Composers Datebook

American Public Media
  • 4.8 (12)
  • 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.

  1. 10H AGO

    Dvořák's 'American Quintet'

    Synopsis Composers and publishers don’t always see eye to eye. Simrock, the German publisher of Dvořák’s music, irritated the patriotic Czech composer by issuing his scores with his first name printed in its Germanic form “Anton” rather than its Czech form “Antonín.” They finally came up with a compromise: Simrock abbreviated Dvorak’s first name, printing it as “A-N-T-period” on the music’s title page: Germans could read that as “Anton” and Czechs as “Antonín.” Everyone was happy. Simrock would also have liked Dvořák to stick to writing small-scale chamber works — which sold well — rather than large-scale symphonic works — which didn’t. “You counsel me that I should write small works, but this is very difficult … At the moment my head is full of large ideas and I will have to do as dear Lord wishes,” he wrote in 1891. A few years later, he would make Simrock very happy by sending them some large- and small-scale works that would sell tremendously well, including his New World Symphony and American String Quartet … plus this music — an American String Quintet published by Simrock as Dvořák’s Op. 97. Dvořák’s quintet was composed in Spillville, Iowa, in the summer of 1893 and was first heard at Carnegie Hall in New York on today’s date in 1894. Music Played in Today's Program Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): American String Quintet; Smetana Quartet; Josef Suk, viola; Denon 72507

    2 min

  2. 2D AGO

    A Kernis premiere wins the Pulitzer

    Synopsis On today’s date in 1998, the Lark Quartet gave the first performance of the String Quartet No. 2 by American composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Like much of his music, the new quartet drew upon an eclectic variety of influences. As he put it: “My String Quartet No. 2 uses elements of Renaissance and Baroque dance music and dance forms as its basis and inspiration. For years I’ve played various Bach suites and pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book at the piano for my own pleasure, and I suspected for some time that their influence would eventually show up in my own work.” The Lark Quartet had commissioned Kernis’ String Quartet No. 1, and, like the composer, were over the moon when they learned No. 2 had won the Pulitzer Prize for music. Just three months after its premiere, he got the news by phone as he was headed to the airport to catch a flight to Spain. “I haven’t had a martini in years, but that’s sort of what it felt like,” he recalled. Kernis’ String Quartet No. 2 was a triple commission from Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Ohio University, and The Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, and was dedicated to Linda Hoeschler, the former Executive Director of the American Composers Forum. Music Played in Today's Program Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960): String Quartet No. 2 (musica instrumentalis); The Lark Quartet; Arabesque 6727

    2 min

  3. 3D AGO

    Bartok's 'Contrasts'

    Synopsis In January of 1939, famous jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman was playing each night at New York’s Paramount Theater. On today’s date that year, he also appeared on the stage of Carnegie Hall. The occasion was the American premiere of a new chamber trio by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, commissioned by Goodman at the suggestion of Bartok’s compatriot, violinist Joseph Sizgeti. The work was billed as a two-movement “Rhapsody” for clarinet, violin and piano. Now, in 1939 Goodman was at the peak of his popularity with the swing-crazed youth of America, and the New York Times music critic felt the need to write: “There is no indication that Bartok wrote the clarinet part for Benny’s clarinet, so jitterbugs reading this review have been simply wasting their time. The work is as Hungarian as goulash, and Mr. Goodman was artist enough to restrain himself from any insinuation of swing. Indeed, considering that he had probably left the stage of the Paramount Theatre some minutes before he appeared on that of Carnegie Hall, the purity of his style and the bright neatness of his technique were particularly admirable.” The following year, Goodman and Szigeti recorded the trio with Bartok himself at the piano. For that occasion, Bartok added a third movement, and the resulting work was re-titled Contrasts. Music Played in Today's Program Béla Bartók (1881-1945): Contrasts; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Joseph Szigeti, violin; Bela Bartok, piano; CBS/SONY 42227

    2 min

  4. 4D AGO

    William Bolcom and William Blake

    Synopsis If the late 18th century is the Classical Age, and the 19th The Romantic, then perhaps we should dub our time “The Eclectic Age” of music. These days, composers can — and do — pick and choose from a wide variety of styles. American composer William Bolcom was loath to rule anything out when he approached the task of setting William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience to music. Bolcom calls for a large orchestra, multiple choruses, and more than a dozen vocal soloists versed in classical, pop, folk, country, and operatic styles. There are echoes of jazz, reggae, gospel, ragtime, country and rock idioms as well. As Bolcom put it: “At every point Blake used his whole culture, past and present, high-flown and vernacular, as sources for his many poetic styles. All I did was use the same stylistic point of departure Blake did in my musical settings.” The massive work received its premiere performance in Stuttgart, Germany, on today’s date in 1984. Most of the work was completed between 1973 and 1982, after Bolcom joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and it was there that the work received its American premiere a few months following its world premiere in Germany. Music Played in Today's Program William Bolcom (b. 1938): Songs of Innocence and of Experience Soloists; Choirs; University of Michigan School of Music Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Naxos 8.559216/18

