Composers Datebook

On today’s date in 1805, Beethoven’s opera, Leonore, had its premiere at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, after many postponements due to getting the opera’s libretto approved by government censors and the orchestral parts copied in time. There was also the little matter of the Austrian capital being occupied by French troops as Napoleon was sweeping across Europe.

The cream of Viennese society had fled by the time Napoleon arrived, so the skimpy audience for the premiere performance of Beethoven’s opera included a good number of French soldiers. What they made of Beethoven’s opera, which tells the story of a woman rescuing her husband from a political prison, is anybody’s guess.

As usual, the Viennese critics were not impressed. One wrote, “There are no new ideas in the solos, and they are mostly too long. The choruses are ineffectual and one, which indicates the joy of prisoners over the sensation of fresh air, miscarries completely!”

After several revisions and the eventual departure of the French, even the critics came to accept Beethoven’s opera — retitled Fidelio — and in particular the “Prisoners’ Chorus,” as one of Beethoven’s most moving creations.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Overture and Prisoner's Chorus, from Fidelio; Dresden Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips 438 496

The publisher of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion, which received its premiere performance on today’s date in 1961 at New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall, states with refreshing honesty that it is “not one of Harrison's most frequently performed works” and that “the highly rhythmic violin line is pleasantly contrasted by the exceptionally varied percussion ensemble.”

Now, by an “exceptionally varied” percussion ensemble, it means in addition to conventional instruments, Harrison asks for tin cans, suspended brake drums, flowerpots, plumber’s pipes, wind chimes and spring coils.

Not surprisingly, it can be difficult to assemble the “heavy metal” called for in the score. For a 1965 performance, Harrison was forced to spend hours, as he put it, "chasing down pipe lengths and flower pots in hardware stores."

But there was a method to his madness. Harrison was trying to imitate the sounds of the tuned bronze gongs of the traditional Indonesian gamelan orchestra by using distinctly American “found” materials. In performance, the setup seems downright humorous at first sight, but at first sound, it works. In fact, one suspects Harrison wants the audience to chuckle at first, but then be charmed.

Lou Harrison (1917-2003) Concerto for Violin and Percussion; Antonio Nunez, vn; Basel Percussion Ensemble; Paul Sacher, cond. Pan Classics 510 103

We all have our heroes and role models — people we admire and hope to emulate if we can. Composers, of course, are no different.

On today’s date in 1995, American composer William C. Banfield’s Symphony No. 6 received its first public performance by the Akron Symphony, the same ensemble that recorded the new work for a Telarc compact disc release that same year. Banfield titled the work Four Songs for Five American Voices and explained it as follows:

“As creators, innovators, performers and composers, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan have made an incredible impact on my life and art. Their presence in American music and culture will never be forgotten, and the memory of them will always bring to [one's] mind a memorable melody, and to [one's] face, a smile."

The symphony is made up of four instrumental movements: “If Bernstein Wrote It...,” “In an Ellington Mood,” “I’m Dizzy Over Miles” and “Someone Said Her Name Was Sarah.”

That last movement, Banfield says, “was simply written to pay homage to the sweet and lyrical facility of singer Sarah Vaughan, who was ingenious in her vocal execution and style.”

William C. Banfield (b. 1961) Someone Said Her Name Was Sarah, from Symphony No. 6; Akron Symphony; Alan Balter, cond. Telarc 80409

Nov. 17, 1878, marked a milestone in the career of 37-year old Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. For the first time, he engaged and conducted the orchestra of the Provisional Theater in Prague in a concert entirely of his own works, including the premiere performance of a new Serenade for Winds.

Earlier that year, Dvorak heard a performance of a Mozart wind serenade in Vienna and was so taken by the sound of Mozart’s double-reeds and horns that he wrote a similar work in just two weeks.

Dvorak added to the open-air feel of Mozart’s 18th-century wind serenade some lively 19th-century Czech dance rhythms. But he also chose the key of D minor, reserved by Mozart for some of his most serious works. That enables Dvorak’s Serenade to seem both somber and upbeat, infused with musical shadows and sunlight.

The new work was well received in Prague and also in Vienna, where one its biggest fans was Johannes Brahms, who wrote: ``A more lovely, refreshing impression of real, rich and charming creative talent you can't imagine. I think it must be a pleasure for the wind players!''

Antonin Dvorak Serenade for Winds; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff, cond. Teldec

On today’s date in 1904, the Washington Post’s headline read, “Hiawatha Tonight: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s masterpiece to be sung at Convention Center.”

The 29-year-old British composer, on his first visit to America, was to conduct the 200 members of the Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society of Washington D.C., accompanied by the Marine Band orchestra.

So who was this British composer and what had he done to inspire an American chorus to name itself after him?

Coleridge-Taylor was born in 1875 to an African father from Sierra Leone and an English mother. Showing remarkable musical talent, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and rapidly established himself as a major choral composer with a trilogy of oratorios, all based on Longfellow’s epic poem Hiawatha, that became wildly popular in England, but the 1904 concert in Washington was the first time all three had been performed on the same concert.

The Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society was America’s first African-American concert choir. Attending the Washington performance were many members of the federal government and distinguished members of both Black and white society.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) Hiawatha's Departure; Welsh National Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Kenneth Alwyn, cond. Argo 430 956

In 1974, St. Petersburg was still called “Leningrad” and still part of what we now call the “former Soviet Union.” Back then, the most famous living Soviet composer was Dmitri Shostakovich, whose health was rapidly failing from the cancer that would claim his life the following year.

