Synopsis
Under the old Julian calendar in use in Czarist Russia, on today’s date in 1861, Romantic composer Anton Arensky was born in Novgorod. If you prefer, you can also celebrate Arensky’s birthday on July 12 — the same date under the modern Gregorian calendar, but Arensky was such a Romantic that the Old Style date seems, well, more appropriate somehow.
Arensky studied with Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov, and admired the music of Tchaikovsky. Arensky taught at the Moscow Conservatory and published two books: Manual of Harmony and A Handbook of Musical Forms. His own students included a number of famous Russian composers, including Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Glière.
Arensky wrote three operas, two symphonies, concertos, chamber works and suites for two pianos — but it’s his Piano Trio in D minor that gets performed and recorded more often than any of his other works.
A victim of tuberculosis, Arensky spent the last years of his life in a Finnish sanatorium. He died young — at just 44 — in 1906.
Music Played in Today's Program
Anton Arensky (1861-1906): Piano Trio No. 1; Rembrandt Trio; Dorian 90146
On This Day
Births
1722 - Bohemian composer Georg Anton (Jirí Antonín) Benda, in Alt-Benatek, Bohemia
1861 - Russian composer Anton Arensky, in Novgorod (Gregorian date: July 12)
1892 - Hungarian composer Laszlo Lajtha, in Budapest
1958 - Finnish composer and conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, in Helsinki
Deaths
1987 - Spanish composer Federico Mompou, 94, in Barcelona
Premieres
1924 - Gershwin: musical revue, George White’s Scandals of 1924, at the Apollo Theater in New York City; This show includes the classic Gershwin song “Somebody Loves Me” (lyrics by B.G. De Sylva and Ballard MacDonald).
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.