Handel writes home from Dublin

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

George Frederic Handel (1685-1757) Sinfonia, from Messiah Atlanta Symphony; Robert Shaw, cond. Telarc 80103

On This Day

Births

• 1850 - Spanish composer Tomás Bretón, in Salamanca;

• 1876 - Spanish composer, cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, in Vendrell, Catalonia;

• 1912 - Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, in Melbourne;

Deaths

• 1785 - German composer Johann Heinrich Rolle, in Magdeburg, age 69;

• 1900 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov (Gregorian date: Jan. 11, 1901);

Premieres

• 1733 - Porpora: opera "Arianna in Nasso" (Ariadne on Naxos) opens the first London season of "The Opera of the Nobility," a company formed to rival Handel's "Royal Academy"; This date is according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year; Under the Gregorian "New Style" calendar in use today, this premiere actually occurred 11 days later, on Jan. 9, 1734;

• 1882 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C, Op. 87, and String Quintet No. 1 in F, Op. 88, in Frankfurt, with a violinist named Heermann and a cellist name Müller, with Brahms at the pianist; Brahms had completed the work during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl (near Salzburg), and had participated in a reading of the new work at a private home in Bad Ischl; On that occasion, as a joke, Brahms introducing the trio as having been composed by his friend, the composer and pianist Ignaz Brull, who was also in Bad Ischl at the time;

• 1893 - Debussy: String Quartet, in Paris, by the Ysaye Quartet;

• 1906 - Sibelius: tone poem, "Pohjola's Daughter," in St. Petersburg, Russia;

• 1916 - Max Bruch: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting, with duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sultro;

Others

• 1903 - First concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen's Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West; The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini;