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Composers Datebook: Daily Summaries Delivered
by American Public Media
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
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- Today2 min
Sondheim in the woods
SynopsisInto the Woods, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, opened on Broadway on today’s date in 1987, and brought to the stage characters from the world of fairy tales: Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and not one, but two Prince Charmings.But in Lapine and Sondheim’s fairy tale, bad things happen to good people who make morally questionable decisions in their quest to “live happily ever after.”At the time, Sondheim said, “All fairy tales are parables about steps to maturity. The final step is when you become responsible for the people around you, when you feel connected to the rest of the world.”The New York Times review noted that this fairy tale’s quest was “the same painful, existential one taken by so many adults in Sondheim musicals past.” Granting the musical was “potent stuff,” some complained there was simply too much of it, with multiple plot lines resulting in a complicated story hampering Sondheim’s lyrical gifts from really taking off on their own.Even so, since its 1987 premiere, Into the Woods has gone on to become one of the most performed and popular of all Sondheim’s musicals.Music Played in Today's ProgramStephen Sondheim (1930-2021): Into the Woods; original Broadway cast members; RCA 60752
- Yesterday2 min
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
SynopsisToday we honor one of America’s greatest patrons of chamber music, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who died on this date in 1953.Born in 1864, Coolidge was the daughter of a wealthy wholesale grocer. She put her inheritance to good use. In 1924, she proposed to the Library of Congress that an auditorium be constructed in Washington, D.C., that would be dedicated to the performance of chamber music. A year later it was built, and Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress still stands today.Not content with just a superb venue for chamber music, she diligently commissioned new works to be played there. The list of important chamber pieces her foundation commissioned is impressive, and includes Bartok and Schoenberg string quartets, the original chamber versions of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Stravinsky’s Apollo ballets, and modern works by American composers as diverse as Samuel Barber, Milton Babbitt, George Crumb and John Corigliano.Coolidge was an amateur composer and accomplished pianist. Her passion for music and enthusiasm for the creation of new works was all the more remarkable considering that tragically she battled deafness from her mid-30s.Music Played in Today's ProgramIgor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Apollo ballet; Stockholm Chamber Orchestra; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Sony Classical 46667
- 2 days ago2 min
How to pray
SynopsisAt Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 2002, the American Composers Orchestra presented new works inspired by the Hebrew Psalms. The program included the premiere of a new work by American composer David Lang, How to Pray.In his program note, Lang wrote: “[The] Psalms are so central to religious experience [because] they are a comprehensive catalogue of how to talk to the Almighty. ... Of course, it's like reading one side of a correspondence. ... I am not a religious person. I don't know how to pray. I do, however, know some of the times and places and formulas that are supposed to help make prayer possible. Sometimes I find myself sending those messages out. And then I wait, secretly hoping that I will recognize the response.”The minimalist-style, patterned repetition in Lang’s How to Pray, reminded some listeners of a “mandala” — those intricate graphic patterns intended to be an aid to meditation for Hindu or Buddhist believers.Stravinsky fans with sharp ears might also recognize the running piano line from the beginning of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, which Lang borrows and weaves into the pattern of How to Pray as both a tribute and inspiration.Music Played in Today's ProgramDavid Lang (b. 1957): How to Pray; Real Quiet ensemble; Gil Rose, conductor; Naxos 8.559615
- 3 days ago2 min
Mozart and 'Amadeus'
SynopsisOn today’s date in 1979, a new play by Peter Schaffer, Amadeus, opened at the National Theatre in London.Schaffer’s play tells the story of Mozart’s final years in Vienna, including some posthumous gossip that it was the petty jealousy and back-stabbing intrigue of Mozart’s Italian contemporary Antonio Salieri that hastened his untimely demise. There was even a Romantic legend that Salieri had actually poisoned Mozart, a legend Shaffer gave a psychological spin.Music historians were quick to attack Shaffer’s play as wildly inaccurate and downright unfair to poor old Salieri, who, they said, was not all that bad a fellow. Accurate or not, Schaffer’s play was a big hit, and five years later was made into a wildly successful film. That movie version of Amadeus prompted millions of new classical music fans to snap up any recordings of Mozart’s Requiem they could find.And what about the music historians? They couldn’t even find comfort in the old public relations adage, “There’s no such thing as bad press as long as they spell your name right!” They felt even the movie’s title was bogus. Mozart never signed his middle name “Amadeus,” preferring the French version, “Amadé.”Music Played in Today's ProgramWolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Requiem; La Chapelle Royale and Orchestre des Champs Elysees; Philippe Herreweghe, conductor; Harmonia Mundi 901620
