Composers Datebook

Synopsis A famous commercial for magnetic recording tape once asked the question: “Is it live — or Memorex” — suggesting it was hard to tell the difference. These days, at concerts of some contemporary composers’ works, the correct answer would be “It’s live and Memorex” — as there is a growing body of works that involve both live performers and prerecorded tape. A 1995 work by American composer Ingram Marshall, Dark Waters, was written for an English horn soloist accompanied by a prerecorded tape of fragments from old 78-rpm recordings of Jean Sibelius’ chilly tone-poem The Swan of Tuonela. Both the live English horn part and the prerecorded tape are digitally processed and mixed at each live performance. “Those who know the Sibelius will recognize familiar strains,” Marshall said. On today’s date in 1998, Marshall and Libby Van Cleve, the English horn player for whom Dark Waters was written, recorded the work at St. Casimir’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut. “You can actually hear the sound of that church in the recording,” recalled Van Cleve. “We finished at about 3 a.m., and it was stiflingly hot — how ironic that Ingram’s music — and Sibelius’ — is always associated with cold climates!” Music Played in Today's Program Ingram Marshall (1942-2022): Dark Waters; Libby van Cleve, English horn; Ingram Marshall, electronics; New Albion 112

Synopsis On today’s date in 1829, German composer Felix Mendelssohn was in London, participating in a gala concert to raise funds for the victims of a flood in Silesia. “Everyone who has attracted the slightest attention during the season will take part,” wrote Mendelssohn. “Many offers of good performers have had to be declined, as otherwise the concert will last till the next day!” Mendelssohn performed his Double Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, joined by his friend and fellow composer/pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Mendessohn and Moscheles jointly prepared a special cadenza, and jokingly bet each other how long the audience would applaud it — Mendessohn predicting 10 minutes, and Mosceheles, more modestly, suggesting five. In the Baroque age, double concertos were very popular, but by Mendelssohn’s day they had become less common. In our time, concertos for two pianos are even rarer. One of the most successful American Double Concertos was written between 1952 and 1953 by American composer Quincy Porter. Also known as the Concerto Concertante, commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra. It proved to be one of the most popular of Porter’s works, and even won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1954. Music Played in Today's Program Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Double Concerto; Güher and Süher Pekinel, pianos; Philharmonia Orchestra; Neville Marriner, conductor; Chandos 9711 Quincy Porter (1897-1966): Concerto for Two Pianos; Joshua Pierce and Dorothy Jonas, duo pianists; Moravian Philharmonic; David Amos, conductor; Helcion 1044

Synopsis The Violin Sonata No. 3 by American composer William Bolcom had its premiere on today’s date in 1993 at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. The work was commissioned to honor the 75th birthday of Dorothy Delay, a legendary violin teacher who taught at Juilliard for many years. The violin is a strange animal for composers to master, especially if they aren’t violinists already, and Bolcom subtitled this work Sonata Stramba, “stramba” being the Italian word for “strange” or “odd.” Bolcom confessed to being fascinated by two musical sounds more than any other: the voice and the violin. “When I was about ten, we trundled out my maternal grandfather’s imitation Stradivarius, made in Czechoslovakia, and I took a few not-very-successful lessons. When the violin was stolen out of the back seat of my father’s Buick that was the end of my studies of the instrument,” Bolcom recalled. Bolcom did become a talented pianist, however, and befriended violinist Gene Nastri, who initiated the young composer into the mysteries of the instrument by performing Mozart and Beethoven Violin Sonatas with him, as well as the fledgling violin works written by the young composer. Music Played in Today's Program William Bolcom (b. 1938): Violin Sonata No. 3; Irina Muresanu, violin; Michael Lewis, piano; Centaur 2910

