Composers Datebook

In the Guiness Book of Music Facts and Feats, the record for Most Prolific Composer goes to Georg Philip Telemann, who died on today’s date in 1767 at 86. And longevity gave an edge to productivity: Telemann outlived his prolific contemporary, J.S. Bach, by 21 years, and outlived Handel by 12.

But even considering the extra years he lived, Telemann’s output is staggering. Of Bach’s cantatas, 200 or so survive, but Telemann’s number 1400. He also wrote 125 orchestral suites, 125 concertos, 130 trios, 145 pieces for solo keyboard, and about 50 operas.

Most composers (if they are lucky), publish one autobiography; Telemann published three, and commented in one of them, “How is it possible for me to remember everything I wrote for violin and winds?” Sometimes, in addition to composing original music, Telemann was also asked to perform it: “A few days before I play a violin concerto,” he wrote, “I always locked myself away, fiddle in hand, shirt-sleeves rolled up, with something strong to calm the nerves, and practice.”

Fortunately, Telemann seemed to find musical inspiration everywhere, including from the pop and folk music of his day. As he put it, “One would scarcely believe what wonderful ideas pipers and fiddlers have when they improvise while dancers pause for breath. An observer could easily gather enough ideas from them in eight days to last a lifetime!”

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): Violin Concerto in A (The Frog); Pavlo Beznosiuk, violin; New London Consort; Philip Pickett, conductor; London 455 621

In wartime London, on today’s date in 1943, a Promenade Concert featured the first performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5. The composer conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Queen’s Hall, the traditional home of the annual summertime Proms concerts, had been destroyed by German bombers two years earlier. The Proms concerts had moved into a new and larger venue, the Royal Albert Hall, where the series continues to this day.

For the 1943 season, Proms programs started earlier than usual so concert goers could get home before the nightly air raids on the city. To London audiences troubled by war fears and many sleepless nights of German bombing, the serene musical world of Vaughan Williams’ symphony must have seemed a real blessing. It’s not a “wartime” symphony in the conventional sense, full of defiance and bluster, but rather an evocation and affirmation of England’s musical past, blending hints of 16th century hymn tunes and modal folk melodies into symphonic form.

For some time, Vaughan Williams had been at work on an opera based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, a 17th century allegorical tale by the Puritan writer John Bunyan. Some of the tunes and motives from his projected opera ended up in the symphony, along with a sense of faith and optimism in the face of adversity that must have deeply affected the first audience to hear the work.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Symphony No. 5; London Philharmonic; Bernard Haitink, conductor; EMI 55487

In 2008, the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists was held in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and for the occasion a Minnesota Organ Book was commissioned. The idea was that six Minnesota composers should each write a short piece for organ plus one solo instrument, all suitable for use at a Sunday service.

One of the composers selected was Carol Barnett, who thought to herself, “Well, probably everybody else will do something slow and lovely, so I’m going to do something fast, which means a Recessional. The whole idea of a Recessional is, ‘We are done. We’re out of here!’”

She selected a bright, beautiful, but decidedly unusual extra instrument for her piece: the steel pan.

The steel pan is a chromatically-pitched concert instrument related to the calypso steel drums heard of Trinidad. Its bright, metallic sound blends surprisingly well with the pipe organ, holding its own against the organ’s mighty voice. Moreover, its calypso associations evoke a sense of joyful release — perfect for a recessional, in Barnett’s opinion.

She titled her piece Praise, and it received its premiere performance on today’s date in 2008 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, with organist Jonathan Gregoire and percussionist Jay Johnson.

For the record, the six composers and pieces included in The Minnesota Organ Book are:

• Cary John Franklin: "Morning Light" (for cello and organ)
• Monte Mason: "The Dances of Our Lady" (for soprano saxophone and organ)
• Janika Vandervelde: "Hachazarah: The Arousal of the Return" (for violin and organ)
• Linda Tutas Haugen: "Invocation and Remembrance" (for trumpet and organ)
• Carol Barnett: "Praise" (for steel pan and organ)
• David Evan Thomas: "Psalm and Dance" (for flute and organ)

Carol Barnett (b. 1949): Praise; Jay Johnson, steel pan; Jonathan Gregoire, organ; Augsburg Fortress Music CD (with ISBN: 9780800679118)

There is an ancient curse, popularly attributed to the Chinese, “May you live in interesting times!” French composer Étienne-Nicolas Mehul, who was born on this date in 1763, certainly lived and worked in an interesting time, politically and musically speaking.

