Britten's 'Cantata Academica'

Synopsis

One way composers help make ends meet is to accept commissions for occasional pieces — works written for some special occasion, a private or public celebration or anniversary of some event, large or small. Sometimes these works go on to have a life of their own apart from the special occasion that prompted their creation, so that subsequent audiences might not even be aware of the original event at all.

In 1959, English composer Benjamin Britten accepted a commission from Swiss conductor Paul Sacher for a cantata to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the University of Basel in Switzerland. The texts selected for the cantata were all in Latin, the old academic language of universities 500 years ago, and included excerpts from the founding charter of the institution as well as medieval odes in praise of the university written by its students and faculty.

Britten’s score, which premiered at the University of Basel on today’s date in 1960, was quite literally, an academic exercise — and it’s amusing to note that apparently he wrote out the text for the work in the pages of one of his old school exercise books.

Music Played in Today's Program

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Cantata Academica (Carmen Basiliense); Jennifere Vyvyan, soprano; Helen Watts, mezzo-soprano; Peter Pears, tenor; Owen Brannigan, bass; London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra; George Malcolm, conductor; Decca 4251532

On This Day

Births

• 1926 - German composer Hans Werner Henze, in Gütersloh, Westphalia

Deaths

• 1784 - German composer Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, 73, in Berlin. He was the eldest son of J.S. Bach.

• 1925 - French composer Erik Satie, 59, in Paris

Premieres

• 1716 - Handel: Concerto Grosso No. 4a, in London (Gregorian date: July 12)

• 1927 - Bela Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Frankfurt, Wilhelm Fürtwängler conducting, with the composer as soloist

• 1933 - R. Strauss: opera Arabella, in Dresden at the Staatsoper, Clemens Krauss conducting, with vocal soloists Viorica Ursuleac (Arabella), Alfred Jerger (Mandryka), Margit Bokor (Zdenka), and Martin Kremer (Matteo)

• 1937 - Milhaud: Scaramouche Suite for Two Pianos, in Paris

• 1948 - Rawthorne: Violin Concerto, at Cheltenham Festival in England

• 1984 - Sallinen: opera, The King Goes Forth to France, in Helsinki

• 2000 - Diamond: Symphony No. 10, by the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz conducting

• 2001 - Lazarof: Legends form the Bible, for chorus, horns and vibes, in Berlin, by the Ars-Nova Ensemble, conducted by Peter Schwarz

Others

• 1867 - American premiere of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Blue Danube Waltz at a summer concert of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York (less than five months after the work’s premiere in Vienna)

• 1897 - The Music Division of the Library of Congress is founded in Washington, D.C.