it supplies the traditional melody of a Jewish prayer of comfort and hope.


On today’s date in 1993, Boulder, Colorado, was the venue for the premiere of the String Quartet No. 3 by Chinese composer Bright Sheng.


“It was inspired by the memory of a Tibetan folk dance which I came across about 25 years ago when I was living in a province on the border between China and Tibet,” he recalled. At that time, Madame Mao’s Cultural Revolution was in full force, and that explains why a teenage pianist from Shanghai ended up on a remote Chinese frontier. Eventually, Sheng was able to enroll in the Shanghai Conservatory, and in 1982 came to New York.


Music Played in Today's Program


Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): A Survivor from Warsaw; Simon Callow, narrator; London Symphony; Robert Craft, conductor; Koch 7263


Bright Sheng (b. 1955): String Quartet No. 3 (Shanghai Quartet) BIS 1138

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Mon, 04 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Rimsky-Korsakov's bee takes flight 01FK12VX814KHZG4YMJN7WDC6F American Public Media Synopsis

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov might be described as an operatic dynamo: he composed fifteen and had a hand in editing, orchestrating and promoting important operas by his fellow countrymen: Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovantschina, Borodin’s Prince Igor and Dargomïzhsky’s The Stone Guest.


Rimsky-Korsakov’s fifteen operas are rarely staged with any regularity outside Russia, although instrumental suites and excerpts from them have proven immensely popular as concert pieces.


The familiar Flight of the Bumble Bee is from a Rimsky-Korsakov opera that premiered in Moscow on today’s date in 1900, and, like most of his operas, is based on Russian fairytales. The opera’s full title is: The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatïr Prince Guidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan-Princess.


If you think the title is a bit long, consider the required cast of performers, which in addition to thirteen main characters calls for Boyars and their wives, courtiers, nursemaids, sentries, troops, boatmen, astrologers, footmen, singers, scribes, servants and maids, dancers of both sexes, 33 knights of the sea with their leader Chernomor, a squirrel and — oh yes — a bumblebee.


Music Played in Today's Program


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Flight of the Bumble Bee, from Tsar Saltan; Philharmonia Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor; London 460 250


Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee; Budapest Clarinet Quintet; Naxos 8.553427


Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee Itzhak Perlman, violin; Samuel Sanders, piano; EMI 54882

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Sun, 03 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Verdi and Bach on wine 01FK12NZ82P3XX0HV7XTA1Z6DC American Public Media Synopsis

Today we dip into the “Composers Mailbag” for two letters, neither of them dealing with significant musical matters, but both (coincidentally) with wine.


In a note dated Nov. 2, 1894, Giuseppe Verdi wrote (in his typically blunt style): “Dear Sig. Melani, I received yesterday the cases of wine. Now what is left is to pay for them. Please send me the bill for what I owe you minus the empty cases and returned bottles. Do it as soon as possible as I am going to the country and want to send you a check before I leave. As always, G. Verdi."


The second letter is dated Nov. 2, 1748, and was penned by Johann Sebastian Bach to his cousin, and reads: “That you and your dear wife are well I am assured by the note I received from you yesterday accompanying the little cask of wine you sent, for which much thanks. Regrettably the cask was damaged by being shaken in the wagon or some other way, for when opened for the usual customs inspection, it was 2/3 empty. It is a pity that even the least drop of this noble gift of God should have been spilled. (Signed) Your devoted cousin, J.S. Bach.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Libiamo (Brindisi), from La Traviata; Frank Chacksfield Orchestra; London 436 849

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Sat, 02 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Handel and the Bible 01FK12F2HGAFN1CQB2BBDCCRKP American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1738, George Frederick Handel completed one of his first great Biblical oratorios: Israel in Egypt, based on the book of Exodus.


At this point in time, British taste for Handel’s Italian-style operas had waned, and, like the filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille some 200 years later, Handel set out to entice his jaded audience back into the theaters with Biblical epics like Saul and Israel in Egypt, featuring big casts and lots of special effects.


“I hear that Mr. Handel has borrowed a pair of the largest kettle-drums from the Tower of London, so to be sure it will be most excessively noisy!” Gossiped one young British Lord to his father.


Even so, many in the audience at premiere of Israel in Egypt didn’t know quite what make of it. Some thought religious subjects unsuitable outside of a church setting; others found the music, in the words of one contemporary, “too solemn for common ears.” A few, however, were quite enthusiastic. One gentleman wrote a long letter to the London Daily Post, informing readers that the Prince of Wales and his consort attended, and appeared enchanted by the new work.


Music Played in Today's Program


George Frederic Handel (1685-1759): Israel in Egypt; King’s College Choir; Brandenburg Consort; Stephen Cleobury, conductor; London 452 295

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Fri, 01 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
The Devil’s Sentry Box 01FGVVH7F9NZ5NS0RZBV5R3Y70 American Public Media Synopsis

Since today is Halloween, how about a supernatural legend in music?


The second of three Fábulas — fables or fantastic stories — for violin and piano by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román is titled La Garita del Diablo or The Devil’s Sentry Box.


The old port city of San Juan is surrounded by a fortified stone wall built by the Spaniards to protect it from their enemies, dotted with stone sentry boxes at strategic locations where soldiers could gain an advantageous view of any attack arriving by sea.


Mystery and myth surrounding one of these lonely sentry boxes built high above the sea began after several soldiers disappeared during their watch, leaving no trace behind. Despite a number of rational explanations, popular imagination blamed the disappearances on evil and supernatural forces.


In his chamber work, Román said, “The piano and the violin form aural impressions of the echoes and distant reverberations that take shape in the old passages leading to the sentry box and of the darkness and impersonality of the ocean during the night, until the observer gets to the sentry box and hears the breaking of the sea waves against the rocks and city wall.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Dan Román (b. 1974): La Garita del Diabolo from Fabulas; Katalin Viszmeg, violin; Pi-Hsun Shih, piano; Innova 904

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Thu, 31 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Rorem's 'Nantucket Songs' 01FGVVDWZQNAJ0J8WQ4K5XHS6K American Public Media Synopsis

“From whence cometh song?” asks the opening lines of a poem by American writer Theodore Roethke.


That’s a question American composer Ned Rorem must have asked himself hundreds of times, while providing just as many answers in the form of hundreds of his original song settings.


About his own music, Rorem tends to be a little reluctant to speak. “Nothing a composer can say about his music is more pointed than the music itself,” he wrote.


On today’s date in 1979, Rorem was at the piano, accompanying soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson in the premiere performance of a song cycle he called Nantucket Songs, a cycle that began with his setting of Roethke’s poem.


“These songs, merry or complex or strange though their texts may seem, aim away from the head and toward the diaphragm. They are emotional rather than intellectual, and need not be understood to be enjoyed,” he wrote.


