Composers Datebook

On today’s date in 1941, this notice appeared in the Radio Concerts section of The New York Times, as the 3:00 p.m. listing for New York’s WABC: “Bernard Herrmann directs the Columbia Symphony in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 1.”

The notice also offered these words from the 30-year-old composer: “My symphony was written in my spare time during radio and motion-picture commitments.”

Herrmann’s Symphony No. 1 was a joint commission by the CBS Network and the New York Philharmonic. Herrmann was a very busy young man much in demand in those days: he had composed and conducted music for Orson Welles’s radio plays, and in 1940 he wrote his first big film score for Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles. In the 1950s and 60s, Herrmann would provide the music for classic Alfred Hitchcock thrillers like Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho.

But all that was still off in the future back in 1941 — and it’s possible the overworked Herrmann was a little more distracted than usual when conducted that radio premiere of his new symphony: his wife, Lucille, had gone into labor just prior to the broadcast and gave birth to their daughter two hours after the performance.

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975): Symphony No. 1; National Philharmonic; Bernard Herrmann, conductor; Unicorn-Kanchana 2063

On today’s date in 1791 Mozart’s sixth child, christened Franz Xaver, was born in Vienna. Mozart nicknamed the new arrival “Wowi” and everyone said the baby was the spitting image of papa, even down to the distinctive Mozart ears. The baby’s mother, Constanze, claimed her husband predicted the child would become a musician when he noticed that it cried in tune with the music he was playing on the piano. Of Mozart’s six children, only two survived: Franz Xaver and his older brother Carl Thomas, who had no interest in music.

Franz Xaver, however, did become a composer and performer, just as his father predicted. Wolfgang Mozart died shortly after Franz Xaver was born, so Constanze enlisted the aid of Haydn, Salieri, and Hummel, as the young boy’s teachers.

Franz Xaver Mozart made his concert debut in 1805, and Constanze billed her son professionally as “Wolfgang Mozart II.” Franz Xaver toured widely, but eventually settled in Lemberg, where he remained for almost 30 years before returning to his native Vienna. Although his own music was well received, contemporaries realized Franz Xaver’s talent would never match his famous father’s. When he died in Karlsbad in 1844, his father’s Requiem Mass was sung at his funeral.

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844): Piano Concerto No. 1; Klaus Hellwig, piano; Cologne Radio Symphony; Roland Bader, conductor; Koch-Schwann 311004

In July 1936, this notice concerning an upcoming Hollywood Bowl concert appeared in The Los Angeles Times: “William Grant Still will conduct two of his own works.” The nonchalance of the paper’s music and dance critic overlooked the fact that the occasion marked the first time that an African-American conductor would lead a major American orchestra.

On the second half of that July concert in Los Angeles, Still conducted his orchestral piece The Land of Romance, and the “Scherzo” from his Afro-American Symphony. The entire symphony had been premiered in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic — another landmark event, being the first time a symphonic work by an African-American composer was performed by an American orchestra.

Meanwhile, at a 1947 outdoor concert in Philadelphia, composer and pianist Duke Ellington joined forces with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra to play his A New World A-Comin’, marking Ellington’s first appearance with a symphony orchestra. It wouldn’t be his last.

In 1963, The Symphonic Ellington appeared, an album featuring Ellington and his band in recordings of original compositions recorded in Europe with symphony orchestras from Paris, Stockholm, Hamburg, and the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan.  

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) (arr. Peress): New World A-Comin’; Sir Roland Hanna, piano; American Composers Orchestra; Maurice Peress, conductor; MusicMasters 7011

On today’s date in 1938, a new opera by 74-year-old German composer Richard Strauss premiered at the Munich National Theater. It was titled Friedenstag or Peace Day — a rather ironic title, considering that World War II was imminent.

The opera takes place during the Thirty Years War in 17th century Germany. The military commander of a besieged town decides to blow the whole place up rather than surrender and is about to do so when he misinterprets a signal and opens the gates, allowing a peaceful takeover. The surprised commander is reconciled to his enemy, and everyone celebrates their deliverance from the horrors of war.

