Composers Datebook

• A cold welcome for Verdi?

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1862, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Forza del Destino (or The Force of Destiny) had its premiere at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina, were present for the opening night.We’re not sure what the outdoor temperature was in St. Petersburg that November evening, but it was something that the Verdis carefully considered before agreeing to attend.Responding to a friend’s letter describing a Russian winter, Giuseppina wrote: “If I were not afraid of committing forgery, I would alter that imposing figure of 22 below zero which will make Verdi open his eyes wide in fright … As for myself, I took refuge under the stove … In any case, I shall try and persuade him to expose his nose to the danger of freezing in Russia.”Perhaps in artistic compensation, the story of Forza is set in sultry Spain — and after the premiere in St. Petersburg, the Verdis did indeed set off for warmer climates of Rome and Madrid, where the new opera was to have its next performances.In the early years of the 20th century, La Forza del Destino — like most of Verdi’s works — was seldom staged, but in the 1920s it was successfully revived, and its overture has become a concert hall favorite.Music Played in Today's ProgramGiuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Overture and Act II excerpt from La Forza del Destino; John Alldis Choir; London Symphony; James Levine, conductor; RCA/BMG 39502

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• Joaquin Rodrigo's popular concierto

  SynopsisThe world’s most popular classical guitar concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo, had its first performance on today’s date in 1940, in Barcelona.Rodrigo was born in Spain in 1901 and lost his sight at the age of three. He wrote all his music on a Braille music typewriter. The Concierto de Aranjuez, inspired by a small town of that name thirty miles south of Madrid, remains his signature piece, though he wrote a number of other successful works. He died on July 6, 1999, at 97.In 1959, a friend had played a recording of Rodrigo’s concerto for American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who said, “After listening to it for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.” So, he played it for his friend, jazz composer and arranger Gil Evans, and in short order the two collaborated on their own 16-minute version of the score. Their collaboration was included on their classic 1960 Columbia LP, Sketches of Spain.At the recording session, Miles paid Rodrigo this compliment: “That melody is so strong that the softer you play it, the stronger it gets…”Music Played in Today's ProgramJoaquin Rodrigo (1902-1999): Concierto de Aranjuez; Manuel Barrueco, guitar; Philharmonic Orchestra; Placido Domingo, conductor; EMI 56175

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• Musical tales from Stravinsky and Marsalis

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1919, a concert suite from Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale had its premiere in Lausanne, Switzerland — the same city in which the original theatrical version of Stravinsky’s score was first presented in 1918.In that original form, The Soldier’s Tale was a kind of musical morality play scored for narrator and small chamber ensemble. Stravinsky incorporated elements of American jazz, although what he knew of jazz was derived entirely from looking at sheet music rather than any firsthand experience of actually hearing American jazz.Eighty years later, for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis composed A Fiddler’s Tale — a companion piece to Stravinsky’s work, scored for the same configuration of instruments.Wynton Marsalis said, “No matter what I do, I'm not going to compare myself to Stravinsky. That would be ridiculous. You have to accept who he is and do what you can do, and hope that what you do is on some level of quality.”Like Stravinsky’s piece, A Fiddler’s Tale also exists in two versions: as a theater piece with a narrator, and as a purely instrumental suite. Both have been recorded, and both, not surprisingly, feature Wynton Marsalis as the trumpeter.Music Played in Today's ProgramIgor Stravinsky (1882-1971): L’histoire du Soldat Suite; Philharmonia Orchestra; Robert Craft, conductor; Koch 7504Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961): The Fiddler’s Tale; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Sony 60979

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• 'Starry Night' variations by McLean and Dutilleux

  SynopsisIn 1971, after reading a book about Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, American pop singer Don McLean wrote the song, “Vincent,” which became a big hit the following year. The song is better known by its opening line, “Starry, starry night,” a reference to one of Van Gogh’s best-known paintings, The Starry Night.But McLean wasn’t the only composer inspired by that painting. On today’s date in 1978, the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., a new orchestral work by French composer Henri Dutilleux.Dutilleux titled his new work Timbres, Espace, Mouvement, but added a subtitle, The Starry Night, in acknowledgment of the painting’s influence, and said he wanted to translate into music the (quote) “almost cosmic whirling effect which [the painting] produces.”Now, painting and music are very different art forms, but the energy, pulsation, and whirling qualities of Van Gogh’s masterpiece do find vivid expression, both visual and musical, in Dutilleux’s work.As a kind of frame, Dutilleux placed the cellos in a half circle around the conductor, omitted violins and violas from his instrumentation, and alternated static episodes and whirling wind and percussion solos to evoke the illusion of motion in the Van Gogh painting.Music Played in Today's ProgramHenri Dutilleux (1916-2013): Timbres, Espace, Mouvement; BBC Philharmonic; Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor; Chandos 9504

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• Mr. Sax's instrument and Ms. Perry's Quartet

  SynopsisThe saxophone — whose flashing serpentine figure is now virtually synonymous with jazz clubs and wind bands — was the brainchild of woodwind craftsman Adolphe Sax, born in Belgium on this date in 1814, to a family of prominent instrument makers. Sax moved to Paris in his late 20s, where he proved himself a restless and prolific inventor of new instruments.Yet only a few of these lived on, of which the saxophone is by far the most popular. John Philip Sousa’s band gave many audiences in this country their first taste of the saxophone, and its important role in jazz can hardly be overestimated — that’s a development that neither Sax nor Sousa could have foreseen.In the symphonic repertory, saxophones are still just occasional visitors to the concert hall, but in the world of chamber music, saxophone quartets have become quite popular. In America alone there are dozens of professional saxophone quartets who commission and perform new works.Take, for example, the Quartet for Saxophones by the Canadian composer Anita “A.D.” Perry, a work written for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet of Buffalo, New York. The Amherst Quartet has a 20-year history of commissioning and performing new music, and has recorded a number of CDs, include one of Perry’s quartet.Music Played in Today's ProgramAnita D. Perry (b. 1960): Quartet for Saxophones; Amherst Saxophone Quartet; innova 5

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