Shapero goes classical

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1948, Leonard Bernstein, age 29, conducted the Boston Symphony in the premiere of a new orchestral work by Harold Shapero, age 27.

This was Shapero’s “Symphony for Classical Orchestra,” a work modeled on Beethoven but sounding very much like one of the Neo-Classical scores of Igor Stravinsky. This was exactly what Shapero intended, but some found the music perplexing.

Aaron Copland, for one, wrote: “Harold Shapero, it is safe to say, is at the same time the most gifted and baffling composer of his generation.” That comment by Copland, one should remember, came at a time when Shapero’s generation included the likes of Barber, Bernstein, Menotti and Rorem. But Copland continued, “Stylistically, Shapero seems to feel a compulsion to fashion his music after some great model. He seems to be suffering from a hero-worship complex – or perhaps it is a freakish attack of false modesty.”

“Copland was so original,” Shapero responded, “that he just couldn’t understand anyone who wasn’t.”

Even so, Shapero’s superbly crafted orchestral imitations suffered many decades of neglect. In the 1980s, however, conductor and composer Andre Previn fell in love with Shapero’s Symphony, performing and recording it with the LA Philharmonic, and declared its “Adagietto” movement the most beautiful slow movement of any American symphony.

Music Played in Today's Program

Harold Shapero (b. 1920) Symphony for Classical Orchestra Los Angeles Philharmonic; André Previn, cond. New World 373

On This Day

Births

• 1697 - German composer and flutist Johann Joachim Quantz, in Oberscheden, Hannover;

• 1861 - French-born American composer Charles Martin Loeffler, in Alsace;

• 1862 - German-born American composer and conductor, Walter Damrosch, in Breslau;

Deaths

• 1963 - French composer Francis Poulenc, age 64, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 81 ("Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen?") performed on the 4th Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24);

• 1735 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 14 ("Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit") performed in Leipzig on the 4th Sunday after Epiphany;

• 1892 - Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” No. 1 in G minor (Gregorian date: Feb. 11);

• 1893 - Brahms: Fantasies for piano Nos. 1-3, from Op. 117 and Intermezzo No. 2, from Op. 117, in Vienna;

• 1917 - Zemlinsky: opera "A Floretine Tragedy," in Stuttgart at the Hoftheater;

• 1920 - Frederick Converse: Symphony in c, by the Boston Symphony, Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1942 - Copland: Orchestral Suite from "Billy the Kid" ballet, by the Boston Symphony;

• 1948 - Harold Shapero: "Symphony for Classical Orchestra," by the Boston Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein;

• 1958 - Walton: "Partita" for orchestra, in Cleveland;

• 1959 - Hindemith: "Pittsburgh Symphony," by the Pittsburgh Symphony, conducted by the composer;

• 1970 - William Schuman: "In Praise of Shahn," in New York;

• 1985 - Libby Larsen: Symphony ("Water Music"), by the Minnesota Orchestra, Sir Neville Marriner conducting.