Corigliano at the Circus Maximus

Synopsis

Today’s date in 1938 marks the birthday of American composer John Corigliano, and also, in 2005, of the premiere of his Symphony No. 3, scored for large wind ensemble. The premiere was given in Austin by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble led by Jerry F. Junkin.

Corigliano titled his new symphony Circus Maximus, explaining: “The Circus Maximus of ancient Rome was … [the] largest arena in the world, it entertained over 300,000 spectators daily for nearly a thousand years. Chariot races, hunts and battles satisfied the Roman public’s need for grander and wilder amusements as the Empire declined. Many of us [today] have become as bemused by the violence and humiliation that flood the 500-plus channels of our television screens as those mobs of imperial Rome who considered the devouring of human beings by starving lions just another Sunday show.”

In performance, Corigliano asks that a huge array of brass, wind and percussion surround the audience on all sides. As brass instruments roar and cheer all around them, the audience is meant to feel more like the watched than the watchers, and Corigliano ends the work with a bang — literally — as a shotgun blast provides the symphony’s final exclamation point!

Music Played in Today's Program

John Corigliano (b. 1938): Circus Maximus; University of Texas Wind Ensemble; Jerry Junkin, conductor; Naxos 8.559601

On This Day

Births

• 1709 - English composer and writer on music Charles Avison, in Newcastle upon Tyne

• 1878 - Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, in Björneborg (now Pori)

• 1907 - American composer Alec Wilder (Alexander Lafayette Chew), in Rochester, New York

• 1938 - American composer John Corigliano, in New York

Deaths

• 1829 - Belgian-born French composer François Joseph Gossec, 95, in Paris

• 1868 - Canadian composer Healey Willian, 87, in Toronto

• 1963 - Hungarian composer Laszlo Lajtha, 70, in Budapest

• 1987 - Soviet composer Dmitri Kabalevsky, 82, in Moscow

Premieres

• 1737 - Handel: opera Giustino, in London at the Covent Garden Theater (Gregorian date: Feb. 27)

• 1884 - Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 2, in Moscow (Julian date: Feb. 4)

• 1892 - Massenet: opera, Werther, in Vienna at the Court Opera

• 1893 - Sibelius: tone-poem En Saga, in Helsinki

• 1929 - Copland: Vitebsky Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, at New York’s Town Hall at a League of Composers concert featuring two members of the Pro Arte Quartet (violinist Alphonse Onnou and cellist Robert Mass) and the German pianist Walter Gieseking

• 1936 - Varèse: Density 21.5 for solo flute, in New York, by flutist Georges Barrère

• 1956 - Leon Kirchner: Toccata for strings, winds and percussion, in San Francisco