Hanson's "futile efforts"

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1950, the famous oboist Marcel Tabuteau gave the premiere performance of this “Pastorale” for solo oboe, harp, and strings, with his colleagues from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy conducting.

The music was by Howard Hanson, who dedicated the piece to his wife Peggy.

Hanson was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in 1896. As a talented teenager, Hanson recalls a German-born musician in New York asking him: “Well, now, Hanson, why do you waste your time at futile efforts in composition when you could became a great concert pianist?” This, said Hanson, from someone who had never heard one note he had written. “In the true German tradition,” Hanson recalled, “he figured that nobody from Nebraska could possibly write good music. It took 40 years to get rid of that kind of thinking in the U.S.,—and we’re not over it yet.”

Hanson was in his early 80s when he made those comments, with a 40 year career as a successful composer, conductor and educator behind him. Hanson had just completed his seventh and final symphony, and was commonly referred to as “The Dean of American Music.”

Despite all that, Hanson retained his sense of humor, as evidence by this comment from the octogenarian: “Peggy will say to me, ‘What are you going to do now? ’ and I’ll say, ‘I’m going upstairs to waste my time in futile efforts at composition.’”

Music Played in Today's Program

Howard Hanson (1896 – 1981) Pastorale Randall Ellis, oboe; Susan Jolles, harp; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3105

On This Day

Births

• 1874 - American composer and insurance executive Charles Ives, in Danbury, Connecticut;

• 1890 - American composer and jazz pianist Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, in New Orleans (In older biographies, his birth date is incorrectly given as September 20, 1885);

• 1944 - American composer William Albright, in Gary, Indiana;

Premieres

• 1842 - Wagner: opera, "Rienzi," in Dresden at the Hoftheater;

• 1847 - Lortzing: opera "Undine" (2nd version), in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien;

• 1860 - Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in Bb, Op. 18, in Hanover, by violinist Joseph Joachim and his ensemble;

• 1892 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera " Mlada," at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Eduard Napravnik conducting (Gregorian date: Nov. 1);

• 1923 - Delius: "A Dance Rhapsody," in London, conducted by Sir Henry Wood;

• 1949 - Hartmann: opera "Simplicius Simplicissimus" (first staged performance) in Cologne at the Theater der Stadt (Kammerspiele); The premiere concert performance of this opera by the Bavarian Radio occurred in Munich on April 2, 1948;

• 1950 - Hanson: "Pastorale" for Solo Oboe, Strings and Harp, with oboist Marcel Tabuteau, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1952 - Peter Mennin: "Concertanto (Moby Dick)" for orchestra, in Erie, Pa.;

• 1958 - Hovhaness: "Meditation on Orpheus," by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1960 - Lukas Foss: "Time Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra" at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bernstein, with soprano Adele Addison the vocal soloist;

• 1974 - Elliott Carter: Brass Quintet, on a BBC broadcast from London, with the American Brass Quintet; The American premiere occurred at the Library of Congress on November 15 that year with the same performers;

• 1974 - Henze: "Tristan" for piano, orchestra, and tape, by the London Symphony, Colin Davis conducting;

• 1977 - Michael Colgrass: "Déjà vu" at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Leinsdorf;

• 1983 - Menotti: Double-bass Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta conducting, with James VanDemark as soloist;

• 1985 - Lou Harrison: Piano Concerto, in New York, with Keith Jarrett the soloist.

• 2004 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Naxos Quartet" No. 5 ("Lighthouses of Orkney and Shetland"), at Wigmore Hall, London, by the Maggini Quartet;

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in b, Op. 6, no. 12 (Gregorian date: Oct. 31);