Synopsis
On today’s date in 1951, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere performance of Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2. Ives was then 76 and living in Connecticut. Heart disease and diabetes left him far too weak to attend the Carnegie Hall premiere. Nicholas Slonimsky recalls once asking the thin and pale Ives how he was feeling, to which Ives replied he felt so weak that he said, “I can’t even spit into the fireplace.”
Ives didn’t own a radio, so he visited his neighbors, the Ryders, to hear Bernstein conduct the Sunday afternoon broadcast performance of music he had composed some 50 years earlier.
“There’s not much to say about the Symphony. I express the musical feelings of the Connecticut country in the 1890s. It’s full of the tunes they sang and played then, and I thought it would be a sort of a joke to have some of these tunes in counterpoint with some Bach-like tunes,” he said at the time.
His neighbor, Mrs. Ryder, recalled how he reacted to the radio broadcast: “Mr. Ives sat in the front room and listened as quietly as could be, and I sat way back behind him, because I didn’t want him to think I was looking at him. After it was over, I’m sure he was very much moved. He stood up, walked over the fireplace, and spat! And then he walked out into the kitchen and said not a word.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Charles Ives (1874-1954): Symphony No. 2 New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; DG 429 220
On This Day
Births
1810 - Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin, in Zelazowa Wola (This is the date contained in the composer’s baptismal certificate. Chopin gave March 1, 1810, as his birthdate.)
1817 - Danish composer Niels W. Gade, in Copenhagen
1961 - American composer Lowell Liebermann, in New York City
Deaths
1903 - Austrian composer Hugo Wolf, 42, in Vienna
Premieres
1878 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4, in Moscow, with Nikolai Rubinstein conducting (Julian date: Feb. 10)
1881 - Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, in Liverpool, with the composer conducting and Joseph Joachim as soloist
1890 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 (revised version), in Vienna, at one of the Rosé Chamber Concerts, with the composer at the piano. The first version of this Trio, composed in 1854, received one of its first public performances ever in New York City on November 27, 1855.
1907 - Ravel: Introduction and Allegro, in Paris
1938 - Kabalesvky: opera Colas Breugnon, in Leningrad
1941 - Paul Creston: Symphony No. 1, in New York City
1941 - Morton Gould: Latin American Symphonette, in Brooklyn, New York
1945 - Virgil Thomson: Symphony on a Hymn Tune, in New York City, with the composer conducting
1962 - Benjamin Lees: Concerto for Orchestra No. 1, in Rochester, New York
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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.