Cowell in Cuba

Synopsis

Decades before the Cuban revolution, some decidedly revolutionary sounds had their birth in that country’s capital city on today’s date in 1930 during a concert of ultramodern music presented by the Havana Philharmonic.

The concert offered the premiere performance of a new Piano Concerto by American composer Henry Cowell, who also was the soloist. Cowell’s concerto broke new ground — and perhaps a few piano strings — by employing what Cowell dubbed “tone clusters.” These dense, dissonant chords were produced by pounding the keys of the piano with the fist, palms or extended forearms.

Cowell also took his new techniques to the Old World in the 1920s and ‘30s, performing concerts of his works in Europe. These attracted the attention of Bela Bartok, who asked Cowell’s permission to employ tone clusters in his works, and Arnold Schoenberg, who invited Cowell to perform for his Berlin composition classes.

Cowell’s oft-stated goal was to embrace what he described as “the whole world of music,” whether dissonant or consonant, radical or traditional, Western or non-Western. Perhaps that ideal was even more revolutionary than his Piano Concerto must have seemed back in 1930.

Music Played in Today's Program

Henry Cowell (1897-1965) Piano Concerto; Stefan Litwin, piano; Saarbrucken Radio Symphony; Michael Stern, cond. Col Legno 20064

On This Day

Births

• 1812 - German composer, cellist and conductor Julius Rietz, in Berlin;

• 1837 - American composer, conductor, pianist and organist B. J. Lang, in Salem, Ma.;

• 1896 - American composer Roger Sessions, in Brooklyn;

Deaths

• 1937 - French composer Maurice Ravel, age 62, in Paris;

• 1963 - German composer Paul Hindemith, age 68, in Frankfurt;

Premieres

• 1720 - Handel: opera "Radamisto" (2nd version), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket, with the great Italian alto-castrato Senesino making his debut in one of Handel's works (Gregorian date: Jan. 8, 1721);

• 1737 - Handel: anthem "The Ways of Zion do Mourn"(Julian date: Dec. 17);

• 1894 - Henry Holden Huss: Piano Concerto in B, by the Boston Symphony, Emil Paur conducting, and the composer as soloist;

• 1925 - Gershwin: musical "Tip-Toes," at the Liberty Theater in New York City; This show included the classic Gershwin songs "Sweet and Low Down," "That Certain Feeling," and "These Charming People";

• 1930 - Cowell: Piano Concerto, in Havana, Cuba, by the Havana Philharmonic, with the composer at the piano;

• 1944 - Bernstein: musical "On the Town," in New York City at the Adelphi Theater; A trial run of this show had opened in Boston at the Colonial Theater on December 13, 1944; The 1944 Broadway production would run for 462 performances;

• 1944 - Miklós Rósza: Concerto for String Orchestra, in Los Angeles;

• 1948 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 26, in Moscow;

• 1952 - Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano (part two of a two-part recital), in Leningrad, by pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva; See also Dec. 23rd;

Others

• 1945 - Igor Stravinsky becomes an American citizen;