Synopsis
On the popular NPR quiz show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, there is a segment called “Bluff the Listener” where three outlandish news stories are read to a contestant, who then has to guess which one is true. So, for the voice of Bill Kurtis on your home answering machine, which of these really happened in London on today’s date in 1732:
a) George Frideric Handel got into a sword fight with his Southbank wigmaker, screaming at the poor man, “Donnervetter! In dis vig I luk like ein Pomeranian hund!”
b) Handel’s especially smooth trip across the Thames to buy said wig provided the inspiration for his famous Water Music, or
c) as part of his 47th birthday celebration, choir boys from the Chapel Royal sang and acted in a staged performance of Handel’s sacred oratorio Esther in the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand.
If you guessed “C” you would be correct. Extra points if you knew that this would be the only staged performance of any of Handel sacred oratorios before the twentieth century, and that in Handel’s day there was a ban on presenting staged biblical dramas in public theaters — but not, apparently, in pubs.
Music Played in Today's Program
George Friedrich Handel (1685-1759): Overture from Esther (1732 version); London Handel Orchestra; Laurence Cummings, conductor; SOMM CD-2389
On This Day
Births
1648 - (or possibly 1649) Baptismal date of English composer and organist John Blow, in Newark, Nottinghamshire
1685 - German-born British composer George Frideric Handel, as “Georg Friedrich Händel,” in Halle (Saxony)
1900 - American composer Elinor Remick Warren, in Los Angeles
1920 - American composer Hall Overton, in Bangor, Michigan
Deaths
1704 - Austrian composer and organist Georg Muffat, 50, in Passau, Germany
1934 - English composer Sir Edward Elgar, 76, in Worcester
1983 - English composer Henry Howells, 90, in London
Premieres
1732 - Handel: oratorio Esther in London at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, by an ensemble including the Children of the Chapel Royal, on the occasion (in England) of Handel’s 47th birthday (Gregorian date: Mar. 5)
1835 - Halévy: opera La Juive (The Jewess), at the Paris Opéra
1854 - Liszt: symphonic poem, Les Préludes, in Weimar, conducted by the composer
1882 - Chadwick: Symphony No. 1, by the Boston Symphony
1903 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Preludes Nos. 1, 2, and 5, and Variations on a Theme of Chopin, in Moscow, by the composer (Julian date: Feb. 10)
1913 - Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder, in Vienna
1916 - Griffes: White Peacock for piano, by Winifred Christie in New York City
1923 - Ernest Schelling: A Victory Ball, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting
1945 - Villa-Lobos: Choros No. 12 for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting
1956 - Leon Kirchner: Piano Concerto No. 1, in New York City, composer at the piano
1962 - Stravinsky: A Sermon, A Narrative and A Prayer, in Basle (Switzerland), conducted by Paul Sacher (to whom the work is dedicated)
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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.
