Synopsis
On this day in 1918, Russian composer Serge Prokofiev arrived in America to give a recital of his piano works in New York. He told interviewers that despite the revolution in his homeland and widespread conditions of famine, Russian musicians continued to work.
Prokofiev, however, stayed away from his homeland for years. His opera The Love for Three Oranges and his Piano Concerto No. 3 received their premieres in Chicago in 1921. From 1922 to 1932, Prokofiev lived mainly in Paris before eventually returning home for good.
Another temporary expatriate composer, Jón Leifs of Iceland, has an anniversary today, when in 1950, his Saga-Symphony was performed for the first time in Helsinki. Leifs was born in Iceland in 1899 and died there in 1968. He studied in Leipzig, where, in his words, he (quote) “began searching whether, like other countries, Iceland had some material that could be used as a starting-point for new music … some spark that could light the fire.”
Leif’s years in Germany coincided with the rise of the Nazis, who at first found him a sympathetic Nordic composer. When Leifs married a Jewish woman, however, he soon fell out of favor and eventually fled to Sweden with his family. After the war he returned home and today is honored as Iceland’s first great composer.
Music Played in Today's Program
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Piano Concerto No. 3; Martha Argerich, piano; Montréal Symphony; Charles Dutoit, conductor; EMI Classics 56654
Jón Leifs (1899-1968): Saga Symphony; Iceland Symphony; Osmo Vänskä, conductor; BIS 730
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, 27, from 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, Minnesota, by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff conducting
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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.