On this Day: April 2015
So these whole-month on-this-day posts might be a little bit unwieldy, but it’s the way I’ve decided to handle them. I update my comments about some of the composers or whatever little peanut-gallery commentary I might have that I didn’t have last year when we were doing these weekly, but after a full year of monthly posts, I won’t be reposting them again. I’ll just look to update them if there’s anything new in subsequent years. Open the full article and do a search for any keywords if you’re really looking for something. Here we go.
April 1
April 1
Births:
1629 – Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, French organist and composer (d. 1691)
1721 – Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer (d. 1799)
1866 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1924) (Wrote the first [and only?] piano concerto to incorporate a chorus)
1871 – F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor (d. 1955)
1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1943) He has lots of other stuff we need to get around to.
1917 – Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist and composer (d. 1950)
1921 – William Bergsma, American composer (d. 1994)
1965 – Robert Steadman, English composer
Deaths:
1528 – Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer (b. 1470)
1917 – Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (b. 1868) (I know, not really classical… but it’s Scott Joplin)
2013 – David Burge, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1930)
Busoni and Rachmaninoff on the same day. They both have big, heavy piano concerti to their names.
April 2
1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna. We covered that piece here.
none.
Deaths:
2013 – Robert Ward, American composer (b. 1917)
April 3
1869- Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto premieres in Copenhagen. We covered that piece here.
Births:
1639 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
1682 – Valentin Rathgeber, German organist and composer (d. 1750)
1889 – Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian violinist and composer (d. 1949)
1895 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer (d. 1968)
Deaths:
1868 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and surgeon (b. 1796)- Composer and surgeon? Accomplished.
1897 – Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (b. 1833)
1950 – Kurt Weill, German-American composer (b. 1900)
1962 – Manolis Kalomiris, Greek composer (b. 1883)
1972 – Ferde Grofé, American pianist and composer (b. 1882)
April 4
Births:
1676 – Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Italian composer (d. 1760)
1752 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Italian composer (d. 1837)
1875 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)
1905 – Eugène Bozza, French composer and conductor (d. 1991)
Deaths:
None. Good day for music!
April 5
Births:
1784 – Louis Spohr, German violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1859) Pretty prolific yet not terribly well-known composer. Ten symphonies (I think), a clarinet concerto come to mind. I believe he is one of the few composers (along with Berlioz) who probably composed directly to a score without using a piano, or at least it has been suggested before.
1908 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
Deaths:
1617 – Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer (b. 1555)
1967 – Mischa Elman, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1891)
April 6
1962 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms‘ First Piano Concerto – teehee. Although I am not a fan of his humming and such, Mr. Gould does do a fantastic job with some of the pieces he performs as long as he doesn’t intentionally deviate from the score.
Births:
1660 – Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
1672 – André Cardinal Destouches, French composer (d. 1749)
1708 – Georg Reutter II, Austrian composer (d. 1772)
1815 – Robert Volkmann, German composer (d. 1883)
1929 – André Previn, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor
Deaths:
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
April 7
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1805- The premiere of Beethoven’s third symphony is given in Vienna‘s Theater an der Wien on 7 April 1805 with the composer conducting.
Births:
1713 – Nicola Sala, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1801)
1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian bassist and composer (d. 1846) What a cool last name.
1899 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist and composer (d. 1972)
1970 – Leif Ove Andsnes, Norwegian pianist
Deaths:
1858 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian composer (b. 1781)
April 8
Births:
1533 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (d. 1604)
1692 – Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1770)
1885 – Dimitrios Levidis, Greek-French composer (d. 1951)
1889 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
1921 – Jan Novák, Czech composer (d. 1984)
Deaths:
1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
1870 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
1920 – Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (b. 1884)
April 9
Births:
1627 – Johann Kaspar Kerll, German organist and composer (d. 1693)
1717 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1750)
1794 – Theobald Boehm, German flute player and composer (d. 1881)
1846 – Paolo Tosti, Italian-English composer and educator (d. 1916)
1906 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (d. 1988) I have this guy’s recording of some of Stravinsky’s works with the Detroit Symphony, and they’re fantastic
1932 – Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor (d. 2006)
Deaths:
1982 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1896)
April 10
Births:
1707 – Michel Corrette, French organist, composer, and author (d. 1795)
1864 – Eugen d’Albert, Scottish-German pianist and composer (d. 1932)
Deaths:
1545 – Costanzo Festa, Italian composer (b. 1485)
1640 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer (b. 1578)
April 11
1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
Births:
1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, French composer (d. 1738)
1715 – John Alcock, English organist and composer (d. 1806)
1819 – Charles Hallé, German-English pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
1916 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentinian composer (d. 1983)
Deaths:
2010 – Julia Tsenova, Bulgarian pianist and composer (b. 1948)
April 12
Births:
1716 – Felice Giardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1796)
1722 – Pietro Nardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1793)
1801 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1843) Rebranded the waltz
1888 – Heinrich Neuhaus, Ukrainian-Russian pianist (d. 1964) Possibly the most German sounding Ukrainian-Russian name ever
Deaths:
1788 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French composer (b. 1719)
April 13
1742 – George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. (Dublin… of all places…)
Births: Nope
Deaths:
1826 – Franz Danzi, German cellist, composer, and conductor (b. 1763)
1944 – Cécile Chaminade, French pianist and composer (b. 1857)
1959 – Eduard van Beinum, Dutch conductor (b. 1901)
1984 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harp player and musicologist (b. 1911)
2013 – Stephen Dodgson, English composer (b. 1924)
2013 – Dean Drummond, American composer and conductor (b. 1949)
2013 – Adolph Herseth, American trumpet player (b. 1921)- principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004
2013 – William Steck, American violinist (b. 1934)
April 14
1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th). This isn’t at all musically related, but it did happen today.
Also, nothing else musically happened, so it’s nice to have something. We work with what we’ve got here at FFT
Births:
1913 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. 2008)
1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist
1957 – Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, conductor, and composer (he actually lives in Thailand….)
1975 – Avner Dorman, Israeli-American composer (Went to Juilliard, studied with Corigliano)
Deaths:
1759 – George Frideric Handel, German-English composer (b. 1685)
1843 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer (b. 1801)
April 15
1738 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.