His creative life spanned both the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, and since Mehul live and worked in Paris, he found himself at the epicenter of some extremely interesting events. As one of the leading French composers of his day, he was commissioned to write patriotic works for state occasions, and had friends and supporters in high places, including Napoleon himself.

His operas, both dramatic and comic, were greatly admired by his contemporaries, although sometimes these proved too “politically incorrect” for the Parisian censors.

Beethoven (not always politically correct himself) was a Mehul fan and borrowed some striking theatrical effects from one of Mehul’s operas to use in his own opera, Fidelio.

Apparently this admiration — and the borrowing — was reciprocated. The last movement of Mehul’s Symphony No. 1 shows the impact of Beethoven’s dramatic Symphony No. 5 of a few years earlier.

Étienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817): Symphony No. 1; Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, conductor; Erato 45026

Today is the birthday of versatile Argentinean-born American composer, arranger and jazz pianist, Boris Claudio “Lalo” Schifrin, who was born in Buenos Aires on today’s date in 1932.

From his background, you’d guess Schifrin was destined for a concert career. His father was a violinist in the orchestra of Argentina’s premiere opera house, the Teatro Colon. As a boy, he studied with Enrique Barenboim, father of pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim, and in Paris he studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and Charles Koechlin.

But he also loved jazz, and after studies by day with Messiaen, his nights were spent performing in Parisian jazz clubs. Eventually Dizzy Gillespie commissioned him to write for his band.

Around the same time, he began writing film and TV scores. When he started working on the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he came into contact with legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann, who became a friend and mentor. Schifrin has written more than 100 scores for film and television but his most famous composition is this catchy theme of the 1960s TV series, Mission Impossible, and still used in the subsequent movie remakes.

Lalo Schifrin (1932-2025): Hommage a Ravel; Eaken Piano; Trio Naxos 8.559062

Lalo Schifrin (1932-2025): Theme from Mission Impossible; studio orchestra; BBC Records 763

On today’s date in 1948 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel there was a press demonstration of a new kind of phonograph record. Edward Wallerstein of Columbia Records stood between a big stack of heavy, shellac, 78-rpm albums, the standard for recorded music in those days, and a noticeably slimmer stack of vinyl discs, a new format which Wallerstein had dubbed “LPs” – “long playing” records that spun at 33 & 1/3 revolutions per minute.

Before 1948, if you wanted to buy a recording of a complete symphony or concerto, it meant the purchase of up to a dozen 78s, each playing only four minutes a side. In developing its new LP-record, Columbia’s goal was to fit complete classical works onto a SINGLE disc.

Columbia’s first LP release was a recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, with Nathan Milstein the soloist and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Bruno Walter.

The following year, Columbia struck pay dirt with its original cast album of a brand-new Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers. The 1949 Columbia LP of Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza singing the hit tunes from “South Pacific” became a best-seller, and by 1951 the LP-record had become the industry standard.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847) Violin Concerto in e Nathan Milstein, violin; New York Philharmonic; Bruno Walter, conductor. Sony 64459

Rodgers and Hammerstein South Pacific Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin; orchestra; Lehman Engel, conductor. Sony 53327

Today’s date marks the 1953 New York premiere of a musical movie that flopped when it debuted but has since become a cult classic — and for two good reasons.

First, the movie’s script — written by Dr. Seuss — was about a little boy named Bart who didn’t enjoy practicing the piano and who was worried that his widowed mom might marry his dreaded piano teacher. The film, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, is cast as Bart’s dream — or nightmare — with surreal scenarios as only Dr. Seuss could imagine them.

