Beethoven and Kernis in a somber mood

Synopsis

On this date in 1813, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was played for the first time in Vienna. The occasion was a benefit concert in honor of the Austrian and Bavarian soldiers who had died fighting Napoleon, with the concert's proceeds donated to their widows and orphans.

At its first rehearsal, some of the musicians found the part writing of the new work intimidating. A friend of Beethoven’s who sat in on rehearsals later recalled: “the violin players refused to play a passage and rebuked [Beethoven] for writing difficulties that were incapable of performance. But Beethoven begged the gentlemen to take the parts home with them. If they were to practice it at home it would surely go. The next day the passage went excellently, and the gentlemen themselves seemed to rejoice that they had given Beethoven such pleasure.” The slow movement of Beethoven’s symphony so pleased the Viennese audience at its premiere that it had to be encored.

On today’s date in 1980, a private tragedy also prompted music. On December 8 that year, ex-Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City. American composer Aaron Jay Kernis was then a student at the Manhattan School of Music, living not far from where Lennon was slain. The death moved Kernis to reshape elements of Lennon’s song “Imagine” into an altogether new work for cello and piano: Meditation (in memory of John Lennon).

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7; Vienna Philharmonic; Carlos Kleiber, conductor; DG 447 400

Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960): Meditation (in memory of John Lennon); Eberli Ensemble; Phoenix 142

On This Day

Births

• 1731 - Baptism of Bohemian composer and pianist Frantisek Xaver Dussek, in Choteborky

• 1865 - Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, in Tavastehus

• 1882 - Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, in Fresnillo, Zacatecas

• 1890 - Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, in Policka

• 1919 - Polish-born Russian composer Moisei Vainberg (also Weinberg/Vaynberg, Moisey/Mieczyslaw), in Warsaw

Deaths

• 1562 - Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, 72, in Venice

• 1924 - German composer and pianist Xaver Scharwenka, 74, in Berlin

• 1980 - John Lennon (of the Beatles), 40, is shot dead in New York City

Premieres

• 1733 - Bach: Secular Cantata No. 214 (Tönet ihr Pauken, Erchallet Trompeten) at a public performance in the garden of Zimmermann’s Coffee House in Leipzig, for the birthday of the Princess-Elector and Queen of Poland, Maria Josepha (the wife of August III). One year later, Bach recycled some of the music for this secular cantata into his sacred Christmas Oratorio.

• 1743 - Handel: Dettingen Te Deum and Anthem in London (Julian date: Nov. 27)

• 1813 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, in Vienna, the composer conducting; Also on the program was the orchestral version of Wellington’s Victory (originally conceived for performance by a mechanical orchestra invented by Maelzel called the panharmonicon.

• 1844 - Schumann: Piano Quartet, Op. 47, in Leipzig, at the Gewandhaus, with Clara Schumann (piano), Ferdinand David (viola), Niels W. Gade (viola), and Count Wielhorsky (cello). A private performance had also occured in Leipzig in 1842 (see Dec. 6).

• 1849 - Verdi: opera Luisa Miller, in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo

• 1879 - Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 1, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Dec. 20)

• 1915 - first version (of three) of Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, with the Helsinki Municipal Orchestra, with the composer conducting (on his 50th birthday). A second revision of this symphony was premiered by the same orchestral and conductor on Dec. 14, 1916, and a third and final version premiered in Helsinki under the composer's direction on Oct. 21, 1921.

• 1931 - Gershwin: musical show, Of Thee I Sing, in Boston, at the Majestic Theater. This musical opened in New York on Dec. 26th that year, and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1932.

• 1943 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 24, in Moscow

• 1992 - Michael Torke: Monday and Tuesday, for chamber ensemble, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, by the London Sinfonietta, Lothar Zagrosek conducting

Others

• 1911 - At the Cort Theater in San Francisco, American composer and conductor Henry Hadley leads the first subscription concert of the San Francisco Symphony. The program included Wagner's Act I Prelude from Die Meistersinger, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony, the Theme and Variations, from Haydn’s Emperor Quartet, and Liszt’s tone-poem Les Préludes.