Rehearsing Monteverdi and Reich

Synopsis

Today, a letter: written on this date in 1615 by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi to a friend at the court of the Duke of Mantua.

The letter accompanied a vocal score that Monteverdi hoped would convince the Duke to commission a much larger work. After detailed instructions regarding the positioning of the singers and the instruments Monteverdi adds — almost as an afterthought — this line: “If you could let the singers and players see the music for an hour before His Highness hears it, it would be a very good thing indeed.”

Talk about “authentic performance practice!”

It probably took more than an hour’s rehearsal for the U.S. premiere of American composer Steve Reich’s intricate setting of four Hebrew psalm fragments — Tehillim — which took place in Houston, Texas, on today’s date in 1981. Back then, Reich was already famous as one of America’s leading “minimalist” composers, but a search for fresh directions coincided with Reich’s rediscovery of his Jewish heritage, and Tehillim was the result.

“For me, the most important aspect of a piece of music, mine or someone else’s, is its emotional and intellectual effect on performers and audiences—I find it basically impossible to separate the emotional and intellectual aspects of a piece of music,” Reich said.

Music Played in Today's Program

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Orfeo; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor; Erato 88032

Steve Reich (b. 1936): Tehillim; Schoenberg Ensemble; Percussion group The Hague; Reinbert De Leeuw, conductor; Nonesuch 79295

On This Day

Births

• 1852 - Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, in Villarreal, Castellon

• 1877 - German composer and organist Sigfrid Karg-Elert, in Oberndorf-am-Neckar

• 1931 - Australian composer Malcolm Williamson, in Sydney

Deaths

• 1695 - English composer Henry Purcell, 36, in Westminster, London

• 1710 - Italian composer Bernardo Pasquini, 72, in Rome

• 1938 - Polish-born American piano virtuoso and composer Leopold Godowsky, 68, in New York City

• 1974 - Swiss composer Frank Martin, 84, in Naarden, Holland

Premieres

• 1723 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 70 (Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet!) performed on the 26th Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach’s first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)

• 1831 - Meyerbeer: opera, Robert le Diable, at the Paris Opéra

• 1896 - Dvořák: symphonic poem The Noonday Witch, in London

• 1901 - R. Strauss: opera Feuersnot (Fire Famine), in Dresden at the Hofoper, conducted by Ernst von Schuch

• 1935 - Stravinsky: Concerto for Two Pianos, the composer and his son as soloists

• 1937 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, by Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting

• 1939 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, by Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting

• 1941 - Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Dimtri Mitropoulos conducting

• 1945 - Britten: String Quartet No. 2, in London, by the Zorian Quartet

• 1947 - Persichetti: Symphony No. 3, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting

• 1974 - Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 8, Daniel Barenboim conducting New York Philharmonic

• 1984 - Gunther Schuller: Concerto Quarterino for flute, oboe, trumpet & orchestra, Zubin Mehta conducting New York Philharmonic, which commissioned it

• 1986 - John Harbison: cantata The Flight into Egypt, at the New England Conservatory of Music, with soprano Lorraine Hunt, baritone John Osborne, and the Camerata Singers, David Hoose conducting; This work won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1987

• 1989 - Michael Torke: Rust for piano and winds, at the Huddersfield (U.K.) Contemporary Music Festival, by the Orkest de Volharding

• 1996 - George Perle: Transcendental Modulations, Jahja Ling conducting New York Philharmonic, a 150th anniversary commission