The Seattle Symphony

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1903, violinist and conductor Harry West led the very first performance by the Seattle Symphony. At that time, the orchestra comprised just 24 players. For their first program in Seattle, the aptly named Maestro “West” conducted the musicians in works by Schubert and Rossini, two long-dead classical masters, and also programmed works by three living composers: Max Bruch, Jules Massenet, and Pablo Sarasate.

Today, the Seattle Symphony has grown into a 90-member professional orchestra, and under director Gerard Schwarz has earned worldwide attention with its CD’s of both classical and contemporary works.

The orchestra has released critically acclaimed recordings of symphonic works by modern American masters like Howard Hanson, David Diamond, and Alan Hovhaness, as well as newer pieces by a younger generation of American composers including Richard Danielpour and Stephen Albert. With conductor Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony has made over 80 recordings, many of them nominated for Grammy Awards.

For its 2003-2004 centennial season, the Seattle Symphony commissioned six new orchestral pieces from composers Daniel Brewbaker, Chen Yi, John Harbison, Samuel Jones, Bright Sheng, and David Stock.

Music Played in Today's Program

Max Bruch (1838–1920) Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 44 Nai-Yuan Hu, violin; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3156

Deborah Drattell (b. 1956) Lilith Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3159

On This Day

Births

• 1850 - Spanish composer Tomás Bretón, in Salamanca;

• 1876 - Spanish composer, cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, in Vendrell, Catalonia;

• 1912 - Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, in Melbourne;

Deaths

• 1785 - German composer Johann Heinrich Rolle, in Magdeburg, age 69;

• 1900 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov (Gregorian date: Jan. 11, 1901);

Premieres

• 1733 - Porpora: opera "Arianna in Nasso" (Ariadne on Naxos) opens the first London season of "The Opera of the Nobility," a company formed to rival Handel's "Royal Academy"; This date is according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year; Under the Gregorian "New Style" calendar in use today, this premiere actually occurred 11 days later, on Jan. 9, 1734;

• 1882 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C, Op. 87, and String Quintet No. 1 in F, Op. 88, in Frankfurt, with a violinist named Heermann and a cellist name Müller, with Brahms at the pianist; Brahms had completed the work during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl (near Salzburg), and had participated in a reading of the new work at a private home in Bad Ischl; On that occasion, as a joke, Brahms introducing the trio as having been composed by his friend, the composer and pianist Ignaz Brull, who was also in Bad Ischl at the time;

• 1893 - Debussy: String Quartet, in Paris, by the Ysaye Quartet;

• 1906 - Sibelius: tone poem, "Pohjola's Daughter," in St. Petersburg, Russia;

• 1916 - Max Bruch: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting, with duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sultro;

Others

• 1903 - First concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen's Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West; The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini;