Composers Datebook

On today's date in 1988, Zubin Mehta led the New York Philharmonic in a concert at Bolshoi Hall in a city that was then called Leningrad and in a country that was then called the Soviet Union. For their visit to the city we now call St. Petersburg in a country today known as the Russian Federation, the Philharmonic had commissioned a brand-new work by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and so her orchestral piece entitled "Symbolon" received its premiere performance there. It was the first American symphonic work to be premiered in the USSR, in fact. "The word 'symbolon' comes from the Greek," explained Zwilich, "and refers to the ancient custom whereby two parties broke a piece of pottery (or a stone, or a coin) in two, each party retaining half. Each half (or symbolon) thus became a token of friendship." "From the beginning," continued Zwilich, "I knew this piece would receive its first performance in the Soviet Union, and I found this profoundly moving. I am sure that my complex feelings, embracing both hope and sadness about the state of the political world, have found their way into this work." After its premiere, Zwilich's "Symbolon" was performed in Moscow, New York, London, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Paris, and the former East Berlin, making it one of Zwilich's "most-travelled" orchestral works.