'Music for Prague' in Prague

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1990, Czech-born composer Karel Husa returned to his hometown of Prague to conduct a concert of his own music after more than forty years in exile. Husa left Prague in 1948 after the post-War communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, and in 1954 accepted a teaching post at Cornell University. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1959.

At that festive 1990 homecoming concert in Prague’s Smetana Hall, broadcast nationwide by Czech radio and TV, Husa conducted the Czech premiere of his Music for Prague 1968, a composition that had received thousands of performances all over the world, but none, until that night, in the city that inspired it.

Husa had written it in the summer of 1968 after troops from the Soviet Union had invaded his homeland to suppress a growing Czech democratic movement. Music for Prague, 1968 soon became a classic of wind band repertory.

One of Husa’s American students, composer Thomas Duffy, traveled to Prague to attend the concert. “Husa conducted vigorously,” Duffy recalled, and after the performance noted that, “Twice, when I felt that the volume of applause was already overwhelming, Husa presented the V for victory sign to the house — and the volume doubled.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Karel Husa (1921-2016): Music for Prague 1968; Eastman Wind Ensemble; Donald Hunsberger, conductor; CBS/Sony MK-44916

On This Day

Births

• 1778 - Spanish composer and guitarist Fernando Sor, in Barcelona

• 1870 - American composer and virtuoso pianist Leopold Godowsky, in Soshly, near Vilnius

• 1946 - English composer Colin Matthews, in London

Deaths

• 1741 - Austrian composer Johann Joseph Fux, 80, in Vienna

• 1883 - German composer composer Richard Wagner, 69, in Venice

• 1968 - Italian composer Ildebrando Pizetti, 87, in Rome

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 181 (Leichgesinnte Flattergeister) and No. 18 (Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee) performed on Sexagesimae Sunday as part of Bach’s first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)

• 1725 - Handel: opera Rodelinda, in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Feb. 24). On May 6/17 that same year, the score to this opera was published, the first Handel score to be offered to the public by subscription.

• 1867 - Johann Strauss, Jr.: Blue Danube Waltz, in Vienna

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: opera The Maid or Orleans, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 25)

• 1926 - Honegger: opera Judith (second version), at the Monte Carlo Opéra

• 1943 - William Schuman: Prayer in Time of War, by the Pittsburgh Symphony, Fritz Reiner conducting

• 1944 - Antheil: Symphony No. 4, by the NBC Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1956 - Toch: Peter Pan (A Symphonic Fairy Tale) for orchestra, in Seattle

• 1959 - Martinu: The Parables for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1961 - Bernstein: Symphonic Dances, from West Side Story, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss

• 1978 - Roger Reynolds: Fiery Winds for orchestra, in New York

Others

• 1727 - Handel applies for British citizenship (Gregorian date: Feb. 24). Handel received his official citizenship seven days later, on Feb. 20/Mar. 3.

• 1914 - ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is formally organized in New York City, with composer Victor Herbert as its first director.