Miakovsky for band

Synopsis

Between 1908 and 1950, Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky composed 27 symphonies. His Symphony No. 19 for wind band premiered on today’s date in 1939 at the Cominterm Radio Station in Moscow and was dedicated to the Red Army.

The Red Army’s bandmaster had asked Miaskovsky to write something for his ensemble, and at first the composer was reluctant. “The difficulties of this unusual task oppressed and discouraged me,” he wrote, “but I was anxious to keep my promise and soon mustered a fair spurt of energy, with the result that instead of a simple piece in one movement, I sent him a symphony in four.” The resulting work was, in fact, one of the normally melancholic Miaskovky’s most upbeat works.

Miaskovsky was a late starter as a composer, and when he was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1906, he was the oldest student in his class. Nonetheless, he quickly befriended the youngest student in his class, one Sergei Prokofiev, and the two remained close and life-long colleagues.

While still students, Prokofiev and Miaskovsky worked jointly on a collaborative symphony — now lost — which, had it survived, would have added an eighth to Prokofiev’s and a 28th to Miaskovsky’s symphonic tally.

Music Played in Today's Program

Nikolai Miaskovsky (1881-1950): Symphony No. 19; Stockholm Concert Band; Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Gennady, conductor; Chandos 9444

On This Day

Births

• 1571 - possible birth date of German composer Michael Praetorius, in Creuzberg an der Werra, near Eisenach

• 1847 - Austrian composer Robert Fuchs, in Frauenthal, Styria

• 1899 - French composer Georges Auric, in Lodève

• 1907 - French composer and organist Jean Langlais, in La Fontenelle

• 1947 - American composer John Adams, in Worcester, Massachusetts

• 1949 - American composer Christopher Rouse, in Baltimore, Maryland

Deaths

• 1621 - German composer Michael Praetorius, supposedly on his 50th birthday, in Wolfenbüttel

• 1857 - Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, 52, in Berlin

• 1887 - Russian composer Alexander Borodin, 53 (Gregorian date: Feb. 27)

• 1974 - Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg, 86, in Stockholm

• 1992 - American composer William Schuman, 81 in New York. He won the first Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943 for his Walt Whitman cantata, A Free Song.

Premieres

• 1686 - Lully: opera Armide et Renaud, (after Tasso) in Paris

• 1845 - Verdi: opera Giovanna D’Arco (Joan of Arc) in Milan at the Teatro all Scala

• 1868 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 (Winter Dreams) (first version), in Moscow (Julian date Feb. 3). A revised version of this symphony premiered in Moscow on Nov. 19/Dec. 1, 1883.

• 1874 - Bizet: Patrie Overture, in Paris, by the Concerts Pasedeoup

• 1884 - Tchaikovsky: opera Mazeppa in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater (Julian date: Feb. 3)

• 1919 - Loeffler: Music for Four Stringed Instruments at New York’s Aeolina Hall by the Flonzaley Quartet

• 1939 - Miakovsky: Symphony No. 19 for wind band, in Moscow

• 1945 - Paul Creston: Symphony No. 2, by the New York Philharmonic, with Arthur Rodzinski conducting

• 1947 - Korngold: Violin Concerto, by the St. Louis Symphony, with Jascha Heifetz as soloist

• 1958 - Diamond: orchestral suite The World of Paul Klee, in Portland, Oregon

• 1965 - B.A. Zimmermann: opera Die Soldaten (The Soldiers), in Cologne at the Städtische Opera

Others

• 1940 - American Music Center, a library and information center for American composers, is founded in New York City.