Composers Datebook

On today’s date in 1862, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Forza del Destino (or The Force of Destiny) had its premiere at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina, were present for the opening night.

We’re not sure what the outdoor temperature was in St. Petersburg that November evening, but it was something that the Verdis carefully considered before agreeing to attend.

Responding to a friend’s letter describing a Russian winter, Giuseppina wrote: “If I were not afraid of committing forgery, I would alter that imposing figure of 22 below zero which will make Verdi open his eyes wide in fright … As for myself, I took refuge under the stove … In any case, I shall try and persuade him to expose his nose to the danger of freezing in Russia.”

Perhaps in artistic compensation, the story of Forza is set in sultry Spain — and after the premiere in St. Petersburg, the Verdis did indeed set off for warmer climates of Rome and Madrid, where the new opera was to have its next performances.

In the early years of the 20th century, La Forza del Destino — like most of Verdi’s works — was seldom staged, but in the 1920s it was successfully revived, and its overture has become a concert hall favorite.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Overture and Act II excerpt from La Forza del Destino; John Alldis Choir; London Symphony; James Levine, conductor; RCA/BMG 39502

The world’s most popular classical guitar concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo, had its first performance on today’s date in 1940, in Barcelona.

Rodrigo was born in Spain in 1901 and lost his sight at the age of three. He wrote all his music on a Braille music typewriter. The Concierto de Aranjuez, inspired by a small town of that name thirty miles south of Madrid, remains his signature piece, though he wrote a number of other successful works. He died on July 6, 1999, at 97.

In 1959, a friend had played a recording of Rodrigo’s concerto for American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who said, “After listening to it for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.” So, he played it for his friend, jazz composer and arranger Gil Evans, and in short order the two collaborated on their own 16-minute version of the score. Their collaboration was included on their classic 1960 Columbia LP, Sketches of Spain.

At the recording session, Miles paid Rodrigo this compliment: “That melody is so strong that the softer you play it, the stronger it gets…”

Joaquin Rodrigo (1902-1999): Concierto de Aranjuez; Manuel Barrueco, guitar; Philharmonic Orchestra; Placido Domingo, conductor; EMI 56175

On today’s date in 1919, a concert suite from Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale had its premiere in Lausanne, Switzerland — the same city in which the original theatrical version of Stravinsky’s score was first presented in 1918.

In that original form, The Soldier’s Tale was a kind of musical morality play scored for narrator and small chamber ensemble. Stravinsky incorporated elements of American jazz, although what he knew of jazz was derived entirely from looking at sheet music rather than any firsthand experience of actually hearing American jazz.

Eighty years later, for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis composed A Fiddler’s Tale — a companion piece to Stravinsky’s work, scored for the same configuration of instruments.

Wynton Marsalis said, “No matter what I do, I'm not going to compare myself to Stravinsky. That would be ridiculous. You have to accept who he is and do what you can do, and hope that what you do is on some level of quality.”

Like Stravinsky’s piece, A Fiddler’s Tale also exists in two versions: as a theater piece with a narrator, and as a purely instrumental suite. Both have been recorded, and both, not surprisingly, feature Wynton Marsalis as the trumpeter.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): L’histoire du Soldat Suite; Philharmonia Orchestra; Robert Craft, conductor; Koch 7504

Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961): The Fiddler’s Tale; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Sony 60979

In 1971, after reading a book about Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, American pop singer Don McLean wrote the song, “Vincent,” which became a big hit the following year. The song is better known by its opening line, “Starry, starry night,” a reference to one of Van Gogh’s best-known paintings, The Starry Night.

But McLean wasn’t the only composer inspired by that painting. On today’s date in 1978, the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., a new orchestral work by French composer Henri Dutilleux.

Dutilleux titled his new work Timbres, Espace, Mouvement, but added a subtitle, The Starry Night, in acknowledgment of the painting’s influence, and said he wanted to translate into music the (quote) “almost cosmic whirling effect which [the painting] produces.”

Now, painting and music are very different art forms, but the energy, pulsation, and whirling qualities of Van Gogh’s masterpiece do find vivid expression, both visual and musical, in Dutilleux’s work.

