Thomson's "portrait" Concerto

Synopsis

The American composer Virgil Thomson was fond of writing what he called “portraits”—musical sketches of people he knew. When asked how he did this, Thomson replied: “I just look at you and I write down what I hear.”

This music by Thomson was a portrait in disguise. It premiered on today’s date in 1954 at the Venice Festival in Italy, identified simply as his Concerto for Flute, Strings, Harp, and Percussion. Thomson later confessed it was in fact a musical portrait of Roger Baker, a handsome young painter he had recently befriended.

Born in Kansas City in 1896, Thomson studied music at Harvard, and lived in Paris through much of the 1920s and 30s. In 1940, he became the music critic of The New York Herald-Tribune, and held that post until 1954. Thomson once defined the role of music critic as one who “seldom kisses, but always tells.”

But in 1954, Thomson decided fourteen years as a music critic was enough, and it was time to concentrate on his own music for a change. Perhaps not by coincidence, one of the friends who encouraged him to do so was Roger Baker, the artist “portrayed” by Thomson in his 1954 concerto.

Ironically, Thomson’s successor at the Herald-Tribune, music critic Paul Henry Lang, dismissed the New York premiere of Thomson’s new concerto as (quote): “mortally fatigued music” and “not one of Mr. Thomson’s good pieces.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Virgil Thomson (1896 – 1989) Flute Concerto Mary Stolper, flute; Czech National Symphony; Paul Freeman, cond. Cedille 046

On This Day

Births

• 1893 - Australian composer Arthur Benjamin, in Sydney;

• 1910 - Polish-born Israeli composer Josef Tal, in Pinne (near Posen);

Deaths

• 1970 - Rock guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix, age 27, from asphyxiation due to an overdose of barbiturates

Premieres

• 1954 - Virgil Thomson: Concerto for flute, strings and percussion, in Venice;

• 1960 - Penderecki: "Dimensions of Time and Silence," during "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music;

• 1978 - Shostakovich: unfinished opera "The Gamblers" (after Nikolai Gogol), in Leningrad at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic;

• 1986 - Corigliano: "Fantasia on an Ostinato" by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta;

• 1998 - Bright Sheng: "Spring Dreams," by cellist Yo-Yo Ma with the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwartz conducting.

• 1998 - Michael Torke: "Lucent Variations," in St. Paul, Minn., by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff conducting.