Composers Datebook

• Liszt and Milhaud celebrate Goethe

  SynopsisFranz Liszt, the inventor of the “symphonic poem,” wrote 13 of them. The second, Tasso, had its first performance on today's date in 1849. The occasion was a festival celebrating the 100th birthday of great German national poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the author of Faust. The festival was in Weimar, Germany, the city where Goethe died and was buried in 1832.Liszt’s Tasso was written to serve as the overture to Goethe’s drama about Italian poet Torquato Tasso, and its premiere performance was conducted by its composer. The main theme of the work is said to be a tune Liszt claimed he heard sung by an Italian gondolier in Venice.One of the more surprising tributes to Goethe occurred not in Germany, but in scenic Aspen, Colorado, when the Aspen Music Festival was founded in Goethe's honor in 1949 — on the 200th anniversary of his birth. The Aspen Music Festival has grown over the years and today draws some 30,000 visitors annually. One of the original founders of the Festival was French composer Darius Milhaud, who taught at the Aspen Music School for many years. This music is from Milhaud’s Aspen Serenade, written in 1957.More recently, during conductor David Zinman years as the Festival’s Music Director, many contemporary American composers, including John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour, Christopher Rouse and Augusta Read Thomas, have had their works performed — and occasionally premiered — in Aspen.Music Played in Today's ProgramFranz Liszt (1811-1886): Tasso; Orchestre de Paris; Georg Solti, conductor; London 417 513 Darius Milhaud (1892-1974): Aspen Serenade, Stuttgart Radio Symphony; Gilbert Varga, conductor; CPO 999114

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• Copland does Mexico (and Mexico does Copland)

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1937, in Mexico City, Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chavez conducted the first performance of this music by Aaron Copland.The music owes its existence to Copland’s friendship with Chavez, which led to Copland visiting Mexico in 1932. Copland and Chavez paid a visit to a wild Mexico City Dance Hall called El Salón México. Quoting a guide-book description of the place in his memoirs, Copland noted its “Three halls: one for people dressed up, one for people dressed in overalls but shod, and one for the barefoot.” A sign on a wall over the dance floor read: “Please don't throw lighted cigarette butts on the floor so the ladies don’t burn their feet!”“In some inexplicable way, while milling about in those crowded halls, I felt a live contact with the Mexican people — their humanity, their shyness, their dignity and unique charm. I remember quite well that it was at such a moment I conceived the idea of composing a piece about Mexico and naming it El Salón México,” Copland recalled. Five years later Chavez conducted Copland's music in Mexico City. Copland admits he was nervous about how Mexican audiences would react. He had little to fear — Chavez and the musicians loved it, and so did the local critics, who called it “as Mexican as the music of Revueltas,” which at the time, says Copland, was like saying, “as American as the music of Gershwin.”Music Played in Today's ProgramAaron Copland (1900-1990): El Salón México; New Philharmonia; Aaron Copland, conductor; CBS/Sony 46559

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• A Song for Anne-Sophie

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 2001, during the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter premiered Tango, Song and Dance, a new chamber work for violin and piano. She had commissioned the work from Andre Previn several years earlier, but its premiere was delayed as Mutter embarked on a project to perform and record all Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas.“After doing all those stern [Beethoven] recitals, I wanted to play pieces which reflected the basis of musical history, the folksongs and dances which has inspired composers through so many centuries. Tango, Song and Dance is both modern and old-fashioned, and it touches the heart, especially the slow movement, which is really a Song Without Words,” said Mutter. And that wasn’t the only thing to touch her heart. It was around this time that Previn and Mutter became husband and wife. For his part, Andre said, “I have one piece of advice to composers for the violin — make sure Anne-Sophie premieres your piece. Then you’re home and dry, and everything works!”Other composers seem to agree, and Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutoslawski, Henri Dutilleux, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams have all written violin works for Anne-Sophie Mutter.Music Played in Today's ProgramAndre Previn (1929-2019): Tango Song and Dance III. Dance; Lambert Okis, piano; Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; DG 8143

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• Bach's Letter

  SynopsisYou almost feel sorry for the guy — after all, how would you like to go down in history as the fellow who tried to stiff J.S. Bach? That’s what happened to Herr Johannes Friedrich Eitelwein, a rich merchant of Leipzig who thought he could avoid paying the customary wedding fee apportioned to that city’s church musicians by getting married outside city limits.Back then such fees provided a significant portion of their income, and so on today’s date in 1733, Bach and two other church musicians sent a letter to the Leipzig City Council complaining that, whether married inside or outside of the city, as a Leipzig resident, and a wealthy one to boot, Eitelwein should pay up.Now in the 18th Century, such petitions required a delicate balance of formal flattery and firm persistence, so the letter begins: “Magnificent, most honorable gentlemen, our wise and learned councilors, distinguished Lords and Patrons: may it please you to condescend to hear how Herr Johannes Friedrich Eitelwein was married on the twelfth of August of the present year out of town, and therefore thinks himself entitled to withhold the fees due us in all such cases, and has made bold to disregard our many kind reminders.”Bach’s letter survives, but not any records letting us know if Eitelwein ever paid up!Music Played in Today's ProgramJ.S. Bach (1685-1750): Weichet Nur, from Wedding Cantata No. 202; Elly Ameling, soprano; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor; EMI Classics

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• Pomp and the MJQ

  SynopsisOn today's date in 1907, the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 by Edward Elgar had its premiere performance in London. Say Pomp and Circumstance to most people and they will start humming the tune of No. 1, later set to words as Land of Hope and Glory. That march accompanied many of us down the aisle at our high school or college graduations.In all, Elgar composed five Pomp and Circumstance marches, and meant to write a sixth, but just never got around to it. No. 1 is the most familiar, but No. 4 runs a close second, with another very noble, very British main tune. During World War II, Alan Herbert fitted his “Song of Freedom” to this music and with its opening line of “All men must be free,” it became an unofficial alternate British national anthem.Meanwhile on these shores, we note that one of America’s classic chamber jazz ensembles was founded on today’s date in 1951 in New York City, when the Modern Jazz Quartet was formed by pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Under the direction of Lewis, the Quartet fused jazz improvisation with classical forms and Baroque counterpoint. Instead of playing in smoky bars, MJQ made a point of playing in concert halls and even wore tuxes, asking audiences to afford their chamber jazz the same attention and respect usually reserved for classical music.Music Played in Today's ProgramEdward Elgar (1857-1934): Pomp and Circumstance No. 4; London Philharmonic; Daniel Barenboim, conductor; Sony Classical 60789 Milt Jackson (1923-1999): Blues in C; Modern Jazz Quartet; Atlantic 1652

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