Synopsis These days, when modern music is on the program, a sizeable chunk of the concert hall audience might start nervously looking for the nearest exit — but that wasn’t always the case. On today’s date in 1882, 21-year old American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell took the stage in Zurich, Switzerland, to perform his Modern Suite for piano at the 19th annual conference of the General Society of German Musicians, a showcase for new music whose programs were arranged by none other than Franz Liszt. Liszt had met MacDowell earlier that year, and when MacDowell sent him the music for his Modern Suite for solo piano, Liszt asked the young composer to play it himself at the Society’s conference in Zurich. The success of his Modern Suite No. 1 lead to the creation of a second, and both were published a year later by the Leipzig firm of Breitkopf & Hærtel. These two suites were the first works of MacDowell to appear in print, and launched his career as one of the major American composers of the late 19th century. Music Played in Today's Program Edward MacDowell (1860-1908): Modern Suite No. 1; James Barbagallo, piano; Naxos 8.559011

Synopsis On today’s date in 1919, British composer Edward Elgar finished a work he labeled jokingly as his Opus 1001 — a 50-second Smoking Cantata, intended, according to the manuscript score, as “an edifying, allegorical, improving, expostulatory, educational, persuasive, hortatory, instructive, dictatorial, magisterial, inadautory work.” The score was completed at the Hertfordshire home of a wealthy banker named Edward Speyer, one of his oldest friends, to whom the manuscript was given. When he came to stay, Speyer had only one request, that the composer and his musician friends, “Kindly do not smoke in the hall or on the staircase.” That’s also full text of Elgar’s cantata. In the middle of his manuscript, he drew a medieval hell’s mouth, belching smoke. The little score was discovered, performed, and recorded for the first time in July of 2003. Music Played in Today's Program Edward Elgar (1857-1934): Smoking Cantata; Andrew Shore, bar; Hallé Orchestra; Mark Elder, conductor; Hallé CD HLL-7505

Synopsis Today we note the birth and death anniversaries of two American composers of the 20th century. On today’s date in 1915, American composer David Diamond was born in Rochester, New York. In 1940, Dmitri Mitropoulos, then the music director of the Minneapolis Symphony commissioned one of his best-known works. He had specifically asked Diamond for an upbeat piece of music. “Write me a happy work,” he asked. “These are distressing times ... make me happy!” The 29-year-old composer responded with his popular Rounds for String Orchestra, which Mitropoulos premiered in Minneapolis in 1944. Also on today’s date, in 1984, the American composer and teacher Randall Thompson died in Boston at 85. Randall Thompson wrote three symphonies and some fine chamber works, but his best-known piece of music is this choral setting of Allelujah which was first performed at the opening of the Berkshire Music Center at Lenox, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1940, when Thompson was 41 years old. “[My Alleujah is] a very sad piece,” said Thompson. “Here it is comparable to the Book of Job, where it is written, ‘The Lord giveth and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’” Music Played in Today's Program David Diamond (1915-2005): Rounds; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Nonesuch 79002 Randall Thompson (1899-1984): Alleluia; Robert Shaw Chamber Singers; Robert Shaw, conductor; Telarc 80461

Synopsis Today’s date in 1931 marks the birthday of the first notable Native American composer of concert music. His name was Louis Ballard, and he was born in Devil’s Promenade in Oklahoma. His father was Cherokee, and his mother Quapaw. As a young boy he attended — but managed not to be irreparably damaged by — one of the notorious boarding schools where Native American students were taught to forget everything about their own language and culture. He remained rooted in Quapaw language and traditions at the same time his interest in European classical music developed, and in 1962 became first American Indian to receive a graduate degree in music composition. Inspired by the example of Bela Bartok, who incorporated the folk music of Eastern Europe in his works, Ballard attempted to do the same with Native American source material in concert works both large and small. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1971 and in 1974 his orchestral piece Incident at Wounded Knee was performed at Carnegie Hall and taken on an Eastern European tour by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, who had commissioned the work. Music Played in Today's Program Louis Ballard (1931-2007): Mid-Winter Fires; Amy Morris, flute; Mark Serrup, oboe; Mary Goetz, piano; Indande Records 52352

