Beethoven and Brusa take it slow

Synopsis

For later Romantic composers like Richard Wagner, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was “the apotheosis of the dance,” and certainly sitting still during the Symphony’s dizzying finale is not always easy.

But for those in the audience at its premiere in 1813, as part of a benefit concert for wounded Bavarian and Austrian soldiers, it was the somber slow movement that proved most attractive. Perhaps audiences read more into it than Beethoven intended, given the occasion, but over time, the slow movements of many symphonies not only got longer, but by the time of Bruckner and Mahler also became the emotional “heart” of the composition, and are sometimes performed as stand-alone concert pieces.

On today’s date in 1999, this Adagio by Italian composer Elisabetta Brusa received its premiere performance by the Virtuosi of Toronto. Brusa was born in 1954 in Milan and studied music at the Milan Conservatory.

“My Adagio is a freely structured composition in a single movement inspired by well-known masterpieces, such as those by Albinoni, Mahler, and Barber. Independent of a pre-established form, sonata, or suite, it originated as an autonomous composition in the expressive style which have distinguished the numerous Adagios of the past,” she wrote.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7; Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 471 490

Elisabetta Brusa (b. 1954): Adagio; Ukraine National Symphony; Fabio Mastrangelo, conductor; Naxos 8.555267

On This Day

Births

• 1814 - Belgian inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax, in Dinant; He invented the instrument around 1840, and was granted a 15-year patent in 1846

• 1854 - American composer and bandmaster John Philip Sousa, in Washington, D.C.

• 1860 - Polish composer, piano virtuoso, and statesman, Ignace Jan Paderewski, in Russian Poland (Gregorian date: Nov. 18)

Deaths

• 1672 - German composer Heinrich Schütz, 87, in Dresden

• 1795 - Czech-born German opera composer Jiri Antonin (Georg Anton) Benda, 73, in Köstritz

• 1893 - Russian composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, 53, dies of cholera after drinking un-boiled water during an epidemic in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 25). Some speculate this was a deliberate and suicidal act.

• 1965 - Franco-American composer Edgard (or Edgar) Varèse, 81, in New York City

Premieres

• 1825 - Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15, in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The was the first public performance (The same players performed the work at a private performance two months earlier, on Sept. 9, for an audience of fourteen at the Tavern Zum Wilden Mann in Vienna).

• 1891 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic balled The Voyevode in Moscow (Gregorian date: Nov. 18)

• 1902 - Cilea: opera, Adriana Lecouvreur in Milan at the Teatro Lirico

• 1913 - Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra, in Paris

• 1924 - Janácek: opera The Cunning Little Vixen, in Brno at the National Theater

• 1935 - first complete performance of Walton: Symphony No. 1, by the BBC Symphony, Sir Hamilton Harty conducting. Harty had conducted the premiere performance of this work's first three movements (the fourth and final movement had not yet been written) on a London Philharmonic concert of Dec. 3, 1934.

• 1936 - Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1940 - Florence Price: Symphony No. 3, in Detroit, by the Michigan WPA Symphony, Valter Poole conducting. Also on the program was Price’s Piano Concerto (which had premiered earlier in Chicago) with the composer as soloist. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended a rehearsal for this concert, and wrote favorably about Price’s Symphony in her national newspaper column “My Day” for November 14, 1940.

• 1943 - Orff: Catulli carmina, in Leipzig at the Städische Bühnen

• 1950 - Copland: Clarinet Concerto, on an NBC Symphony broadcast conducted by Fritz Reiner, with Benny Goodman as soloist

• 1953 - Nikolaus Nakokov: Cello Concerto (Les Hommages), with Lorne Munroe, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting

• 1976 - Andrew Imbrie: opera Angle of Repose, in San Francisco

• 1999 - Elisabetta Brusa: Adagio for strings, by the Virtuosi of Toronto, Fabio Mastrangelo conducting

• 2004 - Augusta Read Thomas: Brass Rush for brass band, by the Illinois Brass Band at the U.S. Open Brass Band Competition in Arlignton Heights, Il

Others

• 1717 - J.S. Bach temporarily imprisoned by his employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, who was upset that Bach had taken another post (with Prince Leopold of Coethen) without first securing the Duke’s permission to do so