Hitler did not attend the Munich premiere, and supposedly thought the historical peace following the Thirty Years War a disaster for Germany. But the opera could be interpreted many ways, and, after the “peaceful” takeover of Austria by Nazi Germany, Hitler did in fact attend the Viennese premiere of Peace Day in 1939.

The new opera played in other German opera houses briefly, but after the outbreak of war was quickly dropped. And to this day, depending on whom you ask, Strauss’ ambiguous opera is either a work celebrating peace — or appeasement.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Friedenstag; Bavarian Radio Symphony; Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor; EMI 56850

Today is National Hot Dog Day, but we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate the non-grill variety, namely the Weiner dog or dachshund, a breed beloved of some famous composers and performers.

Leonard Bernstein was passionate about the many dachshund he owned, all named Henry, and once on a flight to Paris, booked a seat for a furry passenger named Henry Bernstein.

When composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears moved into their house in Aldeburgh, the brick wall surrounding the property soon sported signs in English, German, and Latin, warning “Beware of the Dog,” “Bisseger Hund,” and “Caveat Canem,” lest passersby ankles be savaged by their classically-named dachshunds, Klithe and Jove.  Britten’s friend and frequent collaborator, the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, also a dachshund owner, presented Britten and Pears with an additional warning sign in Russian.

We’re told Rostropovich’s miniature, long-haired dachshund, Pooks, upon command, would play the piano with its front paws, then, after the humans’ appreciative applause died down, would walk up and down the keyboard as an encore. “Pooks” even gets a shout-out in Slava!, Leonard Bernstein’s short orchestral tribute to Rostropovich — at one point in the score members of the orchestra are invited call out the talented dog’s name.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Slava! A Political Overture; Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Naxos 8.559813

The Latin word “juvenilia” is used for works produced in an artist’s youth. Sometimes, as in the case of Mozart or Mendelssohn, these early works are still worth hearing. Other composer’s juvenilia, such as the early, bombastic concert overtures of Richard Wagner, are seldom granted more than one hearing — if that.

Take his “Columbus” Overture; most musicologists — and modern audiences — have decided the title is probably the best thing about that work of the 20-something Wagner.

But persistence pays, and some years later, on today’s date in 1844, a 31-year-old Wagner conducted the premiere in Dresden of an overture he wrote that still shows up occasionally on concert programs today. A Faust Overture was originally conceived as the first movement of a Faust symphony Wagner never got around to completing.

In his autobiography, Wagner claimed Beethoven as a principal influence, but to modern ears it’s apparent that Wagner had been studying scores by his slightly older French contemporary, Hector Berlioz. Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet Symphony, in particular, seems to have impressed Wagner at the time, and so Wagner’s orchestra recounts the Faust legend with just the slightest hint of a French accent.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883): A Faust Overture; Philadelphia Orchestra; Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor; EMI 56165

On today’s date in 1838, the crew of American ship Otis, docked at a harbor in Venezuela, discovered that one of their passengers had died in his cabin. He was the German inventor and one-time business associate of Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel.

Maelzel was born in Regensburg in 1772, the son of an organ builder. Perhaps a childhood spent among the inner workings of pipe organs predisposed him to become an inventor of mechanical instruments. At 20, Maelzel moved to Vienna, and began peddling mechanical organs that could play short tunes by Haydn and Mozart on demand.

Maelzel didn’t stop there: he invented entire mechanical orchestras and other wonders for display in a museum he opened in 1812. Beethoven even composed Wellington’s Victory, a piece for Maelzel’s mechanical orchestra. The two collaborators soon fell out over who owned what, and Beethoven re-orchestrated Wellington’s Victory for human performers.

Maelzel took his contraptions on tour and spent a good deal of his later life exhibiting them in the United States and the West Indies. Today, Maelzel’s musical inventions are regarded as obsolete curios — with one exception: he’s credited with finessing and popularizing the use of the metronome.