Synopsis Unless you’re just mad about 18th century history, it’s unlikely you know off the top of your head who the winners and losers were in the War of the Spanish Succession. Suffice it to say, on today’s date in 1713, to celebrate the successful resolution of that conflict, a festive choral Te Deum was performed at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. It was written by ambitious 28-year old German composer, George Friedrich Handel. We’re not sure if Handel wrote his Utrecht Te Deum in response to an invitation from the British royal family or wrote it “on spec” to win their favor. In any case, when performed by the Royal Musicians and the choir of the Chapel Royal on July 7, 1713, it made a tremendous impression. Handel’s first royal employer was King George the First, and three years after Handel’s death, King George III sat on the throne. Now, King George may have suffered from madness and lost the American colonies, but at least he did know a good composer when he heard one. He idolized Handel and saw to it that the composer was buried in Westminster Abbey. Music Played in Today's Program George Frederic Handel (1685-1757): Utrecht Te Deum; St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir; The Parley of Instruments; John Scott, conductor; Hyperion 67009

Synopsis On today’s date in 1971, jazz great Louis Armstrong died in New York City at 69. He was born in New Orleans, and for years, all the standard reference books listed his birthday as the Fourth of July, 1900. Well, it turned out that wonderfully symbolic date was cooked up by his manager Joe Glaser. Armstrong wasn’t sure when he was born, so the Fourth of July seemed as good a date as any, and was accepted as fact for many years. Eventually documents were discovered that proved he was actually born on August 4, 1901. Armstrong earned the nickname “Satchmo,” short for “Satchelmouth,” and in later years he was affectionately dubbed “Pops.” If documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is to be believed, he was the central figure in the development of jazz in the 20th century. British music critic Norman Lebrecht offered this assessment: “Armstrong never bowed his head nor sang from anywhere but the heart. He was a figure of enormous dignity and a musical innovator of universal importance.” Acknowledging his influence in American concert music, composer Libby Larsen subtitled one of her works, a 1990 Piano Concerto, Since Armstrong. Music Played in Today's Program Louis Armstrong (1901-1971): Skip the Gutter; Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five; Columbia 44422; I’m in the Barrel arr. David Jolley; Windscape Arabesque 6732

Synopsis On today’s date in 1992, lovers of the tango had good reason to be sad. Argentinean composer and bandoneón virtuoso Astor Piazzolla had died in Buenos Aires at the age of 71. The bandoneón is a close relation of the accordion, and for it Piazzolla composed new music inspired by the tango, an Argentinian dance form that originated in working-class dancehalls. While still a teenager, he had played bandoneón in the orchestra of Carlos Gardél, the most famous tango singer of the 1930s. Eventually, he formed his own band, which became famous throughout South America. But Piazzolla had a burning desire to write concert music, and won a scholarship to study composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She encouraged him to explore the possibilities inherent in the music he knew best, so he set about reinventing the tango. The result was dubbed “nuevo tango,” as vital as the old ones, but often dark and brooding. When asked why these new tangos were so melancholy, he replied, “Not because I’m sad. Not at all. I’m a happy guy … no, my music is sad because the tango is sad — sad and dramatic, but not pessimistic.” Music Played in Today's Program Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992): Tres Minutos con la Realidad; Nestor Marconi, bandoneon; Yo Yo Ma, cello; ensemble; Sony Classical 63122

Synopsis Weather permitting, there’s a good chance you’ll be attending an outdoor symphonic concert tonight that will close with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, complete with a volley of booming cannon shots, church bells, and dazzling fireworks. It’s become an American tradition to perform the 1812 Overture on July 4, even though it has nothing to do with the 1776 War of Independence — or America’s War of 1812, for that matter. No, it’s all down to Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops. For years, a wealthy American businessman named David Mugar financed an outdoor Pops concert on Boston’s Esplanade on the Fourth of July. But by the mid-1970s, attendance started to decline, so Mugar suggested that if Fiedler would close the annual concert with the 1812 Overture, people might be lured back by the live cannon fire Tchaikovsky asks for in the piece. Well, it worked. Outdoor concerts with the 1812 Overture plus cannons quickly became a tradition, and in 1976, 400,000 people attended the Boston Pops’ outdoor Bicentennial Fourth of July concert — setting a Guinness World Record for best-attended classical concert. And, a year after his death in 2022, a bronze statue of Mugar was unveiled on the Boston Esplanade. Music Played in Today's Program Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): 1812 Overture; Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Antal Dorati, conductor; Mercury Living Presence 434360

