Composer skulls

Synopsis

Since today is Halloween, how about a tale from the crypt — with a composer’s skull or two tossed in for good measure!

Music lovers have always had a “thing” about composers’ skulls. In 1820, for example, Prince Esterhazy ordered that Haydn’s remains be transferred from Vienna to Eisenstadt, only to discover that Haydn’s skull was missing. It had been stolen by two of Haydn’s closest friends, who had bribed the gravediggers, claiming they did it for pseudo-scientific phrenological research.

In 1888, it was the remains of Beethoven and Schubert who were dug up and moved to Vienna’s new Central Cemetery. Nothing was missing, but on both occasions, the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner was present, and, according to witnesses, managed somehow to lovingly hold the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert in his hands and speak to them before they were reburied.

For his part, Bruckner insisted that he buried under the organ at St. Florian Monastery in upper Austria, and if you pay your respects today, you will see that Bruckner’s coffin is in an underground crypt, sharing space with a wall of thousands of stacked skulls looking out at you, bones belonged to early Christians who, like Bruckner, wished to be buried there.

Music Played in Today's Program

Kevin Puts (b. 1972): Marimba Concerto; Ji Su Jung, marimba; Baltimore Symphony; Marin Alsop, conductor; Naxos CD 8.559926

On This Day

Births

• 1833 - Russian composer Alexander Borodin, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Nov. 12)

• 1806 - American composer Louise Talma, in Arcachon, France

• 1949 - Cuban-American composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez, in Matanzas, Cuba

Deaths

• 1870 - Hungarian composer Mihály Mosonyi (Michael Brand), 55, in Pest

Premieres

• 1724 - Handel: opera Tamerlano in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Nov. 11). This was the London debut of the Italian tenor Francesco Borosini in a work by Handel.

• 1865 - Brahms: Theme and Variations (after slow movement of Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1), in Frankfurt am Main

• 1866 - Offenbach: operetta, La Vie Parisienne, in Paris, at the Palais-Royal

• 1875 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4, in Paris at a concert conducted by Edouard Colonne, with the composer as soloist

• 1891 - Mascagni: opera L’amico Fritz, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome

• 1924 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 2, in Frankfurt, with Clemens Kraus conducting and Emma Lübbecke-Job the piano soloist

• 1932 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 5, by the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting, with the composer as soloist

• 1947 - Chávez: Toccata for percussion, in Mexico City

• 1949 - Mark Blitzstein: opera Regina, in New York City

• 1955 - Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 (Mysterious Mountain), by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1966 - Stravinsky: The Owl and the Pussycat (dedicated to Vera Stravinsky), in Los Angeles; This was Stravinsky's last composition

• 1970 - Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children, in Washington, D.C.

• 1985 - Rorem: String Symphony, by the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Shaw conducting

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes his Concerto Grosso No. 12 in London (see Julian date: Oct. 20)

• 1933 - Arnold Schoenberg, accompanied by his wife, baby daughter, and family pet terrier, Witz, arrives in New York on the liner Isle de France