Composers

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) May, fr The Seasons, Op. 37b Lang Lang, piano Sony 11758 Judith Lang Zaimont (b. 1945) The May Fly, fr Calendar Collection Nanette Kaplan Solomon, piano Leonarda 334

On this date in 1948, the ballet “Fall River Legend” was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House by the Ballet Theatre of New York. The choreography was by Agnes de Mille, and the music by Morton Gould.

Sean Hickey’s “day job” is being the Senior Vice-President for Sales and Business Development at Naxos of America, but who also finds time to create his own chamber and orchestral works.

On today’s date in 1862, an 18-year-old Russian named Nicolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov graduated as midshipman from the Russian Naval Academy and prepared for a two-year’s training cruise around the world. Nicolai’s uncle was an admiral and a close friend of the Czar, and in his autobiography Rimsky-Korsakov admits he, too, at first thought it might be a good idea—he loved reading travel books, after all.

A concerto, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “a piece for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements.” And for most Classical Music fans, “concerto” means one of big Romantic ones by Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, works in which there is a kind of dramatic struggle between soloist and orchestra.

It was on today’s date in 1944 that the ballet “Fancy Free”–with music Leonard Bernstein and choreography by Jerome Robbins–was first staged by the Ballet Theater at the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. It was a big hit. Bernstein himself conducted, and alongside Robbins took some 20 curtain calls.

On today’s date in 1887, readers of the Wiener Salonblatt, a fashionable Viennese weekly artspaper, could enjoy the latest critical skirmish in the Brahms-Wagner wars.

A century before crowds of extras and gigantic sets first filled the silver screen of Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood extravaganzas, the Paris Opera brought similar resources to the stage for their historical operas—offering shipwrecks, explosions, massacres, and other crowd-pleasing spectacles.

At 2:20 a.m. on this date in 1912, the luxury liner S.S. Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Of the 2201 people of on board, only 711 reached their intended destination in New York. Eight British musicians, members of the ship’s band stayed on board, reportedly playing a hymn-tune as the ship went down.

Jay Ungar (b. 1946) Ashokan Farewell Jay Ungar, fiddle; Newman-Oltman Guitar Duo MusicMasters 67145 Roy Harris (1898-1979) Symphony No. 6 (Gettysburg) Pacific Symphony; Keith Clark, cond. Varese -Sarabande 47245