Piston goes to the dogs

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Walter Piston (1894 -1976) The Incredible Flutist Columbia Symphony; Leonard Bernstein, cond. Sony 61849

On This Day

Births

• 1883 - Italian opera composer Riccardo Zandonai, in Sacco, Trentino;

• 1932 - American composer Pauline Oliveros, in Houston, Texas;

• 1953 - American composer Anne LeBaron, in Baton Rouge, La.;

Deaths

• 1971 - French composer and organist Marcel Dupré, age 85, in Meudon;

Premieres

• 1846 - Lortzing: opera "Der Waffenschmied" (The Armorer), in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien;

• 1866 - Smetana: "The Bartered Bride" (1st version) in Prague at the Provisional Theater;

• 1923 - Hanson: Symphony No. 1 ("Nordic"), in Rome, composer conducting;

• 1927 - Stravinsky: opera-oratorio "Oedipus Rex," at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris (in concert performance; first staged performance took place in Berlin on Feb. 25, 1928);

• 1938 - Piston: ballet "The Incredible Flutist," in Boston;

• 1962 - Britten: oratorio "War Requiem," in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in England;

• 1991 - Harrison Birtwistle: opera "Gawain" in London at the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Elgar Howarth conducting;

• 1995 - Alla Pavlova: Symphony No. 1 (“Farewell Russian”), in Moscow at the Concert Hall of the Union of Russian Composers, by the Russian Philharmonia, Konstantin Krimets, conducting;

Others

• 1723 - Bach's first cantata performance in Leipzig (Cantata No. 75, "Die Elenden sollen essen"), presented at St. Nicolai Church, the day before his official induction as Cantor in that city.