Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Marsalis and Swing
Synopsis
Wynton Marsalis says it all began with a dare in the 1990s from the late German conductor Kurt Masur, then the music director of the New York Philharmonic. “He came to a concert of mine,” said Marsalis, “when I was like 28 or 29, and said he wanted me to write for the New York Philharmonic. I started laughing like, man, I have never even written for a big band.”
Well, since then jazz trumpeter Marsalis has written more than one work for a big bands like the New York Philharmonic, and in 2010 that ensemble, along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic commissioned his Third Symphony, a work titled “Swing Symphony.”
It was the Berlin Philharmonic who gave the first performance of the work, and on today’s date in 2010 encored their premiere on the internet.
Said Wynton Marsalis, “Swing to a jazz musician means ‘coming together, and in this case it’s about TWO orchestras coming together.” Marsalis included parts for himself and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in his new score, in contrast – and in harmony – with the forces of a traditional symphony orchestra.
Music Played in Today's ProgramWynton Marsalis (b. 1961 ): Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; St. Louis Symphony; David Robertson, cond.) Blue Engine Records BE-0017