Meeting deadlines: Tchaikovsky and Zaimont

Synopsis

Deadlines are a fact of life for many of us — and composers are no exception.

In 1875, Peter Tchaikovsky agreed to write 12 short solo pieces, one a month, for a St. Petersburg music magazine, beginning with their January 1876 issue. Tchaikovsky dashed the first piece off, but, fearing that he might forget his monthly deadline, took the wise precaution of instructing his servant to remind him.

“Peter Ilyich, isn’t it about time to send something off to St. Petersburg?” Tchaikovsky’s dutiful servant would say before each month’s deadline. Tchaikovsky would drop whatever he was working on and finish the next installment.

So, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine Tchaikovsky on this date back in 1876, putting the finishing touches to this little piano piece for the May issue of the St. Petersburg magazine, a sketch he titled Starlight Nights.

More recently, the contemporary American composer, Judith Lang Zaimont, also composed a set of 12 short piano pieces, one for each month, a suite she titled Calendar Collection.

An accomplish pianist and composer, Zaimont taught for many years at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This music — which we again offer ahead of schedule — is titled The May Fly.

Music Played in Today's Program

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): May, from The Seasons; Lang Lang, piano; Sony 11758

Judith Lang Zaimont (b. 1945): The May Fly, from Calendar Collection; Nanette Kaplan Solomon, piano; Leonarda 334

On This Day

Births

• 1464 - English composer Robert Fayrfax, in Deeping Gate, Lincolnshire

• 1857 - Italian opera composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo, in Naples

• 1869 - German composer and conductor Hans Pfitzner (see May 5)

• 1872 - American composer and music educator Arthur Farwell, in St. Paul, Minnesota

• 1891 - Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, in Sontsovka (Bakhmutsk region, Yekaterinoslav district), Ukraine (Julian date: April 11)

Deaths

• 1691 - French composer, harpsichordist and organist Jean Henri d'Angelbert, 62, in Paris

Premieres

• 1627 - Heinrich Schütz: opera Dafne (now lost), at Hartenfels Castle for the wedding of Princess Sophia of Saxony. This work is supposedly the first German opera.

• 1776 - Gluck: Alceste (second version), in Paris at the Académie Royale

• 1881 - Gilbert Sullivan: operetta Patience, at the Opera-Comique Theatre in London

• 1904 - Chadwick: Euterpe Overture, by the Boston Symphony

• 1911 - Berg: String Quartet, in Vienna, by ad hoc quartet Brunner-Holzer-Buchbinder-Hasa Quartet. A later performance in Salzburg on August 2, 1923, by the Havemann Quartet at the First International Festival for Chamber Music, however, attracted wider attention and established Berg's worldwide reputation in musical circles.

• 1920 - Janácek: opera The Excursions of Mr. Broucek, in Prague at the National Theater

• 1922 - Varèse: Offrandes for voice and small orchestra, in New York City, with Carlos Salzedo conducting

• 1948 - Jolivet: Concerto for Ondes Martenot and Orchestra, in Vienna

• 1958 - Robert Kurka: opera The Good Soldier Schweik (posthumously) at the New York City Opera

• 1979 - Rochberg: The Slow Fires of Autumn, for flute and harp, at Tully Hall in New York, with flutist Carol Wincenc

• 1981 - Ezra Laderman: String Quartet No. 6 (The Audubon), in New York City, by the Audubon Quartet

• 1993 - Morten Lauridsen: Les Chanson des Roses (five French poems by Rilke) for mixed chorus and piano, by the Choral Cross-Ties ensemble of Portland, Ore., Bruce Brown conducting

• 1994 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical Passion

• 1998 - James MacMillan: Why is this night different? for string quartet, at London's Wigmore Hall by the Maggini Quartet

Others

• 1738 - Handel is a founding subscriber to the Fund for the Support of Decayed Musicians (now the Royal Society of Musicians) at its first meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in London. The fund was started after the widow and children of Handel's oboe soloist, John Kitch, were found impoverished on the streets of London. Other subscribers to the fund included British composers Boyce, Arne, Green, and Pepusch (Gregorian date: May 4).