Lecuona's 'Rapsodia Negra'

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1943, Cuban Independence Day was celebrated with a big concert at Carnegie Hall. The first half of the concert, which was relayed to Cuba and South American by NBC radio, was devoted solely to works by Ernesto Lecuona, the best-known and most successful Cuban composer of the day.

Lecuona was born in Havana in 1895, when Cuba was still part of the Kingdom of Spain. He died in 1963, as an expat of choice after Fidel Castro came to power. In the 1920s, after successful piano recitals in Paris, Lecuona’s popularity brought him to concert halls in not only Europe, but North and South America as well. His over 600 compositions include songs, zarzuelas for the stage, contributions to musical films, and pieces for solo piano and symphony orchestra.

His most famous concert work, Rapsodia Negra, or Black Rhapsody, for piano and orchestra, received its premiere at the 1943 Carnegie Hall concert. As the New York Times review noted, “[Lecuona] may be termed the Gershwin of Cuba, … like Gershwin [he] is an outstanding performer of his own music at the piano and has composed music of the more serious type, based on the popular idiom.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963): Rapsodia Negra; Thomas Tirino, piano; Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra; Michael Bartos, conductor; BIS CD-754

On This Day

Births

• 1813 - Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, in Le Roncole, near Parma. Probable true date of his birth, according to parish records, though Verdi celebrated it on the 9, the date he believed correct.

• 1903 - Russian-born American composer and songwriter Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky), in Pskov (Julian date: Sept. 27)

• 1906 - American composer Paul Creston (Giuseppe Guttoveggio), in New York

• 1920 - American Jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Deaths

• 1825 - Russian composer Dimitri Bortniansky, 74, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Sept. 28)

Premieres

• 1919 - R. Strauss: opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow) at the Vienna Staatsoper, conducted by Franz Schalk, and with vocal soloists Lotte Lehmann (Barak’s wife), Maria Jeritza (The Empress), Karl Oestvig (The Emperor), Richard Mayr (Barak), and Lucie Weidt (The Nurse)

• 1931 - Walton: oratorio, Belshazzar’s Feast, at the Leeds Festival

• 1935 - Gershwin: opera Porgy and Bess at the Alvin Theater in New York City; The opera had a trial run in Boston which opened on September 30, 1935

• 1938 - Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1, in Leningrad, by the Glazunov Quartet

• 1948 - Bernstein: song-cycle, La Bonne Cuisine (Four Recipes for Voice and Piano), at Town Hall in New York City, with mezzo-soprano Marion Bell and pianist Edwin MacArthur

• 1968 - Berio: Sinfonia, by New York Philharmonic and The Swingle Singers, with the composer conducting

• 1985 - Benjamin Lees: Symphony No. 4 (Memorial Candles) in Dallas, with Pinchas Zukerman the soloist

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes his Concerto Grosso No. 5 and possibly his Concerto Grosso No. 9 as well (Gregorian date: Oct. 21)

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso No. 1 (see Julian date: Sept. 29)