Steven Heitzeg's "Nobel Symphony"

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Steve Heitzeg (b. 1959) "Nobel Symphony" The Gustavus Orchestra; Warren Friesen, cond. Gustavus Adolphus 60171-10022

On This Day

Births

• 1893 - American composer and pianist Leroy Shield, in Waseca, Minn.; His wrote much of the uncredited film music for the Hal Roach studios in the 1930s (including many classic Laurel & Hardy and "Our Gang," comedies);

• 1929 - British composer Kenneth Leighton, in Wakefield, Yorkshire;

Deaths

• 1920 - German composer Max Bruch, age 82, in Friedenau (near Berlin);

• 1943 - Canadian-born American composer R. Nathaniel Dett, age 60, in Battle Creek, Mich.;

• 1996 - Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen, age 74, in Jarvenpaa;

Premieres

• 1913 - Butterworth: "A Shropshire Lad," at the Leeds Festival, with Artur Nikisch conducting;

• 1960 - Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8, in Leningrad, by the Beethoven Quartet;

• 2001 - Steven Heitzeg: "Nobel Symphony" at Gustavus Adolpus College in St. Peter, Minn., by the Gustavus Orchestra, soloists and choirs, conducted by Warren Friesen;

Others

• 1828 - Two weeks before his death, Schubert writes a letter to a music publisher offering them his latest work, the String Quintet in C (D. 956); The publisher declined the offer; The work was first performed in public in 1850, and was not published until 1853;

• 1849 - Johann Strauss, Jr., takes over his father's orchestra, one week after his father's death.