Speaking of personal enjoyment, Rorem said at the premiere performance of his Nantucket Songs, which was recorded live at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. that “Phyllis Bryn-Julson and I, unbeknownst to each other, both had fevers of 102 degrees.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Ned Rorem (1923-2022): Nantucket Songs; Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; Ned Rorem, piano; CRI 670

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Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
James P. Johnson's signature tune for 1920s 01FGVTWDM2PDA24H97DY60C3FK American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1923, the comedy team of Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles were the star attraction in a new musical called Runnin’ Wild, which opened at the Colonial Theater at Broadway and 62nd Street.


In their day, Miller and Lyles were the African-American equivalent of Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. The plot they crafted for Runnin’ Wild, like many musical plots back then, was flimsy: two Southern con-men on the run head north to St. Paul, Minnesota, but find the natives too strange and the climate too cold. This plot provided an excuse for comic sketches to be sandwiched in between snappy song and dance numbers, the latter invariably involving leggy showgirls.


One dance number in the show struck gold for its composer, James P. Johnson.


Johnson called this tune Charleston, after the dockside home of many recent African-American immigrants to New York City’s west side. Scholars have traced this dance step back to the west side of Africa, however — an Ashanti Ancestor dance, to be exact. But whatever its source, this catchy rhythm made Johnson famous, and rapidly became the signature tune for the Roaring Twenties, a decade of flappers, bathtub gin, and all that jazz!


Music Played in Today's Program


James P. Johnson (1894-1955): Charleston; Leslie Stifelman, piano; Concordia Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor; MusicMasters 67140

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Tue, 29 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Ince's 'Flight Box' 01FGVTHC3XXKYTFYJ8NYTM40BX American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 2001, the Present Music ensemble premiered a new piece of music, Flight Box, at the grand opening celebrations for a new art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and its roof looks a little like the wings of a large, graceful bird in flight — at least that’s the impression that composer Kamran Ince got viewing the new structure on several visits to Milwaukee.


Ince was born in Montana in 1960 to American and Turkish parents and lived in Turkey between 1966 and 1980. Not surprisingly, elements of traditional Turkish music crop up in his original works, including Flight Box, which was composed while he flew between America and Europe seven times.


Ince says he completed Flight Box early in 2001, many months before the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Its October premiere, coming just one month after those traumatic events, added some sinister overtones to the work’s title, but Ince insists it was based on his own, far happier memories of flying, or, as he put it, “it’s the diary of a flight that safely reaches its destination.”


Music Played in Today's Program


Kamran Ince (b. 1960): Flight Box; Present Music Ensemble; Kevin Stalheim, conductor; Present Music 6509

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Mon, 28 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Daniel Asia's Fourth 01FGVTER5MZ48ZE4VG9FZQDTQG American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1993, American composer Daniel Asia conducted the Phoenix Symphony in the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 4. The work included a slow movement, written as an orchestral elegy for his friend and composer colleague, Stephen Albert, who had died in a car crash the previous year.


But Asia cast his symphony in the traditional four-movements familiar from the symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven. And, as in the symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven, he left room for a wide range of emotions — including humor. So, in addition to a slow, elegiac movement, the symphony has a second movement Scherzo, with a traditional, but jaunty and very American-sounding trio section.


“In this piece, I was rediscovering old formal ideas ... the second movement is a true scherzo. There are refractions of Beethoven scherzos, but sometimes a beat is chopped off, creating a skipping effect. Everything is in threes in the trio-section; the harmony is three-voiced, and the instrumentation is also in threesomes,” Asia wrote.


As both composer and conductor, Daniel Asia has worked with American orchestras for coast-to-coast performances of his orchestral works, ranging from his hometown Seattle Symphony to the American Composers Orchestra in New York.


Music Played in Today's Program


Daniel Asia (b. 1953): Symphony No. 4; New Zealand Symphony; James Sedares, conductor; Summit 256

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Sun, 27 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Shostakovich goes for the 'Gold' 01FGVT8D3CDJ73CT272Q6QT6G4 American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1930, The Age of Gold, a new ballet by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich opened in Leningrad. At that time, it was trendy for Soviet art to extol sporting events, and contrast the wholesome values of the new Soviet society with those of the decadent, bourgeois West.


And so, the plot of this new Soviet ballet ran as follows: a Russian soccer team arrives in a Western city to play a match during an industrial exposition, only to find their heroic endeavors thwarted by a hostile hotel staff, a seductive Western opera diva, and, of course, corrupt police and city officials.


Dutifully following the party line, Shostakovich wrote, “Throwing into contrast the two cultures was my main aim. The dances for the Europeans breathe the decadent spirit of … contemporary bourgeois culture, but I tried to imbue the Soviet dances with the wholesome elements of sport and physical culture.”


One of the lasting hits of his ballet score was a sardonic little polka.


Despite all this political subtext, Shostakovich seemed to be having a whale of a time, as if he rather enjoyed spending a little time — if only musically — in the decadent West.


Music Played in Today's Program


Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Polka, from The Age of Gold; Moscow Chamber Orchestra; Constantine Orbelian, conductor; Delos 3257

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Sat, 26 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
A Strauss tale too good to be true 01FGVT2CADXSAFDMAYFJ22TNVW American Public Media Synopsis

The real story behind Richard Strauss’ decision to use a chamber orchestra for his opera Ariadne on Naxos — which premiered in Stuttgart on today’s date in 1912 — is complicated and a little mundane. We prefer a more “colorful” version that some in Stuttgart have proffered.


When a new opera house was being planned for that city, Strauss was asked how large the orchestral pit should be.


“Oh, it should hold about 100 players,” he suggested. So, to determine the size required, the architects rather naively asked the local military band to assemble 100 players, have them stand at attention, and measured the amount of space they occupied.


Now, soldiers standing at attention take up a lot less space than an equal number of seated symphonic musicians. And so, the resulting space in the new theater could only accommodate a chamber orchestra.


The Stuttgart Opera also wanted to launch their new theater with a brand-new opera commissioned from Strauss. When he learned what had happened, being the eminently practical sort he was, simply wrote his new opera for chamber ensemble of about 40 players.


Fact or fantasy, that’s how some like to tell it in Stuttgart.


Music Played in Today's Program


Richard Strauss (1861-1949): Ariadne auf Naxos; Vienna Philharmonic; James Levine, conductor; DG 419 225

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Fri, 25 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
William Grant Still's 'Africa' 01FGVSZCHW8P7MT24F7SX5JHQJ American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1930,  Howard Hanson led the premiere performance of the full orchestral version of William Grant Still’s symphonic poem, Africa at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.


Still had originally conceived Africa as a chamber work, dedicated to and premiered by great French flutist Georges Barrère earlier that same year.


