Wagner and John Adams put on their dancing shoes

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Venusberg Music, fr Tannhäuser Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; James Levine, cond. DG 435 874

John Adams (b. 1947) The Chairman Dances San Francisco Symphony; Edo de Waart, cond. Nonesuch 79144

On This Day

Births

• 1700 - French composer and flutist Michel Blavet, in Besançon;

• 1860 - Austrian composer and music critic Hugo Wolf, in Windisch-Graz;

Deaths

• 1842 - Italian-born composer Luigi Cherubini, age 81, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1744 - Handel: oratorio "Joseph and his Brethren" (Julian dater: March 2);

• 1797 - Cherubini: opera "Médée" (Medea), in Paris;

• 1845 - Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in e, Op. 64, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Niels Gade, with Ferdinand David the soloist;

• 1861 - Wagner: opera "Tannhäuser" (Paris version), at the Théâtre Imperial de l'Opéra;

• 1947 - Messiaen: "Hymne" for orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic, Leopold Stokowski conducted;

• 1954 - Schoenberg: (unfinished) opera "Moses and Aaron," in a concert performance by the Hamburg Radio; The first staged performance took place in Zürich, Switzerland, on June 6, 1957);

• 1964 - Ernst Toch: Symphony No. 5 ("Jeptha - Rhapsodic Poem"), in Boston;

• 1976 - Babbitt: Concerti for Violin, Small Orchestra and Tape, in New York City;

• 1986 - George Rochberg: Symphony No. 5 (Commissioned for the sesquicentennial celebration of the city of Chicago), by the Chicago Symphony, with Sir Georg Solti conducting;

• 1992 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Strathclyde Concerto" No. 5 for violin, viola and strings, at Glasgow's City Hall, by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer, with soloists James Clarke and Catherine Marwood;

• 1998 - Mark Adamo: opera "Little Women" at Houston Opera Studio, with Christopher Larkin conducting;

Others

• 1970 - George Crumb completes his "Black Angels" for electric string quartet, percussion and water-tuned musical glasses; The score is inscribed: "finished on Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 in tempore belli" (in time of war).