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The American Symphony in Review

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(cover image by Ian Dooley) The series is available, in reverse chronological order, here. This has been one of the most exciting series we’ve done. There has been such a wide spectrum of styles and approaches, but really just excellent … Continue reading The American Symphony in Review

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Influential People: Anton Rubinstein

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I started including this information in tomorrow’s music post, but it got a little long, so I decided I’d make it a separate thing ahead of the discussion of the first work in our Russian symphony series. 

Rubinstein on the podium as portrayed by Ilya Repin.
In great contrast with the piece we’ll be discussing next week, Rubinstein was quite a Continue reading “Influential People: Anton Rubinstein”
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On this Day: June 2015

Fugue for Thought
June 1
Births:
1653 – Georg Muffat, French composer (d. 1704)
1804 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (d. 1857)- Important Russian guy. 
Deaths:
1639 – Melchior Franck, German composer (b. 1579)

June 2
Births:
1857 – Edward Elgar, English composer (d. 1934)
1863 – Felix Weingartner, Croatian-Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1942)
1878 – Wallace Hartley, English violinist and bandleader (d. 1912) I saw bandleader and I thought ‘jazz guy’, but this is the heroic kind of musical version of ‘captain of the ship’; he’s the guy that lead the eight-member band on the Titanic as it went down on April 15. Was that in the movie?
1944 – Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and conductor (d. 2012) Incredibly accomplished if not wholly classical in nature.
1947 – Mark Elder, English conductor
Deaths:
1937 – Louis Vierne, French organist and composer (b. 1870)
1968 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1929) The Canadian Rachmaninoff? Well, “in the style of Rachmaninoff.”
2000 – Lepo Sumera, Estonian composer (b. 1950)
2013 – Mario Bernardi, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1930)
June 3
Births:
1736 – Ignaz Fränzl, German violinist and composer (d. 1811)

1832 – Charles Lecocq, French composer (d. 1918)
Deaths:
1858 – Julius Reubke, German pianist and composer (b. 1834) We discussed him before. What a magnificent piano sonata this young talent composed. Check it out here. 
1875 – Georges Bizet, French composer (b. 1838)
1877 – Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, Austrian botanist, composer, and publisher (b. 1800) Botanist and composer. (I almost made a joke about his pieces sounding organic…)
2013 – Arnold Eidus, American violinist (b. 1922)
June 4
Births:
1903 – Yevgeny Mravinsky, Russian conductor (d. 1988)
Deaths:
—
June 5
Births:
1884 – Ralph Benatzky, Czech-Austrian composer (d. 1957)
1923 – Daniel Pinkham, American organist and composer (d. 2006)
1952 – Daniel Katzen, American horn player and educator
1972 – Pavel Kotla, Polish conductor
Deaths:
1625 – Orlando Gibbons, English organist and composer (b. 1583)
1722 – Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (b. 1660)
1816 – Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (b. 1741)
1826 – Carl Maria von Weber, German pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1786)
2003 – Manuel Rosenthal, French composer and conductor (b. 1904)
June 6
Births:
1661 – Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer (d. 1756)
1735 – Anton Schweitzer, German composer (d. 1787)
1903 – Aram Khachaturian, Georgian-Armenian composer (d. 1978)
1915 – Vincent Persichetti, American pianist and composer (d. 1987) I’ve performed some of this guy’s band music
1926 – Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
1939 – Louis Andriessen, Dutch pianist and composer
Deaths:
1881 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1820)
June 7
Births:
1845 – Leopold Auer, Hungarian violinist, composer, and conductor r(d. 1930)
1897 – George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (d. 1970)
1937 – Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor
Two quite famous conductors, born exactly forty years apart.
Deaths:
1896 – Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer (b. 1829)
June 8
Births:
1671 – Tomaso Albinoni, Italian composer (d. 1751)
1810 – Robert Schumann, German composer and critic (d. 1856)
1949 – Emanuel Ax, Polish-American pianist and educator
Deaths:
1612 – Hans Leo Hassler, German organist and composer (b. 1562)

1984 – Gordon Jacob, English composer (b. 1895)
June 9
Births:
1732 – Giuseppe Demachi, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1791)
1810 – Otto Nicolai, German composer and conductor (d. 1849)
1865 – Carl Nielsen, Danish violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1931) I quite like most of Nielsen’s earlier symphonies (earlier meaning everything except the fifth, which I haven’t really grown to appreciate yet [but still wrote about], and the sixth, which is just kind of… perplexing)
1891 – Cole Porter, American composer (d. 1964) I know I have said some bad things about jazz (or intend to), but Cole Porter is Cole Porter. 
1912 – Ingolf Dahl, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1970) The people I have never heard of… 
Deaths:
1656 – Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (b. 1572)
1952 – Adolf Busch, German-Austrian violinist and composer (b. 1891)
1991 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-American pianist (b. 1903) 
2013 – Bruno Bartoletti, Italian conductor (b. 1926)
June 10
Births:
1843 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1900)

Continue reading “On this Day: June 2015”

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On this Day: May 2015

Fugue for Thought

May 1 Welcome to the fifth month of the year.  Births: 1582 – Marco da Gagliano, Italian composer (d. 1643) 1901 – Heinz Eric Roemheld, American composer (d. 1985) 1913 – Walter Susskind, Czech-English conductor (d. 1980) 1927 – Gary Bertini, Israeli conductor and composer (d. 2005) 1939 – Victor Davies, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor 1945 – Peter Kiesewetter, German composer (d. 2012) 1955 – Martin O’Donnell, American composer 1957 – Kow Otani, Japanese pianist and composer Deaths: 1731 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (b. 1677) That seems like a confusing mix of famous composers’ names. 1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)  1978 – Aram Khachaturian, Georgian-Armenian composer (b. 1903) 2010 – Rob McConnell, … Continue reading On this Day: May 2015

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On this Day: April 2015

Fugue for Thought
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
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. 
Births:
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
1888 – The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated.
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.

