Schoenfield on MTV

Synopsis

In Iowa City, Iowa, on today’s date in the year 2000, the Ahn Trio gave the premiere performance of a new work for violin, cello, and piano they had commissioned from the American composer Paul Schoenfield*.

Schoenfield is known for combining popular, folk, and classical music forms, and is himself an excellent pianist. An earlier piano trio by Schoenfield entitled “Café Music” was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and was inspired by the composer’s experience filling in for a night or two as house pianist at Murray's steakhouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Café Music” received its premiere during an SPCO chamber concert in January, 1987, with Schoenfield at the piano.

His new piano trio for the Ahn Trio was entitled “Four Music Videos,” and was the result a short meeting, described as follows by Schoenfield:

“[Me]: What kind of piece would you like?

“[Them]: Possibly a rock piece—(tentatively) we were thinking of something for MTV.

“[Me]: (Having no knowledge of pop culture, and not having a television) MTV, what is that?”

Well, Schoenfield did a little investigating, and after a subsequent email from the Ahn Trio asking if he had seen the film “The Buena Vista Social Club” and would be willing to include some Latin American music in the new trio, he came up with a four movement work, with the following descriptive titles: “Rock Song,” “Bossa Nova,” “Film Score,” and “Samba.”

*pronounced “SHONE-felled” by the composer.

Music Played in Today's Program

Paul Schoenfield (b. 1947) Four Music Videos Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio Bridge 9407

On This Day

Births

• 1756 - Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Salzburg;

• 1806 - Spanish composer Juan Crisostomo Arriage, in Rigoitia;

• 1823 - French composer Edouard Lalo, in Lille;

• 1885 - American composer Jerome Kern, in New York City;

Deaths

• 1901 - Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, age 87, in Milan;

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 72 ("Alles nur nach Gottes Willen") performed on the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1733 - Handel: opera "Orlando" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket(Gregorian date: Feb. 7);

• 1844 - Erkel: opera "Hunyady László," considered the first national Hungarian opera, in Budapest;

• 1849 - Verdi: opera "La battaglia di Legnano" (The Battle of Legnano), in Rome at the Teatro Argentina;

• 1874 - Mussorgsky: opera "Boris Godunov", in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 8);

• 1944 - Paul Creston: Saxophone Concerto, in New York;

• 1947 - Stravinsky: Concerto in D, in Basle (Switzerland), by the Basle Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Sacher (who commissioned the work);

• 1955 - Tippett: opera "The Midsummer Marriage," in London at the Royal Opera House, with John Pritchard conducting (and soprano Joan Sutherland in the cast);

• 1967 - Leon Kirchner: Quartet No. 3 for strings and electronic tape, in New York City, by the Beaux Arts Quartet; This work was awarded the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Music;

• 1991 - Off-Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical "Assassins."