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 52 minutes
Britten's "Prodigal Son"
Back in Bach’s day, there were churchmen aghast at the thought that composers were trying to sneak flashy opera music into Sunday services. Church music was meant to be simple, austere, and, well ,...
The London Symphony on stage (and screen)
On today’s date in 1904, the London Symphony gave its first concert at the old Queen’s Hall in London. Founded as a musician-run ensemble, along co-operative lines, back then all its players shared...
Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe"
On today's date in 1912 Maurice Ravel's ballet "Daphnis et Chloé" received its first performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, staged by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and choreographed by...
Britten's "Peter Grimes"
On today's date in 1945, a month after the end of war in Europe, a new opera by the English composer Benjamin Britten debuted at Sadler's Wells Theater in London. Its title was "Peter Grimes," with...
Handel's dueling divas
On today's date* in 1727, the opera season of the Royal Academy in London ended early when rival Italian prima donnas, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, came to blows on stage during a perfor...
A Birthday Surprise for Pinkham
On today's date in 1998 at King's Chapel in Boston, a new work by the American composer Daniel Pinkham received its premiere performance. The work was titled "Three Latin Motets" for baritone and o...
Chadwick and Salonen go Greek
In the early years of the 20th century, a hauntingly beautiful piece of Grecian sculpture, the head of the goddess Aphrodite, was donated to the Boston Museum of Fine Art. There it inspired this or...
Finger Finishes Fourth
LAUGH-IN was a popular TV comedy sketch program in the late 1960s and one of their recurring alliterative gag lines referred to “the fickle finger of fate.” Now, composers who enter – and lose – co...
Currier's "Time Machines"
You could say that when you listen to classical music, you are taking a trip in a time machine. Or, as Shirley MacLaine might put it, “Classical music is the soundtrack of your previous lives.” T...
Well-travelled Zwilich
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...