Mobberley's Piano Concerto

Synopsis

All artists, including composers, are frequently urged to “write what they know.”

Well, if that’s the case, then any new and sleep-deprived parent can probably relate to music which supposedly depicts a late-night session with a new-born baby. It’s the middle movement of a Piano Concerto that was given its premiere on today’s date in 1994 by the Kansas City Symphony, with Bill McGlaughlin conducting and Richard Cass the piano soloist.

This new Concerto was by the Kansas City composer James Mobberley, who writes: “The piece is in three movements, each of which reflects a different emotional side of parenthood. The first movement represents the excitement and hysteria of forthcoming childbirth. The middle movement begins with amazingly soft moments following childbirth but leads into the period of sleeplessness and total chaos that inevitably follows. The final movement represents the wonderful fun and unpredictable interactions that start to happen, beginning with the child’s first smile.”

Composer James Mobberley was born in Iowa in 1954, raised in Pennsylvania, and earned music degrees from the University of North Carolina and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Since 1983 he’s taught at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, balancing his teaching duties there with his composition work, which includes a wide range of concert and theatrical pieces, some combining electronic and live performing elements.

Music Played in Today's Program

James Mobberley (b. 1954) Piano Concerto Richard Cass, piano; Czech National Symphony; Paul Freeman, cond. Albany 335

On This Day

Births

• 1844 - Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, in Tikhvin (Julian Date: Mar. 6);

• 1882 - Italian composer and first editor of the collected works of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, Gian Francesco Malipiero, in Venice;

Deaths

• 1994 - American composer Williams Bergsma, age 72, in Seattle;

Premieres

• 1902 - Schoenberg: "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured Night) for string sextet, in Vienna, by the Rosé Quartet and two extra players;

• 1904 - Liadov: symphonic poem "Baba Yaga," in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Mar.5);

• 1927 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 4,Op. 40 (original version) in Philadelphia, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski and the composer as soloist; On the same program was the premiere performance of Rachmaninoff's "Three Russian Songs" for chorus and orchestra (dedicated to Stokowski); A revised (and much shortened) version of this concerto premiered in Philadelphia on October 17, 1941, with Eugene Ormandy conducting and the composer again as soloist;

• 1949 - Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 4 ("The Cycle"), in New York City;

• 1965 - Broadway premiere of Richard Rodgers: musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?," with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; The musical had its trail-run premiere in New Haven on Feb. 1, 1965;

• 1970 - Roger Sessions: "Rhapsody" for orchestra, in Baltimore.

• 1994 - James Mobberley: Piano Concerto, at the Lyric Theater in Kansas City, Mo., by the Kansas City Symphony, with Richard Cass the soloist and Bill McGlaughlin conducting.