Composers Datebook

Synopsis

On this date in 1747, London concert-goers gathered in response to a newspaper announcement, which read, “At the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden will be perform’d a new oratorio, call’d Judas Maccabaeus … no person to be admitted without tickets … at half a guinea each.”

The composer of this piece was George Frideric Handel. Over time, one choral tune in Judas Maccabaeus, “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes,” became something generations of audience members would whistle or hum on their way home.

Oddly enough, audiences wouldn’t have heard that tune at the 1747 premiere, since Handel only added it to his score years later, after first using it in another oratorio altogether.

Fifty years after the oratorio’s premiere, Beethoven composed 12 variations on “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes” for piano and cello, and 90 years after Beethoven, the melody was used for an Easter hymn some of us know as Thine Be the Glory.

The tune also appears in a much rowdier context during the annual Last Night of the Proms concert in London, since it crops up in Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs, an almost obligatory party piece played on that occasion

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Variations on Handel’s ‘See, the conquering hero comes’; Henry Wood, conductor; Fantasia on British Sea Songs

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1837, Princess Cristina Belgiojoso-Trivulzio, scored the social coup of the season at her Parisian salon. Ostensibly, it was the culmination of a three-day fundraiser in aid of Italian political refugees, but it really was the artistic equivalent of a prize fight — the fists in question pummeling the piano keyboard, a digital confrontation of the two leading virtuoso pianists of the day, Sigismund Thalberg and Franz Liszt.

Thalberg was up first, playing his own Fantasy on Themes from Rossini’s opera, Moses.  Liszt followed with one of his fantasias based on operatic themes. The music critic for the prestigious Journal des Debats was present, and he wrote, “Never was Liszt more controlled, more thoughtful, more energetic, more passionate. Never has Thalberg played with greater verve and tenderness. Each used every one of his resources. It was an admirable joust. The most profound silence fell over the noble crowd assembled, and, finally, Liszt and Thalberg were both proclaimed victors by this glittering and intelligent assembly. Thus: two victors and no vanquished.”

When asked for her verdict who had “won” the contest, the hostess, Princess Cristina replied with consummate diplomacy: “Thalberg is the first pianist in the  world — Liszt is unique,” she said.

Music Played in Today's Program

Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871): Fantasy on Rossini’s ‘The siege of Corinth’; Francesco Nicolosi, piano; Marco Polo 8.223367

Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Fantasia on Italian Operatic Melodies; Andreas Pistorius, piano Capriccio 10076

Synopsis

In 2002, film director Godfrey Reggio released his latest movie. Naqoyqatsi — the Hopi word for “life as war” — was Reggio’s third and final installment in a trilogy of unusual, non-narrative films, all with Hopi titles, each comprised of visually striking, collage-like visuals set against hypnotic film scores by American composer Philip Glass.

Naqoyqatsi may have been a non-narrative film, Reggio described his 2002 film as a symphony in three movements, and even provided descriptive titles: Movement 1 — “language and place gives way to numerical code and virtual reality”; Movement 2 — “life becomes a game”; Movement 3 — “a world that language can no longer describe.”

Fast forward ten years to 2012, when Glass had been commissioned to turn his Naqoyqatsi film score into a concert work for cello and orchestra. In the film score, solos played by famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma featured prominently, so this “repurposing” of film score seemed a logical step.

And so, on today’s date in 2012, Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 2, Naqoyqatsi, received its premiere performance with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and Matt Haimowitz as the cello soloist.

Music Played in Today's Program

Philip Glass (b. 1938): Cello Concerto No. 2 (Naqoyqatsi); Matt Haimovitz, cello; Cincinnati Symphony; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor; Orange Mountain Music CD 0087

Synopsis

Ok, if you say, “band music,” most people think “marching bands; sporting events.”  So if someone tells you there is a band work titled Ra, you might automatically respond: “sis-boom-ba.” But that’s not at all what composer David Dzubay had in mind. He was thinking of Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god.

A major figure in Egyptian mythology, the sun god Ra was born anew each day and journeyed across the sky doing battle with his chief enemy, a serpent named Apep. Dzubay’s band composition, Ra is, as he described it, “a rather aggressive depiction of an imagined ritual of sun worship, perhaps celebrating the daily battles of Ra and Apep.”

He arranged his piece — which was originally written for orchestra — for concert band, and in this incarnation won an annual competition for new bands works. Ra was first performed by the Indiana University Symphonic Band, led by Ray Cramer at the College Band Directors’ National Convention in Minneapolis on today’s date in 2003. 

Both the venue and the performers selected for that premiere must have seemed particularly gratifying to Dzubay, since he was born in Minneapolis and received his Doctorate in Music at Indiana University.

Music Played in Today's Program

David Dzubay (b. 1964): Ra; University of North Texas Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon, conductor; Klavier 11137

Synopsis

In Beethoven’s day, there were no independent symphonic orchestras in Vienna, so when Ludwig van wanted to put on an orchestral concert, the way he did it was to hire a theater orchestra for a night or two. Now, Viennese theaters were usually pretty busy and well booked up, but in Catholic Austria, they would shut down for a few weeks each year during Lent, which explains why a number of his symphonies premiered in April when the orchestras were available for hire.

It wasn’t until today’s date in 1842 that Vienna’s most famous independent orchestra played its first concert, and even then, as it still does today, the Vienna Philharmonic also doubles as the orchestra of the Vienna Opera.

German composer and conductor Otto Nicolai led that first concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. The program included Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and, not surprisingly, Beethoven remains core repertory for the Vienna Philharmonic, along with those other two Viennese “Bs” — Brahms and Bruckner. But in the 20th century, the Austrian orchestra presented important European premieres of works by Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein, two notable American “Bs.” And more recently, the Vienna Philharmonic premiered Diversions by the German-born, American composer and conductor, Andre Previn.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7; Vienna Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; DG 419 434

André Previn (1930-2019): Diversions Vienna Philharmonic; André Previn, conductor; DG 471 028