Composers Datebook

Today marks the birthday of Viennese violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, born in 1875.

Kreisler’s talent was apparent at an early age, and at 7 he entered the Vienna Conservatory where his theory teacher was Anton Bruckner. Young master Kreisler (as he was known at the time), made his Viennese debut at 9, and his American debut at 13. Edward Elgar composed his Violin Concerto for Kreisler, who premiered the work in London in 1910. The rise of Nazism in the 1930s forced Kreisler to America, where he became a naturalized citizen.

Kreisler made hundreds of recordings, mainly of his own compositions, including original works written in the style of earlier composers. Kreisler’s interest in early music was deep and genuine, as was his passion for old books and ancient languages.

In 1941, while crossing a New York street, he was hit by a truck and nearly killed. Awaking from a month-long coma, the multi-lingual Kreisler could at first only communicate in Latin and ancient Greek. The 66-year-old eventually recovered, however, and continued to perform in public until 1950.

He died in New York City, a few days short of his 87th birthday, in 1962.

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962): Violin Concerto (in the style of Vivaldi); Gil Shaham, violin; Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; DG 449 923

On today’s date in 2002, a tone poem by American composer Michael Torke had its premiere performance at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, at a concert by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop. Torke was the orchestra’s composer-in-residence at the time and wrote An American Abroad to fulfill his second commission for the Scots.

Here’s how Torke describes the piece: “Unfolding melodies and themes express the natural naïveté an American might feel traveling abroad. Wonderment and curiosity kindles the traveler’s energy, yet there remains an unintended lack of sophistication. Being an outsider, how can a traveler truly understand the depths and subtleties of a new culture?”

Or, as a Scottish newspaper critic put it, “the gee-whiz factor Scots know only too well when we spot a guddle of Americans gawping at Edinburgh Castle.”

Actually, the piece could just as well be titled A European in America, as Torke explained: “I currently live in New York City, and when visitors from the ‘outside’ are in town, I am inspired by their simple energy and appreciation of what my hometown has to offer, which often opens my eyes to new ways of seeing New York.”

Michael Torke (b. 1961): An American Abroad; Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Marin Alsop, conductor; Naxos 8.559167

In the rarified world of contemporary music, composers often challenge performers — pushing the envelope of instrumental technique and difficulty. But in the fall of 1999, it was Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass who was challenged: he was commissioned by the American Composers Forum to write a piece for their BandQuest series, intended to provide high-quality new music for young performers.

Specifically, Colgrass was asked to write for the Winona Drive Senior School Band of Toronto. Far from professional musicians, some of these were kids just learning to play their instruments. Their conductor was hardworking Louis Papachristos, who, in addition to leading three bands, also coached boys’ and girls’ basketball.

Colgrass rose to the challenge, and the resulting work, Old Churches, was premiered on this date in 2000. Colgrass employed elements of Gregorian chant to evoke an ancient monastery, and easy graphic notation to introduce students to improvisation and the compositional process itself. “Keeping the music simple was a challenge, but it struck me that Mozart and Beethoven wrote music for amateurs without ‘dumbing down’ … am I a good enough composer to write a simple theme that can be genuinely exciting or moving, the way they did?” said Colgrass.

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

Today, a salute to a remarkable American composer and performer — cornet virtuoso Herbert Lincoln Clarke.

Clarke was born in Wolburn, Massachusetts on September 12, 1867, into a peripatetic musical family. He began to play his brother’s cornet and was soon earning fifty cents a night playing in a restaurant band. At 19, he won first prize at a cornet competition in Indiana, and, in 1893, after many years on the road, he got the call from John Philip Sousa to join his illustrious organization as its star soloist, a position he held for over 20 years.

From 1900 on, Clarke began to compose and make recordings of his own music. In 1904, while on a return voyage from England with the Sousa Band, he completed one of his best-known pieces, originally titled Valse Brilliante. While waiting to dock in New York, however, at Sousa’s suggestion, he changed the title to Sounds from the Hudson.

Clarke eventually settled in California and died there on today’s date in 1945. But the much-traveled composer and performer was buried on the opposite coast — in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. — near the grave of his lifelong friend, John Philip Sousa.

Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945): Sounds from the Hudson (Valse Brillante); Wynton Marsalis, cornet; Eastman Wind Ensemble; Donald Hunsberger, conductor; CBS 42137

In New York City on today’s date in 2008, The Juilliard School’s FOCUS! Festival showcased music from the opposite coast, including the world premiere of a new string quartet by Californian composer John Adams.

14 years earlier, Adams had written a work for the Kronos Quartet and pre-recorded tape that he titled John’s Book of Alleged Dances, because, as he said, “the steps for the dances had yet to be invented.”

His new work for 2008 had a more serious title: simply, String Quartet, and was premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Adams had heard the Saint Lawrence Quartet perform his Book of Alleged Dances, and was so impressed he wanted to write a new work for the ensemble, but found it an intimidating experience, given the great string quartets written by composers of the past ranging from Haydn to Ravel.

“String quartet writing is one of the most difficult challenges a composer can take on,” confessed Adams. “Unless one is an accomplished string player and writes in that medium all the time — and I don’t know many these days who do — the demands of handling this extremely volatile and transparent instrumental medium can easily be humbling, if not downright humiliating.” 

John Adams (b. 1947): String Quartet No. 1; St. Lawrence String Quartet; Nonesuch 523014

Many good things come in threes — at least William Bolcom seems to think so.

