Previn and Adams salute Emily

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1999, in Quebec, soprano Renee Fleming and pianist Richard Bado gave the premiere of a new song cycle by Andre Previn, his settings of three poems by the great 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson. Shortly after their premiere, Fleming made this recording of the new Dickinson songs with their composer at the piano.

The three poems were: “As imperceptibly as grief,” “Will there really be a morning,” and “Good morning, midnight.” By 1999, all these poems had been set to music dozens of times by dozens of composers. In fact, along with her great 19th century colleague, Walt Whitman, Dickinson reigns as an almost irresistible choice for settings by American composers.

In 1992, Dickinson scholar Carlton Lowenberg published a book entitled “Musicians Wrestle Everywhere” (after the title of another famous Dickinson poem). This book catalogued no less than 1615 Dickinson song settings: the earliest, by a composer named Etta Parker, were published in 1896, eleven years after Emily’s death.

Not all Dickinson settings are small scale, intimate affairs for voice and piano, either. About 100 years after Ms. Parker’s first setting, the American composer John Adams set two Dickinson poems to music as part of his super-sized piece for chorus and orchestra entitled “Harmonium.”

The book "Musicians Wrestle Everywhere" by Carlton Lowenberg ( ISBN# 0914913204) provides a detailed inventory of 1,615 musical settings of Emily Dickinson's texts, by 276 composers, written between 1896 and 1991.

Music Played in Today's Program

Andre Previn (b. 1930) Three Dickinson Songs Renée Fleming, soprano; André Previn, piano DG 471 028

John Adams (b. 1947) Harmonium San Francisco Symphony and Chorus; Edo de Waart, cond. ECM 1277

On This Day

Births

• 1860 - American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell, in New York City;

Deaths

• 1869 - American composer and piano virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk, age 40, in Tijuca (near Rio de Janerio);

• 1919 - American composer and teacher, Horatio William Parker, age 56, in Cedarhurst, N.Y.; He became chairman of the Yale music department in 1894, where he taught the young Charles Ives;

Premieres

• 1795 - possible premiere of Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, Op. 15 (or less likely, his Concerto No. 2 in Bb), in Vienna at a concert organized by Haydn to perform three of his "London" Symphonies in that city;

• 1880 - Tchaikovsky: "Capriccio italien," in Moscow, Nikolai Rubinstein conducting (Julian date: Dec. 6);

• 1892 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8, with Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Richter conducting; This performance used a revised and cut version of Bruckner's original 1887 score prepared by the composer and his pupil Franz Schalk in 1889-90; The original 1887 score was first performed in 1973 by the Bournemouth Symphony for a BBC broadcast conducted by Hans-Hubert Schönzeler; The edition prepared by Robert Haas, which is based on the 1889-90 revised version but with the cuts restored, is the version most often performed today;

• 1892 - Tchaikovsky: ballet, "The Nutcracker," and opera "Iolanta," at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Dec. 6);

• 1911 - Rachmaninoff: 13 Piano Preludes, Op. 32, in St. Petersburg, by the composer (Julian date: Dec. 5);

• 1924 - Bliss: Concerto for Two Pianos, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzsky conducting;

• 1926 - Janácek: opera "The Makropoulos Case," in Brno at the National Theater;

• 1929 - Webern: Symphony for Chamber Orchestra, in New York City;

• 1941 - Milhaud: Piano Concero No. 2, in Chicago, with the composer as soloist;

• 1962 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 ("Babi Yar"), by the Moscow Philharmonic, with basso Vitaliy Gromadsky, and the bass voices of the Republican State and Gnesin Institute Choirs, Kirill Kondrashin conducting;

• 1964 - Creston: Concerto for Koto and Orchestra, by Kimio Eto (Koto soloist), with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1994 - Morten Lauridsen: “O Magnum Mysterium” for chorus, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Paul Salamunovich conducting;

• 1999 - André Previn: "Three Dickinson Songs," in Quebec, Canada, by soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Richard Bado;

Others

• 1732 - John Rich opens his "Theatre Royal, Covent Garden" in London (Julian date: Dec. 7).