Synopsis
Today’s date marks two events in American musical history – one sad, one happy.
It was on today’s date in 1937 that George Gershwin died at 10:35 in the morning in a Hollywood hospital after an operation for a brain tumor. He was only 38 years old. Gershwin was the idol of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, and also admired by the “serious” composers of his day, such as Maurice Ravel and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Even Arnold Schoenberg, the fearsome leader of the 12-tone school – and Gershwin’s regular tennis partner in Los Angeles – said, in tribute, “there is no doubt that he was a great composer.”
A Gershwin memorial concert was held in the Hollywood Bowl later that year, featuring notables from both classical and popular music, including Otto Klemperer, Fred Astaire, and Lily Pons.
The happier anniversary we note is the founding of the Hollywood Bowl itself, on today’s date in 1922. This open-air auditorium was constructed in a natural canyon in the Los Angeles area, and hosted its first public concert with the fearsomely-bearded German conductor Alfred Hertz on the podium. An audience of 5,000 cheered music by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rossini. Works by those composers still show up on Hollywood Bowl programs today, often alongside selections from now-classic Hollywood film scores, often conducted by their composers – bearded or otherwise.
Music Played in Today's Program
George Gershwin (1898-1937) – An American in Paris (Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, cond.) Philips 438 663
Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) – 1812 Overture (Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, cond.) EMI Classics 65690
On This Day
Births
1836 - Brazilian opera composer Antonio Carlo Gomes, in Campinas
Deaths
1937 - American composer George Gershwin, age 38, in Hollywood, following an operation on a cystic brain tumor
Premieres
1882 - MacDowell: "Modern Suite" No. 1 for Piano, in Zurich, with composer as soloist
1921 - Gershwin: musical revue, "George White's Scandals of 1921," at the Liberty Theater in New York City
1996 - James MacMillan: "The World's Ransoming" (English horn Concerto), at the Barbican in London, by soloist Christine Pendrill with the London Symphony, Kent Nagano conducting
2003 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Naxos Quartet" No. 2, at the Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham (UK), as part of the Cheltenham International Festival by the Maggini Quartet;
Others
1798 - In the nation's capital of Philadelphia, President John Adams signed an Act of Congress establishing the United States Marine Band (The original "32 drummers and fifers" assisted in recruiting and entertained residents)
1885 - First concert of the Boston "Promenade" Orchestra (later dubbed the Boston "Pops") at the old Music Hall in Boston; Adolf Neuendorff conducts;
1922 - Opening concert of the Hollywood Bowl, with German conductor Alfred Hertz at the podium
1940 - Leonard Bernstein's first appearance as conductor of a professional orchestra, leading a performance of Wagner's Act I Prelude to "Die Meistersinger" with the Boston Pops at an open-air Esplanade Concert
1998 - "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band, America's oldest professional musical organization, marks its 200th anniversary
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.