Berlioz gets paid (eventually)

Synopsis

In 1834, the great violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini acquired a new Stradivarius viola. He approached 30-year-old French composer Hector Berlioz and commissioned him to write a viola concerto.

What Berlioz came up with, however, was a Romantic program symphony with a prominent part for solo viola, Harold in Italy, inspired by Byron’s narrative poem “Childe Harold.” Paganini was disappointed.

“That is not what I want,” he said. “I am silent a great deal too long. I must be playing the whole time.”

And so, when Harold in Italy was first performed, at the Paris Conservatory on today’s date in 1834, it was an old classmate of Berlioz’s, Chrétien Urhan, who was the soloist, not the superstar Paganini. The audience seemed to like the “Pilgrims’ March” movement of the symphony, which was encored, but otherwise the performance was one train wreck after another.

Four years later, however, Berlioz had the last laugh when Paganini, hearing the music he commissioned at a better performed concert, rose from the audience, mounted the stage and publicly declared Berlioz a genius, and, two days later, presented the stunned Berlioz with a check for 20,000 francs.

Music Played in Today's Program

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Harold in Italy; Nobuko Imai, viola; London Symphony; Colin Davis, cond. Philips 416 431

On This Day

Births

• 1876 - Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, in Cádiz;

• 1878 - French composer, conductor and arranger André Caplet, in Le Havre;

• 1928 - American musical composer Jerry Bock, in New Haven, Conn.;

• 1933 - Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, in Debica;

Deaths

• 1585 - English composer and organist Thomas Tallis, age c. 80, in Greenwich; This date is not certain (Nov. 20 is also cited as a possibility);

Premieres

• 1834 - Berlioz: "Harold in Italy," by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, with Narcisse Girard conducting and Chrétien Urhan the soloist;

• 1850 - George Loder: overture, "Marmion," composer conducting Philharmonic Society of New York;

• 1867 - Brahms: Ballad No. 1 ("Edward"), from Op. 10, in Vienna;

• 1890 - Dvorák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in Eb, Op., 87, in Prague;

• 1899 - Dvorák: opera "The Devil and Kate," in Prague;

• 1921 - Janácek: "Kátya Kabanová," in Brno at the National Theater;

• 1928 - Daniel Gregory Mason: "Chanticleer (Festival Overture)", in Cincinnati;

• 1931 - Bartók: ballet, "The Wooden Prince," in Budapest;

• 1934 - Copland: "Short Symphony" in Mexico City, by the Orquestra Sinfonica de Mexico, with Carlos Chávez conducting; Subsequent scheduled performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony had to be cancelled, as the work was considered too difficult to prepare in the available time;

• 1940 - Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g, in Moscow, by the Beethoven Quartet, with the composer at the piano;

• 1963 - Daniel Pinkham: Symphony No. 2 in Lansing, Michigan;

• 1985 - Michael Torke: “Bright Blue Music,” at Carnegie Hall in New York, by the New York City Youth Symphony, David Alan Miller conducting;

Others

• 1885 - Austro-Hungarian conductor Anton Siedl, a Wagner protégé, makes his American debut conducting "Lohengrin" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York;

• 1903 - Italian tenor Enrico Caruso debuts at New York's Metropolitan Opera in Verdi's "Rigoletto"; He would sing a total of 607 performances with the Met, the last occurring on December 24, 1920 (an evening performance of Halevy's "La Juive");