Rouse's Violin Concerto

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1992, a new violin concerto by the American composer Christopher Rouse had its premiere performance in Colorado with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin and violin soloist Cho-Liang Lin, to whom the new work was dedicated.

A sense of past masters of the Violin Concerto was never far from Rouse’s mind when writing this work, as he explained in his own program notes:

“I have long been drawn to the two-movement concerto form as exemplified by Bartok's Violin Concerto, and I resolved to structure my own concerto [similarly] ... The opening movement is an elegiac barcarolle ... The second movement, a toccata, follows without pause and requires enormous virtuosity of the soloist.

“The language of the concerto is, of course, more dissonant than that found in nineteenth century counterparts ... I ... find this to be one of my more ‘objective’ compositions, lacking as it does any stated or unstated program, though I hope that ... will not lead the listener to conclude that my aim was an inexpressive one.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Christopher Rouse (1949 – 2019) Violin Concerto Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; Leif Segerstam, cond. Ondine 1016-2

On This Day

Births

• 1861 - Russian composer Anton Arensky, in Novgorod; Under the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in Russia in that year, this date would be listed as June 30

• 1885 - English composer George Butterworth, in London; As a British soldier, he was killed during battle of Pozieres in 1916

• 1895 - American musical theater lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, in New York; He provided lyrics for Rudolf Friml's "Rose Marie" (1924), Siegmund Romberg's "The Desert Song" (1926), and Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" (1926); He collaborated with Richard Rodgers on several Broadway classics such as "Carousel" (1945), "South Pacific" (1949), and "The King and I" (1951); He was also the principal mentor of American composer Stephen Sondheim

Deaths

• 1773 - German composer and flutist, Johann Joachim Quantz, age 76, in Postdam

• 1953 - Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, age 79, at Sart-lez-Spa

Premieres

• 1716 - Handel: Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 3, no. 4a (Julian date: July 1);

• 1900 - Fauré: "Requiem," (orchestrated version) in Paris, at the Paris World Exhibition

• 1922 - Hindemith: "Kleine Kammermusik" for winds, Op. 24, no. 2, in Cologne (Germany), by the Frankfurt Chamber Winds

• 1940 - Ginastera: ballet "Pananbi," in Buenos Aires

• 1946 - Britten: opera "The Rape of Lucretia" at the Glyndebourne Festival in England

• 1972 - Peter Maxwell Davies: opera, "Taverner," in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

• 1976 - Henze: opera, "We Come to the River," in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

• 1992 - Christopher Rouse: Violin Concerto, at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the Aspen Festival Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, with soloist Cho-Liang Lin

• 1993 - William Bolcom: Violin Sonata No 3, at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin, and the composer at the piano;

• 1993 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical "Sunset Boulevard," in London; The musical opened in Los Angeles on December 2, 1993, and on Broadway on November 17, 1994

Others

• 1971 - A touring production of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's rock musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" starts a cross-country American run; The musical would open on Broadway on October 12, 1971