Passing the hat for Barber

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Summer Music Bergen Wind Quintet BIS 291

On This Day

Births

• 1873 - Russian-born American composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (Gregorian date: April 1);

• 1918 - German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, in Bleisheim;

Deaths

• 1812 - Bohemian composer and keyboard virtuoso Jan Ladislav (Johann Ladislaus/Ludwig) Dussek (Dusik), age 51, in Saint Germain-en-Laye or Paris;

• 2000 - American composer Vivian Fine, age 86, in Bennington, Vt., following an auto accident;

Premieres

• 1723 - Handel: Concerto in F (HWV 331), in London at the Drury Lane Theater (Gregorian date: March 31);

• 1739 - Handel: Organ Concerto in A (HWV 296a) as a novelty at a benefit performance of Handel's cantata "Alexander's Feast"; This concert was organized "for the benefit and increase of a fund established for the support of decay'd musicians and their families" (Gregorian date: March 31);

• 1748 - Handel: oratorio "Joshua," (see March 9);

• 1887 - d'Indy: "Symphony on a French Mountain Air" for piano and orchestra, in Paris at a Lamoureux Concert;

• 1894 - Rachmaninoff: symphonic fantasy "The Rock" (Gregorian date: April 1);

• 1898 - Dvorák: symphonic poem, "The Wild Dove," Op. 110, in Brno;

• 1914 - Butterworth: "The Banks of Green Willow" in London;

• 1929 - Bartók: String Quartet No.4, in Budapest, by the Waldbauer Quartet;

• 1956 - Barber: "Summer Music," Op. 31, at the Detroit Institute of Arts by the Detroit Chamber Music Society (principal wind players of the Detroit Symphony);

Others

• 1928 - The New York Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Society unite to form the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York - now known as simply "The New York Philharmonic."