Today's Birthdays

Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932) Henry Wood (1869-1944) Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) Frank Wigglesworth (1918-1996) Doc Watson (1923-2012) Martin Lovett (1927-2020) Florence Quivar (1944) Roberta Alexander (1949) Katia Labèque (1950) and James Merrill (1926-1995) Ira Glass (1959) From the Writer's Almanac: Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was published on this date in 1802. Its real name is the slightly less evocative “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2,” and its Italian subtitle is translated as “almost a fantasy.” In 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, a German critic compared the sonata to the effect of moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne, and the interpretation became so popular that, by the end of the century, the piece was universally known as the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven himself had attributed the emotion of the piece to sitting at the bedside of a friend who had suffered an untimely death. It was on this day in 1875 that the opera Carmen appeared on stage for the first time at the Opéra-Comique in France. When it premiered, the audience was shocked by the characters of Carmen, a gypsy girl, and her lover, Don José. The opera ran for 37 performances even though it came out late in the season, and it came back the next season, too. Nietzsche heard Carmen 20 different times, and thought of it as a musical masterpiece. Tchaikovsky first heard Carmen in 1880. Bizet died of a heart attack just three months after the opera's debut. It was on this day in 1931 that "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from a poem written by Francis Scott Key more than a century before, "Defence of Fort McHenry." He'd spent a night toward the end of the War of 1812 hearing the British navy bombard Baltimore, Maryland. The bombardment lasted 25 hours — and in the dawn's early light, Francis Scott Key emerged to see the U.S. flag still waving over Fort McHenry. He jotted the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" on the back of an envelope. Then he went to his hotel and made another copy, which was printed in the Baltimore American a week later. The tune for the Star-Spangled Banner comes from an old British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," which was very popular at men's social clubs in London during the 1700s. Francis Scott Key himself did the pairing of the tune to his poem. It was a big hit. For the next century, a few different anthems were used at official U.S. ceremonies, including "My Country Tis of Thee" and "Hail Columbia." The U.S. Navy adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner" for its officialdom in 1889, and the presidency did in 1916. But it wasn't until this day in 1931 — just 80 years ago — that Congress passed a resolution and Hoover signed into law the decree that "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the official national anthem of the United States of America.

Today's Birthdays

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960)
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
Leo Brouwer (1939)
Moray Welsh (1947)
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (1954-2006)
Galina Gorchakova (1962)
Thomas Adès (1971)

and

Oskar Kokoschka (1866-1980)
Ralph Ellison (1913-1994)
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
Richard Wilbur (1921-2017)

Review: Vancouver Symphony celebrates Simon, Copland, and Gershwin in All-American program

 

The Vancouver Symphony celebrated the nation’s 250^th birthday in grand style at Skyview Concert Hall (February 21) with an All-American program that put the spotlight on the orchestra rather than on a soloist. The lineup was bookended with works by Carlos Simon and George Gershwin, drawing from African-American music, which aptly complemented Black History Month. Filling in the center were two beloved works by Aaron Copland, and all of the selections were led energetically by Music Director Salvador Brotons, who noted their challenging musical demands.

Simon, whose album Requiem for the Enslaved, was nominated for a Grammy-award in 2023, has emerged as one of our country’s best composers. His music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and many other ensembles.

The VSO opened its concert with Simon’s Four Black American Dances, which was commissioned and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2023. In the first dance, “Ring Shout,” the percussion section created crispy snaps and dashes. The strings launched into a vigorous motoric sequence. Raspy trumpets and sliding trombones put everything into a groove that went full bore. The strings led the way in an elegant and leisurely second dance, “Waltz,” and the third dance “Tap!” took things up a notch with the snare drum accenting the sound. The final dance, “Holy Dance,” had a delightful mélange with tubular bells, snappy wood stick, and wah-wah-ing trombones that suggested a Hamond-organ sound. The piece wrapped up in big-band-symphonic style that reminded me of Gershwin.

Next on the program came “Four Dances Episodes” from Rodeo, which Copland originally wrote as a ballet for Agnes de Mille. The orchestra kicked things off with a feisty “Buckaroo Holiday,” that conveyed the lively goings-on at a rodeo. The gentle interplay between the bassoon and oboe, the dusky sound from the lower strings, and the soothing trumpets gave the “Corral Nocturne” a poignant quality. The famous melody permeated the “Saturday Night Waltz” with a lovely, relaxed feeling. The “Hoe-Down” charged up the atmosphere with toe tapping energy.

