A Corigliano father and son act?

Synopsis

From 1951 to the time of his death in 1976, the Texas-born conductor Victor Alesandro led the San Antonio Symphony.

In addition to being a fine conductor, Alessandro had a very clever system for attracting talented players to his orchestra. He kept his eyes open for key players about to retire from all the top American orchestras and sent them tempting brochures describing San Antonio’s palm trees, old Spanish houses, and mild winters. Many accepted his invitations, settled in San Antonio, and served as models and mentors for the Symphony’s younger players.

In 1966, for example, John Corigliano, Sr., facing mandatory retirement as the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, took up the same position with the San Antonio Symphony.

And so it came about that on today’s date in 1968, John Corigliano, Senior, then aged 67, served as the concertmaster for the world premiere performance of a new Piano Concerto written by his son, composer John Corigliano, Junior, then aged 30. The premiere performers, pianist Hilde Somer and the San Antonio Symphony under Alessandro, even recorded the new work for Mercury Records.

Although well received at the time, Corigliano’s concerto was rather neglected for many years thereafter, but more recently has been receiving new performances and recordings. Reviewing a 1996 recording of the work, Edward Greenfield of GRAMOPHONE magazine wrote, “If Corigliano unashamedly uses a freely eclectic style, his writing is consistently positive and energetic, never merely conventional.”

Music Played in Today's Program

John Corigliano (b. 1938) Piano Concerto James Tocco, p.; Louisville Orch; Lawrence Leighton Smith, cond. First Edition FECD-0002

On This Day

Births

• 1726 - British composer, music journalist and historian Charles Burney, in Shrewsbury; This date is according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year; Under the Gregorian "New Style" calendar, this date would be April 18;

• 1763 - Italian composer and double-bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti, in Venice;

• 1899 - French composer and pianist Robert Casadesus, in Paris;

• 1920 - Indian composer and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, in Benares;

Deaths

• 1783 - German composer Ignaz Holzbauer, age 71, in Mannheim;

Premieres

• 1713 - Handel: "Utrecht Te Deum," at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (Gregorian date: April 18);

• 1724 - Bach: "St. John Passion" performed on Good Friday at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig;

• 1745 - Handel: oratorio “Belshazzar” (Julian date: March 27);

• 1805 - first public performance of Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with composer conducting; This symphony had been performed at least twice at private concerts arranged in late 1804 and early 1805;

• 1923 - Hahn: operetta "Ciboulette," in Paris at the Théâtre des Variétés;

• 1928 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 10, in Moscow;

• 1965 - Henze: opera "Der junge Lord" (The Young Lord), in West Berlin at the Deutsche Oper;

• 1994 - John Harbison: Cello Concerto, in Boston, with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting;

• 2005 - Augusta Read Thomas: “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” for mezzo-soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble, at the Columbia University’s Miller Theater in New York City.

Others

• 1863 - American premiere of Mozart's Symphony No. 40, by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Theodore Thomas conducting;

• 1918 - The German conductor of the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck, is arrested and interned as an enemy alien after American enters World War I.