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.
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 3 days 20 hours 54 minutes
Lalo Schifrin
Today's the birthday of the versatile Argentinean-born American composer, arranger and jazz pianist, Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin, who was born in Buenos Aires on today's date in 1932. From his ba...
Mendelssohn and Richard Rodgers the record
Today in 1948, about 50 members of the press were invited to New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a demonstration of a new kind of phonograph record. A Columbia Records employee named Edward Waller...
"Freddy" Hollaender and "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T"
Today's date marks the 1953 New York premiere of a musical movie that flopped at the time but has since become a cult classic—and for two very good reasons. First, the movie's script—written by Dr...
Shchedrin's Oboe Concerto
OK, violin soloists have it easy: there are thousands of violin concertos they can choose from, starting in the Baroque era of Bach and Vivaldi, and continuing right up to the present day, with new...
Torke's "Grand Central Station"
For decades the Goldman Band was famous for its summertime concerts in New York parks. Founded in 1918 by Edwin Franko Goldman, the band was a well-rehearsed, first-rate ensemble capable of present...
The diverting Mr. Persichetti
If you're a baby boomer who played in a high school or college band, you'll probably remember the "Divertimento for Band" by the American composer, Vincent Persichetti, music that premiered on toda...
Grieg's Lyric Pieces
The Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen on today’s date in 1843. He is credited with putting Norway on the map, musically speaking, drawing inspiration from the folk music of his nat...
Harbison goes Baroque
A now-obscure Englishman named Charles Caleb Colton is credited with the famous quote that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." A number of great composers have been "flattered" in that f...
Ran's Violin Concerto
It was on today’s date in 2003 that a new violin concerto by composer Shulamit Ran premiered at Carnegie Hall – but it would be just as appropriate for us to run this episode of COMPOSERS DATEBOOK ...
Brahms and Liszt
In Cockney rhyming slang, being "Brahms and Liszt" means being tipsy. But during the latter half of the 19th century, for many passionate music lovers, the phrase "Brahms and Liszt" signified oppo...