Bernstein, Blitzstein and Brecht

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950) Little Threepenny Music London Symphony members; Michael Tilson Thomas, cond. CBS 44529

On This Day

Births

• 1730 - Italian opera composer Antonio Sacchini, in Florence;

• 1835 - Russian composer, pianist and conductor Nicolai Rubinstein (brother of Anton), in Moscow (Julian date: June 2); He is probably best known for his severe criticism of Tchaikovksy's Piano Concerto No. 1 when the new work was submitted to him for consideration in 1874; He eventually changed his mind, and conducted the work as part of all-Russian concerts at the Paris Exposition in 1878;

Deaths

• 1594 - Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus (aka Orlando di Lasso, Orlandus Lassus, Roland Delattre), in Munich, age 61 or 62 (exact date of his birth is not known);

• 1911 - Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist Johan Svendsen, age 70, in Copenhagen;

Premieres

• 1876 - Delibes: ballet, "Sylvia," in Paris;

• 1927 - Gliere: ballet, "The Red Poppy," in Moscow;

• 1952 - Americanized version of Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" translated by Marx Blitzstein premieres at Brandeis University as part of the first Festival of the Creative Arts, with Leonard Bernstein conducting;

• 1962 - Stravinsky: "The Flood," on CBS Television;

• 1985 - John Harbison: Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings, in Sarasota, Fla., with oboist Sarah Bloom and clarinetist Charles Russo, with the New College Festival Orchestra, Paul Wolfe conducting;

• 2001 - Daniel S. Godfrey: revised version of String Quartet No. 3, at the Seal Bay Music Festival in Rockport, Maine, by the Cassett Quartet;