Stravinsky meets Debussy

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) The Firebird Ballet Russian National Orchestra; Mikhail Pletnev, cond. DG 453 434

On This Day

Births

• 1860 - French composer Gustave Charpentier, in Dieuze, Lorraine;

• 1935 - Austrian composer Kurt Schwertsik, in Vienna;

Deaths

• 1767 - German composer Georg Philipp Telemann, age 86, in Hamburg;

• 1822 - German composer, critic and popular Romantic author Ernst Theodor Amadeus ("E.T.A.") Hoffmann, age 46, in Berlin;

Premieres

• 1840 - For the 400th anniversary of the Gutenberg Printing Press, Mendelssohn presents his Symphony No. 2, "Lobegesang" (Song of Praise) at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig;

• 1850 - R. Schumann: opera "Genoveva," in Leipzig at the Stadttheater;

• 1910 - Stravinsky: ballet, "The Firebird," at the Paris Opera, with Gabriel Pierné conducting;

• 1923 - de Falla: one-act opera "El retablo de maese Pedro" (Master Peter's Puppet Show), first staged performance in Paris at the home of the Princesse de Polignac; This opera was premiered in a concert performance in Seville on March 23, 1923;

• 1940 - William Grant Still: choral ballad "And They Lynched Him on a Tree," at New York's Lewisohn Stadium by the Schola Cantorum and Wen Talbert Negro Choir with the New York Philharmonic, Arthur Rodzinksi conducting;

• 1954 - Leroy Anderson: "Sandpaper Baller" at a Decca recording session in New York City, with the composer conducting; Three different grades of sandpaper rubbed together were used to make the vaudeville-style "soft shoe" dancing sound effects for this classic recording;

• 1955 - Grofé: "Hudson Valley" Suite, in Washington, D.C., by the National Symphony conducted by André Kostelanetz;

• 1991 - James MacMillan: "Tuireadh" (Lament) for clarinet and string quartet, by James Campbell and the Allegri Quartet at St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall (Orkney Islands).