Composers Datebook American Public Media

Synopsis
American composer Elliott Carter lived to be 103, completing more than 40 works between ages 90 and 100, and 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008.

On today’s date in 2012, a new chamber work by Carter with an odd title was premiered at a concert in the New York Philharmonic’s CONTACT! Series. Two Controversies and a Conversation showcased the percussive aspects of the piano, highlighting that instrument alongside a solo percussionist. The premiere was an international triple-commission from the New York Philharmonic, the Aldeburgh Festival in England and Radio France. 

An earlier version of part of the work, titled simply Conversations, had been premiered in the U.K. the previous year. The composer explained the title as follows:

“How does one converse?” Carter asked. “One person says something and tries to get the other person to respond, or carry on, or contradict a statement. Those conversing are also playing a kind of game with each other. I tried to put all that into my music … after the [Aldeburgh] premiere of Conversations, [British composer] Oliver Knussen suggested I expand this piece. I decided to add two more movements, which became the two Controversies."

Music Played in Today's Program
Elliott Carter (1908-2012): Conversation, from Two Controversies and a Conversation; Eric Huebner, piano; Colin Currie, percussion; New York Philharmonic; David Robertson, conductor; NYP 20120112

Synopsis
It was on today’s date in 1922 that English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams conducted the American premiere of his Symphony No. 3 (Pastoral) at the Litchfield County music festival in Norfolk, Connecticut.

It was his first trip to the U.S., and he reacted to American landscapes and customs with wonder and amusement. He found the Woolworth building in New York more impressive than Niagara Falls, writing to his friend Gustav Holst, “I’ve come to the conclusion that the Works of Man terrify me more than the Works of God.” He was also bemused by America’s summertime fondness for chicken salad, which he called “beyond powers of expression.”

As for the premiere American performance of his Pastoral Symphony, he reported it had been “excellent.”

Vaughan Williams would return to the United States twice more before his death in 1958. By that time his music had become very popular in American. George Szell in Cleveland, Rafael Kubelik in Chicago, and Dimtri Mitropoulos in New York were all in heated competition to secure rights to the American premiere of his Symphony No. 7, for example.

Spoiler alert: Kubelik and the Chicago Symphony won out.

Music Played in Today's Program
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Symphony No. 3 (Pastoral); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Kees Bakels, conductor; Naxos 8.550733

Synopsis
On today’s date in 1885, George Bernard Shaw had these thoughts after a performance of Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni:

“A century after Shakespeare’s death, it was fashionable to ridicule the pretensions of the author of Hamlet to intellectual seriousness and to apologize for his childishness. At present, a century after Mozart’s death, we have among us those who hold [similar views] of the composer of Don Giovanni. Now the truth about Shakespeare was never forgotten — never even questioned by the silent masses who read poetry, but skip notes, comments, and criticism … and the masses are similarly sound on the subject of Mozart, shown by the fact that Mozart will still draw a house when nothing else will.”

Today, Shaw is chiefly remembered as a playwright, but his collected music criticism fills three stout volumes.

Music Played in Today's Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Don Giovanni; Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon 419635

Frederick Loewe (1904-1988): My Fair Lady; Original Soundtrack Recording; Sony 66711

Synopsis
In the 19th century, young, Boston-born American composer and pianist William Mason made a point of tracking down and visiting the most famous European composers of his day, including a politically controversial German named Richard Wagner, who was then living in exile in Zurich.

The meeting took place on today’s date in 1852, when Mason was in his twenties, and the 30-something Wagner was just beginning to work on his epic cycle of operas entitled The Ring of the Nibelungen.

“At that time, I had heard only The Flying Dutchman, but considered it a most beautiful work, and was eager to meet the composer,” Mason wrote.

Wagner found the young American to be genial company for a few hours, during which (not surprisingly) Wagner did most of the talking. As a souvenir, Wagner presented his young American visitor with a few bars of music inscribed: “If you ever hear anything of mine like this, then think of me.”

About quarter of a century later, in 1876, Mason did think of Wagner and that June afternoon when he heard his souvenir come to life as the ominous dragon motive heard at the opening of Siegfried, the third opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Music Played in Today's Program
Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Act I Prelude, from Siegfried; Vienna Philharmonic; Georg Solti, conductor; London 414 110

Synopsis
In the summer of 1853, Johannes Brahms had just turned twenty and was touring as the piano accompanist of Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi. On today’s date, they arrived in Gottingen, where they were hosted by Arnold Wehner, the music director of that city’s university.

Wehner kept a guest book for visitors, and over time accumulated signatures from the most famous composers of his day, like Mendelssohn and Rossini. Now, in 1853, Brahms was not yet as famous, but as a thank-you to his host, he filled a page of Wehner’s album with a short original composition for piano.

Fast forward over 150 years to 2011, when Wehner’s guest book fetched over $158,000 at an auction house in New York City, and this previously unknown piano score by Brahms attracted attention for many reasons.

First, few early Brahms manuscripts have survived, and second, the melody Brahms jotted down in 1853 showed up again in the second movement of his Horn Trio, published 12 years later.

Finally, there was a dispute about who had rediscovered the long-lost score: the auction house had the manuscript authenticated in 2011, but in 2012 British conductor Christopher Hogwood claimed he had discovered it while doing other research.

Music Played in Today's Program
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Albumblatt (1853); Sophie-Mayuko Vetter, piano; Hännsler 98048

Synopsis
Long before Beyoncé, there was Josephine Baker. 

She was born Freda Josephine McDonald on today’s date in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. At 15, she talked her way into the chorus line at a local vaudeville theater; from there headed first to New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, and then on Paris and the Folies Bergère, where as a singer and dancer she quickly became a sensation.

By that time, Freda Josephine McDonald had reinvented herself as Josephine Baker. She was for Parisians the embodiment of the Jazz Age, the “Black Venus,” and the hippest American on the planet. 

She became a naturalized French citizen, married a wealthy French industrialist, and raised her 12 adopted children in France. In one of her most famous songs, she sang, “I have two loves, my country and Paris,” and proved as good as her word when during World War II she aided the French resistance. As she refused to perform for segregated audiences in America, she chose to remain in Europe.

American composer Valerie Coleman attempted to capture something of the many facets of this remarkable woman and her journey from St. Louis to Paris in her wind quintet, Portraits of Josephine.

Music Played in Today's Program
Valerie Coleman (b. 1970): Thank You Josephine (J’ai Deux Amours), from Portraits of Josephine; Imani Winds; Koch KIC-7696