On today’s date in 1971, in a converted garage next to a graveyard in Newburgh, New York, American composer and pianist William Bolcom put the finishes touches to the second of three piano pieces he collectively titled Ghost Rags.

Ghost Rag No. 2, Poltergeist and dedicated to Tracey Sterne, who at that time was a dynamic record producer at Nonesuch Records. In her youth Sterne pursued a career as a concert pianist, but in the 1960s and 70s was responsible for assembling the Nonesuch label’s astonishingly diverse catalog of old, new and world music.  

Ghost Rag No. 3, Dream Shadows, was described by Bolcom as a “white rag” which evoked “the era of white telephones and white pianos” and “was in the white key of C Major.” Bolcom dedicated this rag to his fellow composer, William Albright.

And Bolcom’s Ghost Rag No. 1, Graceful Ghost, has proved to be the most popular of the three. Bolcom dedicated this music to the memory of his father, whose benign spirit Bolcom said he often felt hovering around his piano while he played at night.

William Bolcom (b. 1938): Graceful Ghost Rags; Paul Jacobs, piano; Nonesuch 79006

“English Horn” is an odd name for an instrument — for starters, it’s not English and it’s not a brass instrument like the French horn. The English horn is, in fact, a double reed instrument, a lower-voiced cousin of the oboe. The “English” part of its name is probably a corruption of “angle,” since it has a bend to its shape. Until late in the 20th century, its primary role was to add a darker tone color to the reed section of the orchestra, and performers who played the English horn had precious few solo concertos written to showcase their dusky-voiced instrument.

One performer, Thomas Stacy, decided to do something about that. He’s commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for his instrument. One of them — a concerto by American composer Ned Rorem — Stacy premiered on today’s date in 1994 with the New York Philharmonic.

Ned Rorem is perhaps best known as a composer of art songs, but has also composed successful orchestral and chamber works. “My sole aim in writing the Concerto for English horn, was to exploit that instrument’s special luster and pliability ... to make the sound gleam through a wash of brass and silver, catgut and steel,” said Rorem.

Ned Rorem (1923-2022): Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra; Thomas Stacy, English Horn; Rochester Philharmonic; Michael Palmer, conductor; New World 80489

Today’s date marks an important anniversary in the history of the American symphony. It was on January 26, 1876, that John Knowles Paine’s Symphony No. 1 premiered in Boston. This was the first American symphony to be generally acknowledged both here and abroad as being on a par with the symphonies of the great European composers.

American musical life in the 19th century was heavily influenced by German models — and Paine’s Symphony No. 1 takes its key and much of its musical style from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Contemporary American composer and conductor Gunther Schuller once quipped that Paine’s Symphony No. 1 was “the best Beethoven symphony that Beethoven didn’t write himself.”

Even so, Paine’s 1876 Symphony is a landmark in American musical history, as was one of Paine’s earlier works — a grandiose Mass for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, which was premiered in Berlin in 1867 and successfully revived by Gunther Schuller in Boston in 1972.  

John Knowles Paine is remembered for other reasons as well: he was one of the founders of the American Guild of Organists, and he founded the music department at Harvard and became the mentor for a new generation of American composers.

John Knowles Paine (1839-1906): Symphony No. 1; New York Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta, conductor New World 374

Many political deals started in smoke-filled rooms, but not many piano trios can claim such a venue for their inspiration. On today’s date in 1987, composer and pianist Paul Schoenfield joined a violinist and cellist from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for the premiere of one of them: Café Music, a new piano trio the orchestra had commissioned.

Here’s how Schoenfield explains it: “The idea came to me in 1985 after sitting in one night for the pianist at Murray’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in Minneapolis. Murray’s employed a house trio which played entertaining dinner music in a wide variety of styles. My intention was to compose a kind of high-class dinner music — music which could be played at a restaurant but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall.” Much to Schoenfield’s surprise, Café Music did indeed become a concert hall hit.

Schoenfield said he had two lasting memories of that night he filled in at Murray’s: first, a realization of what hard work it was to play dinner music for hours on end, and second — in the days before smoke-free restaurants — how his clothes smelled of cigars and cigarettes for days afterwards!

Paul Schoenfield (1947-2024): Café Music; Eroica Trio; EMI 56482

“We are not amused,” is the dour statement attributed to the matronly Queen Victoria in her later years, although some historians dispute she ever really said it.

But as a young woman, in her diary Queen Victoria did write, “I was very much amused indeed!” after seeing Italian opera singer Giulia Grisi on stage. The young Queen was a fan, and made a drawing of the singer in a role she created: that of Elvira in Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Puritani, or The Puritans, which debuted in Paris on today’s date in 1835.

When Bellini’s opera came to London later that same year, with Grisi in the cast, the young Queen attended several performances, and the opera she called Dear Puritani became a life-long favorite, perhaps because it was the first she attended with her husband-to-be, the young Prince Albert.

The opera is set in 17th century England during the Civil War between Royalist supporters of the deposed King Charles I and Puritan rebels led by Oliver Cromwell. Its plot involves a Romeo and Juliet-like love story between a delicate Puritan soprano and a dashing Royalist tenor. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, however, Bellini’s opera provides a happy ending for its politics-crossed lovers.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835): A Te, o Cara, Amor Talora, from I Puritani; Alfredo Kraus; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor; EMI 09149