As a kind of frame, Dutilleux placed the cellos in a half circle around the conductor, omitted violins and violas from his instrumentation, and alternated static episodes and whirling wind and percussion solos to evoke the illusion of motion in the Van Gogh painting.

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013): Timbres, Espace, Mouvement; BBC Philharmonic; Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor; Chandos 9504

The saxophone — whose flashing serpentine figure is now virtually synonymous with jazz clubs and wind bands — was the brainchild of woodwind craftsman Adolphe Sax, born in Belgium on this date in 1814, to a family of prominent instrument makers. Sax moved to Paris in his late 20s, where he proved himself a restless and prolific inventor of new instruments.

Yet only a few of these lived on, of which the saxophone is by far the most popular. John Philip Sousa’s band gave many audiences in this country their first taste of the saxophone, and its important role in jazz can hardly be overestimated — that’s a development that neither Sax nor Sousa could have foreseen.

In the symphonic repertory, saxophones are still just occasional visitors to the concert hall, but in the world of chamber music, saxophone quartets have become quite popular. In America alone there are dozens of professional saxophone quartets who commission and perform new works.

Take, for example, the Quartet for Saxophones by the Canadian composer Anita “A.D.” Perry, a work written for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet of Buffalo, New York. The Amherst Quartet has a 20-year history of commissioning and performing new music, and has recorded a number of CDs, include one of Perry’s quartet.

Anita D. Perry (b. 1960): Quartet for Saxophones; Amherst Saxophone Quartet; innova 5

On today’s date in 1938, two works by American composer Samuel Barber received their very high-profile premiere performances on a live, coast-to-coast broadcast by the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

Toscanini was impressed by Barber’s Symphony No. 1, which was performed at the 1937 Salzburg Festival, so Toscanini asked the 25-year old composer for a short orchestral piece, which Toscanini might perform with the newly-formed NBC Symphony.

Barber offered Toscanini his pick of two short pieces, and must have been surprised when he agreed to perform both of them: a newly-composed Essay for Orchestra and Barber’s arrangement for full string orchestra of a movement from a String Quartet he had written in 1936. Retitled Adagio for Strings, it was destined to become his best-known work.

Barber’s Adagio acquired a special resonance during World War Two, as a threnody for America’s war dead. It was also performed at the funeral of wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt. More recently, Barber’s Adagio has been used to great effect in several successful films, including The Elephant Man and Platoon.

In a memorial tribute to Barber, American composer Ned Rorem wrote, “If Barber [25 years old when the Adagio was completed] later aimed higher, he never reached deeper into the heart.”

Samuel Barber (1910-1981): First Essay for Orchestra; Detroit Symphony; Neeme Järvi, conductor; Chandos 9053

Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Adagio for Strings; Berlin Philharmonic; Semyon Bychkov, conductor; Philips 434 108

Take one flute, one oboe, and mix well with one each of a clarinet, bassoon and French horn — and you have the recipe for the traditional wind quintet. In the 19th century, this tasty musical mix was perfected by Europeans like the Czech composer Anton Reicha, who produced 24 wind quintets in his lifetime.

In the 20th century, American composers like Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter and John Harbison have all written one wind quintet each — matching Reicha’s in quality, if not in quantity. But other American composers have returned to the wind quintet for a second helping. On today’s date in 1993, the Wind Quintet No. 2 of Californian composer David Ward-Steinman received its premiere in Sacramento by the Arioso Quintet.

Ward-Steinman titled his quintet Night Winds, and asked his five players to occasionally double on some non-traditional instruments such as bamboo or clay flutes, a train-whistle, and even the traditional wind instrument of Indigenous Australians, the didgeridoo — all to create some atmospheric “night-wind” sounds.