Second, the film boasted a score by Frederick Hollander, a composer of droll Berlin cabaret songs who found a welcome home in Hollywood. For The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, he crafted witty songs and an extravagant instrumental sequence for a whacky Seussian ballet.

Despite all that, The New York Times reviewer was bored: “A ponderously literate affair,” he wrote.

The film did have its fans, however, and one was a little boy who did like to practice the piano — singer and pianist Michael J. Feinstein, who lovingly gathered together all of Hollander’s used and unused music for the movie for a limited edition CD-set released in 2010.

Friedrich Hollaender (1896-1976): ‘5000 Fingers of Dr. T’ film score; studio orchestra

Violin soloists have it easy: there are thousands of violin concertos they can choose from, starting in the Baroque era of Bach and Vivaldi, and continuing right up to the present day, with new violin concertos available from composers from John Adams to Ellen Taaffe Zwlich.

Oboe concertos? Not so much. There are some fine oboe concertos out there, but they just aren’t being written as often as new works for the violin or piano, it seems.

But on today’s date in 2010, a welcome new oboe concerto by contemporary Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin received its premiere performance at the Concertgebouw in Amstrerdam.

In describing his new work, he wrote: “It was my intention … to give expression to the entire palette of the tonal and technical qualities of this wonderful instrument. In my score there are however two further essential actors: the [English horn] which permanently imitates or answers the solo instrument … and the orchestra itself.”

Now, Shchedrin knows a thing or two about writing concertos and has written quite a few: for trumpet, cello, and viola; six concertos for piano — as well as five showpiece Concertos for Orchestra.

Rodion Shchedrin (1932-2025): Oboe Concerto; Alexei Ogrinchuk, oboe; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Suzanna Malkki, conductor; RCO Live CD 11001

The “Three B’s” are traditionally Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, of course — but today we’re offering Boccherini, Brahms and Berio.

20th-century Italian composer Luciano Berio, noted for his avant-garde scores, was asked to orchestrate the F minor Clarinet Sonata by Johannes Brahms — in 1986, for a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert featuring clarinetist Michele Zukofsky. Berio admired Brahms, and created a very respectful arrangement, but Berio couldn’t resist adding something of his own: a totally original 13-bar orchestral introduction that segues into the Brahms score.

Eleven years earlier, on today’s date in 1975, Berio’s orchestration of one of the greatest hits of the 18th century Italian composer Luigi Boccherini received its premiere performance in Milan. Originally a quintet for strings, Boccherini’s Night Music in the Streets of Madrid was written around 1780 when he was living in Spain. This chamber work became very popular — even though Boccherini feared no one outside Madrid would understand it. 200 years after it was written, when asked to supply a short piece for the La Scala Orchestra in Milan, Berio arranged the final movement of Boccherini’s quintet, music evoking the procession of Madrid’s night watchmen signaling the midnight curfew.

Johannes Brahms (arr. Luciano Berio) (1833-1897): Clarinet Sonata No. 1

Luigi Boccherini (arr. Luciano Berio): Ritirata Notturna di Madrid; Daniel Ottensamer, clarinet; Basel Symphony; Ivor Bolton, conductor; Sony 19075982072

If you’re a baby boomer who played in a high school or college band, you’ll probably remember the Divertimento for Band by American composer Vincent Persichetti, which premiered on today’s date in 1950, with the composer conducting the Goldman Band.

Persichetti didn’t envision his Divertimento as a band work, per se. At the start, it was just some woodwind figures accentuated by brass and percussion. When he realized that violins and cellos just didn’t seem to fit in the picture, Divertimento began to take shape in his mind as a work for winds, brass and percussion alone.

He went on to write a dozen more compositions for concert band. Beyond his works for band, he was a prolific composer of keyboard, chamber and orchestra pieces. He once claimed that since musical ideas often came to him in his car, he liked to tape a piece of music paper to his steering wheel, so he could jot down ideas and keep his eyes on the road at the same time.

Luckily for other residents of his hometown of Philadelphia, apparently this practice didn’t result in any head-on collisions!

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987): Divertimento; North Texas Wind Symphony; Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor; Klavier 11124