In a letter to Barrère, he said his new work depicted “the Africa of my imagination,” explaining: “An American Negro has formed a concept of the land of his ancestors based largely on its folklore, and influenced by his contact with American civilization. He beholds in his mind’s eye not the Africa of reality, but an Africa mirrored in fancy, and radiantly ideal.”


That said, the Africa of Still’s imagination included not only serene, pastorale moments, but also — according to his wife — the surfacing of “unspoken fears and lurking terrors.”


In its revised full symphonic version, Africa proved successful recalls the colors of Rimksy-Korsakov’s reimagined pagan Russia, and as an orchestral showpiece proved successful in subsequent performances in Europe, but, for some reason known only to Still, Africa remained unpublished during his lifetime.


Music Played in Today's Program


William Grant Still (1895-1978): Land of Romance and Land of Superstition, from Africa; Fort Smith ASym; John Jeter, conductor; Naxos 8.559174

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Thu, 24 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
Piston's 'New England Sketches' 01FGVSWNDXJY3RXPZSGWERP437 American Public Media Synopsis

On today’s date in 1959, the Detroit Symphony, led by eminent French conductor Paul Paray, gave the first performance of new music by American composer Walter Piston. He had studied in Paris with famous French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger and great French composer Paul Dukas, so perhaps this was an astute paring of composer and conductor.


In any case, to help celebrate the 100th Worcester Festival, Paray and the Detroit orchestra were on hand in Massachusetts for the premiere of Piston’s Three New England Sketches, an orchestral suite with three movements: Seaside, Summer Evening, and Mountains.


Piston didn’t intend these titles to be taken literally. “[They] serve in a broad sense to tell the source of the inspirations, reminiscences, even dreams that pervaded the otherwise musical thoughts of one New England composer,” he noted.


Piston certainly qualified as a bonafide New England composer. He was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1894, taught at Harvard, had a vacation home in Vermont, and died in Belmont, Massachusetts in 1976.


Even so, the most striking hallmark of his music remains its quite cosmopolitan style and neo-classical form — the lasting influence, perhaps, of his two famous French teachers.


Music Played in Today's Program


Walter Piston (1894-1976): Three New England Sketches; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3106

