Mendelssohn cooks up some music

Synopsis

The greatest clarinetist of the early 19th century was Heinrich Baermann, whose son Carl was also a fantastic performer on the basset horn, the lower-voiced member of the clarinet family. Felix Mendelssohn, in addition to being fond of their playing, was fond another Baermann Family specialty: the “Dampfnudeln” or sweet dumplings they served their friends.

In December of 1832, Mendelssohn asked if they’d whip him up a batch. The Baermanns said “Sure – if you’ll whip something up for us, namely a duet for clarinet and basset horn.”

Carl Baermann described what happened next: “Mendelssohn put a chef's hat on my head, drew an apron around my waist and stuck a cooking spoon into the waistband. He did the same himself, except that instead of a spoon, he stuck a pen behind his ear. Then he led me into the kitchen... He returned to his room where, as he said, he was going to stir and knead tones...

“When I brought the dumpling in a covered dish to the table at the time agreed upon, Mendelssohn also had his duet in a covered dish. Father and I were delighted with the charming piece – although Mendelssohn kept saying that my creation was better than his.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809–1847) — Concert Piece, Op. 113, no. 1 (Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer, clarinet and basset horn; Wurtemberg Chamber Orchestra; Jorg Faerber, cond.) EMI 47233

On This Day

Births

• 1689 - French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismorter, in Thionville;

• 1906 - American composer Ross Lee Finney, in Wells, Minn.;

Premieres

• 1785 - Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb (K. 482), in Vienna as the entr'acte at a performance of the oratorio "Ester" by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf conducted by Antonio Salieri; Mozart was the soloist in his Concerto, and it is possible that Salieri conducted both the oratorio and Mozart's new concerto;

• 1806 - Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61, by the orchestra of Vienna's Theater an der Wien, with its music director and concertmaster, Franz Clement, as the soloist and the composer conducting; The concert also included works by Méhul, Mozart, Cherubini, and Handel;

• 1880 - Dvorák: oratorio "Stabat Mater," in Prague;

• 1887 - Chadwick: “Melpomene” overture, by the Boston Symphony, Wilhelm Gericke conducting;

• 1893 - Humperdinck: opera "Hansel and Gretel," in Weimar at the Hoftheater;

• 1894 - Debussy: Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun," at a concert of the Societé Nationale de Musique (not presented in ballet form until 1912);

• 1911 - Wolf-Ferrari: opera "Jewels of the Madonna," in Berlin;

• 1952 - Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano (part one of a two-part recital), in Leningrad, by pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva; See also Dec. 28th;

Others

• 1989 - Leonard Bernstein leads first of two public performances of Beethoven's Ninth at the Philharmonie in West Berlin, with an international orchestra assembled to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall; The second performance occurred on December 25 at the Schauspielhaus in East Berlin;