Synopsis

In the early years of the 20th century, a hauntingly beautiful piece of Grecian sculpture — a bust of the head of the goddess Aphrodite — was donated to the Boston Museum of Fine Art. There it inspired this orchestral work by Boston composer George Whitefield Chadwick. Chadwick’s symphonic tone poem Aphrodite was, in the words of the composer, “an attempt to suggest in music the poetic and tragic scenes which may have passed before the sightless eyes of such a goddess.”

Chadwick composed this music during East Coast holidays on Martha’s Vineyard, inspired, he said, by the play of light and wind on the sea before him. It received its premiere at the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut on this date in 1912.

On today’s date in 1999, at a summer musical festival on the opposite coast of America, another musical work inspired by ancient Greece received its first performance. Five Images after Sappho was inspired by texts of ancient Greek poetess Sappho and written for the remarkable voice of American soprano Dawn Upshaw. It was premiered at the Ojai Festival in California, and was written by Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931): Aphrodite; Brno State Philharmonic; Jose Serebrier, conductor; Reference 74

Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958): Five Images after Sappho; Dawn Upshaw, soprano; London Sinfonietta; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Sony 89158