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Wed, 23 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000 00:02:00 false
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<![CDATA[ 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. ]]>
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<title>Harbison's 'Flight into Egypt'</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1986, at the New England Conservatory of Music, a new choral work by American composer John Harbison received its premiere performance. <em>The Flight into Egypt </em>was scored for soprano, baritone, chorus and chamber orchestra, and would win the Pulitzer Prize for Music the following year.</p><br/><p>The text for Harbison’s cantata is taken from the Gospel of Matthew describing the Holy Family’s escape into Egypt after the birth of Jesus and King Herod’s subsequent slaughter of all newborn male children in an attempt to kill this prophesied threat to his throne.</p><br/><p>“<em>The Flight</em> began in a conversation with colleagues about Christmas texts. We talked about counseling experiences during Christmas season at Emmanuel Church, Boston, where we were all involved as musicians — a time when need, isolation, and anxiety increase. We agreed that the darker side of Christmas needs representation, especially now, as the distance widens between the privileged and the less fortunate,” Harbison recalled. </p><br/><p>“At the beginning of <em>The Flight into Egypt</em>, is an oboe melody, exotic and forlorn, imitated by the other reed players,” Harbison continued. “The piece constantly hides and reveals its loyalty to the first oboe melody that guides the whole journey.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>John Harbison (b. 1938): <em>Flight into Egypt</em>; Cantata Singers and Ensemble; David Hoose, conductor; New World 80395</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Meredith Monk</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>American composer, singer, dancer and choreographer Meredith Monk was born in New York City on today’s date in 1942.</p><br/><p>Monk attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied theatre, dance and music. After graduating in 1964, she began performing pieces that combined gesture and movement with vocal and visual elements. Around that time, a number of contemporary composers had begun stretching the boundaries of instrumental music, but, as she recalls, there wasn’t much happening regarding extended vocal techniques.</p><br/><p>Monk began testing how she could stretch the range, timbre and character of her own singing, inventing a vocabulary based on her particular voice — as she explains it, just as a dancer would develop a vocabulary of movement particular to their body.</p><br/><p>Considering her long-standing interest in integrating music with movement and visuals, opera seemed a natural outlet for Monk’s talents, and in 1993 she premiered a full-length opera, <em>Atlas</em>.</p><br/><p><em>Atlas</em> was inspired by the life of Alexandra David-Neel, a scientist who was the first Western woman to travel in Tibet. It seemed a natural choice for Monk, for whom exploration and curiosity are so important. “If I knew what I was looking for, it wouldn’t be that interesting,” she said. </p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Meredith Monk (b. 1942): <em>Atlas</em>; Meredith Monk Ensemble; Wayne Hankin, conductor; ECM 1491</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Wed, 20 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Gershwin's last film score</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>In the summer of 1936, the songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin settled their affairs in New York, put their furniture in storage, and flew off to Hollywood to fulfill a contract with the RKO Studios. The Gershwins were to supply music for a series of new movies, some starring an old friend of theirs, dancer Fred Astaire.</p><br/><p>In those days the big movie studios moved quickly, and so did the Gershwins. The first film in the contracted series, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as the romantic leads, was <em>Shall We Dance</em> and was completed, scored and released in less than a year.</p><br/><p>On today’s date in 1937, RKO Studios released their second Gershwin collaboration, <em>Damsel in Distress</em>. This starred Astaire and Joan Fontaine, and included two songs that would become Gershwin classics: “A Foggy Day in London Town” and “Nice Work if You Can Get It.”</p><br/><p>The release of <em>Damsel in Distress</em>, however, must have been a bittersweet event for the friends and family of George Gershwin: it proved to be the last major project Gershwin had completed before his untimely death on July 11 that same year following surgery to remove a brain tumor.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>George Gershwin (1898-1937): <em>Damsel in Distress Suite</em> (<em>An American in London</em>); (Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, conductor; Philips 434 274</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>The Wagners attend a Brahms premiere</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Falling in love with someone else’s spouse can result in divorce, emotional turmoil, or (in the case of composers) some very<em> </em>Romantic music.</p><br/><p>Take the case of Brahms, who for most of his adult life carried a torch for Mrs. Clara Schumann, the wife of his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 was conceived during an especially turbulent period in his relationship with the Schumanns. When finished, Brahms wrote to his publisher, “On the cover you must have a picture, namely a head with a pistol to it. I’ll send you my photograph, and since you like color printing, you can use blue coat, yellow breeches, and top-boots.”</p><br/><p>That garb was favored by Young Werther, the Romantic hero in a novel by Goethe, who commits suicide after falling in love with a married woman.</p><br/><p>Coincidentally, in the audience for the Viennese premiere of Brahms’ quartet on today’s date in 1875 were Richard and Cosima Wagner. Cosima had run off with Wagner while she was still married to famous conductor Hans von Bulow, but her diary entry for November 18 suggests she didn’t find anything Romantic in Brahms or his music. She wrote, “[Brahms], a red-faced, crude-looking man, his music dry and stilted.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Quartet No. 3; Ames Piano Quartet; Dorian 90217</p> ]]>
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<title>Hoover for flute and guitar</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>The intimate combination of flute and guitar has proven to be an attractive one for a number of composers — and if the composer herself plays the flute, so much the better.</p><br/><p><em>Canyon Echoes</em>, written by the American composer and flutist Katherine Hoover premiered on today’s date in 1991 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van.</p><br/><p>Katherine Hoover gave her <em>Canyon Echoes</em> a subtitle: <em>An Apache Folktale</em>.</p><br/><p>“This piece was inspired by a book called <em>The Flute Player</em>, a simple and beautifully illustrated retelling of an Apache folktale by Michael Lacapa,” Hoover explained. “It is the story of two young Apaches from different areas of a large canyon. They meet at a Hoop Dance, and dance only with each other. The next day, as the girl works up on the side of the canyon in her father&#39;s fields, the boy sits below by a stream and plays his flute for her (flute-playing was a common manner of courtship). She puts a leaf in the stream which flows down to him, so he knows she hears.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Katherine Hoover (1937-2018): <em>Canyon Echoes</em> <em>(Duologue)</em>; Susan Morris De Jong, flute; Jeffrey Van, guitar; Gasparo 336</p> ]]>
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<title>The Philadelphia Sound</title>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>In the year 1900, German-born conductor Fritz Scheel arranged for two orchestral programs in Philadelphia billed as the Philippines Concerts. These were benefits, as contemporary ads put it: “for the relief of families of the nation’s heroes killed in the Philippines.” The previous year U.S. troops had fought a guerrilla army in the Philippines and had suffered heavy casualties.  </p><br/><p>The concerts proved so successful that Philadelphians decided Scheel’s pick-up orchestra should become instead a permanent ensemble, similar to the orchestras of New York and Boston. And so, on today’s date in 1900, the first official concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra took place at the Academy of Music, offering a program of Goldmark, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Weber and Wagner. </p><br/><p>During the century that followed, the fame of the Philadelphia Orchestra spread worldwide via recordings made by the orchestra’s famous maestros Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, who gave many U.S. and world premiere performances of works by European and American composers. </p><br/><p>In 1940, Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, on the occasion of the premiere of his <em>Symphonic Dances</em> by the Philadelphians, paid the orchestra this compliment: “Today, when I think of composing, my thoughts turn to you, the greatest orchestra in the world.