Synopsis
On today’s date in 1919, eminent French conductor Pierre Monteux led the Boston Symphony in the premiere performance of The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, a new orchestral score written by American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes.
This music was inspired by the famous Romantic poem of that name by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but owes its exotic orchestral coloring to Griffes’ interest in the music of Asia and the Pacific Rim. Although Griffes himself never traveled there, he knew someone who had: influential Canadian soprano Eva Gauthier, famous for her avant-garde song recitals that included music by Stravinsky and Schoenberg, and her later association with Gershwin and Ravel. It was the well-traveled Gauthier who introduced Griffes to the musical traditions of Japan and Java.
The 1919 Boston premiere of Kubla Khan was the highpoint of Griffes’ career, and all the critics agreed a major new talent had arrived on the American music scene.
Unfortunately, one month later, Griffes took ill and in a few months died from a severe lung infection. He was just 35. How his music would have developed had Griffes lived remains one of the most intriguing “what might have beens” of American music.
Music Played in Today's Program
Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920): The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan; Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, conductor; New World 273
On This Day
Births
1784 - Baptismal date of German composer and pianist Ferdinand Ries, in Bonn
1829 - Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein, in Vikhvatinets, Podolia (see Julian date: Nov. 16)
Deaths
1972 - British composer Havergal Brian, 96, in Shoreham-by-Sea. He composed 32 symphonies between 1919-1968 (most remained unperformed during his lifetime).
Premieres
1723 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 61 (Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland I) performed on the 1st Sunday in Advent as part of Bach’s first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)
1811 - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Johann Philip Christian Schultz conducting, and Friedrich Schneider as the soloist
1895 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera Christmas Eve, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 10)
1896 - Mussorgsky: opera Boris Godunov (Rimsky-Korsakov version), in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 10)
1909 - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3, in Carnegie Hall, composer at piano, Walter Damrosch conducting New York Symphony Society Orchestra
1919 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes: The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, Pierre Monteux conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra
1930 - Hanson: Symphony No. 2 (Romantic), by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting
1930 - Kodály: Marosszék Dances, in Dresden
1940 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 20, in Moscow
1990 - Christopher Rouse: Concerto per Corde (Concerto for Strings), at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, by the American Symphony Orchestra, Catherine Comet conducting
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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.
