Composers Datebook

American Public Media

4.7 (161)
MUSIC HISTORY
UPDATED DAILY

Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.

2 DAYS AGO

Prokofiev in peace and (cold) war

Synopsis For fans of old-time radio shows, it’s known as the theme for The FBI in Peace and War. But among classical music buffs its title is “March” from Prokofiev’s opera The Love of Three Oranges. This satirical, fairytale opera had its premiere performance in Chicago on today’s date in 1921, with Prokofiev himself was on hand to supervise the rehearsals. His opera received a lavish production which cost Chicago $250,000 — a staggering amount in 1921. The premiere was a modest success, even though the Chicago Tribune pronounced Prokofiev’s music “too much for this generation.” The production then traveled to New York for one performance which was savaged by the press as “Russian jazz with Bolshevist flourishes.” Summing up his American experience, Prokofiev wrote, “In my pocket was a thousand dollars; in my head, noise from all the running around and a desire to go away somewhere quiet to work.” In the 1930s, Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union, where his music had to toe the Stalinist Party Line. It’s one of life’s little ironies that a theme by a then Soviet composer would be chosen for a radio show about the FBI that aired during the height of America’s postwar “Red Scare.” Music Played in Today's Program Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): March from The Love of Three Oranges; Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit, conductor; London 440 331

2 min
3 DAYS AGO

The Seattle Symphony

Synopsis On today’s date in 1903, violinist and conductor Harry West led the first performance by the Seattle Symphony. At that time, the orchestra was comprised of just 24 players. For their first program, the aptly named Maestro West conducted Schubert and Rossini, two long-dead classical masters, and also programmed works by three living composers: Max Bruch, Jules Massenet and Pablo Sarasate. More recently, under music director Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony earned worldwide attention with its recordings of both classical and contemporary works, including critically acclaimed recordings of symphonic works by modern American masters like Howard Hanson, David Diamond and Alan Hovhaness, as well as newer pieces by a younger generation of American composers including Richard Danielpour and Stephen Albert. That tradition continued under Gerard Schwarz’ successor Ludovic Morlot, who took particular interest in fostering music from Seattle composers, including composers within the orchestra. The Seattle Symphony commissioned and premiered Become Ocean, a work by American composer John Luther Adams, which went on to win the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Music Played in Today's Program Max Bruch (1838-1920): Violin Concerto No. 2; Nai-Yuan Hu, violin; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3156 John Luther Adams (b. 1953): ‘Become Ocean’; Seattle Symphony; Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Cantaloupe 21161

2 min
4 DAYS AGO

Septet by Saint-Saëns

Synopsis Émile Lemoine was a French mathematician and passionate amateur musician who, in 1861, founded a members-only chamber music society he called “La Trompette,” or “The Trumpet,” a society that soon included some of the most famous musicians in Paris, including composer Camille Saint-Saëns. For years Lemoine begged Saint-Saëns to compose a chamber work for his society, asking only, not surprisingly, that it feature the trumpet. Saint-Saëns eventually fulfilled Lemoine’s wish, composing a Septet for the unusual combination of trumpet, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, and piano, a work influenced somewhat by his love of 17th century French music and dances. The Septet was successfully premiered at a La Trompette series concert on today’s date in 1880 and published the next year. Some consider it a minor masterpiece for its skillful writing, musical humor, and effective balancing of the unusual instrumental forces. Of all his works, it was the septet that Saint-Saëns reportedly liked the most, even though he once confessed to Lemoine, “When I think how much you pestered me to make me produce, against my better judgment, this piece that I did not want to write and which has become one of my great successes, I am at loss to explain it.” Music Played in Today's Program Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Préambule from Septet; Trio a Cordes Francais; EMI 47543

2 min
5 DAYS AGO

Bruckner in Boston

Synopsis Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s symphonies were introduced to American audiences in the 1880s, when Bruckner was still alive and composing. Walter Damrosch introduced Bruckner’s Third to New York audiences in 1885, Theodore Thomas conducted the Seventh in Chicago in 1886, and Anton Seidl led the first New York performance of the Fourth in 1888. Bruckner, then in his 60s, was thrilled to learn that Americans were performing his music. He would have been less thrilled had he seen the reviews. “Formless, weird, fragmentary, flimsy, uncongenial, and empty,” were just a few of the adjectives that greeted his music. After his death in 1896, it was the Boston Symphony’s turn to take up his cause. On today’s date in 1901, Wilhelm Gericke led the American premiere of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, to mixed reaction: “Interesting, scholarly and very skillfully orchestrated, ”said some, “not very coherent or systematic,” said others. When Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 debuted at a Boston Symphony matinee conducted by Max Fiedler in 1909, one reviewer wrote, “The work is, of course, massive, but it is massive like a business building, not like a mountain; it impresses one, but it does not move the emotions ... Altogether it made a trying afternoon.” Music Played in Today's Program Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): Symphony No. 5; Saarbrucken Radio Symphony; Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor; Arte Nova 43305

