Harpsichord under Glass?

Synopsis

“Are people still writing concertos for harpsichord?” you ask. Well, even if it’s not the most pressing question that has sprung into your mind today, we do have an answer, which is “Yes!”

On today’s date in 2002, for example, this new Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra by Philip Glass had its premiere performance at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.

Glass was asked to write a new Harpsichord Concerto for the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and found the commission intriguing.

“For one,” wrote Glass, “I have always been an admirer of the literature for harpsichord and studied some of the music from the Baroque period quite thoroughly, and have played a bit of that music myself. Secondly, I knew that the modern day harpsichord was capable of a fuller, more robust sound than was available in ‘period’ instruments and might make a handsome partner to a modern chamber orchestra.”

Glass’s modern day concerto is in the traditional three movements of a Baroque era concerto, with a slower, more lyrical middle movement flanked by speedier, flashier outer movements. And perhaps surprisingly for a “minimalist” composer famous—or infamous—for his loping, seemingly endless repeated patterns, this Harpsichord Concerto, despite being recognizably a work by Philip Glass, is more varied and mercurial than usual, with a final movement in which the harpsichord soloist really needs to “go for Baroque!”

Music Played in Today's Program

Philip Glass (b. 1937) Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra Christopher D. Lewis, hc; West Side Chamber Orch/Kevin Mallon Naxos 8.573146

On This Day

Births

• 1698 - French violinist and composer François Francoeur, in Paris; He was one of the "24 violins du roi" and collaborated with François Rebel in the production of several works for the Paris Opéra;

• 1737 - American statesman and composer Francis Hopkinson, in Philadelphia; He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and also composed some songs;

• 1874 - English composer Gustav Holst, in Cheltenham; He was born Gustavus Theodore von Holst, and his early works were published under the name "Gustav von Holst," but removed the Germanic "von" after World War I broke out in 1914;

Deaths

• 1953 - English composer Roger Quilter, age 75, in London;

Premieres

• 1795 - revised version of Haydn: Symphony No. 103 ("The Drumroll"), conducted by the composer, in Vienna (Haydn had conducted the first version of this symphony at the King's Theater in London, on March 2, 1795;

• 1925 - Rudolph Friml's operetta, "The Vagabond King," in New York City;

• 1966 - Havergal Brian: Symphony No. 6 ("Sinfonia Tragica") in London; This work was composed in 1948;

• 1966 - Maliperio: Symphony No. 9 ("Hélas") at the "Warsaw Autumn" Festival of Contemporary Music in Poland;

• 1972 - Piston: Flute Concerto, with Dorothy Anthony Dwyer the soloist and the Boston Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas;

• 1988 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Trumpet Concerto, in Hiroshima (Japan), by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting, with soloist John Wallace;

• 1994 - James MacMillan: "Britannia" for orchestra, at the Barbican in London by the London Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting;

Others

• 1880 - The International Mozart Foundation is established in Salzburg;

• 1962 - Igor Stravinsky returns to the Soviet Union for the first time in 48 years; He visits Moscow, Leningrad and Oranienbaum.