Composers

On today’s date in 1829, the German composer Felix Mendelssohn and his friend, Karl Klingemann, were on the North Sea bound for Glasgow.

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On today's date in 1946, Leonard Bernstein conducted the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's opera, "Peter Grimes," at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts.

On today's date in 1978, the citizens of Parowan resolved to name a local mountain Mt. Messiaen in honor of the French composer, who had spent a month in Utah five years earlier while working on his symphonic suite titled "From the Canyons to the Stars."

Today marks the birthday of American composer David Raksin, born in 1912 in Philadelphia.

Rossini’s “William Tell” was first heard in Paris on today’s date in 1829.

On this day in 1774, in Paris, the first performance of the French version of the opera “Orpheus and Eurydice” by Christoph Willibald Gluck took place.

Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet was completed on today’s date in 1893 in Spillville, Iowa.

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) St. Matthew Passion SW German Madrigal Chorus; Wolfgang Gönnenwein, cond. EMI Classics 79544 J.S. Bach (1685-1750) arr. Chris Brubeck Variations on Themes by Bach Joel Brown, guitar; London Symphony; Joel Revzen, cond. Koch International 7485

On today’s date in 1965, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of an orchestral work by Duke Ellington, titled “The Golden Broom and the Golden Apples.”