Loeffler's Quartet

Synopsis

Today in 1892, the Adamowski Quartet gave a concert in Boston that included two movements from a String Quartet by a 32-year old composer named Charles Martin Loeffler.

It was one of the young composer's earliest works, but Loeffler was already a familiar name in Boston music circles. For the past 10 years he had been the associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, and just the previous year that orchestra had premiered his first orchestral piece, called "Evenings in the Ukraine".

Loeffler told people he was born in the Alsace region of France in 1861, which would account for his French manners and the French titles he gave some of his pieces.

In fact, Loeffler was born in Berlin, but he never forgave the Prussians for the political persecution and imprisonment of his father, and left Berlin for Paris as soon as he could.

In 1881, at the age of 20, Loeffler came to the United States, where he found Americans "quick to reward genuine musical merit and to reward it far more generously than Europe." In 1887, Loeffler became an American citizen, and in short order established himself as one of the country's leading composers. His music was played by many of the major orchestras and conductors of his day.

After his death in 1935, Loeffler's music fell into neglect for many decades, but his elegant and well-crafted music is attracting renewed interest—and recordings—today.

Music Played in Today's Program

Charles Martin Loeffler (1861 – 1935) String Quartet in a DaVinci Quartet Naxos 8.559077

On This Day

Births

• 1772 - Italian composer and violinist Pietro Nardini, in Livorno;

• 1801 - Austrian composer and violinist Josef Lanner, in Vienna;

• 1932 - Bulgarian-born American composer Henri Lazarof, in Sofia;

Deaths

• 1814 - British composer, music journalist and historian Charles Burney, age 88, in Chelsea;

Premieres

• 1735 - Handel: Organ Concertos Op. 4, no. 4. (Julian date: April 1);

• 1747 - Handel: oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus" (Julian date: April 1);

• 1826 - Weber: opera "Oberon," in London at Covent Garden, conducted by the composer;

• 1867 - Offenbach: operetta "Le Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein" (The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein), in Paris;

• 1892 - Loeffler: 2nd 3rd mvts, fr String Quartet in A minor, at Boston's Union Hall by the Adamowski Quartet; The same ensemble had premiered the 2nd mvt of this four-movement Quartet in Philadelphia during the 1889-90 season, that performance being the first public performance of any of Loeffler's compositions;

• 1907 - Henry Hadley: tone poem "Salome" (after Oscar Wilde), by the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck conducting;

• 1930 - Janácek: opera "From the House of the Dead," in Brno at the National Theater; The score for this performance was extensively reorchestrated by two pupils of Janácek; More recent performances have used editions prepared by Rafael Kubelik or Charles Mackerras which are closer to Janácek's original score;

• 1933 - Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Violin Concerto No. 2 ("The Prophets"), at Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic, with Arturo Toscanini conducting and Jascha Heifetz as soloist;

• 1957 - Wallingford Riegger: Symphony No. 4, at the University of Illinois, Urbana;

• 1978 - Ligeti: opera "La Grand Macabre," in Stockholm at the Royal Opera;

• 1995 - John Williams: "Bassoon Concerto ("The Five Sacred Trees"), by Judith LeClair and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur;

Others

• 1877 - American premiere of Verdi's opera "Don Carlos" in New York City.