Higdon welcomes Autumn
As the season begins, we offer you this “Autumn Music” — a woodwind quintet by American composer Jennifer Higdon.
John Birge
YourClassical MPR
Composers Datebook®
Reminding you that all music was once new ® • with host John Birge
Composer's Datebook - September 22, 2022
2:00
Of froth and Friml
Today’s date marks the premiere in New York City, in 1925, of a classic operetta “The Vagabond King” by Rudolf Friml.
2:00
Sibelius passes
Today’s date commemorates the death, in 1957, of the most famous Finnish composer of modern times, Jean Sibelius.
2:00
On the Transmigration of Souls
On today’s date in 2002, just a little over one year after two passenger jetliners had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of a new work by the American composer John Adams.
2:00
Prokofiev and Leifs agree: "There's no place like home!"
On this day in 1918, Russian composer Serge Prokofiev arrived in America to give a recital of his piano works in New York.
2:00
Ellington's "Money Jungle"
Three jazz titans went into a recording studio on today’s date in 1962 and while tape rolled, using bare-bones charts of melodies and harmonies, the three jazz titans improvised.
2:00
A concerto by Sally Beamish
Sally Beamish’s “The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone” had its Örebro premiere on today’s date in 1999.
2:00
A ghost story by Henry James and Benjamin Britten
“The Turn of the Screw” has been adapted for both stage and screen, and on today’s date in 1954, an operatic version by the British composer Benjamin Britten received its premiere performance at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
2:00
Milhaud's "Symphonies"
On today’s date in 1892, Darius Milhaud was born in Aix-en-Provence.
2:00
Hot new operas by Saariaho and Wagner
Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" had its first performance as part of his "Ring Cycle" on today's date in 1876, at Wagner's own theater in Bayreuth, a small town in Southern Germany.
2:00
About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.