Composers Datebook

Now, it might seem unlikely that Katherine Hepburn, Winona Ryder and Charles Ives might have anything in common, but bear with us a moment... Hepburn appeared in a 1933 film based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic 19th century novel “Little Women,” as did Ryder in a successful 1994 cinematic remake. The second movement of Charles Ives’ “Concord” Sonata—the music we’re hearing now—is titled “The Alcotts,” and evokes Louisa May, her novel and her real-life family and friends, who included the New England “Transcendentalists” Emerson and Thoreau. Ives wrote his “Concord” Sonata in 1913, but it wasn’t until today’s date in 1939 that pianist John Kirkpatrick gave the first public performance of the sonata in New York City. As generations of readers and film fans know, “Little Women” chronicles the coming of age of four young women during the American Civil War. The story of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy so captivated a young contemporary American composer named Mark Adamo that he composed an opera based on Alcott’s “Little Women.” After its premiere in 1998 at the Opera Studio of Houston Grand Opera, that company’s general director predicted that Adamo’s opera was “destined to become an American classic.” He put his money where his mouth was, and rescheduled “Little Women” for main stage performances in Houston, and other opera companies around the country have done so as well.