Schoenberg and Sheng

Synopsis

Today’s date marks the anniversary of the premiere performance of two musical works written by émigré composers: one Austrian, the other Chinese.

On Nov 4, 1948, the Albuquerque Civic Symphony gave the first performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s powerful piece for narrator, chorus and orchestra entitled “A Survivor from Warsaw.” Because of his Jewish heritage, Schoenberg resettled in America in 1933 when the Nazis took over Germany. After the end of World War II, Schoenberg met some survivors of the Nazi pogroms in the Warsaw ghetto. Profoundly moved as they recounted their harrowing experiences, Schoenberg set their recollections to music, utilizing a twelve-tone theme which is revealed only at the end of the work, where it supplies the traditional melody of a Jewish prayer of comfort and hope.

On today’s date in 1993, Boulder, Colorado, was the venue for the premiere of this music, the String Quartet No. 3 by the Chinese composer Bright Sheng. “It was inspired by the memory of a Tibetan folk dance which I came across about 25 years ago when I was living in a province on the border between China and Tibet,” recalled Sheng. At that time, Madame Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” was in full force, and that explains why a teenage pianist from Shanghai ended up on a remote Chinese frontier.

Eventually, Sheng was able to enroll in the Shangai Conservatory, and in 1982 came to New York. “All of my compositions somehow deal with Chinese culture,” explains Sheng, “yet they synthesize Chinese and Western musical forms.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951) A Survivor from Warsaw Simon Callow, narrator; London Symphony; Robert Craft, cond Koch 7263

Bright Sheng (b. 1955) String Quartet No. 3 Shanghai Quartet BIS 1138

On This Day

Births

• 1841 - Polish pianist and composer Carl Tausig, in Warsaw;

Deaths

• 1847 - German composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, age 38, in Leipzig;

• 1924 - French composer Gabriel Fauré, age 79, in Paris;

• 1953 - Music patroness and amateur composer Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, age 89, in Cambridge, Mass.; She organized concerts and music festivals in Washington, D.C., and her Foundation commissioned works from Bartók, Malipiero, Schoenberg, Copland, Hanson, Piston, and many others; The recital hall at the Library of Congress bears her name;

• 1957 - French composer and writer, Marie Joseph Canteloube (de Malaret), age 78, in Grigny (Seine-et-Oise);

Premieres

• 1732 - Handel: opera “Catone” in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Nov. 15);

• 1783 - Mozart: Symphony No. 36 ("Linz"), by the orchestra of Count Thun in Linz;

• 1863 - Berlioz: "Les Troyens à Carthage" (The Trojans at Carthage), Part 2 (Acts 3-5) of the opera "Les Troyens" (The Trojans), in Paris at the Théatre-Lyrqiue; The complete opera was not staged in France until 1920;

• 1876 - Brahms: Symphony No. 1, in Karlsruhe, Germany, with Felix Otto Dessoff conducting;

• 1883 - Chabrier: "Espana" in Paris, with Charles Lamoureux conducting;

• 1890 - Borodin: opera “Prince Igor” (completed and arranged posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov), at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 23);

• 1922 - Hindemith: String Quartet No. 3, in Donauschingen (Germany), by the Amar Quartet (with Hindemith as the violist);

• 1924 - R. Strauss: opera "Intermezzo," in Dresden at the State Theater, conducted by Fritz Busch, with vocal soloists Lotte Lehmann (Christine Storch) and Josef Correck (Robert Storch);

• 1932 - Cowell: “Polyphonica” for 12 instruments, at the New School Auditorium in New York City, by the Pan American Association orchestra, Nicholas Slonimsky conducting; On this same concert was the premiere performance of “Those Everlasting Blues,” by Jerome Moross, with contralto Paula Jean Lawrence as the soloist;

• 1932 - Revueltas: "Ventanas" for orchestra, in Mexico City;

• 1948 - Schoenberg: "A Survivor from Warsaw" for narrator, chorus and orchestra, by the Civic Symphony of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Kurt Frederick conducting;

• 1957 - José Serebrier: Symphony No. 1, by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1976 - Ned Rorem: “Women’s Voices,” at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, by mezzo Joyce Mathis and pianist Warren Wilson;

• 1993 - Bright Sheng: String Quartet No. 3, in Boulder, Colo., by the Takacs Quartet;

• 1993 - David Ward-Steinman: "Night Winds," for woodwind quintet, at the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, Calif., by the Arioso Wind Quintet.