Orff's 'Trionfo di Aphrodite'

Synopsis

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!

On today's date in 1953, a new choral work by German composer Carl Orff received its premiere performance at the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. Trionfo di Afrodite was the title of the new work, intended to be the final panel in a triptych of choral works celebrating life and love. This triptych included Orff’s famous Carmina Burana, based on medieval texts, and Catulli Carmina, based on love lyrics by Roman poet Catullus.

All three pieces were given lavish, semi-staged performances at La Scala, led by the Austrian maestro Herbert von Karajan, and with German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda as the star soloists. For the world premiere performance of Trionfo di Afrodite, Schwarzkopf and Gedda portrayed a bride and groom on their wedding night: the texts they sang were pretty hot stuff — if you understand Latin, that is!

Triofi di Afrodite shows Orff’s indebtedness to Stravinsky, and his repetitive rhythmic patterns seem to anticipate the minimalist movement by several decades. At the 1953 premiere, Schwarzkopf’s husband, record producer Walter Legge, gently suggested to Orff that he might consider a few cuts to the new work. His response? “Oh, I know very well the effect of my rubber-stamp music!”

In any case, Legge decided not to make a recording of the new work — which seems a shame, considering the all-star cast assembled at La Scala for its premiere!

Music Played in Today's Program

Carl Orff (1985-1982): Trionfo di Aphrodite

On This Day

Births

• 1602 - Italian opera composer Francesco Cavalli, in Crema

• 1778 - Baptism of Catalan composer and guitarist Fernando Sor, in Barcelona

• 1813 - Russian composer Alexander Dargomizhsky, in Troitskoye, Tula district (Julian date: Feb. 2)

• 1882 - Polish composer and pianist Ignaz Friedman, in Podgorze, near Kraków

Premieres

• 1829 - Bellini: opera La Straniera (The Stranger), in Milan

• 1880 - Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1, in Paris at a concert of the Société Nationale de la Musqique Français

• 1915 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 3 (Gregorian date: Feb. 27)

• 1920 - Erik Satie: Socrate, in Paris

• 1922 - Zandonai: opera Giulietta e Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), in Rome

• 1932 - Goldschmidt: opera Der Gewaltige Hahnrei (The Magnificent Cuckold), in Mannheim at the National Theater

• 1940 - Cage: Second Construction, for four percussionists, in Portland, Oregon

• 1953 - Orff: Trionfo di Afrodite (Triumph of Aphrodite), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala. Note: this premiere date is often listed (incorrectly) as Feb. 13, 1953, in many reference works and CD booklet notes.

Others

• 1865 - American premiere of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 7, at Boston’s Chickering Hall, with Benjamin J. Lang at the piano, accompanied by members of the Mendelssohn Quintet Club. The Feb. 18 edition of Dwight’s Journal commented: “A novelty, a quaint one, and as it proved quite captivating … Mr. Lang played it with delicacy and nicety, entering into the lightsome, racy humor of it … After this experiment, may we not say that the Bach bug-bear is already vanishing?”

• 1911 - Gustav Mahler conducts the New York Philharmonic in a program featuring new music by British (Elgar, Standford) and American (Chadwick, Loeffler, MacDowell and Hadley) composers