Synopsis Country Gardens is the best-known work of Australian-born American composer, arranger, and pianist Percy Grainger. Its score bears this note: “Birthday-gift, Mother, July 3, 1918.” His mother Rose was responsible for his excellent early musical training. In 1918, he arranged a folk tune given to him in 1908 by Cecil Sharp, a major figure in the folklore revival in England. He titled this arrangement Country Gardens, and it went over so well at his recitals that he decided to have it published. It was a big hit and broke sales records. In fact, until his death in 1961, its sales generated a significant portion of Grainger’s annual income. Like other composers with a mega-hit, Grainger came to resent being known for just one tune and would say to audiences: “The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers. It’s more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it”. In 1931, Country Gardens was arranged for wind band by someone other than Grainger, but around 1950, at the special request of a Detroit band director, Grainger prepared his own wind band arrangement, which likewise became a hit. Music Played in Today's Program Percy Grainger (1882-1961): Country Gardens; Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra; Timothy Reynish Chandos 9549

Synopsis In German, “Gluck” means “luck,” and today’s date marks the birthday of a German composer named Christoph Willibald Gluck, whose good fortune it was to be credited with reforming the vocally ornate but dramatically static form of Baroque opera. In the 18th century, opera was the biggest and most high-profile of all musical forms, and Gluck wrote 49 of them during his 67 years of life. Like many 18th century opera composers, the stories Gluck chose were often based on ancient Greek myths such as “Orpheus and Eurydice.” It wasn’t the matter of Gluck’s operas that was revolutionary, but the manner in which he set these stories to music. When the British music historian Charles Burney visited Gluck in 1771, he recorded the composer’s own words on the subject. “It was my design to divest music of those abuses which the vanity of singers, or the complacency of composers, had so long disfigured Italian opera and made the most beautiful and magnificent of all public exhibitions into the most tiresome and ridiculous,” said Gluck. To sum it all up, Gluck told Burney, “My first and chief care as a dramatic composer was to aim at a noble simplicity.” Music Played in Today's Program Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787): Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus; Academy of Ancient Music; Christopher Hogwood, conductor; L’Oiseau-Lyre 410553

Synopsis On today’s date in 1937, a two-piano suite by French composer Darius Milhaud had its premiere. It was titled Scaramouche, after a stock character in the Italian commedia dell arte, and the music’s upbeat, carefree mood made it an instant hit. For his part, Milhaud was in an apprehensive mood. When he and his wife Madeleine had visited the 1937 Paris International Exposition, they saw premonitions of war reflected in many of its exhibits. “Picasso’s Guernica adorned the walls of the Spanish pavilion, but the Spanish Republic had been murdered. Placed face to face, the German and the Soviet pavilions seemed to challenge each other to mortal combat. One evening, as we watched the sun set behind the flags of all nations, Madeleine clutched my arm in anguish and whispered, ‘This is the end of Europe!’” Milhaud recalled. In 1940, Milhaud was forced to leave France when the Germans occupied Paris and his music was promptly banned due to his Jewish heritage. But in 1943, two French pianists performed Scaramouche in concert, tricking the German censors by listing its composer’s name as Hamid-al-Usurid — a fictitious Arabic composer whose name just happens to be an anagram of Darius Milhaud. Music Played in Today's Program Darius Milhaud (1892-1974): Scaramouche; Anthony and Joseph Paratore, pianos; Four Winds 3014

