Nicholas Slonimsky, Date-Meister

Synopsis

We have a special DATEBOOK birthday to note today, for on this date in 1894, one of music’s great “date-meisters,” Nicholas Slonimsky, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A self-described “failed wunderkind,” Slonimsky became an accomplished conductor and relentless new music promoter, giving the first performances of avant-garde works by Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, and Edgard Varese, to name just a few. A composer himself, Slonimsky’s own works include settings of actual advertisements he found in the Saturday Evening Post circa 1925, and a symphonic work that culminates in the triple-forte explosion of 100 colored balloons.

Slonimsky was an obsessive collector of the dates, venues, and premiere performers of concert music in the 20th century. Slonimsky’s chronicle, entitled Music Since 1900, runs well over 1000 pages and went through several editions during his long lifetime. Slonimsky also served as the editor for several editions of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary, writing many of the wittiest contributions himself.

Slonimsky’s scholarly writings include a 1947 Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, an inventory of all conceivable and inconceivable tonal combinations, a work that became a cult classic among BeBop jazz musicians, including the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane. In 1952, Slonimsky published his Lexicon of Musical Invective, a collection of some of the juiciest bits from the devastatingly bad reviews many musical masterpieces received at the hands of contemporary critics, and in 1968, for the Music Library Association of America, a painstakingly researched report entitled Sex and the Music Librarian.

Nicolas Slonimsky died in Los Angeles in 1995, just 4 months shy of his 102nd birthday.

Music Played in Today's Program

Charles Ives (1874-1954) — Three Places in New England (San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas, cond.) BMG 63703

On This Day

Births

• 1812 - German opera composer Friedrich von Flotow, in Toitendorf (Teutendorf) estate, near Neu-Sanitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin;

• 1894 - Russian-born America composer and famous musical lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: April 15);

Deaths

• 1871 - German composer and piano virtuoso Sigismond Thalberg, age 59, in Posillipo, Italy;

• 1915 - Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin, age 43, in Moscow (Julian date: April 14);

• 1992 - French composer, organist and teacher Olivier Messiaen, age 83, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1720 - Handel: opera "Radamisto" (1st version), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, during the first season of operas presented by the Royal Academy of Music (Gregorian date: May 8); The performance is attended by King George I and the Prince of Wales (Handel dedicates the score to the King); The singer Margherita Dursastanti appears in a Handel work for the first time in London;

• 1735 - Handel: opera "Alcina" (Julian date: April 16);

• 1736 - Handel: anthem "Sing unto God," in London at the German Chapel of St. James's Palace, during the wedding of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta, Princess of Saxe-Gotha (Gregorian date: May 8);

• 1749 - Handel: "Music for the Royal Fireworks" performed during fireworks display in London (Gregorian date: May 8);

• 1867 - Gounod: opera "Romeo and Juliet," in Paris at the Théatre-Lyrique;

• 1877 - Massenet: opera "Le Roi de Lahore" (The King of Lahore"), in Paris;

• 1893 - Rachmaninoff: opera "Aleko," in Moscow (Gregorian date: May 9);

• 1907 - Stravinsky: Symphony in Eb, at a private performance in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: May 10); The first public performance took place in St. Petersburg on January 23, 1908, conducted by F. Blumenfield (Gregorian date: Feb 5);

• 1927 - Weinberger: opera "Schwanda the Bagpiper," in Prague at the National Theater;

• 1928 - Stravinsky: ballet, "Apollon musagète," in Washington, D.C., choreographed by Adolf Bohm; The European premiere of this ballet occurred on June 12 in Paris, choreographed by Georges Balanchine;

• 1937 - Stravinsky: ballet, "Jeu de cartes" (Card Game), by the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with the composer conducting; This work was part of a Stravinsky-Balanchine matinée consisting of "Apollon musagète," "Le Baiser de la fée," and the premiere of "Jeu de cartes";

• 1987 - Daniel Pinkham: Sonata No. 3 for Organ and Strings, at St. Peter's Church in Osterville, Mass., by organist Richard Benefield, with a string quartet conducted by the composer;

• 1992 - George Tsontakis: "Perpertual Angelus" (No. 2 of "Four Symphonic Quartets" after poems by T.S. Eliot), by the Tuscaloosa Symphony, Ransom Wilson conducting;