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
Walker's Second String Quartet
Synopsis
At New York City’s Town Hall on today’s date in 1968, the New England Festival Quartet premiered a new chamber work by the American composer George Walker.
Walker’s String Quartet No. 2 was sandwiched on the program between the String Quartet, Op 95, by Beethoven, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Op...
Beethoven's new quartets
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1806, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote to his publishers Breitkopf and Härtel: “you may have at once three new string quartets.” These were three new works Beethoven had written on commission from the wealthy Russian ambassador to Vienna, Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky...
Friml's "calling"
Synopsis
Imagine a crisp, blue Northern sky, a Canadian Mountie in a bright red tunic, and – what else? – an elaborately coiffed operatic soprano singing in the middle of the woods. Yes, it was on today’s date in 1924, at the Imperial Theater in New York that “The Indian Love Call” was first heard in “Rose-Marie,” a musical written by American composer of Bohemian birth named Rudolf Friml.
This one-time Dvorak pupil was born in Prague in 1879...
Reza Vali
Synopsis
In the 19th century European composers began celebrating their own national diversity, tapping into their native folk music for inspiration and musical themes. This trend continues in our own time with composers from the Pacific Rim and Middle East.
Take this music, written for the modern flute and cello, two traditional European instruments, but influenced by the folk music and native instruments of Persia...
Josef Strauss gives in to destiny
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1853, the Viennese Theatrical News wrote: “At the big ball at Unger’s Casino, Josef Strauss performed his new waltz, entitled ‘The First and the Last,’ which had to be encored no less than six times.”
That occasion marked the debut of Josef Strauss as composer and occurred just a few weeks after the debut of Josef Strauss as conductor. Josef was the younger brother of the popular waltz king, Johann Strauss, Jr...
David Schiff
Synopsis
Today we celebrate the birthday of the American composer David Schiff, who was born in New York City on today’s date in 1945.
Schiff’s best-known work, a 1979 opera entitled “Gimpel the Fool,” is based on a story by the beloved Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer that tells the tale of a Jewish baker in Eastern Europe who takes everything at face value and so is lied to and cheated by everyone he meets...
Paulus's "Courtship Songs"
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1981, at a house concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, a chamber work by the American composer Stephen Paulus entitled “Courtship Songs” received its first performance. It was commissioned to celebrate the 15th wedding anniversary of Jack and Linda Hoeschler and scored for the instruments the couple and their two children played: flute, oboe, cello and piano. The commissioning bug caught on, and anniversary commissions became a family tradition...
Wagner's "Lohengrin"
Synopsis
In Weimar, Germany, on today’s date in 1850, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt conducted the first performance of “Lohengrin,” a new opera by the German composer Richard Wagner. Liszt was determined to make Weimar famous, musically-speaking, despite the rather provincial nature of the forces he had at his disposal...
Rebecca Clarke
Synopsis
Today marks the birthday anniversary of a remarkable British composer who spent a good deal of her life in the United States. Her name was Rebecca Clarke, born in Harrow, England, on today’s date in 1886 to an American father and German mother.
Rebecca studied at the Royal Conservatory in London, where she became the first female composition student of the Victorian composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford...
The Creeping Unknown
Synopsis
The life of British composer James Bernard reads like a PBS mini-series: as a schoolboy, he meets Benjamin Britten, who encourages his interest in music; during WWII he joins the R.A.F., works with the team breaking the German Enigma code, and takes occasional breaks from this top-secret work to turn pages for Britten at London recitals during the Blitz; after postwar study at the Royal College of Music, he starts writing music for radio and stage plays...