Franz Haydn (1732-1809): Flute Clock Pieces; mechanical Flute Clock c. 1800; Candide 31093 (out-of-print LP recording)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Wellington’s Victory; Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, conductor; DG 453 713

Today’s date marks the premiere of two chamber works from the 1920s, both landmark and transitional works from two of the 20th century’s most influential composers.

On this date in 1920, at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet led the first performance of a Grand Suite from Igor Stravinsky’s biting anti-war stage fable The Soldier’s Tale. During and immediately following World War I, Stravinsky had developed a spiky, jagged, and occasionally jazzy style, and music from The Soldier’s Tale is typical of this period. But Stravinsky did a compositional about-face that same year with one of his earliest neo-classical scores: the ballet Pulcinella, based on themes borrowed from 18th century composers.

Stravinsky’s neo-classical period would last for another three decades until the 1950s, when he became fascinated with the 12-tone method of composition developed by the Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg.

And speaking of Schoenberg, on today’s date in 1924, his Serenade received its premiere at the Fourth Donaueschingen Festival in Germany. Serenade was the first work in which Schoenberg employed his strict 12-tone method of composition, avoiding traditional 18th century rules of melody and harmony — and only its Mozartean sounding title could be considered neo-classical.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): L’histoire du Soldat Suite; Harmonie Ensemble; Steven Richman, conductor; Koch 7438

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Pulcinella Suite; Columbia Chamber Ensemble; Sony 64136

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): Serenade; Ensemble InterContemporain; Sony 48463

In 1961, a new and difficult work for strings announced the arrival of a composer with a new and difficult name for non-Polish speakers to pronounce: Krzysztof Penderecki.

Having lived as a young man under Nazi occupation and then under Poland’s repressive and ultra-conservative Communist regime, it’s not surprising, perhaps, that as a young composer Penderecki developed an ultra-modern, rebelliously experimental musical style. The success of his “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” made Penderecki famous worldwide. Subsequent choral works, operas, and more experimental orchestral works followed for the next dozen years or so.

By 1973, however, he accepted a commission for a symphony and on today’s date that year, Penderercki himself conducted the first performance of his First Symphony, with the London Symphony at Peterbourough Cathedral in central England.  While his First Symphony remained in his aggressively experimental style, Penderecki would go on to write several more, each in much more conservative musical language, influenced by more traditional composers like Bruckner and Shostakovich.

"[My composing in this style],” explained Penderecki, “maybe goes a little back in time, but it goes back in order to go forward. Sometimes it's good to look back and to learn from the past."

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933): Threnody for the Victims for Hiroshima (National Polish Radio Symphony; Antoni Wit, cond.) Naxos 8.554491

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933): Symphony No. 1 (National Polish Radio Symphony; Antoni Wit, cond.) Naxos 8.554567

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of Antonín Dvořák’s composition pupils: Julius Fucik, who was born in Prague on today’s date in 1872. Fucik studied with Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory, where he also took lessons in violin and bassoon — and perhaps only a bassoonist could have conceived of The Old Bear with a Sore Head, a work with a prominent bassoon part.

In 1897, he was appointed bandmaster of the 86th Austro-Hungarian Regiment and started writing works for wind band. Fucik’s first appointment with the Regiment took him to Sarajevo, and in 1910 he became bandmaster of the 92nd Regiment stationed at Theresienstadt, or Terezin as the town is now called. In the years before World War I, “Sarajevo” and “Theresienstadt” did not have the ominous connotations of political assassination, concentration camps, and ethnic cleansing they do for us today.

Fucik retired from the military in 1913 and died in Berlin in 1916.

But speaking of connotations, even if you’ve never heard of Julius Fuick, chances are you’ve heard his Entry of the Gladiators, since it was taken up by American circus bands as the unofficial anthem of life under the big top.

Julius Fucik (1872-1916): The Old Bear with a Sore Head; Alan Pendlebury, bassoon; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Libor Pesek, conductor; Virgin 59285

Julius Fucik (1872-1916): Entry of the Gladiators; Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra; Frederick Fennell, conductor; Brain 7503