On today’s date in 1974, Shostakovich’s final string quartet, his Fifteenth, was given its premiere performance by the Taneyev Quartet. The work was supposed to have been premiered by the Beethoven Quartet, but its cellist died unexpectedly, and, mindful of his own mortality, Shostakovich was reluctant to postpone the scheduled premiere. After all, he might not be around by the time the Beethoven Quartet found a replacement cellist.

When his String Quartet No. 1 had premiered in 1938, Shostakovich had described that work as “joyful, merry, lyrical” and “springlike.” His Fifteenth Quartet, on the other hand, is obviously a “winter work,” written by someone who knows he might never see another spring.

If Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies represent the “public” side of a Soviet composer, his fifteen string quartets might be described as chronicling his “private” inner world of hopes, fears and dreams.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) String Quartet No. 15; Emerson String Quartet DG 463 284

On today’s date in 1922, the British Broadcasting Corporation began daily radio transmissions from London, at first offering just news and weather — the latter read twice, in case anyone wanted to take notes. The following month, on Dec. 23, 1922, the BBC broadcast its first orchestral concert.

Over time, the BBC became affectionately nicknamed “the Beeb,” or, less affectionately “Auntie,” due to the upper-middle class, slightly patronizing tone of its music announcers in the 1940s and ‘50s.

That said, Auntie has proven to be hip in one aspect: The BBC has been a major commissioner of and advocate for new music by a wide range of composers — and not just British ones. In 2007, for example, the BBC Symphony premiered the Doctor Atomic Symphony, by American composer John Adams, live on-air at a BBC Proms Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

And it’s not just famous, big-name composers who get an airing on the Beeb either. Each year, BBC Radio 3 hosts a competition for teenage composers. Winners participate in a mentored program and have one of their orchestral works developed, rehearsed and performed at the BBC Proms.

John Adams (b. 1947) Violin Concerto; Tamsin Waley-Cohen, violin; BBC Symphony; Andrew Litton, cond. Signum 468

While for Puerto Ricans, the bomba and the plena are more familiar representatives of their proud dance tradition, the musical form known as danza holds a special place in their hearts.

Danza originated in southern Puerto Rico in the early 19th century, originally similar to the waltz, but over time it absorbed Afro-Cuban influences. Manuel Gregorio Tavárez, a 19th-century Puerto Rican composer raised the danza to a cultivated artform, and accordingly he was dubbed “the Chopin of America.”

A 21st-century Puerto Rican composer, Dan Román, paid tribute to Tavárez and other earlier danza masters in a piece for cello and piano called Retrospectos, or Retrospectives. This new work premiered on today’s date in 2007 at the University of Colorado at Boulder, played by the Montserrat Duo, which had commissioned the piece.

“Each movement of my piece uses a different aspect of the Danza,” Román says. “Each movement also explores a particular composer from among the most significant authors of the genre. However, the source material is always treated as series of analytical objects that become manipulated to nearly the point of abstraction.”

Dan Román (b. 1974) Retrospectos; Beth Ringel, vcl; Alex Maynegre, p. Innova 904

These days at symphony concerts, when a new piece of music is about to be played, it’s not uncommon to overhear someone mutter, “Why do they have to program this new stuff, when there’s so much Brahms and Tchaikovsky we’d rather hear?”

Well, on today’s date in 1881, the 40th season of the New York Philharmonic Society’s concerts opened with a pair of new works: first the New York premiere of the Tragic Overture, by Johannes Brahms, and after that, the world premiere of the Second Piano Concerto, by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The soloist in the Tchaikovsky was Madeleine Schiller.

Here’s what the New York Times had to say the following morning: “The return of Madame Schiller to the stage is a welcome event, ... the only regret being that her efforts had not been devoted to a more interesting work, for, apart from the novelty, it cannot be said that the Tchaikovsky concerto possessed any great merit. There are older works, of which one never tires and which, interpreted by Madame Schiller ... would always be welcomed.”

Ah, some things never change!

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) Tragic Overture; Chicago Symphony; Daniel Barenboim, cond. Erato 95192

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) Piano Concerto No. 2; Barry Douglas, piano; Philharmonia Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin, cond. RCA/BMG 61633

In his autobiographical sketch, A Mingled Chime, British conductor Thomas Beecham offered this assessment of British composer Ethel Smyth: “Ethel Smyth is without question the most remarkable of her sex that I have been privileged to know,” and added that he admired her “fiery energy and unrelenting fixity of purpose.”

Born in 1858, Smyth became a composer against her family’s wishes, and it took dogged determination to get her large-scale choral and operatic works performed in an era when most in the music business did not take female composers seriously. That was before they met Smyth, who convinced legendary conductors like Arthur Nikisch, Bruno Walter and Beecham, who realized her music had merit.

Smyth’s opera The Wreckers had its premiere performance in Leipzig on today’s date in 1906 and was championed in England by Beecham, who thought it her masterpiece. It remains, wrote Beecham in 1944, the year of Smyth’s death, “one of the three or four English operas of real musical merit and vitality written in the past 40 years.”

Ethyl Smyth (1858 - 1944) The Wreckers; Soloists and BBC Philharmonic; Odaline de la Martinez, cond. Conifer 51250