A birthday Beatle

Synopsis

John Lennon was born on today’s date in the year 1940, in Liverpool, England — during a German air raid on that city, as it happened. With three other young lads from Liverpool, Lennon would eventually become world-famous, courtesy of the band he helped formed in 1959 called the Beatles.

The Beatles started out in a Liverpool nightclub called the Cavern, playing pop tunes of the day, but soon began performing original material of their own. Before disbanding in 1970, some recognizable elements of classical music were incorporated into some Beatles songs, including a string quartet, a Baroque trumpet, and even an orchestra.

And it wasn’t just a one-sided exchange: Leonard Bernstein played a Beatles song on one of his Young People’s Concerts to demonstrate sonata form. Arthur Fiedler performed symphonic arrangements of Beatles tunes at his Boston Pops concerts. And decades after the Beatles disbanded, former member Paul McCartney began composing original chamber works and big concert hall pieces, including a semi-autobiographical Liverpool Oratorio.

Not surprisingly, some young British and American composers coming of age in the 1960s and 70s credit the Beatles as an influence. One elegant set of solo guitar arrangements of Lennon-McCartney tunes even came from Japan, courtesy of eminent Japanese composer (and Beatles fan) Toru Takemitsu.

Music Played in Today's Program

Lennon and McCartney (arr. Toru Takemitsu): Here, There and Everywhere; John Williams, guitar; Sony 66704

On This Day

Births

• 1585 - Baptismal date of German composer Heinrich Schütz, in Bad Löstritz

• 1835 - French composer, conductor and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns, in Paris

• 1914 - American composer Roger Goeb, in Cherokee, Iowa

• 1938 - Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, in Helsinki

• 1940 - John Lennon (of the Beatles), in Liverpool, England

Deaths

• 1999 - Jazz vibraphone virtuoso, Milt Jackson, 76, in New York City. He was a member of the famous Modern Jazz Quartet.

Premieres

• 1826 - Rossini: opera, The Siege of Corinth, at the Paris Opéra

• 1891 - Dvorák: Requiem, in Birmingham, England

• 1896 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 13, in Prague, by the Bohemian Quartet

• 1921 - Janácek: Taras Bulba (after Gogol), in Brno

• 1955 - Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, with David Oistrakh the soloist

• 1963 - Henze: Symphony No. 4 in Berlin, with the composer conducting

• 1980 - Jon Deak: Concerto for Oboe d’amore and Orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta with Thomas Stacy as soloist

• 1985 - Anthony Davis: opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, in Philadelphia. The opera’s New York City Opera premiere occurred the following year on September 28, 1986.

• 1986 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical Phantom of the Opera, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. The musical opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theater on January 26, 1988.

• 1987 - Corigliano: Campane di Ravello (Bells of Ravello) for orchestra (a birthday tribute to Sir Georg Solti), in Chicago, with Kenneth Jean conducting

• 1992 - David Ott: Symphony No. 3, by the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Symphony, Catherine Comet conducting

• 1997 - Robert X. Rodriguez: Il Lamento di Tristano, by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis

• 1999 - Bolcom: opera A View From the Bridge, by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dennis Russell Davies conducting

• 1999 - Michael Torke: symphonic oratorio Four Seasons, at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, by soloists, chorus, and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting

Others

• 1973 - Leonard Bernstein gives the first of six lectures: The Unanswered Question, as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University