Composers Datebook

Synopsis

A now-obscure Englishman named Charles Caleb Colton is credited with the famous adage that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

On today’s date in 1985, Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings, a new work by American composer John Harbison premiered in Sarasota, Florida, that imitated the form and gestures of the Baroque Concerto Grossos written by Bach or Handel.

Harbison described it as follows: “The oboe, clarinet and strings are equal partners. The first movement is declamatory, the second contemplative, and the last frenetic. Each movement sustains one affect [or mood], in the Baroque manner … The steady insistent rhythms are indeed baroque, the harmonies less so. One astute writer referred to the piece as ‘scenes from a marriage.’ This metaphorical marriage between solo winds and strings contains quarrels, precarious balances, comic relief, misunderstandings and eventual unanimity.”

And, speaking of marriage, Harbison composed the work at Token Creek, in Wisconsin, an unincorporated community near Madison where his wife’s family had farmed since the 1920s and where for some 25 years each summer John and Rose Mary Harbison have organized their own mini-Festival of chamber music.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Harbison (b. 1938): Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Jo-Ann Sternberg, clarinet; Metamorphosen Chamber Players; Scott Yoo, conductor; Archetype Records 60106

Synopsis

It was on today’s date in 2003 that a new violin concerto by composer Shulamit Ran premiered at Carnegie Hall — but it would be just as appropriate for us to run this episode of Composer’s Datebook on Mother’s Day — as Ran explained:

“Thoughts of my mother, Berta Ran, whose strength of spirit has been a profoundly significant guiding light throughout my life, have embedded themselves in various parts of this work. At the closing of the concerto, echoes of a familiar melody, one my mother sang to me in childhood with words of her own creation, appear, gently fading away.”

Ran was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and moved to New York City at 14 on a scholarship to Mannes College of Music. From 1973 to 2015, she taught at the University of Chicago, and served as composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony. In 1991 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Commenting on winning the prestigious award, she admitted to being a little surprised: “I feel I’ve always been out of step,” she said. “At times … I was not considered avant-garde enough. Now, considering the current trend of accessibility, some think I’m too forbidding.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Shulamit Ran (b. 1949): Violin Concerto; Ittai Shapira, violin; BBC Concert Orchestra; Charles Hazlewood, conductor; Albany TROY-970

Synopsis

In Cockney rhyming slang, being “Brahms and Liszt” means being tipsy. But in the latter 19th century, “Brahms and Liszt” signified opposite schools of contemporary music. Oddly enough, it was the younger Brahms, who represented the more conservative, traditionally structured side of the spectrum, while the older Liszt, represented a freer, less structured style, dubbed “the music of the future.”

Brahms and Liszt first met on today’s date in 1853, when Liszt was 41 and Brahms 20. American composer and pianist William Mason was present at the meeting, which took place at Liszt’s home in Weimar, and recalled the encounter in his memoirs.

Liszt read at sight one of Brahms’ early piano pieces and praised the young composer’s work. When pressed for some of his own music, Liszt began playing his recently completed Sonata in B Minor. Midway through the piece it became embarrassingly apparent that Brahms had fallen asleep in his chair.

Maybe it was the summer heat, perhaps sleep deprivation — or maybe, as some must have thought at the time, Brahms was just bored. In any case, Liszt was understandably miffed, and after finishing his Sonata, rose from the piano and left the room without a word.

Music Played in Today's Program

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Ballade No. 3; Lars Vogt, piano; EMI 57125

Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Piano Sonata in B minor; Jeno Jando, piano; Naxos 8.550510

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1926, American opera composer Carlisle Floyd was born in Latta, South Carolina. Floyd’s ancestors were among the first to settle in the Carolinas, and many of operas are based on colonial, southern, or rural themes. For decades he taught piano and composition at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and it was there that his most famous opera, Susannah, was initially staged in 1955.

Susannah was a retelling of the Biblical tale of Susannah and the elders, set in rural America. It was a tremendous success and since its premiere, has received over 300 productions and more than 800 performances in the United States and Europe. Opera America magazine included it among the top ten “most performed” American operas of all time.

When pressed what it is about his music that strikes many listeners as quintessentially American, Floyd once answered, “I’m probably the worst person to ask! I’ve never really set out consciously to write ‘American’ music. I can tell you, however, that when I’ve seen my operas in Europe they have always struck me as more ‘American’ than when I hear them here.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Carlisle Floyd (1926-2021): Susannah; Soloists and Lyon Opera Orchestra; Kent Nagano, conductor; Virgin 45039

Synopsis

Back in Bach’s day, there were churchmen aghast at the thought that composers were trying to sneak flashy opera music into Sunday services. Church music was meant to be simple, austere, and, well, not “operatic.”

So what would they have made of the three “church parables” — mini-operas, really, composed in the 20th century by the great English composer Benjamin Britten?

The third of these, The Prodigal Son, debuted on today’s date in 1968 at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Orford, England. All three impart Christian values and were meant for church performance — scored for a handful of soloists, modest choir, and a small ensemble that would fit in front of and on either side of a church altar where church music was normally performed.

But operas they are, and Britten himself let the “o” word slip when he commented in a 1967 interview that he was “doing another church opera to go with the other two, Curlew River and The Burning Fiery Furnace, to make a kind of trilogy.’”

Britten took these mini-operas seriously, and dedicated The Prodigal Son to his new friend, the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who in turn would dedicate his 14th Symphony to Britten.

Music Played in Today's Program

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): “The Prodigal Son”; Peter Pears, tenor; John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; Robert Tear, tenor; Bryan Drake, baritone; English Opera Group Orchestra; Benjamin Britten, conductor; Decca 425713