Synopsis
On today’s date in 1853, expectations both on stage and off must have been high when a 20-year-old German pianist and composer named Johannes Brahms made his public debut in Leipzig. Just two months earlier, the older composer Robert Schumann had published a glowing prediction that young Brahms was going to turn out to be the bright hope for the future of German music.
Brahms played his big Piano Sonata No. 1, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. He also met great French composer Hector Berlioz, who wrote, “Brahms has had a great success here and made a deep impression on me ... this diffident, audacious young man who has taken into his head to make a new music.”
When his Piano Sonata No. 1 was first published by Breitkopf & Haertel, along with some early songs, Brahms immediately sent copies off to Schumann, with this note: “I take the liberty of sending you your first foster children (who owe to you their citizenship of the world). In their new garb they seem to me too prim and embarrassed — I still cannot accustom myself to seeing these guileless children of nature in their smart new clothes!”
Music Played in Today's Program
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Sonata No. 1; Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Philips 438 477
On This Day
Births
1749 - Italian composer Domenico Cimarosa, in Aversa
1894 - American conductor Arthur Fiedler, in Boston
1904 - Soviet composer Dimtri Kabalevsky, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 30)
Deaths
1562 - Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, 72, in Venice
1870 - Italian composer Giuseppe Saverio Mercadante, 75, in Naples
1930 - British composer Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine), 36, dies by suicide in London
Premieres
1737 - Handel: anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn in London at King Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, during the funeral service for Queen Caroline , a major patroness of Handel’s (Gregorian date: Dec. 28)
1853 - Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 1, and Scherzo, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, by the composer at his public debut during a chamber concert of the David Quartet
1865 - Schubert: Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) in Vienna, Johann von Herbeck conducting. For this performance, the last movement of Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 was appended as a finale.
1879 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 10, in Prague
1887 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, in St. Petersburg, by the Russian Symphony, with the composer conducting (see Julian date: Dec. 5)
1937 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 17, in Moscow
1953 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10, by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting
1954 - Persichetti: Symphony No. 4, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy 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.