    2 min

  5. 5D AGO

    'Statements' from Copland

    Synopsis In 1935 Aaron Copland finished a new orchestral work that was to be premiered by the Minneapolis Symphony and its young conductor Eugene Ormandy. The work, Statements for Orchestra, consisted of six short movements, each with a descriptive title, namely: Militant, Cryptic, Dogmatic, Subjective, Jingo and Prophetic. The Jingo movement alludes to the popular tune Sidewalks of New York — where Copland completed the orchestration of his new score. The last two movements were premiered by the Minneapolis Symphony early in 1936, first on an NBC radio broadcast, then on one of the orchestra’s subscription concerts. The conductor, however, was not Ormandy but rather Dimitri Mitropoulos, who would become the Music Director of the Minneapolis Symphony the following year. And it was Mitropoulos who would lead the first complete performance of all six of Copland’s Statements on today’s date in 1942 during a concert by the New York Philharmonic. The new piece got good reviews, and Copland quoted with pride one given by his friend and colleague Virgil Thomson, which called the music “succinct and stylish, cleverly written and very, very personal.” Much to his surprise this music never really caught on with orchestras or audiences. “To my disappointment, Statements remains one of my lesser-known scores,” Copland wrote. Music Played in Today's Program Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Statements; London Symphony; Aaron Copland, conductor; Sony 47232

    2 min

  6. 6D AGO

    Concertos by Poulenc and Carter

    Synopsis American composer Ned Rorem liked to classify music as being either French or German — by “French,” he meant music that is sensuous, economical and unabashedly superficial; by “German,” he meant music that strives to be brainy, complex and impenetrably deep. On today’s date the Boston Symphony gave the premiere performances of two important 20th century piano concertos. The first, by Francis Poulenc, had its premiere under the baton of Charles Munch in 1950, with the composer at the piano. Poulenc’s concerto is a light, entertaining with no pretension to profundity. It is quintessentially “French” according to Rorem’s classification. The second Piano Concerto, by American composer Elliott Carter, had its Boston premiere in 1967, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, with soloist Jacob Lateiner. The concerto was written in Berlin in the mid-1960s when the Wall dividing that city was still new. He said he composed it in a studio near an American target range, and one commentator hears the sounds of machine guns in the work’s second movement. Carter compared woodwind solos in the same movement to the advice given by three friends of the long-suffering Job in the Bible. Needless to say, Rorem would emphatically classify Carter’s concerto as “German” to the max! Music Played in Today's Program Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): Piano Concerto; Pascal Roge, piano; Philharmonia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor; London 436 546 Elliott Carter (1908-2012): Piano Concerto; Ursula Oppens, piano; SWF Symphony; Michael Gielen, conductor; Arte Nova 27773

    2 min

  7. JAN 5

    Ravel left and right

    Synopsis On today’s date in 1932, Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Piano Left Hand received its public premiere in Vienna. It was one of several concertos for piano left hand commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a wealthy Austrian pianist who lost his right arm during World War I. He also commissioned concertos from Richard Strauss, Prokofiev, Korngold, and Britten. In the fall of 1931, Ravel presented Wittgenstein with the score of his new concerto, and together they gave it a private read-through with Ravel playing the orchestra part on one piano, and Wittgenstein the solo part on another. At first he was not impressed and offended Ravel by suggesting a few changes, which Ravel flatly refused to make. “Only after I had studied the concerto carefully did I realize what a great work it was,” he said. Wittgenstein performed the premiere with the Vienna Symphony led by Robert Heger. A few days later, on January 14th that same year, Ravel himself conducted the premiere of his other piano concerto, this one written for the two hands of French pianist Marguerite Long. In stark contrast to the brooding Concerto for Wittgenstein, the Concerto for Long is light-hearted, with a blues-y slow movement inspired by the Harlem jazz sampled by Ravel during a visit to New York in 1928. Music Played in Today's Program Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Leon Fleisher, piano; Baltimore Symphony; Sergui Commissiona, conductor; Philips 456 775 Piano Concerto in G Krystian Zimerman, piano; Cleveland Orchestra; Pierre Boulez, conductor; DG 449 213

    2 min

  8. JAN 4

    Schuller and the MJQ

    Synopsis On today’s date in 1961, the New York City Ballet presented a new work scored by 35-year old composer Gunther Schuller, who was conducting the pit orchestra. On stage, in the middle of the green- and purple-garbed dancers, were four additional musicians: namely, the Modern Jazz Quartet, decked out in their usual white ties and tails. Schuller’s score, Variants, was an attempt to fuse modern music and jazz into a style he labeled “Third Stream.” ”I had this idea of the First and Second streams [classical and jazz] getting married and giving birth to a child, which is the Third stream,” recalled Schuller years later, ruefully noting that today one would have to call it the “10,000th stream” as composers have since introduced a multitude of ethnic, folk and vernacular music into the mix as well. But back in 1961, the idea attracted a lot of press — not all favorable. The New Yorker, for example, thought it odd that the MJQ “sat like a quartet of hunters in a duck blind, anxiously shooting out carefully calculated notes.” Time magazine wrote: “Schuller’s score was the essence of the cool — spare, fragmentary, but resembling jazz only in its rhythmic drive.” If this was the Third Stream, the reviewer concluded, “it never seemed to be flowing anywhere.” Music Played in Today's Program Gunther Schuller (1925-2015): Conversation; Modern Jazz Quartet and ensemble; Gunther Schuller, conductor; Wounded Bird 1345

    2 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    American Public Media
  • Years Active
    2010 - 2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio
  • Show Website
    Composers Datebook

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