Nonesuch Records at 50

Synopsis

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Nonesuch Records, launched in 1964 by entrepreneur Jac Holzman, who licensed Baroque music LPs from Europe, repackaged them with colorful pop-art covers on front and scholarly liner notes on back, and sold them at the bargain rate of $2.50 a disc. So successful were his initial Nonesuch LPs that Holzman could funnel profits into more risky ventures—like recording an obscure 1960s rock group called The Doors.

Holzman hired a former child prodigy pianist named Teresa Sterne to run Nonesuch Records, and Sterne focused on exceptional American performers and composers, even commissioning new works for the label. One Nonesuch commission, "Time's Encomium," by the American composer Charles Wuorinen, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1970.

Nonesuch was a wildly eclectic label in the days of vinyl LPs. Where else could you hear Metropolitan opera soprano Martino Arroyo singing Karlheinz Stockhausen or Baroque music scholar Joshua Rifkin playing Scott Joplin?

By the age of compact discs, with Bob Hurwitz in charge, Nonesuch was home base for performers like Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet and composers like John Adams and Philip Glass.

Today and tomorrow a series of Nonesuch 50th Anniversary celebration concerts featuring performers ranging from Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood to classical pianist Jeremy Denk will be taking place in London, England.

We're celebrating with a 1965 Nonesuch recording: "The Baroque Beatles Book" —Joshua Rifkin's very "retro" arrangements of then-brand-new tunes by the Fab Four.

Music Played in Today's Program

Joshua Rifkin, arr. (b. 1944) Les Plaisirs (She's Got a Ticket to Ride), fr The Baroque Beatles Book NY studio musicians;Joshua Rikfin, cond. Elektra/Nonesuch LP and CD

On This Day

Births

• 1866 - French composer Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie, in Honfleur;

• 1901 - German composer Werner Egk, in Auchsesheim, near Donauswörth; His original last name was Mayer, and it is said (although denied by the composer) that the he chose the acronym E-G-K because it stood for "ein grosser Komponist" ("a great composer");

• 1923 - American composer Peter Mennin, in Erie, Pa.;

Deaths

• 1935 - French composer Paul Dukas, age 69, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1779 - Gluck: opera "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Taurus), at the Paris Opéra;

• 1890 - Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana," in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi;

• 1904 - Ravel: "Schéhérazade," in Paris, with vocalist Jane Hatto and Alfred Cortot, conducting;

• 1919 - Ravel: "Alborado del gracioso" (orchestral version), in Paris at Pasdeloup Concert;

• 1929 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3, in Paris, by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, with Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1933 - Cowell: "Reel," for small orchestra, in New York;

• 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Alexander Nevsky," in Moscow;

• 1946 - Martin: "Petite Symphonie Concertante," in Zurich, Paul Sacher conducting;

• 1960 - Ned Rorem: "11 Studies for 11 Players," for chamber ensemble, at the State University of Buffalo (N.Y.), conducted by the composers;

• 1990 - Rautavaara: "Vincent," in Helsinki at the Finnish National Opera;

• 2000 - Michael Torke: "Corner in Manhattan," by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting;

• 2001 - Christopher Rouse: Clarinet Concerto, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with Larry Combs the soloist;

Others

• 1922 - Music of "The President's Own" reached homes across the nation when the first Marine Band radio program was broadcast;

• 1969 - Leonard Bernstein's last concert as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, having conducted 939 concerts with the orchestra (831 as its Music Director); Bernstein conducted 36 world premieres with the orchestra; He continued to appear with the Philharmonic as an occasional guest conductor until his death in 1990;

• 1978 - Philips Electronics of The Netherlands announces a new digital sound reproduction system from flat, silver "Compact Discs."