Synopsis
On today’s date in 1959, the Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch died in Portland, Oregon, about a week short of his 79th birthday.
Bloch first came to America in 1916, when he was 36 years old. His music made an immediate impression, and a year later an all-Bloch orchestral concert in New York presented the premiere performance of his most famous work, a rhapsody for cello and orchestra entitled “Schelomo,” after the Hebrew name for King Solomon.
The success of that concert led to a contract with the publisher G. Schirmer, who published Bloch’s compositions with what was to become a trademark logo—the six-pointed Star of David with the initials E.B. in the center, an imprimatur that firmly established for Bloch a Jewish identity in the public mind.
In 1924, Bloch became a naturalized American citizen, and taught in Cleveland and San Francisco. In 1928, he composed this music: an orchestral piece entitled “America,” which was selected as the winner of a Musical America competition for the best symphonic work glorifying American ideals.
In the 1930s, Bloch returned to Switzerland for a time, but, with the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and Italy, Bloch returned to America, and eventually settled in Agate Beach, Oregon. He lived in semi-retirement, continued to compose, and to pursue his lifelong hobbies of photography and mushroom collecting, plus a new Oregon coast hobby: collecting and polishing agates.
Music Played in Today's Program
Ernest Bloch (1880 – 1959) America Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3135
On This Day
Births
1921 - American composer Jack Beeson, in Muncie, Indiana
1934 - English composer Harrison Birtwistle, in Accrington, Lancashire
1949 - English composer John Casken, in Barnsley
Deaths
1789 - French composer and harpsichordist Jacques Duphly, age 74, in Paris
1857 - Austrian composer and piano teacher Carl Czerny, age 66, in Vienna
1959 - Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch, age 78, in Portland, Oregon
Premieres
1852 - Spohr: opera "Faust" (2nd version in Italian), in London at Covent Garden
1942 - Villa-Lobos: "Chôros" Nos. 6, 9 and 11, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer
1945 - Antheil: "Heroes of Today," by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting
1965 - Bernstein: "Chichester Psalms" at Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) by the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer, with The Camerata Singers and boy alto John Bogart; On July 31, 1965, Bernstein attended the U.K. premiere of thiswork (performed by a male-only choir) at Chichester Cathedral in England
1988 - John Harbison: Piano Sonata No. 1 ("In Memoriam Roger Sessions"), at the Dorothy Taubman Piano Institute in Amherst, Mass., by pianist Robert Shannon
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
