Rouse's "Concert de Gaudi"

Synopsis

In one of his letters, the German poet Goethe dropped this memorable and frequently quoted line: “I call architecture frozen music.”

If that’s the case, then this music might be accurately described as “unfrozen architecture,” since it was music inspired by the famous Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, whose unfinished Temple of the Holy Family in Barcelona is an internationally famous landmark.

This “Concert de Gaudi” for guitar and orchestra premiered in Hamburg, Germany, on today’s date in the year 2000, and was commissioned by guitarist Sharon Isbin from the American composer Christopher Rouse.

Rouse explained its title as follows: “I was not thinking of specific Gaudi structures (with the exception of the Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia, which was in my visual memory), but rather of the spirit that inhabits his work. It would be difficult for me to put into words what I think that spirit is. I would say only that Gaudi’s taking of a basic and accepted structural design and applying a host of unexpected twists, curves, drips of a highly fantastic, phantasmagorical type, make him one of the few dreamers to have ever been allowed to actually build his dreams.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Christopher Rouse (1949-2019) Concert de Gaudi Sharon Isbin, guitar;Gulbenkian Orchestra; Muhai Tan, cond. Teldec 81830

On This Day

Births

• 1732 - Baptism of Bohemian composer Frantisek Xaver Brixi, in Prague;

• 1837 - Russian composer Mily Balakirev, in Nizhny-Novgorod (Julian date: Dec. 21, 1836);

• 1913 - American composer Gardner Read, in Evanston, Illinois;

• 1905 - British composer Sir Michael Tippett, in London;

Deaths

• 1780 - German composer Johann Ludwig Krebs, age 65, in Altenburg;

• 1915 - Austro-Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark, age 84, in Vienna;

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 153 ("Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind") performed on the Sunday after New Year's Day as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24);

• 1735 - Bach: Part 5 ("Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen") of the 6-part "Christmas Oratorio," S. 248, in Leipzig;

• 1843 - Wagner: opera, "Der fliegende Holländer" (The Flying Dutchman), in Dresden at the Hoftheater, conducted by the composer;

• 1936 - Morton Gould: "Chorale and Fugue in Jazz," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 2000 - Christopher Rouse: "Concert de Guadi" for guitar and orchestra, in Hamburg(Germany), by guitarist Sharon Isbin and the NDR (North German Radio) Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach conducting; On the same program was the premiere of Bright Sheng's "Nanking! Nanking!" for orchestra;

Others

• 1955 - Canadian pianist Glenn Gould plays his first U.S. recital in Washington, D.C.