I’m going to start compiling these weekly so they don’t gunk up the recent posts feed.
Feb 17:
Nothing happened.
Births:
1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer
1820 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer
1887 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (I like the Finns. Should check this guy out)
1925 – Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor
Deaths:
1652 – Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer
1732 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer
1841 – Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist and composer
1943 – Armand J. Piron, American violinist and composer
1962 – Bruno Walter, German-American conductor (Mahler’s right hand man for a time)
1970 – Alfred Newman, American composer and conductor
1982 – Thelonious Monk, American pianist and composer (Not so classical, but it’s Thelonius Monk)
Feb 18:
No musical happenings.
1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist
1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer
1850 – George Henschel, German-English opera singer, conductor, and composer
1902 – Walter Herbert, German-American conductor
1921 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian composer
1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish-German conductor
Deaths:
1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer
Feb 19:
1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph (I find this to be musically significant)
Births:
1671 – Charles-Hubert Gervais, French composer
1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer
Deaths:
1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer
1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer
1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist
1975 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (note to self: Check this guy out)
Feb 20:
1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
1877 – Tchaikovsky‘s ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Good day for premieres. Now onto births:
1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer
1761 – Ludwig Abeille, German pianist and composer
1763 – Adalbert Gyrowetz, Bohemian composer
1942 – Arbo Valdma, Estonian pianist
1943 – Moshe Cotel, American pianist and composer
1953 – Riccardo Chailly, Italian conductor
Deaths:
1626 – John Dowland, English lute player and composer
1653 – Luigi Rossi, Italian composer
1961 – Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (What a nut this man was, but he’s one of my favorites)
1963 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian-Austrian conductor
1963 – Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer
1969 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor
1974 – David Monrad Johansen, Norwegian composer
1992 – Pierre Dervaux, French conductor and composer
1996 – Toru Takemitsu, Japanese composer
Feb 21:
No musical events to report. Births:
1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German astronomer, composer, and theorist
1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (This guy is helping me learn piano)
1836 – Léo Delibes, French composer
1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer
1927 – Pierre Mercure, Canadian bassoon player and composer
Deaths:
1996 – Morton Gould, American pianist and composer (played a piece of his I seem to recall; Also, Wikipedia has him listed as “pianist, composer and composer. His article says “composer and conductor.”
Feb 22:
Again, nothing. Births:
1645 – Johann Ambrosius Bach, German composer
1645 – Johann Christoph Bach, German pianist
1761 – Erik Tulindberg, Finnish composer
1961 – Lowell Liebermann, American composer, pianist, and conductor
Deaths:
1727 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer
1934 – Willem Kes, Dutch violinist and conductor
1983 – Adrian Boult, English conductor
1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor
2013 – Claude Monteux, American flute player and conductor
2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor
Feb 23:
Nada. Births:
1664 – Georg Dietrich Leyding, German composer and organist
1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English composer (Heard of him?)
1975 – Robert Lopez, American composer
Deaths:
1572 – Pierre Certon, French composer
1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer
1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer
1983 – Herbert Howells, English organist and composer
2004 – Neil Ardley, English pianist and composer
Fugue for Thought 