Ceremonial Beethoven and Schuman

Synopsis

If you had arrived early for the gala reopening celebration of Vienna’s Josephstadt Theater on today’s date in 1822, you might have heard the theater orchestra frantically rehearing a new overture by Beethoven. They had just received the score, and so at the last minute were getting their first look at the new piece they would perform that evening.

Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture was a last-minute commission and interrupted Beethoven’s work on two bigger projects: his Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. This overture begins with a series of solemn chords, continues with a stately march, and closes with a fugue — a tribute to Handel, whose music was much on Beethoven’s mind at the time.

One hundred forty-six years later to the day, another festive occasion was observed with new music, when, on October 3, 1968, the New York Philharmonic, as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, premiered a new orchestral work by the American composer William Schuman. Leonard Bernstein conducted.

Schuman’s piece, To Thee Old Cause, was scored for solo oboe and orchestra. Originally, Schumann planned an upbeat, celebratory work, but the 1968 assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy changed all that and more somber music, dedicated to their memory, was the result.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Consecration of the House Overture; Berlin Philharmonic; Bernhard Klee, conductor; DG 453 713

Willliam Schuman (1910-1992): To Thee Old Cause; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Sony 63088

On This Day

Births

• 1923 - Polish-born American composer and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, in Lwow

• 1936 - American composer Steve Reich, in New York

Deaths

• 1931 - Danish composer and conductor Carl Nielsen, 66, in Copenhagen

• 1953 - English composer Sir Arnold Bax, 69, in Cork, Ireland

Premieres

• 1822 - Beethoven: Consecration of the House Overture, for the opening of the Josephstadt Theater in Vienna

• 1860 - Brahms: Serenade No. 1, in Hanover, conducted by Joseph Joachim

• 1888 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, The Yeomen of the Guard, at the Savoy Theatre in London

• 1900 - Elgar: oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius, at Birmingham, Hans Richter conducting

• 1929 - Walton: Viola Concerto, by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra conducted by the composer, with Paul Hindemith the soloist

• 1963 - Ginastera: Violin Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting, with Ruggiero Ricci the soloist

• 1968 - William Schuman’s To Thee Old Cause at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bernstein (dedicated to memory of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy)

• 1971 - Copland: Duo for flute and piano, in Philadelphia, by flutist Elaine Shaffer and pianist Hephzibah Menuhin

• 1984 - Corigliano: Creations for narrator and chamber orchestra, in Milwaukee, Wisc., with Lukas Foss conducting

• 1996 - James MacMillan: Cello Concerto, at the Barbican in London, by Mstislav Rostropovich with the London Symphony, Sir Colin Davis conducting

• 1997 - Anthony Davis: Jacob’s Ladder, by the Kansas City Symphony, Bill McGlaughlin conducting

Others

• 1833 - Berlioz marries Irish actress Harriet “Henrietta” Smithson at the British embassy in Paris. Liszt acts as one of the witnesses.