Synopsis
Émile Lemoine was a French mathematician and passionate amateur musician who, in 1861, founded a members-only chamber music society he called “La Trompette,” or “The Trumpet,” a society that soon included some of the most famous musicians in Paris, including composer Camille Saint-Saëns. For years Lemoine begged Saint-Saëns to compose a chamber work for his society, asking only, not surprisingly, that it feature the trumpet.
Saint-Saëns eventually fulfilled Lemoine’s wish, composing a Septet for the unusual combination of trumpet, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, and piano, a work influenced somewhat by his love of 17th century French music and dances.
The Septet was successfully premiered at a La Trompette series concert on today’s date in 1880 and published the next year. Some consider it a minor masterpiece for its skillful writing, musical humor, and effective balancing of the unusual instrumental forces.
Of all his works, it was the septet that Saint-Saëns reportedly liked the most, even though he once confessed to Lemoine, “When I think how much you pestered me to make me produce, against my better judgment, this piece that I did not want to write and which has become one of my great successes, I am at loss to explain it.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Préambule from Septet; Trio a Cordes Francais; EMI 47543
On This Day
Births
1812 - German composer, cellist and conductor Julius Rietz, in Berlin
1837 - American composer, conductor, pianist and organist B. J. Lang, in Salem, Massachusetts
1896 - American composer Roger Sessions, in Brooklyn
Deaths
1937 - French composer Maurice Ravel, 62, in Paris
1963 - German composer Paul Hindemith, 68, in Frankfurt
Premieres
1720 - Handel: opera Radamisto (second version), in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket, with the great Italian alto-castrato Senesino making his debut in one of Handel’s works (Gregorian date: Jan. 8, 1721)
1737 - Handel: anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn (Julian date: Dec. 17)
1894 - Henry Holden Huss: Piano Concerto, by the Boston Symphony, Emil Paur conducting, and the composer as soloist
1925 - Gershwin: musical Tip-Toes, at the Liberty Theater in New York City. This show included the classic Gershwin songs “Sweet and Low Down,” “That Certain Feeling,” and “These Charming People.”
1930 - Cowell: Piano Concerto, in Havana, Cuba, by the Havana Philharmonic, with the composer at the piano
1944 - Bernstein: musical On the Town, in New York City at the Adelphi Theater. A trial run of this show had opened in Boston at the Colonial Theater on December 13, 1944. The 1944 Broadway production would run for 462 performances.
1944 - Miklós Rósza: Concerto for String Orchestra, in Los Angeles
1948 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 26, in Moscow
1952 - Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano (part two of a two-part recital), in Leningrad, by pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva; See also Dec. 23
Others
1945 - Igor Stravinsky becomes an American citizen
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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.
