"Blind Tom"

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908) Battle of Manassas John Davis, p. Newport Classics 85660

On This Day

Births

• 1761 - Czech composer and violinist Anton (Antonín) Wranitzky (Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky), in Nova Rise, Moravia; He studied with Haydn and Mozart in Vienna and was a friend of Beethoven;

• 1766 - Austrian composer and pianist Anton Eberl; Some of his works were mistakenly (or perhaps deliberately) published as Mozart's;

• 1899 - Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chávez, in Calzada de Tacuba, near Mexico City;

Deaths

• 1962 - English composer and conductor Sir Eugene Goosens, age 69, in Hillingdon;

• 2002 - American composer and conductor Ralph Shapey, age 81, in Chicago;

• 2005 - American composer David Diamond, age 89;

Premieres

• 1784 - Mozart: Piano & Winds Quintet (K. 452), Sonata for Two Pianos (K. 448), and the Piano Concerto No. 17 (K. 453), at the home of Mozart's pupil, Barbara Ployer, outside Vienna; The Piano Concerto may have been premiered earlier that year on April 29, at a concert given by Mozart at Vienna's Kärtnertor Theater in the presence of Emperor Joseph II;

• 1855 - Verdi: opera "Les Vêspres Siciliennes" (The Sicilian Vespers), in Paris at the Grand Opéra;

• 1911 - Stravinsky: ballet "Petrushka," in Paris at the Théatre du Châtelet, with Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1923 - Walton: "Façade," in London, with Dame Edith Sitwell reciting her poems, the composer conducting;

• 1923 - Stravinsky: "Les Noces," at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris;

• 1942 - Honegger: opera "Joan of Arc at the Stake" (first staged production), in Zürich at the Stadttheater; This work was premiered in a concert performance in Basel on May 12, 1938;

• 1967 - David Ward-Steinman: Cello Concerto, in Toyko, by the Japan Philharmonic conducted by Milton Katims, with Edgar Lustgarten the soloist;

• 1986 - John Adams: "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" at Great Woods, Mansfield, Mass., with Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

• 1999 - first staging in Germany of the original German version of Kurt Weill’s opera "Der Weg der Verheissung" (The Eternal Road), in Chemnitz, Germany, with John Mauceri conducting; The English-language premiere staging had occurred at the Manhattan Opera House in New York City on January 7, 1937, in a production staged by Max Reinhardt that ran for 153 performances;