Symphonic Mahler and Moross

Synopsis

On this day in 1904, in Cologne, Germany, Gustav Mahler conducted the first performance of his Symphony No. 5. It was not a success. Applause was light, with loud hissing from some in the audience. Even Mahler’s wife, Alma, complained so much about the orchestration that Mahler kept tinkering with the score until the last year of his life.

Despite this inauspicious beginning, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 has become a popular showpiece for virtuoso orchestras and its slow movement, marked Adagietto — supposedly Mahler’s musical love to Alma — has become one of Mahler’s best-loved pieces.

The American composer Jerome Moross also had a symphony premiered on today’s date. The year was 1943, Moross was 30, and Thomas Beecham conducted its premiere performance with the Seattle Symphony. Unlike Mahler, Moross wrote only one symphony, and the American hobo tune inspired the slow movement of his The Midnight Special.

Jerome Moross is best known his work in Hollywood. His 1958 score for The Big Country was nominated for an Academy Award. Moross also wrote the music for Wagon Train, a popular TV Western. As Moross once said, “a composer must reflect his landscape and mine is the landscape of America. I don't do it consciously, it is simply the only way I can write.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No. 5; Chicago Symphony; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 427 254

Jerome Moross (1913-1983): Symphony No. 1; London Symphony; JoAnn Falletta, conductor; Koch 7188

On This Day

Births

• 1706 - Italian composer Baldassare Galuppi, in Burano, near Venice

• 1924 - Norwegian composer Egil Hovland, in Mysen, near Oslo

• 1961 - Jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis in New Orleans

Deaths

• 1545 - English composer and organist John Taverner, 55, in Boston, England

• 1817 - French composer Etienne Méhul, 54, in Paris

• 1893 - French composer Charles Gounod, 75, in St. Cloud

Premieres

• 1873 - Brahms: String Quartet No. 2, in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet

• 1887 - Brahms: Double Concerto, in Cologne, by the Gürzenich Orchestra, with Joseph Joachim (violin), Robert Hausemann (cello), and the composer conducting

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (Gregorian date: Oct. 30)

• 1882 - Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio (Gregorian date: Oct. 30)

• 1904 - Mahler: Symphony No. 5, in Cologne, by the Gürzenich Orchestra, with the composer conducting

• 1923 - Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1, in Paris, at a concert conducted by Serge Koussevitsky, with Marcel Darrieux, the concertmaster of Koussevitzky’s orchestra, as the soloist. At this same concert, Igor Stravinsky leads members of the orchestra in the premiere of his Octet for Winds.

• 1943 - Jerome Moross: Symphony No. 1, by the Seattle Symphony, Thomas Beecham conducting

• 1946 - Copland: Symphony No. 3 (in memory of Mme. Natalie Koussevitzky), by the Boston Symphony conducted by Serge Koussevitzky

• 1953 - Stravinsky: Preludium for Jazz Ensemble, at an Evenings on the Roof concert in Los Angeles, with Robert Craft conducting

• 1957 - Creston: Toccata for orchestra, by the Cleveland Orchestra

• 1958 - Harald Saeverud: Minnesota Symphony, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting

• 1981 - Pierre Boulez: Répons for 30 instruments and electronics, at the Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music in West Germany

• 1984 - Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theatre for chamber ensemble, in London at Queen Elisabeth Hall, by the London Sinfonietta, David Atherton conducting

• 1990 - Elisabetta Brusa: Nittemero Symphony, by the London Chamber Orchestra, Odaline de la Martinez conducting

• 2000 - Lukas Foss: Solo Transformed for piano and orchestra, in Minneapolis by Peter Serkin with the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes his Concerto Grosso No. 8 in London (Gregorian date: Oct. 29)

• 1961 - premiere of United Artists film West Side Story, based on the musical by Leonard Bernstein