"Music for Prague" in Prague

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1990, the Czech-born composer Karel Husa returned to his home town of Prague to conduct a concert of his own music after more than forty years in exile. Husa had left Prague in 1948 after the post-War communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, and in 1954 accepted a teaching post at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1959.

On the night of August 20, 1968, Husa learned to his dismay that troops from the Soviet Union had invaded his homeland to suppress a growing Czech democratic movement. In a matter of months, Husa completed a work for wind ensemble entitled “Music for Prague, 1968.” It was a powerful work, inspired by powerful emotions, and it soon became a classic of wind band repertory.

At the festive concert in Prague's Smetana Hall on February 13, 1990, broadcast nationwide by Czech radio and television networks, Husa conducted the Czechoslovak premiere of “Music for Prague 1968,” a composition that had received thousands of performances all over the world, but none, until that night, in the city that inspired it.

One of Husa’s American students, the composer Thomas Duffy, travelled to Prague to attend the concert. “Husa conducted the piece vigorously,” Duffy recalled, and after the performance noted that, “Twice, when I felt that the volume of applause was already overwhelming, Husa presented the V for victory sign to the house—and the volume doubled.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Karel Husa (b. 1921) Music for Prague 1968 Eastman Wind Ensemble; Donald Hunsberger, cond. CBS/Sony MK-44916

On This Day

Births

• 1778 - Spanish composer and guitarist Fernando Sor, in Barcelona;

• 1870 - American composer and virtuoso pianist Leopold Godowsky, in Soshly, near Vilnius;

• 1946 - English composer Colin Matthews, in London;

Deaths

• 1741 - Austrian composer Johann Joseph Fux, age c. 80, in Vienna;

• 1883 - German composer composer Richard Wagner, age 69, in Venice;

• 1968 - Italian composer Ildebrando Pizetti, age 87, in Rome;

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 181 ("Leichgesinnte Flattergeister") and No. 18 ("Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee") performed on Sexagesimae Sunday as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24);

• 1725 - Handel: opera “Rodelinda,” in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Feb. 24); On May 6/17 that same year, the score to this opera was published, the first Handel score to be offered to the public by subscription;

• 1867 - Johann Strauss, Jr.: "Blue Danube" Waltz, in Vienna;

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: opera “The Maid or Orleans,” in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 25);

• 1926 - Honegger: opera "Judith" (2nd version), at the Monte Carlo Opéra;

• 1943 - William Schuman: "Prayer in Time of War," by the Pittsburgh Symphony, Fritz Reiner conducting;

• 1944 - Antheil: Symphony No. 4, by the NBC Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1956 - Toch: "Peter Pan (A Symphonic Fairy Tale)" for orchestra, in Seattle;

• 1959 - Martinu: "The Parables" for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

• 1961 - Bernstein: "Symphonic Dances," from "West Side Story," by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss;

• 1978 - Roger Reynolds: "Fiery Winds" for orchestra, in New York;

Others

• 1727 - Handel applies for British citizenship (Gregorian date: Feb. 24); Handel received his official citizenship seven days later, on Feb. 20/Mar. 3;

• 1914 - ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is formally organized in New York City, with composer Victor Herbert as its first director.