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Richard Wagner (1813-1883): <em>Act I Prelude</em>, from <em>Die Meistersinger</em>; Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, conductor; CBS 38914</p><br/><p>Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): <em>Symphonic Dances</em>; Philadelphia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor; London 433 181</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sat, 16 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Herschel looks up</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Today is the birthday of a quite remarkable 18th century British composer, Sir William Herschel, who was born in Hannover, Germany on this date in 1738.</p><br/><p>Herschel’s father was a regimental oboist, and young William himself eventually joined papa’s regimental band — also as an oboist. In his early 20s he settled in England, was active in Newcastle, Leeds, Halifax and Bath, and in time became a prominent figure on the music scene, attracting the attention of the Royal Family. He composed 24 symphonies and a number of concertos.</p><br/><p>In addition to music, Herschel had a passion for astronomy, and, beginning in the 1770s, concentrated more and more of his attention on scientific matters. In 1781, he discovered the planet Uranus, a feat that made him famous throughout Europe. Herschel was named Astronomer Royal to the British crown and given a pension that enabled him to give up music and devote himself entirely to astronomy. </p><br/><p>Haydn, during his stay in England, paid Herschel a visit to take a peek through his impressive 40-foot telescope. Herschel was knighted in 1817 and became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1821. He died the following year, in 1822, at 83.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>William Herschel (1738-1822): Oboe Concerto; Richard Woodhams, oboe; The Mozart Orchestra; Davis Jerome, conductor; Newport Classic 85612</p><br/><p>Gustav Holst (1874-1934): <em>Uranus</em>, from <em>The Planets</em>; Philharmonia Orchestra; Simon Rattle, conductor; EMI 9513</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Fri, 15 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Waggoner's Second</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>In fall 1995, American composer Andrew Waggoner received a commission from the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic of the Czech Republic for a new orchestral work, which was premiered on today’s date in 1996.</p><br/><p>“I had a symphony in my mind for some time and decided that this was the chance I needed to see it through,” Waggoner wrote. </p><br/><p>The resulting work, Waggoner’s Symphony No. 2, opens with a solo for the cello, an elegy, perhaps, for cellist Anna Cholakian, the founding member of the Cassatt Quartet, who had died from cancer while Waggoner was working on the piece. </p><br/><p>“Quite unexpectedly, and for the first time in my life as a composer, the piece began to draw from everything around it,” Waggoner wrote, including some recycled elements from his own music, including a setting of one of the Holy Sonnets by 17th century British poet John Donne.</p><br/><p>Waggoner was born in New Orleans in 1960, and studied music at the Eastman School and Cornell University. In addition to his composition work, he’s worked as an announcer and producer for public radio stations WXXI in Rochester and WNYC in New York. His Symphony No. 2 was recorded by the same Czech orchestra that premiered it.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Andrew Waggoner (b. 1960): Symphony No. 2; Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic; Petr Pololanik, conductor; CRI 884</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Thu, 14 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Disney's 'Fantasia'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1940, Disney’s animated film <em>Fantasia</em> opened at New York’s Broadway Theater.</p><br/><p>Disney’s film was a milestone in cultural crossover, in which classical music — in the person of conductor Leopold Stokowski — shook hands (literally and figuratively) with pop culture — in the person of Mickey Mouse.</p><br/><p>It was also a milestone in cinematic sound. For its initial East and West Coast release, the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded nine special tracks, one for each section of the orchestra. These were mixed by Stokowski into a 4-track stereo soundtrack to be played in synchronization with the film on special equipment made by RCA for a multiple-loudspeaker theater installation called “Fantasound.” Three large speakers were positioned behind the projection screen, and no fewer than 65 smaller speakers were placed around the walls of the theater.</p><br/><p>The resulting surround-sound was stunning by 1940 standards, but cost $85,000 to set up. After the second full installation at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, “Fantasound” was not employed anywhere else. Instead, eight reduced “Fantasia Road Show” speaker set- ups toured American movie theaters until 1941, when, following the outbreak of World War II, Disney diverted his funds, technology and even Mickey Mouse toward the war effort.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Mussorgsky and Schubert: excerpts from <em>Fantasia</em> soundtrack; Philadelphia Orchestra; Leopold Stokowski, conductor; Buena Vista 600072</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Crumb goes Macro</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>For the ideal performance of <em>Makrokosmos II: Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac</em>, by American composer George Crumb, one should perhaps be outdoors in a remote clearing under a crystalline canopy of stars.</p><br/><p>For the record, the premiere performance of Crumb’s suite for amplified piano took place indoors at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on today’s date in 1974, at a recital of new American works given by pianist Robert Miller.</p><br/><p>In his program notes, Miller offered these words about Crumb’s <em>Makrokosmos II</em>:</p><br/><p>“Each of the 12 pieces is associated with a different sign of the Zodiac, and is written out in a very precise notation, but the music will at times sound … almost improvisatory. The piano has become an orchestra unto itself. There is an enormously wide range of sound, timbre, touch, dynamics, etc.”</p><br/><p>One use of quotation by Crumb is beautifully subtle. In the eleventh piece, <em>Litany of the Galactic Bells</em>, the opening music — a shimmering bell effect which recalls the coronation scene from Mussorgsky’s <em>Boris Godunov</em> — gradually subsides and moves almost imperceptibly into a short excerpt from Beethoven’s <em>Hammerklavier</em> Sonata. The effect is somewhat like the changing colors of a prism.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>George Crumb (1929-2022): <em>Makrokosmos No. 2</em> (Laurie Hudicek, piano) Furious Artisans 6805</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Bloch's Quintet</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1923, the League of Composers presented its first chamber concert in New York City. Their stated mission was to present music by living composers whose works represented new trends in music.</p><br/><p>Their opening concert included a world premiere: a piano quintet by Swiss composer Ernest Bloch, who was then living in America. While not a radical work, Bloch’s quintet was strong stuff for 1923, and even included some quartertone elements. </p><br/><p>The New York Times critic was impressed, but not won over, writing, “To the inevitable question, ‘Do you like it?’ it seems almost impossible to answer, but if pressed I should say, <em>no</em>, not for any fault in the work but simply because of its too apparent determination to be emotionally stirring.” </p><br/><p>British critic Ernest Newmann, on the other hand, singled out Bloch’s First Quintet for special praise. “No other piece of chamber music produced in any country during that period can be placed in the same class with it.”</p><br/><p>For his part, Bloch said simply, “I write without any regard to please either the so-called ‘ultra-moderns’ or the so-called ‘old-fashioned.’”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): Piano Quintet No. 1; Portland String Quartet; Paul Posnak, piano; Arabesque 6618</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>The historically informed Mahler</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the New York Philharmonic in a concert billed as “the first of a series arranged in chronological sequence, comprising the most famous composers from the period of Bach to the present day.”</p><br/><p>Mahler’s program included works of Handel, Rameau, Gretry and Haydn, and opened with his own arrangement of music from Bach’s Orchestral Suites.</p><br/><p>Now, Bach’s music had been appearing on Philharmonic programs for decades, but some were shocked to see how Mahler presented it. Rather than standing in front of the orchestra with his baton, Mahler led the orchestra seated at the keyboard of a Bach-Klavier (a Steinway piano whose action had been tinkered with to make it sound more like a harpsichord). That bit of “historically informed performance” was something brand new back then.</p><br/><p>In a letter to a friend back in Europe, Mahler wrote, “I had great fun recently with a Bach concert, for which I worked out the basso continuo conducting and improvising quite in the style of the old masters … this produced a number of surprises for me — and also for the audience. It was as though a floodlight had been turned on to this long-buried literature.