Composers Datebook

Synopsis

Today’s date in 1946 marks an important moment in Parisian theatrical history with the debut performance of a legendary acting company created by husband-and-wife actors Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud. Their opening production was Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a French translation by André Gide, with incidental music by Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. To play Honegger’s score, Barrault hired two young musicians at the start of their careers.

The first, 21, was to play the eerie electronic sounds Honegger scored for the Ondes Martinot, evoking the elder Hamlet’s ghost. That young musician was a composition student named Pierre Boulez, who would remain associated with Barrault’s company for a decade before becoming a famous conductor and composer of avant-garde scores like Le Marteau Sans Maître.

The second musician Barrault hired was a 22-year-old percussionist, who brought Hamlet to a dramatic close with timpani crescendos evoking Fortinbras’ final line in the play, “Go, bid the soldiers shoot.” That young musician, Maurice Jarre, would also become a famous composer, taking quite a different career path than Boulez. He devoted himself to film scoring, composing several famous ones, such as Dr. Zhivago for British film director David Lean.

Music Played in Today's Program

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016): Le Marteau Sans Maître; Orchestre Du Domaine Musical; Pierre Boulez, conductor; PCA 101

Maurice Jarre (1924-2009): Lara’s Theme from Dr. Zhivago; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Maurice Jarre, conductor; Sony 42307

Synopsis

Of all the works of Richard Strauss, the one that premiered in Dresden on today’s date in 1925 ranks amount the least-known.

For starters, it has an odd title, Parergon to the Symphonia Domestica. “Parergon” means “an ornamental accessory or embellishment,” and he meant his new work, written for piano left-hand and orchestra, as a follow-up to his Symphonia Domestica tone-poem of 1903, which depicted one day in the Strauss family household, complete with baby’s bath.

The baby in question was his son Franz, who by 1925 was a young man setting up his own household, and recently recovered from a near-fatal case of typhus contracted while on his honeymoon in Egypt. For Strauss, this Parergon was a private celebration of his son’s survival.

For Paul Wittgenstein, the wealthy one-handed concert pianist who commissioned the new work, this was one of several he had requested from leading composers of his day, all designed to showcase his talent. Wittgenstein’s contract with Strauss stipulated that Wittgenstein alone would have exclusive rights to the Parergon as long as he wished, and so it wasn’t until 1950 that any other pianist could perform it.

Music Played in Today's Program

Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Parergon to the Symphonia Domestica

Synopsis

The hills surrounding the Austrian town of Salzburg, according to Rogers and Hammerstein, are “alive with the sound of music.” Well, the same could have been said for the vast interior and multiple choir lofts of Salzburg Cathedral on today’s date in 1682. A lavish celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the Archbishopric of Salzburg culminated in a specially-composed mass setting, with performers placed above and all around the citizens assembled there for the occasion.

The music was composed by one of Salzburg’s most remarkable composers. No, not Mozart – he wouldn’t be born for another six decades or so. We’re talking about Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, who lived from 1644 to 1704, and, while not a native son like Mozart, was similarly employed by one of the princely archbishops of Salzburg. Unlike Mozart, however, Biber was on much better terms with his employer.

Biber’s magnificent Missa Salisburgensis for 53 voices is now regarded as a masterpiece of the Baroque music — but was almost lost. Forgotten for two centuries, the manuscript score was rediscovered by a choir director in 1870 in the home of a Salzburg greengrocer, who planned to use the large sheets of music paper to wrap vegetables.

Music Played in Today's Program

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704): Missa Salisburgensis; Musica Antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goebel, conductor; DG Archive 457 611

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1883, the premiere of Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto was given in Prague by Czech violinist František Ondrícek with the National Theatre Orchestra, led by Czech conductor Moric Anger, an old friend of Dvořák’s and his onetime roommate.

The concerto was commissioned by distinguished violinist Joseph Joachim, an old friend and collaborator of German composer Johannes Brahms. Brahms had sent him two of Dvořák’s chamber works for strings. He expressed enthusiasm for these pieces and urged Dvořák to write a concerto for him.

So far, so good.

He had a finished score by December 1879, but Joachim had what we now would call “some issues” with the score, and, by the time he was finishing the last revisions, three years had elapsed with no talk of a premiere. He realized Joachim was unlikely ever to premiere the new concerto, so he offered it to Ondrícek, a young virtuoso who eagerly championed it in Prague and abroad.

Joachim finally did perform Dvořák’s concerto in Berlin in 1894, about 15 years after he had commissioned it.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): Violin Concerto

Synopsis

As far as housewarming gifts go, a nice bottle of champagne is common, or maybe a bouquet of flowers. But if you’re a composer, and the occasion is the ceremonial opening performance at a new concert hall, you write a celebratory piece of music.

On today’s date in 1984, for the inaugural concert of the Indianapolis Symphony’s new home, the Circle Theater, American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich wrote an orchestral work titled, appropriately enough, Celebration.

“In writing this work, I was motivated by three complementary goals. First, I wanted to celebrate a joyous and historic occasion with all its inspiring symbolism of beginning and renewal. My second goal was to write a kind of ‘toccata’ or test piece for the new Circle Theater. Finally, I wanted to celebrate the orchestra itself, which is, after all, the centerpiece of the occasion. Thus, Celebration is like a mini-concerto for orchestra,” she said.

Zwilich’s housewarming gift was dedicated to the Indianapolis Symphony’s music director in 1984, conductor John Nelson. Despite its origins as an occasional piece for a particular event, Celebration has gone on to become one of her most popular and frequently performed orchestral works.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939): Celebration; Indianapolis Symphony; John Nelson, conductor; New World 336