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 56 minutes
Barber offers "two for the price of one"
On today's date in 1938, two orchestral works by the American composer Samuel Barber received their very high-profile premiere performances, on a live, coast-to-coast broadcast by the NBC Symphony ...
A second wind for Reicha and Ward-Steinman?
Take one flute, one oboe, and mix well with one each of a clarinet, bassoon and French horn —that's the recipe for the traditional wind quintet. In the 19th century this tasty musical recipe was pe...
Middle-Eastern sounds from Rimsky-Korsakov and Reza Vali
On this day* in 1888, the most famous work of the Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was given its first performance in St. Petersburg. It was an orchestral suite titled "Scheherazade." Each ...
First — and last — orchestral pieces by Brahms and Harrison?
On today’s date in 1873, some music by the German composer Johannes Brahms received its first performance by the Vienna Philharmonic. The piece was titled “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” and was ...
Copland breaks in a new pony
On today's date in 1948, Maestro Efrem Kurtz led the first subscription concert of the newly reorganized Houston Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra was founded in 1913, but after struggling through ...
Larsen and Waxman do "The Monster Mash"
It’s Halloween -- that time of year when chains rattle, doors creak, skeletons dance, and when even concert music can get a bit spooky. For example, in 1987, the American composer Libby Larsen c...
"What's in a name?" asks Aaron Copland
It was on today’s date in 1944 that Martha Graham and her dance company first performed the ballet "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copland. The premiere took place at the Library of Congress in Wash...
Don Giovanni in Prague (and Vienna)
On today’s date in 1787, Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni” had its premiere performance in Prague, with Mozart himself conducting. Mozart had arrived in Prague early in October that year, but as singer...
"Haunted Blue" by Jeremy Walker
In 2016, the Minneapolis-based jazz composer and pianist Jeremy Walker collaborated with Consortium Carissimi, a Twin Cities early music vocal ensemble in the creation of some brand-new music in th...
Villa-Lobos meets the harmonica
Traditionally, the harmonica is the instrument of the loner: the cowboy by the campfire, the hobo riding the rails, the bluesman pouring out his soul at midnight. The Harmonica seems a little out...