Andrea Teodoro Zani

Synopsis

We cover the range of composers from A to Z on COMPOSERS DATEBOOK, and so are delighted to introduce a name from the far end of that spectrum that is brand-new to us -- and perhaps to you, as well.

Andrea Teodoro Zani (spelled Z-A-N-I) was born in 1696 in Casalmaggiore, a small town on the river Po, in the province of Cremona, where they made very fine violins. Zani's family was musical, and young Master Zani became a very fine violin player.

Antonio Caldara, a noted Venetian composer, heard him play and took him off to Vienna, where Zani was employed for a time as a violinist for the Hapsburg nobility. Zani also composed and published sinfonias and concertos, similar to those of his contemporary Antonio Vivaldi, another Italian violinist and composer who had come to Vienna looking for noble patronage.

One of Zani's Viennese patrons must have liked the cello, since, just recently, previously-unknown manuscript scores for 12 Cello Concertos by Zani, each with its own set of parts all ready for performance, were discovered in a 21st-century Austrian music library once owned by an 18th-century Viennese count. For cellists looking for fresh, new repertory, these long-forgotten works from the High Baroque period are a real find.

As for Zani, while some of his scores had stayed in Austria, the composer himself eventually returned to Italy and his hometown of Casalmaggiore, where he met his unfortunate end on today's date in 1757 in a carriage accident.

Music Played in Today's Program

Andrea Teodoro Zani Cello Concerto Martin Rummel, cello; Cologne Academy; Michael Alexander Willens , cond. Capriccio C-5145

On This Day

Births

• 1870 - French composer Florent Schmitt, in Blámont;

• 1913 - American composer Vivian Fine, in Chicago;

Deaths

• 1825 - Russian composer Dimitri Bortniansky, age c. 74, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Oct. 10);

• 1964 - English composer Sir George Dyson, age 81, in Winchester;

Premieres

• 1918 - Stravinsky: "The Soldier's Tale" for narrator and seven instruments, in Lausanne at the Théatre Municipal with Ernest Ansermet conducting;

• 1961 - Bartók: "Scherzo" for Piano and Orchestra, an early work by the late composer, in Budapest;

• 1972 - Petrassi: Concerto for Orchestra No. 8, in Chicago;

• 1997 - James MacMillan: Symphony ("Vigil"), at the Barbican in London, by the London Symphony, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting;

Others

• 1951 - Sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" opens in theaters across America, featuring memorable score by Bernard Herrmann that included eerie, other-worldly sounds imitating the electronic instrument known as a "Theremin" (after its Russian-born inventor, Leon Theremin); In the movie, actress Patricia Neal's rendition of the space alien command "Gort: Klaatu barada nikto" prevents Earth's destruction by a death-ray robot from outer space.

• 2007 - Conductor Philip Brunelle awarded the "Champion of New Music" Award by the American Composers Forum at their 2007 Annual Meeting in St. Paul, Minn.; This award recognizes artists who have commissioned and performed a significant number of new works by living composers.