Composers Datebook

• Massenet (and Laurie Anderson)

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1885, the Paris Opera gave the first performance of Le Cid, the 11th opera written by the French composer Jules Massenet.Le Cid is set in medieval Spain and tells the story of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, a legendary hero who defended his country against the Moors. The same story inspired a 1961 movie, El Cid, starring — who else? — Charlton Heston.But back in 1890, the New Orleans Opera introduced Massenet’s opera to American audiences and reached New York City in 1897, serving as a vocal showcase for turn-of-the-century superstars of the early Metropolitan Opera. Enrico Caruso made a famous recording of the opera’s most famous excerpt — Rodrigo’s Act III aria, “O souverain, O Juge, O Pere,” which translates as “Oh Lord, Oh Judge, Oh Father.”Unlikely as it may seem, this aria inspired a pop hit in 1981, when composer and performance artist Laurie Anderson translated its opening line as “O Superman, O Judge, O Mom and Dad.” As a credit to the French composer, O Superman is even subtitled For Massenet.Trained as a classical violinist with the Chicago Youth Symphony, Anderson soon shifted to a variety of electronically-altered fiddles, and one of her albums is titled, appropriately, Life on a String.Music Played in Today's ProgramJules Massenet (1842-1912): O Souverain, O Juge, O Pere; from Le Cid; Ben Heppner, tenor; Munich Radio Orchestra; Roberto Abbado, conductor; RCA/BMG 62504

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• New York City 'firsts' of Rossini and Cole Porter

  SynopsisIt was on this date in 1825 that the United States had its first date with authentic Italian opera. This was a performance of Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, staged at New York City’s Park Theater.The singers were mostly from one extraordinary Spanish family — the Garcias — led by its patriarch Manuel Garcia, a tenor who performed role of Count Almaviva — the same role Garcia had created at the opera’s premiere in Rome nine years earlier.The 1825 New York audience included luminaries from society and the arts — including the American novelist James Fenimore Cooper and Mozart’s one-time librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, who was teaching Italian at Columbia University in those days.November 29th is also important to 20th century American musical theater. Cole Porter’s Gay Divorce opened on Broadway on November 29, 1932, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.The musical’s title rankled censors who feared it treated divorce too lightly, and they insisted on converting it to the less controversial Gay Divorcee. Cole Porter’s score included one of his classic songs, Night and Day, and, like Rossini before him, Porter claimed to have tailor-made this song for the unusual tenor star of his new show, one Fred Astaire.Music Played in Today's ProgramGioacchino Rossini (1792-1868): Selections from The Barber of Seville; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor; Philips 412 266Cole Porter (1891-1964): Gay Divorce Overture; London Sinfonietta; John McGlinn, conductor; EMI 68589

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• Rachmaninoff and Hanson get romantic

  SynopsisAccording to historians, the 19th Century was the great age of Romanticism — but tell that to Sergei Rachmaninoff and Howard Hanson! On today’s date, two of their quintessentially Romantic works were both premiered in the 20th century.In 1909, Rachmaninoff came to the U.S. for his first American tour, and on today’s date appeared as the piano soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 with the New York Symphony. Now, if you believe the movie Shine, this is the most difficult of all Romantic piano concertos. Even its composer confessed he need to practice it on the boat to America!By 1930, when American composer Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 premiered on today’s date in Boston, Romantic music was increasingly considered old fashioned. But he defiantly subtitled his new Symphony The Romantic.“My symphony represents a definite embracing of the Romantic. I recognize, of course, that Romanticism is, at the present time, music’s poor stepchild … Nevertheless, I embrace her all the more fervently, believing as I do that Romanticism will find in this country rich soil for new growth,” he wrote. And how about outer space? Decades after its premiere, Hanson’s popular Romantic Symphony even showed up as part of the film score to the sci-fi classic Alien. Music Played in Today's ProgramSergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Piano Concerto No. 3; Martha Argerich, piano; Berlin Radio Symphony; Riccardo Chailly, conductor; Philips 446 673Howard Hanson (1896-1981): Symphony No. 2 (Romantic); RCA Symphony; Charles Gerhardt, conductor; Chesky 112

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• Spacey music by Strauss and Ligeti

  SynopsisAlso Sprach Zarathustra, a tone poem by Richard Strauss, was first performed in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, on this day in 1896, with the composer conducting.For decades thereafter, it was considered one of his lesser works and only occasionally performed. Then, in 1968, Stanley Kubrick chose its opening fanfare as the main theme of his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Suddenly Also Sprach Zarathustra jumped to the top of the classical charts and became a concert hall favorite as well — even though many of its new audiences are surprised when the piece goes on for another half hour after its spectacular opening.Another composer who also benefited from Kubrick’s movie was Hungarian György Ligeti. Initially, Ligeti’s fame was limited to avant-garde circles, but his 1961 composition Atmosphères also became part of the soundtrack and catapulted him to much wider fame. Ligeti’s eerily floating sound-clusters seemed to Kubrick perfect outer space music.Ligeti himself was not happy how his music was used in the film, but, grudgingly, did express admiration for the film’s surreal final sequence. Richard Strauss died in 1949 — some 20 years before Kubrick’s film debuted — but we suspect that hard-headed businessman would have been pleased that his music was used — and would have promptly demanded a hefty cut of Kubrick’s royalties.Music Played in Today's ProgramRichard Strauss (1864-1949): Also Sprach Zarathustra; Chicago Symphony; Fritz Reiner, conductor; RCA/BMG 60833György Ligeti (1923-2006): Atmospheres; Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, conductor; Philips 446 403

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• A pre-premiere premiere by John Corigliano

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1997, violinist Joshua Bell and the San Francisco Symphony gave the premiere performance of an 18-minute Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra by American composer John Corigliano.This music was a concert offshoot of Corigliano’s film score for Francois Gerard’s movie The Red Violin, but debuted months before the film itself was completed.Corigliano said, “I was delighted when asked to compose the score for Francois Girard’s new film. How could I turn down so interesting and fatalistic a journey through almost three centuries, beginning as it did in Cremona, home of history’s greatest violin builders? I also welcomed the producer’s offer to separately create a violin and orchestra concert piece, to be freely based on motives from the film.“I’d assumed that, as usual in film, I wouldn't be required to score it until it was completed, except for a number of on-camera “cues” … Then plans changed. Filming was pushed back. So the present Chaconne was built just on the materials I had; a good thing, as it turns out, because I now had the freedom, as well as the need, to explore these materials to a greater extent than I might have had I been expected to condense an hour’s worth of music into a coherent single movement.”Music Played in Today's ProgramJohn Corigliano (b. 1938): Selections from The Red Violin; Joshua Bell, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Sony 63010

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