Prokofiev and Leifs agree: "There's no place like home!"
On this day in 1918, Russian composer Serge Prokofiev arrived in America to give a recital of his piano works in New York.
John Birge
YourClassical MPR
Composers Datebook®
Reminding you that all music was once new ® • with host John Birge
Composer's Datebook - September 18, 2022
2:00
Ellington's "Money Jungle"
Three jazz titans went into a recording studio on today’s date in 1962 and while tape rolled, using bare-bones charts of melodies and harmonies, the three jazz titans improvised.
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A concerto by Sally Beamish
Sally Beamish’s “The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone” had its Örebro premiere on today’s date in 1999.
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Henry Brant's Northern Lights
Composer Henry Brant was born on today’s date in 1913.
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A ghost story by Henry James and Benjamin Britten
“The Turn of the Screw” has been adapted for both stage and screen, and on today’s date in 1954, an operatic version by the British composer Benjamin Britten received its premiere performance at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
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Bernstein meets Wharton
On today's date in 1993, the first gala preview screening of a new film, "The Age of Innocence," based on the novel by Edith Wharton, took place at the Ziegfield Theater in Manhattan, as a benefit for the New York Historical Society.
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Reisenberg and Mozart
On today’s date in 1939, Nadia Reisenberg embarked on a series of concert performances encompassing of all 27 of the Mozart Piano Concertos.
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Leroy Anderson in the studio
On today’s date in 1950, Decca recording engineers committed to disc seven short works by the American composer Leroy Anderson, with Anderson himself conducting top-notch New York freelance musicians.
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Berlioz and the Parisian prudes
On today’s date in 1838, Hector Berlioz’s opera “Benvenuto Cellini” premiered at the Paris Opéra.
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Edward Burlingame Hill
Today is the birthday of the American composer and teacher Edward Burlingame Hill, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.