Rorem's "Water Music"

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Water Music Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Jeffrey Kahane, cond. BMG 63512

On This Day

Births

• 1717 - Austrian composer Georg Matthias Monn, in Vienna;

• 1846 - Italian-born British composer and vocal teacher Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti, in Ortona;

• 1887 - American composer Florence Price, in Little Rock, Ark.;

• 1906 - Hungarian-born American composer and conductor Antal Dorati, in Budapest;

• 1935 - Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, in Salmi;

Deaths

• 1933 - German composer and organist Sigfrid Karg-Elert, age 55, in Leipzig;

• 1960 - Australian composer and pianist Arthur Benjamin, age 66, in London;

Premieres

• 1903 - Frederick S. Converse: "Endymion's Narrative" for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Wilhelm Gericke conducting;

• 1916 - de Falla: "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" for piano and orchestra, in Madrid;

• 1920 - Stenhammar: incidental music for Shakespeare's "As You Like It," at the Lorensberg Theater in Gothenburg, Sweden;

• 1926 - Varèse: "Amériques," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1942 - Stravinsky: "Circus Polka" at Madison Square Gardens in New York, by the Barnum & Bailey Circus, with M. Evans conducting;

• 1948 - Barber: song-cycle "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" for voice and orchestra, by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting and soprano Eleanor Steber the soloist;

• 1959 - Benjamin Lees: "Prologue, Capriccio and Epilogue" for orchestra, in Portland, Ore.;

• 1967 - Ned Rorem: "Water Music"for clarinet, violin and orchestra, by the Youth Chamber Orchestra of Oakland, with Robert Hughes conducting and Larry London (clarinet) and Thomas Halpin (violin) the soloists;

Others

• 1870 - Grieg writes a letter from Rome describing how Franz Liszt performed his Piano Concerto at sight and praised the work highly;

• 1938 - American premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 by the NBC Symphony, Artur Rodzinski conducting;

• 1939 - First lady Eleanor Roosevelt sponsors an Easter Sunday concert by Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial to protest racial discrimination after the singer is denied use of Washington's Constitution Hall (owned and administered by the Daughters of the American Revolution); Some 75,000 people attend this open-air event.