Graupner (and Haydn) in Boston

Synopsis

Today in 1825, a benefit concert was arranged in Boston for one of that city’s favorite musicians: Johann Christian Graupner — not a household name for music lovers today, but in the early 19th century, Graupner was an important musical link between the Old World and the New.

Graupner was born near Hanover in 1767. The son of an oboist, young master Graupner mastered that instrument, too — and many others. After service in a German military band, he made his way to London, where in 1791 he was picked as the principal oboist for the first of Haydn’s symphonic concerts there.

In 1797, Graupner’s itchy feet took him to Charleston, South Carolina, where he met and married an English actress and opera singer. The couple moved to Boston and became active in the musical life there. Graupner opened a music store, importing from Europe both those newfangled fortepianos and the latest in sheet music. In 1810, he became the first president of Boston’s Philharmonic Society, and in 1815 helped organize that city’s Handel and Haydn Society — a performing organization that still exists today.

For Graupner’s benefit concert on May 1, 1825, Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 was included on the program, marking that symphony’s first documented performance in America. It was presumably an authentic performance, too, since Graupner had most likely played it under the composer’s direction back in London some three decades earlier.

Music Played in Today's Program

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1808): Symphony No. 100 (Military); London Classical Players; Roger Norrington, conductor; EMI 55192

On This Day

Births

• 1582 - Early Italian opera composer Marco da Gagliano, in Gagliano

• 1602 - Baptism of English madrigal composer William Lawes, in Salisbury. He was the younger brother of the more famous English composer Henry Lawes (1596-1662).

• 1872 - Swedish violinist and composer Hugo Alfvén in Stockholm

• 1895 - American organist and composer Leo Sowerby, in Grand Rapids, Michigan

• 1899 - Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, in Sólheimar

Deaths

• 1904 - Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, 62, in Prague

• 1978 - Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian, 74, in Moscow

Premieres

• 1786 - Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna at the Old Burgtheater

• 1886 - Franck: Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, in Paris

• 1909 - Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, in Moscow, conducted by the composer (Julian date: April 18)

• 1925 - Piston: Three Pieces for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (his first published work), at the École Normale in Paris, by the Blanquart-Coste-Dherin trio

• 1939 - Barber: The Virgin Martyrs, with students from the Curtis Institute of Music on a CBS Radio broadcast, with the composer conducting

• 1971 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio Truth Has Fallen, at the opening of the Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan

• 1987 - Harrison Birtwistle: Endless Parade for trumpet, vibraphone and strings, in Zurich (Switzerland) by the Collegium Musicum conducted by Paul Sacher, with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger

• 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: Blue Cathedral, by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music

• 2003 - Lukas Foss: Concertino (Passacaglia, Bachanalia, Passacaglia) for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting

Others

• 1761 - Franz Joseph Haydn begins his 30-year tenure as Second-Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy’s estate in Eisenstadt. In 1766, Haydn succeeded the much older composer Gregor Joseph Werner as First-Kapellmeister.

• 1825 - first documented American performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 (Military) at Boylston Hall in Boston, at a benefit concert for Haydn's former pupil, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner (1767-1836)

• 1837 - American premiere of Rossini’s opera Semiramide in New Orleans

• 1938 - The German Reichsmusikkammer (Imperial Ministry of Music) forbids Aryan music instructors to teach pupils of Jewish extraction.