Rachmaninoff dances

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1941, the final orchestral work of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff received its premiere performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy.

It was an orchestral suite, Symphonic Dances, and was originally planned as a triptych depicting the passage of time, with its three sections to be titled “Midday,” “Twilight” and “Midnight.” For this new work, Rachmaninoff recycled music from an older one: an unfinished ballet from 1915.

Rachmaninoff was an unabashed and unrepentant Romantic at heart, with his musical style grounded in the late 19th-century tradition. Oddly enough, in all other matters Rachmaninoff was modern — even trendy. When living in Russia, he owned the first automobile in his rural part of the country. After settling in Switzerland, the home he built on Lake Lucerne was designed in the ultra-modern Bauhaus style, and Rachmaninoff liked to zoom around the lake in a snappy little speedboat.

And, when in New York City, rather than sipping borscht at the Russian Tea Room, he would more likely be seen at a corner drug store, indulging in a quintessential American treat: ice-cream sodas.

Music Played in Today's Program

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Symphonic Dances; Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, cond. Reference 96

On This Day

Births

• 1909 - Danish pianist and musical humorist Victor Borge, in Copenhagen;

• 1943 - Austrian composer, singer (?), and double bass player H.K. Gruber, in Vienna;

Deaths

• 1785 - Italian composer Baldassare Galuppi, age 68, in Venice;

• 1942 - Russian composer and violinist Julius Conus, age 72, in Malenski (USSR);

Premieres

• 1738 - Handel: opera "Faramondo" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket; This was the opening production of Handel's opera season that year, and featured the London debut of Gaetano Majorano (called "Caffarelli"), a male soprano castrato (Gregorian date: Jan. 14);

• 1843 - Donizetti: opera "Don Pasquale," in Paris;

• 1890 - Tchaikovsky: ballet, "Sleeping Beauty" (Gregorian date: Jan. 15);

• 1897 - Dukas: Symphony in C, in Paris;

• 1903 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 7, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Dec. 21, 1902);

• 1941 - Rachmaninoff: "Symphonic Dances," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

Others

• 1925 - German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler makes his Americandebut, conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.