Synopsis In 1971, American film composer Bernard Herrmann confessed, “the only thing I ever did that was foolhardy was to write an opera.” The opera was based on the 19th century novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Herrmann began work on it in April of 1943, and didn't finish until today's date in 1951 — at 3:45 p.m., as he noted in its score. In those years, Herrmann was juggling three careers. He was conducting the CBS Orchestra, producing music for New York radio plays and occasional Hollywood films, and trying to write serious concert hall works. It's no wonder it took him eight years to finish a big opera score that clocked in at over three hours in length. Now, writing an opera is hard enough, but getting it staged is even harder. Herrmann liked to quote Franz Liszt, that “to write an opera you have to have the soul of a hero — and the mentality of a lackey — to have it produced.” Even if an opera company expressed interest, Herrmann refused to cut or alter his score. He felt Wuthering Heights was his masterpiece, and refused to compromise. The opera was never staged during his lifetime, so Herrmann had to content himself with making his own studio recording of Wuthering Heights at his own expense. After Herrmann’s death in 1975, the Portland Opera staged an edited-down version, and more recently, in 2011, the Minnesota Opera staged and filmed a critically acclaimed revival. Music Played in Today's Program Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975): Wuthering Heights; soloists; Pro Arte Orch; Bernard Herrmann, conductor; Unicorn UKCD -2050/52

Synopsis Today’s date in 1914 marks the birthday of famous Czech conductor Rafael Kubelík. He was the son of a very musical father, namely the violin virtuoso Jan Kubelík, known as the Czech Paganini. Kubelík studied violin, composition, and conducting at the Prague Conservatory, and was an excellent pianist to boot — good enough to accompany his father on several concert tours. At the age of 19, he made his conducting debut with the Czech Philharmonic, and later became that orchestra’s artistic director. In 1950, Kubelík became director of the Chicago Symphony; in 1955, the director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and in 1961, conductor of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. It was with the Bavarian orchestra that he made the bulk of his recordings, including a critically-acclaimed set of the Mahler symphonies. Like Mahler, he was both a conductor and a composer. “In public, I am practicing more as a conductor, but I could not live without composing, just as I would not be able to conduct without composing,” he said. He wrote five operas and three symphonies as well as many chamber music pieces, choral works and songs. Rafael Kubelík died at 82 in 1996, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Music Played in Today's Program Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996): Orphikon: Symphony in Three Movements; Bavarian Radio Symphony; Rafael Kuybelik, conductor; Panton 1264

Synopsis On today’s date in 1745, 73-year-old French composer Antoine Forqueray died in Mantes-la-Jolie outside Paris, where he had lived after his retirement as a court musician to King Louis XIV of France. Forqueray was a virtuoso on the viola da gamba, a bowed string instrument popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, but nowadays only played by specialists in old music. At the tender age of 10, Forqueray played before Louis XIV. Seven years later, he landed a job at the Court of Versailles. In his day, the other great French gamba virtuoso and composer was Marin Marais, noted for his introspective, sweet and gentle style of playing. Forqueray’s style was extroverted and bold, even brash. People said Marais played like an angel, and Forqueray like the devil. Forqueray’s style was so distinctive that three other French composers of the day, Jean-Philippe Rameau, François Couperin and Jacques Duphly, each composed a piece named La Forqueray in tribute to him. An obituary notice suggested that Forqueray had composed some three hundred works, but a selection of thirty-two pieces published by his son two years after his father’s death is the only music by Antoine Forqueray that survives. Music Played in Today's Program Antoine Forqueray (1671-1745): Piece for viola de gamba

