Roman's 'Musica de Palladium'

Synopsis

The Palladium Ballroom once stood at the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City. It opened on today’s date in 1946, and in its heyday, was the mambo capital of the world, showcasing performances by Latin superstars like Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez and Machito.

The Palladium closed in 1966, but its dance floor and bandstand were re-created for the 1992 film The Mambo Kings, in which Puente plays himself.

The spirit of the Palladium was also evoked in a more recent chamber work by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román. Fascinated by both the music of contemporary minimalist composers and the popular dance forms of Puerto Rico, he combines the two in his four-movement work Musica de Palladium for violin, viola, cello and piano.

The work’s final movement, “Sensacional,” is, according to Román, “a collage of aural images taken from mambos and other dance music of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez.”

Musica de Palladium was written for the New World Trio and recorded by them, joined by violist Steve Larson.

Music Played in Today's Program

Dan Román (b. 1974): ‘Musica de Palladium’; New World Trio (Annie Trepanier, vn; Carlynn Savot, vcl; Pi-Hsun Shih, p); Steve Larson, vla. innova CD 904

On This Day

Births

• 1835 - Austrian composer and conductor Eduard Strauss, in Vienna; He was the youngest son of Johann Strauss, Sr.;

• 1864 - Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist Johan Halvorsen, in Drammen;

• 1901 - American composer Colin McPhee, in Montréal, Canada;

• 1926 - American composer Ben Johnston, in Macon, Ga.;

• 1928 - American composer Nicolas Flagello, in New York City;

Deaths

• 1842 - Italian composer Luigi Cherubini, 81, in Paris;

• 1918 - French composer Lili Boulanger, 24, in Mezy;

• 1942 - Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, 70, in Larchmont, NY;

Premieres

• 1807 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 (first public performance), in Vienna, at a benefit concert conducted by the composer;

• 1885 - Franck: symphonic poem Les Dijinns (The Genies), in Paris;

• 1897 - Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 (Gregorian date: March 27);

• 1908 - Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody), in Paris;

• 1911 - Scriabin: Symphony No. 5 (Prometheus: Poem of Fire), in Moscow, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky and with the composer performing the solo piano part (Julian date: Mar. 2);

• 1981 - Stockhausen: opera Donnerstag, aus Licht (Thursday, from Light), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala; This is one of a projected cycle of seven operas, each named after a day of the week;

• 1994 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Chat Moss (the name of a quagmire in Lancashire) for orchestra, in Liverpool by the orchestra of St. Edward's College, John Moseley conducting;

• 2000 - Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, at Carnegie Hall, by soprano Sylvia McNair and pianist Martin Katz; An orchestrated version of this song-cycle premiered in Minneapolis on October 23, 2003, with soprano Hila Plitmann and the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano;

Others

• 1895 - Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, 22, makes his operatic debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, singing the lead tenor role in Domenico Morelli's comic opera L'Amico Francesco.