Composers Datebook

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

Synopsis

One of the preeminent figures in 20th century Japanese concert music was composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, born in Yokohama in 1929.

The range of his music reflects a curious turn of mind. He wrote pieces in a neo-Romantic mode, experimented with electronic music and jazz, composed aggressively avant-garde works, and scored music for theater, and both Japanese and American films. In 1958, he composed a Nirvana Symphony, inspired by the haunting sound of Japanese temple bells.

“For the past few years, I feel as if I have been possessed by bells. I wonder why it is that, no matter how splendid a piece of music may be, it sounds totally faded and worthless when set beside the lingering resonance of a temple bell,” Mayuzumi wrote.

The Nirvana Symphony of 1958 was followed up with another orchestral work inspired by Buddhist themes, a Mandala Symphony, which premiered in Tokyo on today’s date in 1960.

Mayuzumi’s 1976 opera, Kinkakuji, or The Golden Pavilion, is based on a novel by Yukio Mishima, which, thanks to a New York City Opera production in 1995, became the first Japanese grand opera to be staged in the U.S.

Toshiro Mayuzumi died in 1997 at 68.

Music Played in Today's Program

Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929-1997): Nirvana Symphony; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony; Hiroyuki Iwaki, conductor; Denon 78839

Synopsis

She’s been called a “British Gershwin” but perhaps a “British Poulenc” might more accurately describe the genial and graceful music of Madeleine Dring, a woman whose diverse and energetic creative life was cut short, when, at 53, she died suddenly on today’s date in 1977.

Dring was born into a talented musical family in 1923, and she showed early promise. On her tenth birthday she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, and eventually studied composition with Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gordon Jacob. Dring was soon providing incidental music and songs for amateur and professional theatrics. She was also a gifted singer and actress, and performed occasionally on stage and television.

She married British oboist Roger Lord, and a number of her chamber works feature that instrument.

Six volumes of her songs were published after her death, largely through the persistence of her husband, and many of her other works have been published, performed, and recorded with increasing frequency, especially in the United States.

Sadly, Dring died just when women composers began to receive increasing attention from music historians, performers, and audiences worldwide. A British survey of her life and music was published in 2000.

Music Played in Today's Program

Madeleine Dring (1923-1977): Three Piece Suite; Cynthia Green Libby, oboe; Peter Collins, piano; Hester Park 7707

Synopsis

It’s all a matter of timing. In 1942, the Soviet Union was America’s wartime ally, and the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich made the cover of TIME magazine. Seven years later, the war was over, but the Cold War was on — with a vengeance.

On March 25, 1949, Shostakovich arrived in New York for his first visit to America as part of the Soviet delegation to a Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace.

By then the anti-Communist tide of American public opinion resulted in pickets and protests.  Those who spoke at the congress, including the American composer Aaron Copland, felt compelled to preface their comments with unambiguously anti-Communist manifestos. Shostakovich nervously read the equally unambiguous speech prepared for him by his Soviet minders, attacking American imperialism in general and expatriate Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, in particular. It was embarrassing for everyone concerned.

But while he was in New York, Shostakovich got to play a piano reduction of the Scherzo from his Symphony No. 5 for a huge crowd at Madison Square Garden. That, at least, resulted in a big ovation — and maybe that was how he privately approached the whole, sad affair — as a kind of grim scherzo, or joke.

Music Played in Today's Program

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 5; USSR Cultural Ministry Symphony; Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor; MCA 32128

Synopsis

Dealing with the death of loved ones is never easy, but sometimes music can help — especially if music plays a role in the lives of both the departed and survivors. And some survivors find both meaning and consolation in commissioning a work of new music to honor the memory of those they have lost.

On today’s date in 2007, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia gave the premiere of such a memorial work, Love Abide. The work was commissioned by Paul Rowley, who for years had driven his wife Miriam to weekly Choral Society of Philadelphia rehearsals, where she sang alto, always, said her husband, “beaming with excitement.” 

After her sudden death in 2003, Rowley asked the society’s artistic director to choose a composer to write a tribute to his wife. Rowley had a text in mind for the lyrics and wanted an alto solo and a female composer. The commission went to British composer Roxanna Panufnik and the selected text was the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, which includes the lines: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things …  faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968): Love Abide; London Oratory School Choir; London Mozart Players; Lee Ward, conductor; Signum 564