Composers Datebook

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1919, eminent French conductor Pierre Monteux led the Boston Symphony in the premiere performance of The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, a new orchestral score written by American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes.This music was inspired by the famous Romantic poem of that name by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but owes its exotic orchestral coloring to Griffes’ interest in the music of Asia and the Pacific Rim. Although Griffes himself never traveled there, he knew someone who had: influential Canadian soprano Eva Gauthier, famous for her avant-garde song recitals that included music by Stravinsky and Schoenberg, and her later association with Gershwin and Ravel. It was the well-traveled Gauthier who introduced Griffes to the musical traditions of Japan and Java.The 1919 Boston premiere of Kubla Khan was the highpoint of Griffes’ career, and all the critics agreed a major new talent had arrived on the American music scene.Unfortunately, one month later, Griffes took ill and in a few months died from a severe lung infection. He was just 35. How his music would have developed had Griffes lived remains one of the most intriguing “what might have beens” of American music.Music Played in Today's ProgramCharles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920): The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan; Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, conductor; New World 273

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1972, almost two decades after its premiere, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony received its first successful concert performance by the Munich Philharmonic led by Rudolf Kempe. A recording was made with the same performers, supervised and produced by the composer’s son, George Korngold.Korngold had died in 1957, so he was not able to enjoy the eventual success of this major work. He completed his Symphony in 1952, and its Austrian Radio premiere in 1954 had been a disaster. As the composer put it: “The performance, which was an execution in every sense of the term, took place under the most unfavorable conditions imaginable, with inadequate rehearsals and an exhausted and overworked orchestra.”Korngold had become an American citizen during the 1940s, and dedicated his symphony to the memory of America’s wartime President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The postwar European premiere of his Symphony came at a time when shifting tastes in music made his late-Romantic style seem hopelessly old-fashioned to many of critics of that day. “More corn than gold” was one dismissive appraisal of his style. These days, Korngold’s music — including his Symphony — make more frequent, better-played, and eagerly welcomed appearances on concert programs.Music Played in Today's ProgramErich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957): Symphony; Philadelphia Orchestra; Franz Welser-Most, conductor; EMI 56169

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1937, a gala concert in Berlin presented the premiere performance of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto, a work composed in the fall of 1853, shortly before Schumann’s tragic mental collapse.The concerto was never given a public performance during Schumann’s lifetime, although great 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim read through the score during an orchestral rehearsal early in 1854 and played the work privately in 1855 with piano accompaniment provided by Schumann’s wife, Clara. Clara, Joachim and their mutual friend Johannes Brahms all judged the concerto subpar and perhaps embarrassing evidence of Schumann’s declining mental state.Oddly enough, the 1937 premiere in Berlin, attended by none other than Adolf Hitler, was presented as part of the Nazi’s Strength Through Joy cultural program. German commentators touted Schumann’s ties to the German “folk,” while American critics bemoaned that most of the great German violinists of the day were unavailable for this important premiere, having all left Germany for racial or political reasons. On this side of the Atlantic, it was violinist Yehudi Menuhin who gave the American premiere of Schumann’s long-neglected concerto a month later, first with piano accompaniment at Carnegie Hall, then later with the St. Louis Symphony.Music Played in Today's ProgramRobert Schumann (1810-1856): Violin Concerto; Gidon Kremer, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor; EMI 69334

SynopsisAs a busy church musician, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote around 300 sacred cantatas. That seems a high number to us — but consider that his contemporaries Telemann and Graupner composed well over a thousand cantatas each!In what surviving documents we have, Bach himself rarely uses the Italian term “cantata” to describe these pieces, preferring “concertos” or simply “the music” to describe these works intended for Lutheran church services. It was only in the 19th century, as Bach’s music was being collected and catalogued, that the term “cantata” would become the official label for this sizeable chunk of Bach’s output.On today’s date in 1731, the 27th Sunday after Trinity that year, Bach presented what would become one of his most popular cantatas: Wachet auf, Ruft uns die Stimme, or Awake, the Voice Calls to Us. In that 19th century catalog of Bach’s works, this is his Cantata No. 140.The text is based on a Gospel parable recounting the story of the wise and foolish virgins, who are called, ready or not, to participate in a wedding feast. The opening choral melody may have been already familiar to Bach’s performers and congregation, but his dramatic setting of it is downright ingenious.Music Played in Today's ProgramJ.S. Bach (1685-1750): Cantata No. 140 (Wachet auf, Ruft uns die Stimme); Bach Ensemble; Helmuth Rilling, conductor; Laudate 98.857