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>J.S. Bach (1685-1750) (arr. Gustav Mahler): Orchestral Suite; Berlin Radio Symphony; Peter Schwarz, conductor; Schwann 11637</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sun, 10 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Corigliano tunes up</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>If you’ve ever attended a live symphony concert, you’re familiar with the routine: before anyone starts playing, before the conductor even steps on stage, the principal oboist sounds an “A” — and the other musicians tune their instruments to that pitch.</p><br/><p>On today’s date in 1975, a few people in the audience at Carnegie Hall might have been surprised to hear this familiar ritual segue directly into the opening of John Corigliano’s new Oboe Concerto, which was receiving its premiere performance by oboist Burt Lucarelli and the American Symphony orchestra.</p><br/><p>The first movement of Corigliano’s Concerto is titled <em>Tuning Game</em>, followed by a <em>Song-Scherzo</em>, <em>Aria</em> and a final <em>Dance</em>. This form, Corigliano said, arose “from the different aspects of the oboe … the coloratura qualities of the oboe are emphasized in the <em>Aria</em> movement, for example, but the whole Concerto is highly theatrical, virtuoso music for both soloist and orchestra.”</p><br/><p>Theatrical is right! The final dance movement was inspired by the sound of the rhaita, or Morrocan oboe. According to Corigliano: “I was fascinated by the rhaita’s sound, heady and forceful ... but having an infectiously exciting quality. I first heard the instrument in Marrakech in 1966, serenading a cobra.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>John Corigliano (b. 1938): Oboe Concerto; Humbert Lucarelli, oboe; American Symphony; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor; RCA/BMG 60395</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sat, 09 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Stomping with David Schiff</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Okay, here’s a cocktail party question for music fans: “What do James Brown — the master of funk — and Soviet symphonic composer Dmitri Shostakovich have in common?”</p><br/><p>The answer is <em>Stomp</em>, a piece by Seattle-based composer David Schiff that premiered on today’s date in 1990 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City at a concert by Marin Alsop’s Concordia orchestra.</p><br/><p>For starters, on the score of <em>Stomp</em>, Schiff includes a reference to James Brown’s music, instructing the players, “Every instrument is treated like a drum.” Also, during its opening, there’s a staccato rhythm based on Brown’s iconic tune, “I Feel Good.”</p><br/><p>And the Shostakovich connection? Well, Schiff confesses to modeling <em>Stomp</em> on the opening movement of that composer’s Symphony No. 9, right down to a strict imitation of Shostakovich’s repeat of the exposition, in sonata-form style.</p><br/><p>On the origin and subsequent use of <em>Stomp</em>, Schiff said, “Marin Alsop conducted one of my pieces at Tanglewood in 1988 and later asked me for a new orchestral piece for her Concordia orchestra; since then, <em>Stomp</em> has since been played by many orchestras including the L.A. Philharmonic, who took it to high schools to demonstrate that classical music could be really loud.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>David Schiff (b. 1945): <em>Stomp</em>; Baltimore Sym; David Zinman, conductor; Argo 444 454-2</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Stravinsky in C Major</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1940, the Chicago Symphony helped celebrate their 50th anniversary with the premiere performance of a specially commissioned symphony from famous Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.</p><br/><p>Stravinsky himself was on hand to conduct his Symphony in C — a work that attracted a great deal of attention at the time. For starters, writing a symphony in the key of C Major seemed a defiantly anti-modern gesture at a time when Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve tone method of composition was gaining ground with prominent American musicians and critics.</p><br/><p>Traditionally, C Major was deemed a “happy” or “bright” key, but Stravinsky composed his Symphony during one of the unhappiest periods of his life, when his wife, his mother and one of his daughters had all died in rapid succession. </p><br/><p>“It is no exaggeration to say that in the following weeks I was able to continue my own life only by my work on the Symphony in C,” Stravinsky wrote. “But I did not seek to overcome my grief by portraying or giving expression to it in music, and you will listen in vain, I think, for traces of this sort of personal emotion.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Symphony in C; Chicago Symphony; Georg Solti, conductor; London 458 898</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Thu, 07 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Beethoven and Brusa take it slow</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>For later Romantic composers like Richard Wagner, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was “the apotheosis of the dance,” and certainly sitting still during the Symphony’s dizzying finale is not always easy. </p><br/><p>But for those in the audience at its premiere in 1813, as part of a benefit concert for wounded Bavarian and Austrian soldiers, it was the somber slow movement that proved most attractive. Perhaps audiences read more into it than Beethoven intended, given the occasion, but over time, the slow movements of many symphonies not only got longer, but by the time of Bruckner and Mahler also became the emotional “heart” of the composition, and are sometimes performed as stand-alone concert pieces.</p><br/><p>On today’s date in 1999, this <em>Adagio</em> by Italian composer Elisabetta Brusa received its premiere performance by the Virtuosi of Toronto. Brusa was born in 1954 in Milan and studied music at the Milan Conservatory. </p><br/><p>“My Adagio is a freely structured composition in a single movement inspired by well-known masterpieces, such as those by Albinoni, Mahler, and Barber. Independent of a pre-established form, sonata, or suite, it originated as an autonomous composition in the expressive style which have distinguished the numerous Adagios of the past,” she wrote. </p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7; Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 471 490</p><br/><p>Elisabetta Brusa (b. 1954): <em>Adagio</em>; Ukraine National Symphony; Fabio Mastrangelo, conductor; Naxos 8.555267</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>The Minneapolis Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>At the dawn of the 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt was president and America was in an upbeat, prosperous mood. Cultural affairs were not forgotten, either. To the already established American symphony orchestras in cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati and San Francisco, new ensembles would spring up in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Seattle.</p><br/><p>In 1903, it was Minneapolis’ turn. On November 5 of that year, German-born musician Emil Oberhoffer led the first concert of the newly formed Minneapolis Symphony. In those days it was a 50-piece ensemble, but in the course of the next 100 years, would double in size and change its name to the Minnesota Orchestra.</p><br/><p>As this is the <em>Composers</em> <em>Datebook</em>, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Minnesota Orchestra has enjoyed a special relationship with a number of leading American composers.</p><br/><p>Aaron Copland conducted the orchestra on a memorable and televised Bicentennial Concert in 1976, and two young American composers, Stephen Paulus and Libby Larsen, served as composers-in-residence with the orchestra in the 1980s. The orchestra has also given the premiere performances of works by Charles Ives, John Adams, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Dominick Argento and Aaron Jay Kernis, among many others.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Dominick Argento (1927-2019): <em>A Ring of Time</em>; Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor; Reference 91</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Schoenberg and Sheng</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Today’s date marks the premiere of two works written by émigré composers: one Austrian, the other Chinese.</p><br/><p>On Nov. 4, 1948, the Albuquerque Civic Symphony gave the first performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s <em>A Survivor from Warsaw</em>, a powerful piece for narrator, chorus and orchestra. Schoenberg had met some survivors of the Nazi pogroms in the Warsaw ghetto. He was profoundly moved as they recounted their harrowing experiences, so he set their recollections to music, utilizing a twelve-tone theme which is revealed only at the end of the work, where it supplies the traditional melody of a Jewish prayer of comfort and hope.</p><br/><p>On today’s date in 1993, Boulder, Colorado, was the venue for the premiere of the String Quartet No. 3 by Chinese composer Bright Sheng. </p><br/><p>“It was inspired by the memory of a Tibetan folk dance which I came across about 25 years ago when I was living in a province on the border between China and Tibet,” he recalled. At that time, Madame Mao’s Cultural Revolution was in full force, and that explains why a teenage pianist from Shanghai ended up on a remote Chinese frontier. Eventually, Sheng was able to enroll in the Shanghai Conservatory, and in 1982 came to New York. </p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): <em>A Survivor from Warsaw</em>; Simon Callow, narrator; London Symphony; Robert Craft, conductor; Koch 7263</p><br/><p>Bright Sheng (b. 1955): String Quartet No. 3 (Shanghai Quartet) BIS 1138</p> ]]>
</description>
