Middle-Eastern sounds from Rimsky-Korsakov and Reza Vali

Synopsis

On this day* in 1888, the orchestral suite Scheherazade, the most famous work of Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was first performed in St. Petersburg. The suite evokes episodes from The Arabian Nights. Though Rimsky-Korsakov was Russian, and most often concentrated on operas based on Russian history and fable, it’s ironic that his most popular work was inspired by folklore and fables from the Middle East.

Until recently, Western knowledge of the Middle Eastern music was mostly limited to such secondhand accounts. But today, we’re discovering firsthand both the traditional music of the Middle East and new works by contemporary composers from that part of the world.

One of these is Iranian-born American composer Reza Vali, who was born in Ghazvin, Iran in 1952 and began his musical studies at the Teheran Conservatory. In 1972, he moved to Vienna and studied at the Academy of Music, and then came to America to study at University of Pittsburgh.

Despite his training in Western technique, Vali has returned to the instruments and traditions of Persian music for inspiration. “Music is like the ocean,” he once said in an interview. “It moves between cultures. It doesn’t have boundaries. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lose your identity … you can have a pluralistic approach by also keeping your identity.”

*Julian calendar date: October 22

Music Played in Today's Program

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Scheherazade; Atlanta Symphony; Robert Spano, conductor; Telarc 80568

Reza Vali (b. 1952): Folk Songs Set No. 9; Alberto Almarza, flute; Alvaro Bitran, cello; New Albion 077On This Day

Births

• 1587 - Baptism of German composer and organist Samuel Scheidt, in Halle-on-Saale

• 1801 - Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, in Catania, Sicily

• 1911 - Russian-American composer Vladimir Ussachevsky, in Hailar, Manchuria

Deaths

• 1939 - French composer and organist Charles Tournemire, 69, in Arcachon, France

• 1993 - Russian inventor Lev Sergeivitch Termen (anglicized to Leon Theremin), 97, in Moscow. He invented the theremin, an electronic instrument whose sound was either used or imitated (by specially constructed and easier to play electronic instruments) in any number of film scores (Spellbound, The Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.) and even in the Beach Boys’ song “Good Vibrations.”

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 49 (Ich Gehe und Suche mit Verlangen)performed on the 20th Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)

• 1844 - Verdi: opera I due Foscari (The Two Foscari), in Rome at the Teatro Argentina

• 1888 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1898 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tsar’s Bride, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1900 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 21)

• 1927 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 5, in Berlin at the Kroll Opera, with Otto Klemperer conducting and the composer the viola soloist

• 1943 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8, at the Moscow Conservatory by the USSR State Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, for an invited audience of musicians, artists, critics, and journalists. The first public performance took place the following evening.

• 1945 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny ravinsky conducting

• 1946 - Prokofiev: opera Betrothal in a Monastery (or The Duenna) in Leningrad

• 1950 - David Diamond: Symphony No. 3, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1958 - Per Norgaard: Constellations for 12 solo strings, in Copenhagen

• 2002 - Milton Babbitt: From the Psalter, David Lang: how to pray, and Shulamit Ran: Supplications, at Carnegie Hall in New York by soloists, the New York Virtuoso Singers and the American Composers Orchestra, Steven Sloane conducting

Others

• 1783 - Mozart completes his Symphony No. 36 (Linz) the day before its first performance in that Austrian town