- 4 days ago2 min
Three Parisian premieres
SynopsisIn France, today is “la Fete de la Toussaint” — All Saints’ Day — observed as both a sacred and secular national holiday, a time to visit cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of relatives. In 1947, when memories of the dead of World War II were still fresh, French Radio broadcast three premieres at a special concert from the Salle Gaveau in Paris.First on the program was the French premiere of Hungarian composer Lazlo Lajhta’s somber In Memoriam. This had been the first new orchestral work to be performed in Budapest when concert life had resumed after the war.Second was the world premiere of the Symphony No. 6 by Polish composer Alexandre Tansman, who, being Jewish, found refuge in France in 1938, then, during the German occupation, had fled to the United States. In 1946, he returned to Europe in time for the premiere of his symphony, In Memoriam, at this concert.The third work on the program was another world premiere: a newly completed Requiem Mass by French composer Maurice Duruflé, originally commissioned as an orchestral work in 1941 during the German occupation of France, which morphed into a choral Requiem Mass by the time of the liberation.Music Played in Today's ProgramMaurice Duruflé (1902-1986): Requiem; Westminster Choir; Joseph Flummerfelt, conductor; Avie 46
- 5 days ago2 min
Composer skulls
SynopsisSince today is Halloween, how about a tale from the crypt — with a composer’s skull or two tossed in for good measure!Music lovers have always had a “thing” about composers’ skulls. In 1820, for example, Prince Esterhazy ordered that Haydn’s remains be transferred from Vienna to Eisenstadt, only to discover that Haydn’s skull was missing. It had been stolen by two of Haydn’s closest friends, who had bribed the gravediggers, claiming they did it for pseudo-scientific phrenological research. In 1888, it was the remains of Beethoven and Schubert who were dug up and moved to Vienna’s new Central Cemetery. Nothing was missing, but on both occasions, the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner was present, and, according to witnesses, managed somehow to lovingly hold the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert in his hands and speak to them before they were reburied. For his part, Bruckner insisted that he buried under the organ at St. Florian Monastery in upper Austria, and if you pay your respects today, you will see that Bruckner’s coffin is in an underground crypt, sharing space with a wall of thousands of stacked skulls looking out at you, bones belonged to early Christians who, like Bruckner, wished to be buried there.Music Played in Today's ProgramKevin Puts (b. 1972): Marimba Concerto; Ji Su Jung, marimba; Baltimore Symphony; Marin Alsop, conductor; Naxos CD 8.559926
- 6 days ago2 min
Heggie's 'Great Scott'
SynopsisAmerican opera composer Jake Heggie and his librettist Terrence McNally decided to follow their Dead Man Walking — a successful but harrowing opera about capital punishment — with a lighter, more comic work, Great Scott.Now, McNally winced when people called Great Scott a “comic” opera, since it deals with a serious topic — for opera lovers, at least, namely, “Does opera still matter?”Great Scott is set in a large U.S. city with a respected, but struggling, opera company. The city also has a powerhouse professional football team. In Great Scott, international opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the opera company by staging the world premiere of a long-lost Italian bel canto work, Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei. Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere falls on the same day as the home team’s first Super Bowl.Does the diva save the opera company? And who wins the Super Bowl?Well, you’ll just have to listen to the opera to find out!Fortunately, a Dallas Opera recording of Great Scott was made at its premiere on today’s date in 2015 — featuring powerhouse American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role.Music Played in Today's ProgramJake Heggie (b. 1961): Rosa Dolorosa Overture from Great Scott; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano; Dallas Opera; Patrick Summers, conductor; Erato 9029594078
- 1 weeks ago2 min
Handel advertises his wares
SynopsisOn today’s date in 1739, George Frideric Handel took out an advertisement, announcing that he was now accepting subscriptions for his new set of 12 Grand Concertos for strings. He had, in fact, finished the first concerto one month before, on Sept. 29, and spent the next five weeks polishing off the other 11 at the rate of one every two or three days.Handel’s publisher was John Walsh Jr., who had a shop in London at the sign of the harp and oboe in Catherine Street on the Strand. One hundred twenty-two copies of the music were to be printed and sold at a prepublication price of two guineas each. Among the initial 100 subscribers were three royal princesses and the duke of Cumberland, and two copies each were sold to the Academy of Music in Dublin and a certain Charles Jennens.It was Jennens who was to provide the text for Handel’s next major oratorio, Messiah, and the city of Dublin the venue for its famous premiere.So, in 1739, just as today, it pays to advertise!Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Frederic Handel (1685-1757): Concerto Grosso No. 5; I Solisti Italiani; Denon 6305
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About Composers Datebook
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
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