Continue reading “On this Day: April 2015”

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On this day: March, 2015

Fugue for Thought

Our first full-month post. Let’s go! March 1: Births: 1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer  (May have heard of this guy…?) 1896 – Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek pianist, conductor, and composer. Early Mahler advocate 1939 – Leo Brouwer, Cuban guitarist and composer 1958 – Chosei Komatsu, Japanese conductor Deaths: 1620 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer 1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian pianist and composer  1777 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian composer 1882 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, and educator 1976 – Jean Martinon, French conductor and composer   March 2:  Births: 1755 – Antoine-Frédéric Gresnick, Belgian composer 1824 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American composer 1905 – Marc Blitzstein, American composer 1912 – Henry Katzman, American pianist, composer, and … Continue reading On this day: March, 2015

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On this day: Week of February 16, 2015

Fugue for Thought

… and all the rest of February. So it marks actually more than a year now that we’ve been doing these weekly posts, and so I’ve decided that I’ll just be posting them monthly. Here’s how it’ll go. I started on February 11, 2014. I was NOT going to spend my weekend a few weeks ago (1/31) preparing two weeks of this stuff, so starting today (from the first weekly post of last year), they’ll be monthly: on the first day of the month for the entire month, divided up by week. That’s how it’s going to go now. I may change … Continue reading On this day: Week of February 16, 2015

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On this day: week of February 9, 2015

Fugue for Thought

February 9 Births: 1645 – Johann Aegidius Bach, German viola player (d. 1716) 1741 – Henri-Joseph Rigel, German-French composer (d. 1799) 1751 – Antoine Bullant, Czech bassoon player and composer (d. 1821) 1864 – Miina Härma, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1941) 1885 – Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935) 1909 – Harald Genzmer, German composer (d. 2007) Studied with Hindemith Deaths: 1960 – Ernő Dohnányi, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1877) Will eventually get around to this guy’s works.  2010 – Jacques Hétu, Canadian composer and educator (b. 1938) Studied with Lukas Foss, Dutilleux, and Messiaen February 10 Births: 1696 – Johann Melchior Molter, German violinist and composer (d. 1765) 1935 – Theodore … Continue reading On this day: week of February 9, 2015

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On this day: Feb 1, 2015

Fugue for Thought

So we’re going to start clean with a new month. February 1: February 1: 1687 – Johann Adam Birkenstock, German violinist and composer (d. 1733) I’ll resist making a joke about shoes.  1690 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1768) 1701 – Johan Agrell, Swedish-German composer (d. 1765) 1836 – Emil Hartmann, Danish composer (d. 1898) 1859 – Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1924) 1907 – Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian composer (d. 1993) This guy’s given first name is “Mozart” 1952 – Jenő Jandó, Hungarian pianist Deaths: 1743 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian organist and composer (b. 1657) 1949 – Herbert Stothart, American conductor and composer (b. 1885) 2007 – Gian Carlo … Continue reading On this day: Feb 1, 2015

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On this day: week of January 26, 2015

Fugue for Thought

You’ll notice that February isn’t included in this week, even though it should go till Sunday. You’ll see what’s up with that on Sunday. January 26 Births: 1595 – Antonio Maria Abbatini, Italian composer (d. 1679) 1708 – William Hayes, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1777) 1900 – Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967) 1911 – Norbert Schultze, German composer (d. 2002) 1945 – Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987) 1981 – Gustavo Dudamel, Venezuelan violinist, composer, and conductor Deaths: 1795 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732) 1998 – Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violinist and educator (b. 1898) January 27 Births: 1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1791) 1806 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (d. 1826) … Continue reading On this day: week of January 26, 2015

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On this day: week of January 19, 2015

Fugue for Thought

January 19 Births: 1676 – John Weldon, English organist and composer (d. 1736) 1832 – Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1875) 1893 – Magda Tagliaferro, Brazilian pianist (d. 1986) Studied with Alfred Cortot 1948 – Amanda Holden, English playwright and composer 1955 – Simon Rattle, English conductor. Formerly with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (in that amazing concert hall) and now with the Berlin Philharmonic Deaths: 1833 – Ferdinand Hérold, French composer (b. 1791) 1972 – Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936) 2013 – Frank Pooler, American conductor and composer (b. 1926) January 20 Births: 1586 – Johann Schein, German composer (d. 1630) 1703 – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1741) 1761 – Giovanni Domenico … Continue reading On this day: week of January 19, 2015