Panufnik and the school of hard knocks, Polish-style

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Andrzej Panufnik (1914 - 1991) Symphony No. 1 (Sinfonia Rustica) Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra; Andrzej Panufnik, cond. Unicorn-Kanchana 2016

On This Day

Births

• 1842 - English composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, in Lambeth (London);

• 1913 - American organist and record retailer, William Schwann, in Salem Ill.; In 1949 he began publication of the Schwann Record Catalog, a guide to phonograph records in print;

Premieres

• 1833 - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 ("Italian"), in London, by the Philharmonic Society, with the composer conducting;

• 1877 - Franck: "Les Eolides," in Paris at a Lamoureux Concert;

• 1949 - Panufnik: "Sinfonia Rustica," in Warsaw;

• 1987 - Harbison: Symphony No. 2, by the San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt conducting;

• 1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Bassoon Concerto, by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Lorin Maazel, with Nancy Goeres the soloist;

• 1995 - first professional production of Any Beach: opera "Cabildo," at Alice Tully Hall in New York City as a "Great Performances" telecast conducted by Ransom Wilson; The world premiere performance was given on Feb. 27, 1945 (two months after Beach's death), by the Opera Workshop at the University of Georgia in Athens, directed by Hugh Hodgson;

• 2001 - Harbison: "North and South (Elizabeth Bishop Cycle)," by the Chicago Chamber Musicians;

Others

• 1862 - First concert by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York City; His program includes the American premieres of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture and Liszt's arrangement for piano and orchestra of Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy."

• 1875 - American premiere of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat," during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas; The Cincinnati Commercial review of May 14 was not favorable: "The work is difficult in the extreme and most of the chorus abounds with rambling sub-divisions. We considering the ‘Magnifcat' the weakest thing the chorus has undertaken . . . possessing no dramatic character and incapable of conveying the magnitude of the labor that has been expended upon its inconsequential intricacies. If mediocrity is a mistake, the ‘Magnifcat' is the one error of the Festival"; Thomas also conducted the next documented performance in Boston on Mar. 1, 1876 (for which composer John Knowles Paine performed as organ accompanist to a chorus of 300).