Composers Datebook

Mountains can have unforeseen consequences on the imagination.

For Philadelphia-native Melinda Wagner, serving as a composer-in-residence at a music festival in Vail, Colorado, this resulted in the composition of a new Trombone Concerto, a piece tailor-made for Joseph Alessi, the principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic.

“During my free moments in Vail, I found myself gazing — in disbelief really — at the jagged, youthful beauty of the Rockies. By comparison, ‘my’ mountains — the old Endless, Allegheny, and Pocono ranges of Pennsylvania — seemed to be no more than a set of soft wrinkles in the skin of the earth!” said Wagner. “Nobility and power, hallmarks of the trombone sound, are words that come to mind in the presence of mountains, old and new. And a truly great musician, as I learned while hearing Joseph Alessi play, can coax so much more out of the trombone: aching tenderness, sadness, lyricism, mirth.”

Alessi gave the premiere performance of Wagner’s new concerto on today’s date in 2007, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel. She’s also written three major orchestral works for the Chicago Symphony, including Extremity of Sky, a piano concerto for Emanuel Ax.

Melinda Wagner (b. 1957): Trombone Concerto; New York Philharmonic; Lorin Maazel, conductor; Bridge 9345

On today’s date in 1929, Italian composer Ottorino Respighi capped his trilogy of symphonic tone poems based on Roman scenery and history with the premiere performance of his Roman Festivals.

Unlike the first two installments, The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome, which were both premiered in Rome by Italian orchestras, Roman Festivals premiered in America at Carnegie Hall, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

“All three of the compositions are [full of] brilliant instrumental effects. Roman Festivals, however, fairly caps the climax for sheer orchestral sonority …” wrote music critic Olin Downes in his New York Times review the following day. “The first part … is really wild and brutal music, the dramatic idea being the howls and cries of the crowd at the Circus Maximus, the salutations for Nero, the opening of the iron gates and the roaring of beasts, the hymn of the Christians about to be slaughtered ... The passage is short, but of a stunning power.”

But Olin Downes ended his review with a Nero-esque thumbs-down: “All this program material furnishes Mr. Respighi opportunity for descriptive writing, but the music is of no merit,” concluded the review.

Ottorino Resphigi (1879-1936): Roman Festivals; Philadelphia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor; Angel/EMI 47316

Today marks the birthday of British composer Ruth Gipps, who lived from 1921 to 1999. She wrote five symphonies, dozens of concertos, chamber works, and vocal scores.

Gipps said she found it “difficult to understand young people who don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.” She published her first music at 8, and by her twenties had also become a professional oboist and pianist. Her triple career peaked in 1945, when in Birmingham, she performed the Glazunov Piano Concerto on the first half of a concert, then, on the second, played the English horn part in the premiere performance of her own Symphony No. 1.

Vaughan Williams was one of her composition teachers, and her music was, like his, firmly based in melody and traditional harmony. Ironically, this counted against her in the years following World War II when music that wasn’t atonal and avant-garde was deemed old-fashioned.

Even so, in 1981, Gipps was included in the Queen’s Honors List, but Dame Ruth probably derived as much pleasure from her MG as her MBE: an avid sports car enthusiast, her obituary noted that, heavily swathed, Gipps enjoyed driving her roadster though whatever the British climate threw at her.

Ruth Gipps (1921-1999): Symphony No. 2; Munich Symphony Orchestra; Douglas Bostock, conductor; Cameo Classics 9046 (also Classico 274)

In February 1794, Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn arrived in England for his second visit, and the premiere performances of some of his newest symphonies, beginning with his Symphony No. 99.

Haydn would write 104 symphonies in all — an astonishing accomplishment, considering both their quantity and quality. In typically modest fashion, Haydn once commented:

“I compose music so that the weary and worn, or the man burdened with affairs, may enjoy a few moments of solace and refreshment. I know that God has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank Him for it. I think I have done my duty and been of use in my generation by my works. Let others do the same.”

Well, these days, as in Haydn’s, to write a symphony one needs talent and an orchestra willing to perform it. American composer Daniel Asia has a way to go before matching Haydn’s output, but has composed at least six symphonies to date. The first was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony, and received its premiere performance in Seattle, Asia’s hometown, on today’s date in 1990.

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1808): Symphony No. 99 (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Sir Colin Davis, cond.) Philips 442 614

Daniel Asia (b. 1953): Symphony No. 4; New Zealand Symphony; James Sedares, conductor; Summit 256

In a creative life that spanned over 60 years, American composer Howard Hanson never wavered in his belief that music should be tonal in nature and fundamentally Romantic in style, with strong and clear melodic lines.

By the mid-1950s, many other European and American composers were espousing a far different approach to music, favoring an abstract and often densely complex style, more in harmony with the non-representational canvases of the painter Jackson Pollack than the meticulous realism of, say, Norman Rockwell.

On today’s date in 1955, this music, Hanson’s Symphony No. 5, had its premiere performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. It’s the most compact of Hanson’s seven symphonies, a single-movement work in three sections lasting just 15 minutes. Hanson titled the work Sinfonia Sacra or A Sacred Symphony, and suggested it was inspired by the account of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospel of St. John.

“The Sinfonia Sacra does not attempt programmatically to tell the story of the first Easter,” wrote Hanson, “but does attempt to invoke some of the atmosphere of tragedy and triumph, mysticism and affirmation of this story, which is the essential symbol of the Christian faith.”

Howard Hanson (1896-1981): Symphony No. 5 (Sinfonia Sacra); Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3130

American composer Elliott Carter has a reputation for writing some of the thorniest, most abstract and most technically difficult orchestral scores of the 20th century.

But for a few moments at least, during the opening of Carter’s Symphony of Three Orchestras, which had its premiere performance on today’s date in 1977 at a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Pierre Boulez, audiences must have been surprised by an impressionistic, almost Romantic tone. In notes for the new piece, Carter admitted the opening of the new work was inspired by the poetry of Hart Crane, specifically Crane’s description of the New York harbor and the Brooklyn Bridge. Both those New York landmarks were a short walk away from Carter’s lower Manhattan apartment.

Carter’s 15-minute Symphony of Three Orchestras quickly shifts into his more recognizably dense style, however, and, as the title indicates, employs three orchestras on one stage, playing with and against each other at various points.

As the New York Times reviewer wrote: “It will take many hearings for the relationships of the score to assert themselves, though one can be confident that Mr. Carter, one of the most accomplished constructionists of the age, has assembled everything with pin-point logic.”

Elliot Carter (1908-2012): Symphony for Three Orchestras; New York Philharmonic; Pierre Boulez, conductor; Sony 68334

Today’s date in 1938 marks the birthday of American composer John Corigliano, and also, in 2005, of the premiere of his Symphony No. 3, scored for large wind ensemble. The premiere was given in Austin by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble led by Jerry F. Junkin.

Corigliano titled his new symphony Circus Maximus, explaining: “The Circus Maximus of ancient Rome was … [the] largest arena in the world, it entertained over 300,000 spectators daily for nearly a thousand years. Chariot races, hunts and battles satisfied the Roman public’s need for grander and wilder amusements as the Empire declined. Many of us [today] have become as bemused by the violence and humiliation that flood the 500-plus channels of our television screens as those mobs of imperial Rome who considered the devouring of human beings by starving lions just another Sunday show.”

In performance, Corigliano asks that a huge array of brass, wind and percussion surround the audience on all sides. As brass instruments roar and cheer all around them, the audience is meant to feel more like the watched than the watchers, and Corigliano ends the work with a bang — literally — as a shotgun blast provides the symphony’s final exclamation point!

John Corigliano (b. 1938): Circus Maximus; University of Texas Wind Ensemble; Jerry Junkin, conductor; Naxos 8.559601

Between 1908 and 1950, Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky composed 27 symphonies. His Symphony No. 19 for wind band premiered on today’s date in 1939 at the Cominterm Radio Station in Moscow and was dedicated to the Red Army.

The Red Army’s bandmaster had asked Miaskovsky to write something for his ensemble, and at first the composer was reluctant. “The difficulties of this unusual task oppressed and discouraged me,” he wrote, “but I was anxious to keep my promise and soon mustered a fair spurt of energy, with the result that instead of a simple piece in one movement, I sent him a symphony in four.” The resulting work was, in fact, one of the normally melancholic Miaskovky’s most upbeat works.

Miaskovsky was a late starter as a composer, and when he was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1906, he was the oldest student in his class. Nonetheless, he quickly befriended the youngest student in his class, one Sergei Prokofiev, and the two remained close and life-long colleagues.

While still students, Prokofiev and Miaskovsky worked jointly on a collaborative symphony — now lost — which, had it survived, would have added an eighth to Prokofiev’s and a 28th to Miaskovsky’s symphonic tally.

Nikolai Miaskovsky (1881-1950): Symphony No. 19; Stockholm Concert Band; Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Gennady, conductor; Chandos 9444

Carlos Castaneda was a Peruvian author who settled in the United States and wrote 12 books chronicling his experiences with a pre-Columbian shaman who helped Castaneda access “non-ordinary reality” and develop his personal creativity, something the shaman called his “nagual.”

Casteneda’s books have sold millions of copies, and one of his readers was Toronto-based composer Michael Colgrass, whose Winds of Nagual was commissioned by the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and its conductor Frank Battisti, and premiered in Boston on today’s date in 1985.

“Sometimes when composing, I see music as if it is a film, but the listener need not have read Castaneda’s books to enjoy this work, and I do not expect anyone to follow any exact scenario,” said Colgrass.

And, speaking of cinematic scenarios, Colgrass said band directors in the Southwest told him that in the last years of his life Castaneda would show up at concerts when Winds of Nagual was being performed. “He would wait until just before the downbeat,” said Colgrass, “and then enter the auditorium wearing a white suit and sit in the middle of the audience. Apparently, he considered this music to be his Hail to the Chief.”

Michael Colgrass (1932-2019): Winds of Nagual; North Texas Wind Symphony; Eugene Migliaron Corporon, conductor; GIA 880

On today’s date in 1990, Czech-born composer Karel Husa returned to his hometown of Prague to conduct a concert of his own music after more than forty years in exile. Husa left Prague in 1948 after the post-War communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, and in 1954 accepted a teaching post at Cornell University. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1959.

At that festive 1990 homecoming concert in Prague’s Smetana Hall, broadcast nationwide by Czech radio and TV, Husa conducted the Czech premiere of his Music for Prague 1968, a composition that had received thousands of performances all over the world, but none, until that night, in the city that inspired it.

Husa had written it in the summer of 1968 after troops from the Soviet Union had invaded his homeland to suppress a growing Czech democratic movement. Music for Prague, 1968 soon became a classic of wind band repertory.

One of Husa’s American students, composer Thomas Duffy, traveled to Prague to attend the concert. “Husa conducted vigorously,” Duffy recalled, and after the performance noted that, “Twice, when I felt that the volume of applause was already overwhelming, Husa presented the V for victory sign to the house — and the volume doubled.”

Karel Husa (1921-2016): Music for Prague 1968; Eastman Wind Ensemble; Donald Hunsberger, conductor; CBS/Sony MK-44916