Synopsis
Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s symphonies were introduced to American audiences in the 1880s, when Bruckner was still alive and composing. Walter Damrosch introduced Bruckner’s Third to New York audiences in 1885, Theodore Thomas conducted the Seventh in Chicago in 1886, and Anton Seidl led the first New York performance of the Fourth in 1888.
Bruckner, then in his 60s, was thrilled to learn that Americans were performing his music. He would have been less thrilled had he seen the reviews. “Formless, weird, fragmentary, flimsy, uncongenial, and empty,” were just a few of the adjectives that greeted his music.
After his death in 1896, it was the Boston Symphony’s turn to take up his cause. On today’s date in 1901, Wilhelm Gericke led the American premiere of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, to mixed reaction: “Interesting, scholarly and very skillfully orchestrated, ”said some, “not very coherent or systematic,” said others.
When Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 debuted at a Boston Symphony matinee conducted by Max Fiedler in 1909, one reviewer wrote, “The work is, of course, massive, but it is massive like a business building, not like a mountain; it impresses one, but it does not move the emotions ... Altogether it made a trying afternoon.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): Symphony No. 5; Saarbrucken Radio Symphony; Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor; Arte Nova 43305
On This Day
Births
1906 - American composer, pianist and entertainer Oscar Levant, in Pittsburgh
Deaths
1944 - American composer and pianist Amy Marcey Cheney (Mrs. H.H.A.) Beach, 77, in New York
1992 - American composer Stephen Albert, 51, in a car accident in Truro, Massachusetts
Premieres
1723 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 64 (Sehet, Welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater Erzeiget) performed on the 3rd Day of Christmas as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)
1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 133 (Ich Freue Mich in Dir) performed on the Third Day of Christmas as part of Bach’s second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25)
1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 151 (Süsser Trost, mein Jesus Kömmt) performed on the Third Day of Christmas as part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)
1734 - Bach: Part 3 (Herrscher der Himmels, Erhöre das Lallen) of the six-part Christmas Oratorio, in Leipzig
1896 - Chausson: Poéme, in Nancy, with Guy Ropartz conducting and Eugène Ysayë as soloist
1901 - American premiere of Bruckner: Symphony No. 5, by the Boston Symphony, Wilhelm Gericke conducting
1906 - Florent Schmitt: Psalm XLVII, in Paris
1954 - Menotti: The Saint of Bleecker Street, in New York City. This work won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1955.
Others
1841 - Franz Liszt performs at the Singakademie in Berlin; Women swooned and the general audience reacts with such uncontrolled enthusiasm that Heinrich Heine coins the term “Lisztomania” to describe their fanatical devotion to the performer, which soon swept through most of Europe
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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.
