Some Brits in New York

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1939, the King and Queen of England were in New York City. Despite the perilous situation back home in Europe, their royal majesties George and Elizabeth Windsor crossed the Atlantic to attend the 1939 World’s Fair, and sample exotic native delights such as a hot dog picnic with President Franklin Roosevelt.

That same evening at Carnegie Hall, another visiting Brit, conductor Adrian Boult, led the New York Philharmonic in premiere performances of three brand-new works by leading British composers of the day, including the world premiere of the Seventh Symphony of Arnold Bax, a work commissioned by the British Council and dedicated to the American people. Also premiered that night was a virtuoso Piano Concerto by Arthur Bliss and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ set of variations for strings and harp on the old English carol, “Dives and Lazarus.”

The music critic for The New Yorker, covering the premieres, wrote, “The symphony wandered, as Bax symphonies seem to do, yet wandered into many characteristic eloquences. The variations were soundly charming, and the piano concerto was a roaring triumph.”

There seems to be no documentation on the quality of the hot dogs served to their royal majesties, but we’re willing to bet they, too, were top-notch.

Music Played in Today's Program

Arthur Bliss (1891-1975): Piano Concerto; Philip Fowke, piano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; David Atherton, conductor; Unicorn 2029

Arnold Bax (1883-1953): Symphony No. 7; London Philharmonic; Raymond Leppard, conductor; Lyrita 232

On This Day

Births

• 1904 - German-born American musical composer Frederick Loewe, in Berlin

• 1913 - Soviet composer Tikhon Khrennikov, in Elets (Julian date: May 28)

• 1960 - English composer Mark Anthony Turnage, in Grays, Essex

Deaths

• 1899 - French composer Ernest Chausson, 44, after a bicycle accident near Limay

• 1918 - Italian opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, 76, in Milan

• 1934 - British composer Frederick Delius, 72, in Grez-sur-Loing, France

• 1964 - American composer Louis Gruenberg, 75, in Los Angeles

Premieres

• 1732 - Handel: opera Acis and Galetea (in an English/Italian version), in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket, at the request of Princess Anne (Gregorian date: June 21)

• 1865 - Wagner: opera Tristan and Isolde, in Munich at the Hoftheater, conducted by Hans von Bülow;

• 1921 - Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments (in memory of Claude Debussy), in London at Queen’s Hall, with Serge Kousevitzky conducting. Three days earlier, on June 7, 1921, Stravinsky had attended the British premiere of the concert version of his ballet score The Rite of Spring, also at Queen’s Hall, with Eugene Goossens conducting.

• 1939 - Bliss: Piano Concerto (with Solomon the soloist) and Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, at Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting. These works (Along with Bax’s Seventh Symphony, which premiered the previous day) were all commissioned by the British Council as part of the British Exhibition at 1939 World's Fair.

• 1941 - Poulenc: first public performance of Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, in Paris;

• 1968 - Britten: church opera The Prodigal Son, in Orford Church, near Aldeburgh.