Synopsis The name George Templeton Strong crops up frequently in both the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War and Ric Burns’ history of New York City. That George Templeton Strong was a lawyer and music lover who lived from 1820-1875, whose diary entries offer a detailed picture of daily life in New York City. But there’s another member of the family we’d like to tell you about — the son of the famous diarist, George Templeton Strong, Jr., born in New York in 1856, and died in Geneva, Switzerland on today’s date in 1948. The younger Strong became a fine oboist who played in various New York orchestras of his day. His father was not very happy about that. He wanted his son to study law. Moreover, Junior rebelled against his father’s ultra-conservative tastes in music: Strong Senior detested the music of Liszt and Wagner, whereas Junior, who became a composer, modeled his works on those very composers. The sad father-son relationship is documented painfully in the final entries of the elder Strong’s diaries. After a bitter argument, Junior left home and moved to Europe, eventually settling in Switzerland, where he pursued a dual artistic career as composer and watercolorist. Music Played in Today's Program George Templeton Strong (1856-1948): Evening Dance from Suite No. 2; Moscow Symphony; Adriano, conductor; Naxos 8.559078

Synopsis It was Mozart who wrote the first great piano concertos, with Beethoven, Brahms and others following suit in the 19th century. Closer to our own time, the tradition continues, with new contributions appearing each year. On today’s date in 1986, American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s piano concerto received its premiere by the Detroit Symphony with Marc-Andre Hamelin the soloist. “My piano concerto does not cast the pianist as the prototypical 19th-century hero battling the orchestral forces and triumphing through overwhelming virtuosity,” said Zwilich. “My concerto calls for a blending of forces — a joint exploration of the piano soloist and orchestra. The pianist is even asked to merge with various sections of the rather large orchestra at times.” She continued, “To me, a part of the nobility of the piano is that it can change its color, chameleon-like without losing its special identity … One composer treats the piano as a percussion instrument, another as a singer … Certainly the vast and wonderful piano repertoire explores this remarkable range. And the world of composer-pianists is large enough to embrace Serge Rachmaninoff and Art Tatum.” Music Played in Today's Program Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939): Piano Concerto; Joseph Kalichstein, piano; Florida State Orchestra; Michael Stern, Koch 7537

Synopsis 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!” Music Played in Today's Program Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): Violin Concerto in A (The Frog); Pavlo Beznosiuk, violin; New London Consort; Philip Pickett, conductor; London 455 621

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Symphony No. 5; London Philharmonic; Bernard Haitink, conductor; EMI 55487

Synopsis 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) Music Played in Today's Program Carol Barnett (b. 1949): Praise; Jay Johnson, steel pan; Jonathan Gregoire, organ; Augsburg Fortress Music CD (with ISBN: 9780800679118)

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program Étienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817): Symphony No. 1; Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, conductor; Erato 45026

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program 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

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program 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

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program Friedrich Hollaender (1896-1976): ‘5000 Fingers of Dr. T’ film score; studio orchestra

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program Rodion Shchedrin (1932-2025): Oboe Concerto; Alexei Ogrinchuk, oboe; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Suzanna Malkki, conductor; RCO Live CD 11001

Synopsis 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. Music Played in Today's Program 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

Synopsis 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! Music Played in Today's Program Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987): Divertimento; North Texas Wind Symphony; Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor; Klavier 11124

Synopsis Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen on today’s date in 1843. He is credited with putting Norway on the map, musically speaking, drawing inspiration from the folk music of his native land. What you might not know is that two famous French composers were fans. Grieg was about 19 years older than Claude Debussy and about 32 years older than Maurice Ravel, but both knew and admired his music. Despite criticizing Grieg’s Piano Concerto for being too much like Schumann’s, Debussy included Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in one of his public recitals, praised Grieg’s Peer Gynt incidental music, and described Grieg’s songs as possessing “the icy coldness of the Nordic lakes [and] the intensive fire of the sudden Nordic spring.” Ravel once played some of Grieg’s Norwegian dances for the composer in Paris, timidly at first, but when Grieg asked for a stronger beat, saying, “You should see our peasants with their fiddles stamping the rhythm with their feet. Start over!” Ravel complied, and the elder composer got up and started dancing. After Grieg’s death Ravel said: “Next to Debussy there’s no other composer to whom I feel more related than Grieg.” Music Played in Today's Program Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Lyric Pieces Book VI, No. 6; Homeward Emil Gilels, piano; DG 449721