2 min
6 DAYS AGO

Brahms up and down

Synopsis There are several examples in the catalog of German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms of works that emerged from his pen in contrasting pairs. The most famous being his two concert overtures: the comic and upbeat Academic Festival Overture, and the dark, stoic pessimism of his Tragic Overture. While composing the jaunty Academic Festival Overture in 1880, to acknowledge an Honorary Doctorate he had received the previous year from the University of Breslau, Brahms felt compelled to write a more serious companion piece. To his friend the publisher Simrock, he wrote, “I could not refuse my melancholy nature the satisfaction of composing an overture for a tragedy.” To another friend, Carl Reinecke, he wrote, “One weeps, the other laughs.” Hans Richter conducted the premiere of the Tragic Overture in Vienna on today’s date in 1880, and the following month Brahms himself led the premiere of his Academic Festival Overture in Breslau. And the new works soon came to the New World: On November 12, 1881, the enterprising Theodore Thomas conducted the New York Philharmonic in the American premiere of the Tragic Overture, and one week later, the Academic Festival Overture as well with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Music Played in Today's Program Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): ‘Academic Festival Overture’; New York Philharmonic; Kurt Masur, conductor; Teldec 77291 Johannes Brahms: ‘Tragic Overture’; Vienna Symphony; Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor; Philips 438 760

2 min
12/25/2024

Lutoslawski Christmas Carols

Synopsis Today, some unfamiliar Christmas carols — or perhaps very familiar ones, if you’re Polish. In 1946, the Director of Polish Music Publishing asked composer Witold Lutosławski to make some new arrangements of old Polish carols. During World War II, Poland had been under the control of Nazi Germany, and after the war dominated by the Soviet Union. In addition to material hardships, in the cultural sphere 1946 was a difficult time for Polish artists. Overnight Communist ideology was imposed on all endeavors, including music. The Polish Music Publishing director probably thought collecting and publishing Christmas carol arrangements was a relatively safe activity. And so, Lutosławski collected and arranged 20 old Polish Christmas carols for voice and piano, and these were premiered in Kraków soon after. In the political and cultural turmoil of the decades that followed, these arrangements were pretty much forgotten until almost 40 years later, when Lutosławski re-arranged them for solo soprano, chorus, and orchestra. And, even if you don’t speak Polish, if you sing in a choir looking for some new Christmas music, you should know these Lutosławski carol arrangements are available in English-language versions, too. Music Played in Today's Program Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994): The Angels Came to the Shepherds and Hey, We Look Forward Now (excerpts), from 20 Polish Christmas Carols; Polish Radio Chorus, Kraców; Polish National Radio Chorus and Symphony; Antoni Wit, conductor; Naxos 8.555994

2 min
12/24/2024

Menotti's TV opera

Synopsis On Christmas Eve in 1951, NBC television broadcast live the world premiere performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. Now, for decades the kinescope recording of that original live transmission was thought to be lost, but miraculously, a copy resurfaced just in time for Amahl’s 50th anniversary and was shown at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills in December of 2001. On the broadcast, the dapper Menotti can be seen introducing the new work, confessing that NBC had commissioned the opera in 1950, but its wasn’t until the Thanksgiving of 1951 that he actually began working on it, inspired by the painting “The Adoration of the Magi,” which he saw at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In fact, Menotti was working on his new score up to the last minute, delivering it bit by bit to the performers prior to its premiere. The opera proved a hit, and for the next five years became an annual live holiday broadcast on NBC. NBC continued to air Amahl occasionally through the 1970s, but by that time it had become an established seasonal tradition for both professional and amateur performers coast to coast. Music Played in Today's Program Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007): Amahl and the Night Visitors Suite; The New Zealand Symphony; Andrew Schenck, conductor; Koch 7005

2 min
12/23/2024

Mendelssohn cooks up some music

Synopsis The greatest clarinetist of the early 19th century was Heinrich Baermann, whose son Carl was also a fantastic performer on the basset horn, the lower-voiced member of the clarinet family. Felix Mendelssohn, in addition to being fond of their playing, was fond another Baermann Family specialty: the “Dampfnudeln” or sweet dumplings they served their friends. In December of 1832, Mendelssohn asked if they’d whip him up a batch. The Baermanns said “Sure – if you’ll whip something up for us, namely a duet for clarinet and basset horn.” Carl Baermann described what happened next: “Mendelssohn put a chef’s hat on my head, drew an apron around my waist and stuck a cooking spoon into the waistband. He did the same himself, except that instead of a spoon, he stuck a pen behind his ear. Then he led me into the kitchen ... He returned to his room where, as he said, he was going to stir and knead tones ... When I brought the dumpling in a covered dish to the table at the time agreed upon, Mendelssohn also had his duet in a covered dish. Father and I were delighted with the charming piece — although Mendelssohn kept saying that my creation was better than his.” Music Played in Today's Program Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847): Concert Piece No. 1; Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer, clarinet and basset horn; Wurtemberg Chamber Orchestra; Jorg Faerber, conductor; EMI 47233

2 min

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4.7

out of 5

161 Ratings

Gut

12/04/2024

Fill makes Games

Gut, sehr gut.
Make it a longer show?

09/29/2024

HarrierLG

My only complaint of Composer's Datebook is that it is too short! Perhaps a five minute snippet instead of two? Include score illustrations on the web site?
Nice Musical Podcast

08/02/2024

tara starlong

I like to listen to the Nutcracker
Meditation

02/07/2024

danktighny

I stop what I’m doing to really listen to this. It is my 2 minute musical oasis wherever it lands in my day. Thank you.