The Seattle Symphony

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1903, violinist and conductor Harry West led the first performance by the Seattle Symphony. At that time, the orchestra was comprised of just 24 players. For their first program, the aptly named Maestro West conducted Schubert and Rossini, two long-dead classical masters, and also programmed works by three living composers: Max Bruch, Jules Massenet and Pablo Sarasate.

More recently, under music director Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony earned worldwide attention with its recordings of both classical and contemporary works, including critically acclaimed recordings of symphonic works by modern American masters like Howard Hanson, David Diamond and Alan Hovhaness, as well as newer pieces by a younger generation of American composers including Richard Danielpour and Stephen Albert.

That tradition continued under Gerard Schwarz’ successor Ludovic Morlot, who took particular interest in fostering music from Seattle composers, including composers within the orchestra. The Seattle Symphony commissioned and premiered Become Ocean, a work by American composer John Luther Adams, which went on to win the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Music Played in Today's Program

Max Bruch (1838-1920): Violin Concerto No. 2; Nai-Yuan Hu, violin; Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Delos 3156

John Luther Adams (b. 1953): ‘Become Ocean’; Seattle Symphony; Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Cantaloupe 21161

On This Day

Births

• 1850 - Spanish composer Tomás Bretón, in Salamanca

• 1876 - Spanish composer, cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, in Vendrell, Catalonia

• 1912 - Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, in Melbourne

Deaths

• 1785 - German composer Johann Heinrich Rolle, in Magdeburg, 69;

• 1900 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov (Gregorian date: Jan. 11, 1901)

Premieres

• 1733 - Porpora: opera Arianna in Nasso (Ariadne on Naxos) opens the first London season of The Opera of the Nobility, a company formed to rival Handel’s Royal Academy. This date is according to the Julian “Old Style” calendar still in use in England that year. Under the Gregorian “New Style” calendar in use today, this premiere actually occurred 11 days later, on Jan. 9, 1734.

• 1882 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2, and String Quintet No. 1, in Frankfurt, with a violinist named Heermann and a cellist name Müller, with Brahms at the pianist; Brahms had completed the work during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl (near Salzburg), and had participated in a reading of the new work at a private home in Bad Ischl. On that occasion, as a joke, Brahms introducing the trio as having been composed by his friend, the composer and pianist Ignaz Brull, who was also in Bad Ischl at the time.

• 1893 - Debussy: String Quartet, in Paris, by the Ysaye Quartet

• 1906 - Sibelius: tone poem, Pohjola’s Daughter, in St. Petersburg, Russia

• 1916 - Max Bruch: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting, with duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sultro

Others

• 1903 - First concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen’s Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West. The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini.