Handel's famous 'Largo'

Synopsis

A few years back, when RCA records issued a boxed set of 100 favorite Boston Pops recordings made by Arthur Fiedler, they included Handel’s celebrated Largo.

Over a hundred years earlier, the Theodore Thomas Orchestra had established this melody as a favorite with 19th century American audiences. Back then, Handel was best known for his sacred oratorios, and his Largo acquired a kind of honorary “halo” by association. Also, the Italian text for the melody began “Ombra mai fui,” and since “ombra” meant shade, many music lovers probably assumed it had something to do with the dear departed shade or spirit of a loved one — hence its melancholic solemnity.

In fact, this melody originated in a decidedly secular, downright whimsical context: as the opening aria of an opera by Handel that premiered in London on today’s date in 1738. The opera, Xerxes, dealt with the real-life Persian King who invaded ancient Greece. In the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes is depicted as an all-powerful despot, whose every whim became law. As evidence of the irrational effect of absolute power, Herodotus tells of Xerxes’ fondness for a certain plane tree that he ordered decorated with gold ornaments and put under perpetual military guard as a sign of royal favor. In Handel’s opera, the famous Largo is actually Xerxes’s dreamy song to this famous tree — and the “shade” referred to is the sort to be found under its gold-bedecked branches.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759): Largo, from Xerxes; Boston Pops; Arthur Fiedler, conductor; BMG 62698

On This Day

Births

• 1688 - German composer Johann Friedrich Fasch, in Buttelstadt;

Premieres

• 1738 - Handel: opera Serse (Xerxes), in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: April 26)

• 1739 - Handel: oratorio Israel in Egypt (Julian date: April 4)

• 1902 - Ravel: Pavane pour une Infante Défunte (Pavan for the Dead Princess, or perhaps more accurately: Pavan for a Princess of the Past), in Paris, by Ravel's friend Ricardo Viñes

• 1915 - de Falla: ballet El Amor Brujo (Love the Magician), in Madrid

• 1918 - Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 3 and Visions Fugitives, in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), by the composer

• 1926 - Douglas Moore: opera The Pageant of P.T. Barnum, by the Cleveland Orchestra, Nikolai Sokoloff conducting

• 1927 - Converse: orchestral fantasy Flivver Ten Million (celebrating the ten millionth Ford automobile produced), by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1931 - Copland: A Dance Symphony, by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. This work incorporates material from Copland’s 1923 ballet Grohg, which had not been produced. The symphony was one the winners of the 1929 Victor Talking Machine Company Competition Prize. The judges of the competition decided that none of the submitted works deserved the full $25,000 prize, so they awarded $5000 each to four composers, including Copland, Ernest Bloch, and Louis Gruenberg, and gave $10,000 to Robert Russell Bennett (who had submitted two works).

• 1976 - William Schuman: Concerto on Old English Rounds for viola, women’s chorus and orchestra, in New York City

• 1979 - John Harbison: Quintet for Winds, at Jordan Hall in Boston, by the Aulos Quintet

• 1980 - Paul Creston: Piano Trio, Op. 112, in Grinnell, Iowa, by the Mirecourt Trio

• 1981 - Stanislaw Skrowaczewski: Clarinet Concerto, in Minneapolis, by soloist Joseph Longo and the Minnesota Orchestra, with the composer conducting

• 1989 - Andrew Lloyd Webber: musical Aspects of Love, in London; The musical premiered on Broadway on April 8, 1990

• 1994 - Michael Torke: Bone for mixed ensemble, at the Rensselaer (New York) Polytechnical Institute, by the Dog of Desire ensemble, David Alan Miller conducting

• 1998 - Philip Glass: digital opera Monsters of Grace, at UCLA, by the Philip Glass Ensemble, Michael Riesman conducting, to computer animated images created by Robert Wilson

• 2000 - Steve Mackey: Tuck and Roll (Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra), in Miami with the composer as soloist with the New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas

Others

• 1847 - American premiere of Verdi’s opera Ernani, at the Park Theatre in New York City

• 1971 - Igor Stravinsky’s funeral mass held at Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Stravinsky is buried on the island of San Michele.