Beethoven waits for Liszt

Synopsis

If you were like Dr. Who with his Tardis, and a piano fan to boot, you might set your time machine for Paris, April 25th, 1841. That's when an all-Beethoven concert was given at the Salle Erard to raise funds for the proposed Beethoven monument in Bonn, the late composer's birthplace. Franz Liszt was the soloist in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, conducted by Hector Berlioz.

About a month earlier, Liszt had dazzled Paris with the premiere of his new piano fantasia on themes from the popular opera "Robert the Devil," by Giacomo Meyerbeer. So, as Liszt walked on stage—with the entire orchestra in place, all ready for Beethoven's Concerto—the audience clamored loudly for a repeat performance. They made such a racket that Berlioz and the orchestra had no choice but to sit idly by until Liszt first encored his Fantasia.

In the audience was a 27-year old German named Richard Wagner, reviewing the concert for a Dresden newspaper. Wagner was outraged that the Beethoven was put on hold for Liszt's flashy solo. "Some day," fumed Wagner, "Liszt in heaven will be summoned to play his Fantasy on 'The Devil' before the assembled company of angels!"

We're not sure if Wagner attended a concert the following day at the Salle Pleyel, but any modern-day time traveler would probably want to stick around to hear Frederic Chopin give one of HIS rare Parisian recitals, performing, among other works, his own F-Major Ballade.

Music Played in Today's Program

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886) Reminiscences de Robert le Diable Leslie Howard, piano Hyperion 66861

On This Day

Births

• 1690 - Baptismal date of German composer and organist Gottlieb Muffat, in Pasau; He was the son of German composer Georg Muffat (1653-1704);

• 1840 - Russian composer Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (Gregorian date: May 5);

Deaths

• 1906 - American composer John Knowles Paine, age 67, in Cambridge, Mass.; At Harvard, he created the first Music Department of any American university, and was the teacher there of a number of other American composers, including John Alden Carpenter, Arthur Foote, E.B. Hill, F.S. Converse, and D.G. Mason;

Premieres

• 1881 - Gilbert Sullivan: operetta "Patience," in London;

• 1918 - Schreker: opera "Die Gezeichneten" (The Branded), in Frankfurt at the Opernhaus;

• 1926 - Puccini: opera "Turandot," in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala, with Arturo Toscanini conducting; The final scene of this opera, left unfinished at the time of Puccini's death, was completed by Alfano;

• 1929 - Roussel: "Psalm 80" for tenor, chorus and orchestra, in Paris;

• 1931 - Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 1 in b, Op. 50, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, by the Brosa Quartet;

• 1963 - Hindemith: Organ Concerto, for a jubilee concert of the New York Philharmonic, with the composer conducting and Anton Heiller the soloist;

• 1980 - Rochberg: "Octet - A Grand Fantasia," at Alice Tully Hall, by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center;

• 1999 - André Previn: Bassoon Sonata, in New York, with Nancy Goeres and the composer at the piano;

Others

• 1841 - At a fund-raising concert in Paris for the Beethoven monument to be erected in Bonn, Franz Liszt performs Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with Berlioz conducting; Richard Wagner reviews the concert for the Dresden Abendzeitung; The following day, Chopin gives one of his rare recitals at the Salle Pleyel, and Liszt writes a long and glowing review for the Parisian Gazette Musicale;

• 1865 - Pope Pius IX confers on composer Franz Liszt the title of "Abbé".