Composers Datebook

Synopsis

Today in 1825, one of Beethoven's late chamber works, his String Quartet No. 12, received its premiere in Vienna by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The Quartet had only received the music two weeks earlier, which, in those days, would be plenty of time for experienced musicians to work up a normal string quartet of that day. But Beethoven’s new quartet was harmonically and structurally far from the norm for 1825.

Even Beethoven knew as much, and drafted a humorous “contract” for himself and the four musicians to sign. It read: “Each one is herewith given his part and is bound by oath and pledged on his honor to do his best, to distinguish himself and to vie with the other in excellence. Signed: Schuppanzigh, Weiss, Linke, the grand master’s accursed cellist Holtz and the last, but only in signing, Beethoven.”

Even so, the premiere was under-rehearsed, and the players seemed visibly unhappy with their difficult assignment. Fortunately, Beethoven was not present, but when he learned of the poor performance, he was furious. He immediately contacted another violinist, Joseph Böhm, whose quartet meticulously rehearsed the new piece under the composer’s watchful eye.

Their performance was better received, and in April of 1825, Böhm took the unusual step of programming the difficult new work twice on the same program. As a contemporary review put it, this time, “the misty veil disappeared and Beethoven’s splendid work of art radiated its dazzling glory.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): String Quartet No. 12; LaSalle Quartet; DG 453 768

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2020, a new cello concerto by American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was given its premiere in Fort Lauderdale, by cellist Zuill Bailey the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina María Alfonso, the same performers who had commissioned the work.

About the work, Zwilich said, “A Cello Concerto is something that had been on my ‘composer’s wish list’ for a long time. One of the things I love about the cello is that it covers virtually the entire range of the human voice — I particularly like its evocation of the mezzo-soprano … I sometimes refer to string instruments as ‘singers on steroids,’ because of the power they give to a composer to explore virtuosity as well as expressivity. My Cello Concerto engages both the lyrical, singing nature of the instrument and its technical possibilities.”

Zwillich dedicated the new concerto to the memory of two legendary cellists, Leonard Rose and Mstislav Rostropovich. Following the premiere, Dennis D. Rooney of the Palm Beach Arts Paper wrote, “The concerto's three linked movements suggested a meditation on melodic gestures from the American vernacular. The blues hovered over the work allusively … Throughout, the mood was thoughtful but not elegiac.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939): Concerto for Cello and Orchestra; Zuill Bailey, cello; Santa Rosa Symphony; Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Delos DE-3596

Synopsis

Perhaps the fanfare is the most optimistic and hopeful of all musical forms, since it signals the start of something new and worth noting.

American composer Adam Schoenberg was feeling optimistic and hopeful when he wrote the fanfare that opens his American Symphony, a work premiered on this date in 2011 by the Kansas City Symphony led by Michael Stern.

“American Symphony was inspired by the 2008 presidential election, when both parties asked the people to embrace change and make a difference. I was both excited and honored about ushering in this new era in our nation’s history,” Schoenberg said.

Schoenberg celebrated his 28th birthday a few weeks after Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, and says that just a few days after the election got the idea for his new Symphony after hearing what he calls “the quintessential American symphony,” namely Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3, composed in 1946, just after the end of World War II. Not coincidentally, Copland’s Symphony includes his famous Fanfare for the Common Man as a key thematic statement

“I believe Copland wanted to bring beauty and peace into the world during a time of great turmoil, and seeing that our country and world had needs similar to those of Copland’s time, I set out to write a modern American symphony that paid homage to our past and looked forward to a brighter future,” Schoenberg said.

Music Played in Today's Program

Adam Schoenberg (b. 1980): American Symphony for Orchestra; Kansas City Symphony; Michael Stern, conductor; Reference RR-139

Synopsis

Oscar Wilde often gets credit for the line, “But enough about me — what do you think about me?” Roughly a century ago, this portrait of the self-absorbed ego not only got laughs on the London stage, it also hit home with German concertgoers after a series of frankly autobiographical tone poems and operas by Richard Strauss had their premieres.

Take today’s date in 1899, for example. Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), received its premiere in Frankfurt, with the composer himself conducting. Strauss quoted themes from his own works in the section of the new score marked, “The hero’s works of peace,” leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that the hero in question was Strauss himself. Depicted in carping and crabbed musical terms were “the hero’s critics,” meant to be taken as Strauss’ real-life music critics. Understandably, they were not amused, and attacked Strauss for his inflated ego and music.

Strauss, as usual, was totally unflappable and offered his own somewhat self-deprecating description of the origins of his heroic piece as follows:

“Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony is so little beloved of our conductors these days that to fulfill this need I am composing a largish tone-poem A Hero’s Life, admittedly without a funeral march, yet in E-flat, and with lots of horns, which are the yardstick of heroism.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life); Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor; Reference 83

Synopsis

Recordings can be an effective calling card for composers — but the expense of recording an orchestral work in the U.S. is rather daunting, so composers often work with record labels that use orchestras abroad.

American composer Rain Worthington made a recording of her orchestral work Tracing a Dream with the Russian Philharmonic on today’s date in 2010, and, in quintessential 21st-century fashion, planned to “attend” the Moscow recording session via Skype.

“But just as I was about to log in, the recording assistant emailed the Russian authorities had revoked the permission to Skype. At the last minute an appeal by my American recording producer, Bob Lord, who was present in the studio, somehow convinced them to allow the connection. So I spent the morning ‘virtually’ in Moscow, listening to and participating in the three-hour recording session!” she recalled.

“Tracing a Dream taps into the impressionistic logic of dreams,” she said. “Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order.“

Six years after its recording in Moscow, Tracing a Dream received its public premiere by the Missouri State University Orchestra conducted by Christopher Kelts and was awarded an Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music.

Music Played in Today's Program

Rain Worthington (b. 1949): Tracing a Dream; Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Ovidiu Marinescu, conductor; Navona 6025