In addition to wind quintets, David Ward-Steinman composed orchestral works, chamber music and pieces for solo piano. A native of Louisiana, Ward-Steinman studied with Darius Milhaud in Aspen, Milton Babbitt at Tanglewood and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Antonin Reicha (1770-1836): Wind Quintet No. 23; Albert Schweitzer Quintet; CPO 999027

David Ward-Steinman (1936-2015): Woodwind Quintet No. 2 (Night Winds); Arioso Quintet; Fleur de Son Classics 57935

On this day* in 1888, the orchestral suite Scheherazade, the most famous work of Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was first performed in St. Petersburg. The suite evokes episodes from The Arabian Nights. Though Rimsky-Korsakov was Russian, and most often concentrated on operas based on Russian history and fable, it’s ironic that his most popular work was inspired by folklore and fables from the Middle East.

Until recently, Western knowledge of the Middle Eastern music was mostly limited to such secondhand accounts. But today, we’re discovering firsthand both the traditional music of the Middle East and new works by contemporary composers from that part of the world.

One of these is Iranian-born American composer Reza Vali, who was born in Ghazvin, Iran in 1952 and began his musical studies at the Teheran Conservatory. In 1972, he moved to Vienna and studied at the Academy of Music, and then came to America to study at University of Pittsburgh.

Despite his training in Western technique, Vali has returned to the instruments and traditions of Persian music for inspiration. “Music is like the ocean,” he once said in an interview. “It moves between cultures. It doesn’t have boundaries. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lose your identity … you can have a pluralistic approach by also keeping your identity.”

*Julian calendar date: October 22

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Scheherazade; Atlanta Symphony; Robert Spano, conductor; Telarc 80568

Reza Vali (b. 1952): Folk Songs Set No. 9; Alberto Almarza, flute; Alvaro Bitran, cello; New Albion 077On This Day

On today’s date in 1873, a new piece by German composer Johannes Brahms received its first performance by the Vienna Philharmonic. The piece, Variations on a Theme by Haydn, was a big success at its premiere. Brahms must have heaved a great sigh of relief.

For the previous 18 years, Brahms had struggled to complete his Symphony No. 1, unconvinced that he had “the right stuff” to pull it off. In the summer of 1873, he wrote his Haydn Variations as a kind of personal test to see how audiences would react — and to bolster his own confidence. Lucky for us, it worked: Brahms returned to work on his Symphony No. 1 and went on to write four symphonies in all!

On today’s date in 1990, the Fourth Symphony of American composer Lou Harrison received its premiere by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Much of Harrison’s music has been influenced by non-Western traditions, especially the Javanese gamelan music, and his Symphony No. 4 is no exception.

Harrison was 73 when this symphony premiered, and he dubbed it his Last Symphony —apparently agreeing with Brahms that four was enough. When asked what would happen should he decide to write still another, Harrison quipped, “I’ll call it the Very Last Symphony.”

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Variations on a theme by Haydn; Cleveland Orchestra; Christoph von Dohnanyi, conductor; Teldec 8.44005

Lou Harrison (1917-2003): Symphony No. 4 (Last Symphony); California Symphony; Barry Jekowsky, conductor; Argo 455 590

On today’s date in 1948, Maestro Efrem Kurtz led the first subscription concert of the newly reorganized Houston Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra was founded in 1913, but after struggling through the “minor” disruptions of two World Wars and the Great Depression, the symphony’s 1948 season marked its rebirth as a major player among American orchestras. Since then, the Houston Symphony’s roster of conductors has included some of the greatest: Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli and André Previn, to name just a few.

For its 1948 debut concert, the new Houston Symphony commissioned and premiered a new work by Aaron Copland — a concert suite adapted from his latest film score.

Copland had gone to Hollywood early in 1948 to write the music for the cinematic version of John Steinbeck’s novella, The Red Pony, and spent ten weeks writing about an hour’s worth of music for the new film, which was scheduled for release in 1949 — so that meant his 1948 concert suite from The Red Pony debuted even before the movie.

The Houston Post’s review called Copland’s suite “clean, joyous, ingenious and irresistibly spirited,” and correctly predicted “Mr. Copland’s Red Pony has grand little gaits, and will stand playing again — here and in a lot of other places.”

Aaron Copland (1900-1990): The Red Pony Suite; Dallas Symphony; Andrew Litton, conductor; Delos 3221