Synopsis
On today's date in 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the first performance of his Symphony No. 8 — a mammoth work that called for a huge orchestra, eight vocal soloists, and massed choirs of adult and children's voices. The concert's promoter did a quick count of all the performers involved and dubbed Mahler's work "The Symphony of a Thousand" — a nickname that has stuck to this day.
In the audience for the 1910 premiere was a young conductor named Leopold Stokowski, who would lead the first American performance of Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" in Philadelphia six years later.
Thirty years after the Mahler premiere in Munich, Stokowski would be seen by millions worldwide as he shook hands with Mickey Mouse in the famous animated film "Fantasia" that the Disney studios released in 1940.
By an odd twist of fate, some 50 years after "Fantasia," one of the current heads of the Disney empire, Michael Eisner, was so moved by the experience of attending a performance of Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" that he convinced the Disney Corporation to commission not one but two large-scaled works for massed choirs and orchestra from a pair of young American composers: Michael Torke and Aaron Jay Kernis. Their brand-new Mahler-sized works were premiered by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic during that orchestra's Millennium concert season.
How's that for "Six Degrees of Separation" — Mahler to Mickey to Masur!
Music Played in Today's Program
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) London Philharmonic; Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI Classics 64476
Aaron Kernis (b. 1960) Second Symphony (Alarm) City of Birmingham Symphony; Hugh Wolff, cond. Argo 448 900
On This Day
Births
1825 - Austrian flautist and conductor Karl Doppler, in Lwow;
1901 - German composer Ernst Pepping, in Duisburg;
1906 - Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Sept. 25);
1939 - American composer Phillip Ramey, in Chicago;
Deaths
1764 - French composer Jean Philippe Rameau, age 80, in Paris;.
Premieres
1910 - Mahler: Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") in Munich, with the composer conducting;
1932 - Villa-Lobos: "Bachianas Brasilieras" No. 1, in Rio de Janerio;
1937 - Milhaud: "Suite Provençale" in Venice, conducted by the composer;
1954 - Bernstein: "Serenade" (after Plato's "Symposium") at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with composer conducting and Isaac Stern the violin soloist;
1967 - Kokonen: Symphony No. 3, in Helsinki;
1969 - Henri Lazarof: Cello Concerto, in Oslo, Norway;
Others
1840 - Marriage of Robert Schumann, age 30, to Clara Wieck, on the day before her 21st birthday.
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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.