The Cleveland Orchestra opens with Victor Herbert

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1918, the celebratory “American Fantasy” of the Dublin-born American composer Victor Herbert opened the first program of the newly-formed Cleveland Orchestra.

Cleveland had reason to celebrate. World War I had ended one month earlier, and, for some time, city organizers had been trying to build a hometown orchestra. In December of 1918, Father John Powers of St. Ann’s Church wanted to give a concert to raise some money for his parish, and, as Father Powers also happened to be a fine Irish tenor, offered to perform on the same bill as the new orchestra, just in case the untried ensemble of 54 didn’t prove to be a sufficient box-office attraction.

So, along with Father Power’s songs and Herbert’s “American Fantasy,” conductor Nikolai Sokoloff lead the Orchestra in Bizet’s “Carmen” Suite, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Liadov’s tone poem “The Enchanted Lake,” and, for a rousing closer, Liszt’s tone poem “Les Preludes.”

Over the next 100 years, especially during the period when George Szell was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, the ensemble came to be regarded as one of the best in the world.

Music Played in Today's Program

Victor Herbert (1859 - 1924) American Fantasia Cincinnati Pops; Erich Kunzel, cond. Vox Box 3035

On This Day

Births

• 1803 - French composer Hector Berlioz, in Côte-St.-André, near Grenoble;

• 1876 - Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, in Wiszniew (Swiecany district), Lithuania;

• 1908 - American composer Elliott Carter, in New York;

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Secular Cantata No. 207 ("Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten") for the installation of philologist and jurist Gottleib Kortte as Professor of Law at the University of Leipzig;

• 1873 - Brahms: String Quartet in c, Op. 51, no. 1, in Vienna by the Hellmesberger Quartet;

• 1908 - Delius: "In a Summer Garden," by the London Philharmonic;

• 1925 - Nielsen: Symphony No. 6 ("Sinfonia semplice"), by Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen, with the composer conducting;

• 1935 - Cowell: "Mosaic Quartet" (String Quartet No. 3), by the Modern Art Quartet at the 7th of the WPA Composers' Forum-Laboratories, at the Midtown Community Center in New York;

• 1950 - Hindemith: Clarinet Concerto, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, with Benny Goodman the soloist;

• 1959 - Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

• 1981 - David Diamond: Violin Sonata No. 2, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., by Robert McDuffie (violin) and William Black (piano);

• 1985 - Philip Glass & Robert Moran: opera "The Juniper Tree," at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.;

Others

• 1721 - J.S. Bach's employer, Prince Leopold of Cöthen (age 27) marries Frederica Henrietta von Anhalt-Berngurg (19) at Bernburg; The new Princess of Cöthen does not share her husband's passion for music, and one year later, Bach applies for a new job in Leipzig;

• 1918 - Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff leads the first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra at Gray's Armory, presented as a benefit for St. Ann's Church; His program included Victor Herbert's "American Fantasy," Bizet's "Carmen" Suite, two movements of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Liadov's "Enchanted Lake," and Liszt's "Les Préludes";

• 1928 - The Society of Friends of Music organized by The Library of Congress;