Composers Datebook

Synopsis

At Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 2002, the American Composers Orchestra presented new works inspired by the Hebrew Psalms. The program included the premiere of a new work by American composer David Lang, How to Pray.

In his program note, Lang wrote: “[The] Psalms are so central to religious experience [because] they are a comprehensive catalogue of how to talk to the Almighty. ... Of course, it's like reading one side of a correspondence. ... I am not a religious person. I don't know how to pray. I do, however, know some of the times and places and formulas that are supposed to help make prayer possible. Sometimes I find myself sending those messages out. And then I wait, secretly hoping that I will recognize the response.”

The minimalist-style, patterned repetition in Lang’s How to Pray, reminded some listeners of a “mandala” — those intricate graphic patterns intended to be an aid to meditation for Hindu or Buddhist believers.

Stravinsky fans with sharp ears might also recognize the running piano line from the beginning of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, which Lang borrows and weaves into the pattern of How to Pray as both a tribute and inspiration.

Music Played in Today's Program

David Lang (b. 1957): How to Pray; Real Quiet ensemble; Gil Rose, conductor; Naxos 8.559615

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1979, a new play by Peter Schaffer, Amadeus, opened at the National Theatre in London.

Schaffer’s play tells the story of Mozart’s final years in Vienna, including some posthumous gossip that it was the petty jealousy and back-stabbing intrigue of Mozart’s Italian contemporary Antonio Salieri that hastened his untimely demise. There was even a Romantic legend that Salieri had actually poisoned Mozart, a legend Shaffer gave a psychological spin.

Music historians were quick to attack Shaffer’s play as wildly inaccurate and downright unfair to poor old Salieri, who, they said, was not all that bad a fellow. Accurate or not, Schaffer’s play was a big hit, and five years later was made into a wildly successful film. That movie version of Amadeus prompted millions of new classical music fans to snap up any recordings of Mozart’s Requiem they could find.

And what about the music historians? They couldn’t even find comfort in the old public relations adage, “There’s no such thing as bad press as long as they spell your name right!” They felt even the movie’s title was bogus. Mozart never signed his middle name “Amadeus,” preferring the French version, “Amadé.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Requiem; La Chapelle Royale and Orchestre des Champs Elysees; Philippe Herreweghe, conductor; Harmonia Mundi 901620

Synopsis

In France, today is “la Fete de la Toussaint” — All Saints’ Day — observed as both a sacred and secular national holiday, a time to visit cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of relatives. In 1947, when memories of the dead of World War II were still fresh, French Radio broadcast three premieres at a special concert from the Salle Gaveau in Paris.

First on the program was the French premiere of Hungarian composer Lazlo Lajhta’s somber In Memoriam. This had been the first new orchestral work to be performed in Budapest when concert life had resumed after the war.

Second was the world premiere of the Symphony No. 6 by Polish composer Alexandre Tansman, who, being Jewish, found refuge in France in 1938, then, during the German occupation, had fled to the United States. In 1946, he returned to Europe in time for the premiere of his symphony, In Memoriam, at this concert.

The third work on the program was another world premiere: a newly completed Requiem Mass by French composer Maurice Duruflé, originally commissioned as an orchestral work in 1941 during the German occupation of France, which morphed into a choral Requiem Mass by the time of the liberation.

Music Played in Today's Program

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986): Requiem; Westminster Choir; Joseph Flummerfelt, conductor; Avie 46

Synopsis

Since today is Halloween, how about a tale from the crypt — with a composer’s skull or two tossed in for good measure!

Music lovers have always had a “thing” about composers’ skulls. In 1820, for example, Prince Esterhazy ordered that Haydn’s remains be transferred from Vienna to Eisenstadt, only to discover that Haydn’s skull was missing. It had been stolen by two of Haydn’s closest friends, who had bribed the gravediggers, claiming they did it for pseudo-scientific phrenological research.

In 1888, it was the remains of Beethoven and Schubert who were dug up and moved to Vienna’s new Central Cemetery. Nothing was missing, but on both occasions, the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner was present, and, according to witnesses, managed somehow to lovingly hold the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert in his hands and speak to them before they were reburied.

For his part, Bruckner insisted that he buried under the organ at St. Florian Monastery in upper Austria, and if you pay your respects today, you will see that Bruckner’s coffin is in an underground crypt, sharing space with a wall of thousands of stacked skulls looking out at you, bones belonged to early Christians who, like Bruckner, wished to be buried there.

Music Played in Today's Program

Kevin Puts (b. 1972): Marimba Concerto; Ji Su Jung, marimba; Baltimore Symphony; Marin Alsop, conductor; Naxos CD 8.559926

Synopsis

American opera composer Jake Heggie and his librettist Terrence McNally decided to follow their Dead Man Walking — a successful but harrowing opera about capital punishment — with a lighter, more comic work, Great Scott.

Now, McNally winced when people called Great Scott a “comic” opera, since it deals with a serious topic — for opera lovers, at least, namely, “Does opera still matter?”

Great Scott is set in a large U.S. city with a respected, but struggling, opera company. The city also has a powerhouse professional football team. In Great Scott, international opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the opera company by staging the world premiere of a long-lost Italian bel canto work, Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei. Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere falls on the same day as the home team’s first Super Bowl.

Does the diva save the opera company? And who wins the Super Bowl?

Well, you’ll just have to listen to the opera to find out!

Fortunately, a Dallas Opera recording of Great Scott was made at its premiere on today’s date in 2015 — featuring powerhouse American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role.

Music Played in Today's Program

Jake Heggie (b. 1961): Rosa Dolorosa Overture from Great Scott; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano; Dallas Opera; Patrick Summers, conductor; Erato 9029594078