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<pubDate>Mon, 04 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Rimsky-Korsakov's bee takes flight</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov might be described as an operatic dynamo: he composed fifteen and had a hand in editing, orchestrating and promoting important operas by his fellow countrymen: Mussorgsky’s <em>Boris Godunov</em> and <em>Khovantschina</em>, Borodin’s <em>Prince Igor</em> and Dargomïzhsky’s <em>The Stone Guest</em>.</p><br/><p>Rimsky-Korsakov’s fifteen operas are rarely staged with any regularity outside Russia, although instrumental suites and excerpts from them have proven immensely popular as concert pieces.</p><br/><p>The familiar <em>Flight of the Bumble Bee</em> is from a Rimsky-Korsakov opera that premiered in Moscow on today’s date in 1900, and, like most of his operas, is based on Russian fairytales. The opera’s full title is: <em>The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatïr Prince Guidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan-Princess</em>.</p><br/><p>If you think the title is a bit long, consider the required cast of performers, which in addition to thirteen main characters calls for Boyars and their wives, courtiers, nursemaids, sentries, troops, boatmen, astrologers, footmen, singers, scribes, servants and maids, dancers of both sexes, 33 knights of the sea with their leader Chernomor, a squirrel and — oh yes — a bumblebee.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): <em>Flight of the Bumble Bee</em>, from <em>Tsar Saltan</em>; Philharmonia Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor; London 460 250</p><br/><p>Rimsky-Korsakov: <em>Flight of the Bumble Bee</em>; Budapest Clarinet Quintet; Naxos 8.553427</p><br/><p>Rimsky-Korsakov: <em>Flight of the Bumble Bee</em> Itzhak Perlman, violin; Samuel Sanders, piano; EMI 54882</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sun, 03 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Verdi and Bach on wine</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Today we dip into the “Composers Mailbag” for two letters, neither of them dealing with significant musical matters, but both (coincidentally) with wine.</p><br/><p>In a note dated Nov. 2, 1894, Giuseppe Verdi wrote (in his typically blunt style): “Dear Sig. Melani, I received yesterday the cases of wine. Now what is left is to pay for them. Please send me the bill for what I owe you minus the empty cases and returned bottles. Do it as soon as possible as I am going to the country and want to send you a check before I leave. As always, G. Verdi.&quot;</p><br/><p>The second letter is dated Nov. 2, 1748, and was penned by Johann Sebastian Bach to his cousin, and reads: “That you and your dear wife are well I am assured by the note I received from you yesterday accompanying the little cask of wine you sent, for which much thanks. Regrettably the cask was damaged by being shaken in the wagon or some other way, for when opened for the usual customs inspection, it was 2/3 empty. It is a pity that even the least drop of this noble gift of God should have been spilled. (Signed) Your devoted cousin, J.S. Bach.”</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): <em>Libiamo</em> (<em>Brindisi</em>), from <em>La Traviata</em>; Frank Chacksfield Orchestra; London 436 849</p> ]]>
</description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Handel and the Bible</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1738, George Frederick Handel completed one of his first great Biblical oratorios: <em>Israel in Egypt</em>, based on the book of Exodus.</p><br/><p>At this point in time, British taste for Handel’s Italian-style operas had waned, and, like the filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille some 200 years later, Handel set out to entice his jaded audience back into the theaters with Biblical epics like <em>Saul</em> and <em>Israel in Egypt</em>, featuring big casts and lots of special effects.</p><br/><p>“I hear that Mr. Handel has borrowed a pair of the largest kettle-drums from the Tower of London, so to be sure it will be most excessively noisy!” Gossiped one young British Lord to his father. </p><br/><p>Even so, many in the audience at premiere of <em>Israel in Egypt</em> didn’t know quite what make of it. Some thought religious subjects unsuitable outside of a church setting; others found the music, in the words of one contemporary, “too solemn for common ears.” A few, however, were quite enthusiastic. One gentleman wrote a long letter to the London Daily Post, informing readers that the Prince of Wales and his consort attended, and appeared enchanted by the new work.</p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>George Frederic Handel (1685-1759): <em>Israel in Egypt</em>; King’s College Choir; Brandenburg Consort; Stephen Cleobury, conductor; London 452 295</p> ]]>
</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>The Devil’s Sentry Box</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>Since today is Halloween, how about a supernatural legend in music?</p><br/><p>The second of three <em>Fábulas</em> — fables or fantastic stories — for violin and piano by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román is titled <em>La Garita del Diablo</em> or <em>The Devil’s Sentry Box</em>.</p><br/><p>The old port city of San Juan is surrounded by a fortified stone wall built by the Spaniards to protect it from their enemies, dotted with stone sentry boxes at strategic locations where soldiers could gain an advantageous view of any attack arriving by sea. </p><br/><p>Mystery and myth surrounding one of these lonely sentry boxes built high above the sea began after several soldiers disappeared during their watch, leaving no trace behind. Despite a number of rational explanations, popular imagination blamed the disappearances on evil and supernatural forces.</p><br/><p>In his chamber work, Román said, “The piano and the violin form aural impressions of the echoes and distant reverberations that take shape in the old passages leading to the sentry box and of the darkness and impersonality of the ocean during the night, until the observer gets to the sentry box and hears the breaking of the sea waves against the rocks and city wall.”<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Dan Román (b. 1974): <em>La Garita del Diabolo</em> from <em>Fabulas</em>; Katalin Viszmeg, violin; Pi-Hsun Shih, piano; Innova 904</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Rorem's 'Nantucket Songs'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>“From whence cometh song?” asks the opening lines of a poem by American writer Theodore Roethke.</p><br/><p>That’s a question American composer Ned Rorem must have asked himself hundreds of times, while providing just as many answers in the form of hundreds of his original song settings.</p><br/><p>About his own music, Rorem tends to be a little reluctant to speak. “Nothing a composer can say about his music is more pointed than the music itself,” he wrote.</p><br/><p>On today’s date in 1979, Rorem was at the piano, accompanying soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson in the premiere performance of a song cycle he called <em>Nantucket Songs</em>, a cycle that began with his setting of Roethke’s poem.</p><br/><p>“These songs, merry or complex or strange though their texts may seem, aim away from the head and toward the diaphragm. They are emotional rather than intellectual, and need not be understood to be enjoyed,” he wrote. </p><br/><p>Speaking of personal enjoyment, Rorem said at the premiere performance of his <em>Nantucket Songs</em>, which was recorded live at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. that “Phyllis Bryn-Julson and I, unbeknownst to each other, both had fevers of 102 degrees.”<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Ned Rorem (1923-2022): <em>Nantucket Songs</em>; Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; Ned Rorem, piano; CRI 670</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>James P. Johnson's signature tune for 1920s</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1923, the comedy team of Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles were the star attraction in a new musical called <em>Runnin’ Wild</em>, which opened at the Colonial Theater at Broadway and 62nd Street.</p><br/><p>In their day, Miller and Lyles were the African-American equivalent of Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. The plot they crafted for <em>Runnin’ Wild</em>, like many musical plots back then, was flimsy: two Southern con-men on the run head north to St. Paul, Minnesota, but find the natives too strange and the climate too cold. This plot provided an excuse for comic sketches to be sandwiched in between snappy song and dance numbers, the latter invariably involving leggy showgirls.</p><br/><p>One dance number in the show struck gold for its composer, James P. Johnson.</p><br/><p>Johnson called this tune <em>Charleston</em>, after the dockside home of many recent African-American immigrants to New York City’s west side. Scholars have traced this dance step back to the west side of Africa, however — an Ashanti Ancestor dance, to be exact. But whatever its source, this catchy rhythm made Johnson famous, and rapidly became the signature tune for the Roaring Twenties, a decade of flappers, bathtub gin, and all that jazz!