Handel (and Beethoven) with horns

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

George Frederic Handel (1685 — 1759) Water Music Suite in F The King's Consort; Robert King, cond. Hyperion 66967

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 — 1827) Horn Sonata, Op. 17 Anthony Halstead, horn; Robert Levin, fortepiano London 455 994

On This Day

Births

• 1834 - German composer Franz Xaver Witt, in Walderbach, Bavaria;

• 1885 - Austrian composer Alban Berg, in Vienna;

• 1909 - German composer Harald Genzmer, in Blumenthal, near Bremen;

Deaths

• 1740 - German composer, organist and teacher Vincent Lübeck, age c. 85, in Hamburg;

• 1812 - German composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister, age 57, in Vienna;

• 1960 - Hungarian composer Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi, age 82, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1722 - ; first documented concert performance of Handel: “Water Music” at the Stationer’s Hall in London (Gregorian date: Feb. 20); Handel’s “Water Music” had been premiered on July 17/28, 1717, during a famous royal barge excursion on the river Thames;

• 1727 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 84 ("Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke") probably performed on Septuagesimae Sunday as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1728 - Gay & Pepusch: ballad-opera, “The Beggar’s Opera,” in London (Julian date: Jan. 29);

• 1812 - Beethoven: private premieres of "The Ruins of Athens" and "King Stephen" Overture and Incidental Music, as part of a production at the opening of a new theater in Pest, Hungary (see also Feb. 10 for offical public premiere);

• 1886 - Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov): opera “Khovanschchina,” posthumously, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 21);

• 1893 - Verdi: opera, "Falstaff," in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala; This was Verdi's last opera;

• 1909 - Albéniz: piano suite, "Iberia," in Paris;

• 1919 - Chadwick: symphonic poem "Angel of Death" in New York;

Others

• 1784 - Mozart finishes his Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb, K. 449, and enters it as the first item in his own catalogue of his compositions; The concerto may have been performed by Mozart in Vienna on March 17 that year, and also outside Vienna at the home of Barbara von Ployer, one of Mozart's pupils, for whom the work was written.