Shostakovich gets on first

Synopsis

On this date in 1926, a 19-year old composer and sometime silent film piano accompanist named Dimitri Shostakovich saw his First Symphony performed in style by the Leningrad Philharmonic.

It must have been a heady experience for the young composer, who for the past two years had earned a living of sorts accompanying silent films at various Leningrad cinemas.

One evening, while accompanying a film titled "Swamp and Water Birds of Sweden," the young composer was so carried away by his own improvisations of bird song that he assumed the catcalls and noisy expressions of disapproval from the audience were directed at the film, not at him. Only afterwards was he told the audience had assumed he must have been drunk. In later years, Shostakovich would tell this story with some pride—at least they had noticed his music!

The Leningrad Philharmonic's performance of his Symphony, the first of his orchestral works to be performed in public, was a triumph and established Shostakovich as a major new talent. Shostakovich's teacher, Maximillian Steinberg wrote that at rehearsals, Shostakovich was: "in such indescribable raptures from hearing his own music that I found it hard to restrain him from an unbridled display of his feelings."

May 12th was a date Shostakovich would commemorate till the end of his life—if for no other reason than he would never again have to improvise piano accompaniment to cinematic masterworks like "Swamp and Water Birds of Sweden."

Music Played in Today's Program

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) Symphony No. 1, Op. 10 Cracow Philharmonic; Gilbert Levine, cond. Arabesque 6610

On This Day

Births

• 1739 - Bohemian composer Johann Baptist Wanha (Vanhall) in Nechanicz;

• 1754 - German composer and publisher (of Mozart and Beethoven) Franz Anton Hoffmeister, in Rottenburg;

• 1755 - Italian violinist and composer Giovanni Viotti, in Fontanetto da Po;

• 1842 - French composer Jules Massenet, in Montaud, near St.-Etienne, Loire;

• 1845 - French composer Gabriel Fauré, in Pamiers (Ariège);

• 1903 - English composer Sir Lennox Berkeley, in Boar's Hill, near Oxford;

• 1941 - American composer, harpsichordist and organist Anthony Newman, in Los Angeles;

Deaths

• 1871 - French opera composer Daniel-François Auber, age 89, in Paris;

• 1884 - Bohemian composer Bedrich Smetana, age 60, in Prague;

• 1931 - Belgian composer, violinist and conductor Eugene Ysaÿe, age 72, in Brussels;

Premieres

• 1736 - Handel: opera "Atalanta" in London at the Covent Garden Theater; Handel dedicated the opera to the recently-married Frederick, Prince of Wales (Gregorian date: May 23);

• 1832 - Donizetti: "L'Elisir d'Amore" (Elixir of Love), in Milan;

• 1894 - R. Strauss: opera "Guntram," in Weimar , with Strauss conducting;

• 1917 - Bartók: ballet "The Wooden Prince," in Budapest;

• 1926 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1, by Leningrad Philharmonic, Nikolai Malko conducting;

• 1937 - Walter Damrosch: "The Man Without a Country," in New York at the Metropolitan Opera;

• 1938 - Honegger: opera "Joan of Arc at the Stake" (concert performance) in Basel, Switzerland, at the Grosser Musiksaal; The first staged production occurred in Zürich on June 13, 1942;

• 1938 - Korngold: premiere showing of Warner Brothers' film "The Adventures of Robin Hood";

• 1943 - Glière: Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, in Moscow;

• 1944 - Ginastera: "Overture to the Creole Faust," in Santiago, Chile;

• 1980 - John Harbison: Concerto for Piano, at Alice Tully Hall in New York, with soloist Robert Miller and the American Composers Orchestra, Gunther Schuller conducting;

• 1983 - Earle Brown: "Sounder Rounds" for orchestra, in Saarbrücken, Germany;

• 2002 - Steve Reich & Beryl Korot: multi-media presentation "Three Tales" ("Hindenburg," "Bikini," and "Dolly") at the Vienna Festival in Austria, by members of the Ensemble Moderne and Synergy Vocals, directed by Bradley Lubman.