<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>James P. Johnson (1894-1955): <em>Charleston</em>; Leslie Stifelman, piano; Concordia Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor; MusicMasters 67140</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Ince's 'Flight Box'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 2001, the Present Music ensemble premiered a new piece of music, <em>Flight Box</em>, at the grand opening celebrations for a new art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and its roof looks a little like the wings of a large, graceful bird in flight — at least that’s the impression that composer Kamran Ince got viewing the new structure on several visits to Milwaukee.</p><br/><p>Ince was born in Montana in 1960 to American and Turkish parents and lived in Turkey between 1966 and 1980. Not surprisingly, elements of traditional Turkish music crop up in his original works, including <em>Flight Box</em>, which was composed while he flew between America and Europe seven times. </p><br/><p>Ince says he completed <em>Flight Box</em> early in 2001, many months before the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Its October premiere, coming just one month after those traumatic events, added some sinister overtones to the work’s title, but Ince insists it was based on his own, far happier memories of flying, or, as he put it, “it’s the diary of a flight that safely reaches its destination.”<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Kamran Ince (b. 1960): <em>Flight Box</em>; Present Music Ensemble; Kevin Stalheim, conductor; Present Music 6509</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Daniel Asia's Fourth</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1993, American composer Daniel Asia conducted the Phoenix Symphony in the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 4. The work included a slow movement, written as an orchestral elegy for his friend and composer colleague, Stephen Albert, who had died in a car crash the previous year.</p><br/><p>But Asia cast his symphony in the traditional four-movements familiar from the symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven. And, as in the symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven, he left room for a wide range of emotions — including humor. So, in addition to a slow, elegiac movement, the symphony has a second movement Scherzo, with a traditional, but jaunty and very American-sounding trio section.</p><br/><p>“In this piece, I was rediscovering old formal ideas ... the second movement is a true scherzo. There are refractions of Beethoven scherzos, but sometimes a beat is chopped off, creating a skipping effect. Everything is in threes in the trio-section; the harmony is three-voiced, and the instrumentation is also in threesomes,” Asia wrote. </p><br/><p>As both composer and conductor, Daniel Asia has worked with American orchestras for coast-to-coast performances of his orchestral works, ranging from his hometown Seattle Symphony to the American Composers Orchestra in New York.<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Daniel Asia (b. 1953): Symphony No. 4; New Zealand Symphony; James Sedares, conductor; Summit 256</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sun, 27 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Shostakovich goes for the 'Gold'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1930, <em>The Age of Gold</em>, a new ballet by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich opened in Leningrad. At that time, it was trendy for Soviet art to extol sporting events, and contrast the wholesome values of the new Soviet society with those of the decadent, bourgeois West.</p><br/><p>And so, the plot of this new Soviet ballet ran as follows: a Russian soccer team arrives in a Western city to play a match during an industrial exposition, only to find their heroic endeavors thwarted by a hostile hotel staff, a seductive Western opera diva, and, of course, corrupt police and city officials.</p><br/><p>Dutifully following the party line, Shostakovich wrote, “Throwing into contrast the two cultures was my main aim. The dances for the Europeans breathe the decadent spirit of … contemporary bourgeois culture, but I tried to imbue the Soviet dances with the wholesome elements of sport and physical culture.”</p><br/><p>One of the lasting hits of his ballet score was a sardonic little polka.</p><br/><p>Despite all this political subtext, Shostakovich seemed to be having a whale of a time, as if he rather enjoyed spending a little time — if only musically — in the decadent West.<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): <em>Polka</em>, from <em>The Age of Gold</em>; Moscow Chamber Orchestra; Constantine Orbelian, conductor; Delos 3257</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>A Strauss tale too good to be true</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>The real story behind Richard Strauss’ decision to use a chamber orchestra for his opera <em>Ariadne on Naxos</em> — which premiered in Stuttgart on today’s date in 1912 — is complicated and a little mundane. We prefer a more “colorful” version that some in Stuttgart have proffered.</p><br/><p>When a new opera house was being planned for that city, Strauss was asked how large the orchestral pit should be. </p><br/><p>“Oh, it should hold about 100 players,” he suggested. So, to determine the size required, the architects rather naively asked the local military band to assemble 100 players, have them stand at attention, and measured the amount of space they occupied.</p><br/><p>Now, soldiers standing at attention take up a lot less space than an equal number of seated symphonic musicians. And so, the resulting space in the new theater could only accommodate a chamber orchestra.</p><br/><p>The Stuttgart Opera also wanted to launch their new theater with a brand-new opera commissioned from Strauss. When he learned what had happened, being the eminently practical sort he was, simply wrote his new opera for chamber ensemble of about 40 players.</p><br/><p>Fact or fantasy, that’s how some like to tell it in Stuttgart.<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Richard Strauss (1861-1949): <em>Ariadne auf Naxos</em>; Vienna Philharmonic; James Levine, conductor; DG 419 225</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Fri, 25 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>William Grant Still's 'Africa'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
<description>
<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1930,  Howard Hanson led the premiere performance of the full orchestral version of William Grant Still’s symphonic poem, <em>Africa</em> at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.</p><br/><p>Still had originally conceived <em>Africa</em> as a chamber work, dedicated to and premiered by great French flutist Georges Barrère earlier that same year.</p><br/><p>In a letter to Barrère, he said his new work depicted “the Africa of my imagination,” explaining: “An American Negro has formed a concept of the land of his ancestors based largely on its folklore, and influenced by his contact with American civilization. He beholds in his mind’s eye not the Africa of reality, but an Africa mirrored in fancy, and radiantly ideal.”</p><br/><p>That said, the Africa of Still’s imagination included not only serene, pastorale moments, but also — according to his wife — the surfacing of “unspoken fears and lurking terrors.”</p><br/><p>In its revised full symphonic version, <em>Africa</em> proved successful recalls the colors of Rimksy-Korsakov’s reimagined pagan Russia, and as an orchestral showpiece proved successful in subsequent performances in Europe, but, for some reason known only to Still, <em>Africa</em> remained unpublished during his lifetime.<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>William Grant Still (1895-1978): <em>Land of Romance</em> and <em>Land of Superstition</em>, from <em>Africa</em>; Fort Smith ASym; John Jeter, conductor; Naxos 8.559174</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Piston's 'New England Sketches'</title>
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<itunes:author>American Public Media</itunes:author>
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<![CDATA[ <h2 id="h2_synopsis">Synopsis</h2><br/><p>On today’s date in 1959, the Detroit Symphony, led by eminent French conductor Paul Paray, gave the first performance of new music by American composer Walter Piston. He had studied in Paris with famous French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger and great French composer Paul Dukas, so perhaps this was an astute paring of composer and conductor.</p><br/><p>In any case, to help celebrate the 100th Worcester Festival, Paray and the Detroit orchestra were on hand in Massachusetts for the premiere of Piston’s <em>Three New England Sketches</em>, an orchestral suite with three movements: <em>Seaside</em>, <em>Summer Evening</em>, and <em>Mountains</em>.</p><br/><p>Piston didn’t intend these titles to be taken literally. “[They] serve in a broad sense to tell the source of the inspirations, reminiscences, even dreams that pervaded the otherwise musical thoughts of one New England composer,” he noted.</p><br/><p>Piston certainly qualified as a bonafide New England composer. He was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1894, taught at Harvard, had a vacation home in Vermont, and died in Belmont, Massachusetts in 1976.</p><br/><p>Even so, the most striking hallmark of his music remains its quite cosmopolitan style and neo-classical form — the lasting influence, perhaps, of his two famous French teachers.<br></p><br/><h2 id="h2_music_played_in_today's_program">Music Played in Today&#39;s Program</h2><br/><p>Walter Piston (1894-1976): <em>Three New England Sketches</em>; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3106</p> ]]>
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<pubDate>Wed, 23 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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