Composers Datebook

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.

Eine durchschnittliche Folge dieses Podcasts dauert 2m. Bisher sind 2794 Folge(n) erschienen. Dieser Podcast erscheint täglich.

Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 3 days 20 hours 50 minutes

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Brahms bides his time


The German composer Johannes Brahms would probably have nodded in approval if he could have heard Orson Welles intone “We will sell no wine before its time” in those old TV ads for Paul Masson. Bra...


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 January 11, 2020  2m
 
 

A Kernis premiere wins the Pulitzer


On today’s date in 1998, the Lark Quartet gave the first performance of the String Quartet No. 2 by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Like much of Kernis’s music, the new Quartet drew upon an...


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 January 10, 2020  2m
 
 

Bartok's "Contrasts"


In January of 1939, the famous jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman was playing each night at New York’s Paramount Theater. On today’s date that year he also appeared on the stage of Carnegie Hall. The...


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 January 9, 2020  2m
 
 

William Bolcom and William Blake


If the late 18th century is the “Classical Age,” and the 19th “The Romantic,” then perhaps we should dub our time “The Eclectic Age” of music. These days, composers can—and do—pick and choose from ...


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 January 8, 2020  2m
 
 

"Statements" from Copland


In 1935 Aaron Copland finished a new orchestral work that was to be premiered by the Minneapolis Symphony and its young conductor Eugene Ormandy. The work was entitled “Statements for Orchestra,” ...


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 January 7, 2020  2m
 
 

Concertos by Poulenc and Carter


The American composer Ned Rorem liked to classify music as being either French or German – by “French” Rorem meant music that is sensuous, economical, and unabashedly superficial; by “German” Rorem...


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 January 6, 2020  2m
 
 

Ravel left and right


On today’s date in 1932, Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Piano Left Hand received its public premiere in Vienna. It was one of several concertos for piano left hand commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein...


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 January 5, 2020  2m
 
 

Schuller and the MJQ


On today’s date in 1961, the New York City Ballet presented a new work scored by a 35-year old composer named Gunther Schuller, who was conducting the pit orchestra. On stage, in the middle of the ...


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 January 4, 2020  2m
 
 

HK Gruber


In Austrian culture there is a theatrical tradition that pokes fun at anything somber and serious. Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” taps into this in the person of Papageno, and in the 19th century...


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 January 3, 2020  2m
 
 

Dvořák reviewed


In 1885, a 20-year old violinist named Franz Kneisel came to America to become concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. That same year he formed the Kneisel Quartet, the first professional string quar...


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 January 2, 2020  2m