Copland originally wrote Appalachian Spring for thirteen instruments, but his version for full orchestra, which he uncorked a year later (1945) captures the original spirit of the piece perfectly. Brotons paced the orchestra deftly so that the music opened slowly and gracefully like a flower in bloom. The animated sections galloped along well, although the oboist struggled to play some phrases cleanly. The Shaker Hymn “Simple Gifts” sounded carefree and graceful, and the orchestra concluded the piece resolutely and with an air of hopefulness.

Saving the best for last, the orchestra gave an inspired performance of Catfish Row, which is a suite of tunes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which is considered the greatest and most-well known American opera ever written. Inflected with musical style of Black Americans, including jazz, most of the audience recognized familiar numbers like “Summertime” and “Bess You Is My Woman Now.”  The brass section of the orchestra really got into the swing of the jazzy style from the opening passages, which have a busy, bustling openness and hopefulness. Michael Liu made the piano sing with the strains of honkytonk strains of “Jazzbo Brown’s Piano Blues” and special guest Peter Frajola (former associate concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony) brightened things up with his banjo for the “I Got Plenty of Nuttin” song. The orchestra aptly delivered passages that portray a hurricane, violent fights, and several other dramatic moments of the opera - all of led up to the thrilling finale when Porgy eagerly resolves to go to New York City to pursue Bess. It all made this reviewer wonder if there would be a way for the VSO to present a concert version someday.

Today's Birthdays

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)
Sergueï Bortkiewicz (1877-1952
Guiomar Novaes (1895-1979)
Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967)
Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998)
George Malcolm (1917-1997)
Joseph Rouleau (1929-2019)
Osmo Vänskä (1953)
Markus Stenz (1965)

and

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Stephen Spender (1909-1995)
Zero Mostel (1915-1977)
Frank Gehry (1929-2025)
John Fahey (1939-2001)
Stephen Chatman (1950)
Colum McCann (1965)
Daniel Handler (1970)

and from the Composers Datebook

On this date in 1882, the Royal College of Music is founded in London.

Today's Birthdays

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976)
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Elizabeth Welch (1904-2003)
Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006)
Mirella Freni (1935-2020)
Morten Lauridsen (1943)
Gidon Kremer (1947)
Frank-Peter Zimmermann (1956)

and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990)
N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024)
Ralph Nadar (1934)

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antoine) Reicha (1770-1836)
Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944)
Emmy Destinn (1878-1930)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Witold Rowicki (1914-1989)
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (1928-2017)
Lazar Berman (1930-2005)
Johnny Cash (1932-2005)
Guy Klucevsek (1947)
Emma Kirkby (1949)
Richard Wargo (1957)
Carlos Kalmar (1958)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
John George Nicolay (1832-1901)
Elisabeth George (1949)

Today's Birthdays

Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789)
Antoine Reicha (1770-1836)
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965)
Victor Silvester (1900-1978)
Davide Wilde (1935-2025)
Jesús López-Cobos (1940)
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Lucy Shelton (1944)
Denis O'Neill (1948)
Melinda Wagner (1957)

and

Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Karl Friedrich May (1842–1874)
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)
John C. Farrar (1896-1974)

And from the New Music Box:

On February 25, 1924, the first issue of the League of Composers Review was published. Under the editorial leadership of Minna Lederman, this publication—which soon thereafter changed its name to Modern Music (in April 1925)—was the leading journalistic voice for contemporary music in America for over 20 years and featured frequent contributions from important composers of the day including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, John Cage, Marc Blitzstein, Henry Cowell, Lehman Engel, and Marion Bauer. Its final issue appeared in the Fall of 1946.

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1682, Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, age 37, is murdered in Genoa, apparently in retaliation for running off with a Venetian nobleman's mistress.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Boësset (1587-1643)
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Johann Baptist Cramer (1771-1858)
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Luigi Denza (1846-1922)
Oskar Böhme (1870-1938)
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940)
Michel Legrand (1932-2019)
Renato Scotto (1934-2023)
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946)

and

Wilhelm (Carl) Grimm (1786-1859)
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
George Augustus Moore (1852-1933)
Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973)
Weldon Kees (1914-1955)
Jane Hirshfield (1953)
Judith Butler (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1955, Carlisle Floyd's opera "Susannah" received its premiere at Florida State University in Tallahassee. According to Opera America, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade.