Composers Datebook

SynopsisIn the spring of 1775, shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and the sparks of the American Revolution burst into flames at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Far away in Salzburg, Austria, a 19-year-old composer named Wolfgang Mozart was spending most of that year composing five violin concertos. The fifth, in A major, was completed on this day in 1775. At the time, Mozart was concertmaster of the orchestra in the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg. Archbishops don’t have their own orchestras now, but they did then — at least in Europe, if not in the American colonies.A century and a half later, America was celebrating its sesquicentennial, and the magazine Musical America offered a prize of $3,000 for the best symphonic work on an American theme. The prize was awarded unanimously to Ernest Bloch, a Swiss-born composer who had arrived in this country only a decade before. But already, sailing into the harbor of New York, he had conceived of a large patriotic composition. Several years later, it took shape in three movements as America: An Epic Rhapsody for Orchestra.It premiered in New York on today’s date in 1928, with simultaneous performances the next day in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Fifteen other orchestras programmed it within a year. Curiously, although Bloch remains a highly respected composer, his America Rhapsody from 1928 is seldom performed today.Music Played in Today's ProgramWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Violin Concerto No. 5; Jean-Jacques Kantorow, violin; Netherlands Chamber Orchestra; Leopold Hager, conductor; Denon 7504Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): America: An Epic Rhapsody; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3135

SynopsisThe Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange opened in New York City on this date in 1971. The music was composed, and in some cases re-composed, by Wendy Carlos. As in his earlier hit, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick used classical music. This time, however, in keeping with the film’s futuristic storyline, the classics were adapted and arranged for Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos. The main title music, which we’re sampling, was Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.Carlos had just read the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, when she saw a notice in the New York Times that Kubrick was at work filming it. She immediately airmailed Kubrick two Moog synthesizer pieces, one original and one a classical arrangement. Kubrick wrote back, inviting her to London to talk, and the rest is history.Wendy Carlos had become an international celebrity with her earlier album Switched-On Bach, consisting of her Bach arrangements for synthesizer. It became the first classical recording ever to be certified platinum. Musical genius pianist Glenn Gould, whose own recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was one of the biggest sellers of all time, said: “Carlos’ realization of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 is, to put it bluntly, the finest performance of any of the Brandenburgs — live, canned, or intuited — I’ve ever heard.”Music Played in Today's ProgramHenry Purcell (arr. Wendy Carlos): Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary; Wendy Carlos, synthesizers Eastside; Digital 81362J.S. Bach (arr. Wendy Carlos): Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; Wendy Carlos, synthesizers; CBS/Sony 42309

SynopsisIt’s strange to read the doubts Tchaikovsky expressed in letters about many of his greatest musical works, which he first would dismiss as failures, only to change his mind completely a few weeks later. Take, for example, his ballet The Nutcracker, which had its premiere performance on this day in 1892 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.Tchaikovsky described working on the ballet as a “dread-inspiring, feverish nightmare, so abominable that I don't think I have the strength to put it into words.” At the time, Tchaikovsky was much more optimistic about an opera he was writing, Yolanta, only to abruptly changed his mind, writing “Now I think that the ballet is good and the opera nothing special.” This time, Tchaikovsky got it right — although initially the opera did prove more popular than the ballet.Another — and deliberately nightmarish — Russian composition had its first performance on this same day 70 years later. This was the Symphony No. 13 by Dmitri Shostakovich, subtitled Babi Yar, based on poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This choral symphony was first heard on today’s date in 1962 at the Moscow Conservatory, but was quickly banned by the Soviet authorities. Its title poem, Babi Yar, called attention to Soviet indifference to the Holocaust and persistent anti-Semitism in Soviet society. Yevtushenko later softened these lines so the symphony could be performed in the U.S.S.R.Music Played in Today's ProgramPeter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): The Nutcracker Ballet; Kirov Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conductor; Philips 462 114Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar); Nicola Ghiuselev, bass; Choral Arts Society of Washington; National Symphony; Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor; Erato 85529

SynopsisThere’s an old joke that Schubert wrote two symphonies: one unfinished, and the other endless — the reference being to Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony which lasts about 20 minutes, and his Great Symphony, which can run about an hour in performance.It was Antonio Salieri, one of Schubert’s composition teachers in Vienna, who encouraged the young composer to date his manuscripts, so we know the Unfinished Symphony was written in 1822. It wasn't performed in public, however, until December 17th, 1865 — 43 years later. The manuscript was known to exist, but no one bothered much about it until Josef von Herbeck tracked it down and conducted its first performance in Vienna.At its premiere, Herbeck added the last movement of Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 as a kind of makeshift finale. Many others have tried to finish the Unfinished Symphony, but more often than not, it is performed as an incomplete, yet oddly satisfying, work.Icelandic composer Jon Leifs, who died in 1968, apparently worried that he might leave some unfinished orchestral score behind. Therefore, he composed not one but two works he titled Finale. These were intended as a kind of “musical insurance policy.” To each score, Leifs attached a note suggesting that if he died and left behind any unfinished orchestral projects, either of these two Finales could be used.Music Played in Today's ProgramFranz Schubert (1797-1828): Symphony No. 9; Berlin Philharmonic; Karl Böhm, conductor; DG 419 318Jón Leifs (1899-1968): Fine I and Fine II; Iceland Symphony; Petri Sakari, conductor; Chandos 9433

SynopsisHe was dubbed the French Beethoven, and like Ludwig van, was famous as both a composer and a pianist. Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris in 1835, and died on today’s date, at 86, in 1921.The death date seems rather fitting, in a macabre sort of way, since December 16 is also the date we celebrate as Beethoven’s birthday. And imagine, if you will, the 10-year-old Saint-Saëns making his formal debut as a pianist at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, first performing a concerto by Beethoven, then, as an encore, offering to play any one of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas — from memory!Saint-Saëns’ keyboard skills were legendary. An early admirer of Wagner, he once amazed that composer by playing entire scores of his operas at sight. Berlioz, another admirer, once quipped he “knows everything but lacks inexperience.”In addition to music, Saint-Saëns was fascinated by mathematics, astronomy, and the natural sciences. As a young boy he collected fossils that he dug out himself from the stone quarries at Meudon. Maybe that experience inspired him years later to add a movement titled Fossils to his Carnival of the Animals, a chamber work he wrote as a private joke in 1886. Saint-Saëns forbade its publication during his lifetime, and probably would have been appalled that this flippant work — and not his more serious symphonies or sonatas — has become his best-known and best-loved work.Music Played in Today's ProgramCamille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Variations on a theme of Beethoven Philippe Corre and Edouard Exerjean, pianos Pierre Verany 790041Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Fossils, from Carnival of the Animals Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire, pianos; Markus Steckeler, xylophone; ensemble Philips 446557