William Schuman writes a 'Symphony for Strings'

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1943, the Boston Symphony and conductor Serge Koussevitzky gave the first performance of a Symphony for Strings by American composer William Schuman.

Schuman was 33 at the time, but Koussevitzky had already been programming and commissioning his music for about five years. Koussevitzky had already given the premiere performances of his popular American Festival Overture and Symphony No. 3.

Schuman’s Symphony for Strings is dedicated to the memory of Koussevitzky’s wife, Natalie, whose family fortune had enabled Koussevitzky to establish himself as a conductor, found a publishing house, and commission many of the 20th century’s most significant works, including Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

In Russia, the Koussevitzkys championed Russian music. In France, they supported French composers. And, beginning in 1924, when Koussevitzky became the music director of the Boston Symphony, many American composers benefited from this remarkable couple’s enthusiasm for new music. Symphony for Strings is just one of a long list of the Koussevitzky’s American commissions, which includes works by Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Samuel Barber, Walter Piston and Leonard Bernstein.

Taken as a whole, the concert music commissioned by Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky remains one of the most remarkable musical legacies of the 20th century.

Music Played in Today's Program

William Schuman (1910-1992): Symphony No. 5 (Symphony for Strings); I Musici de Montreal; Yuli Turovsky, conductor; Chandos 9848

On This Day

Births

• 1833 - Russian composer Alexander Borodin, in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct 31)

Deaths

• 1948 - Italian opera composer Umberto Giordano, 81, in Milan

• 1966 - American composer Quincy Porter, 69, in Bethany, Connecticut

• 1972 - Czech-born American composer Rudolph Friml, 92, in Los Angeles

• 1976 - American composer Walter Piston, 82, in Belmont, Massachusetts

• 2013 - British composer Sir John Tavener, 69, in in Child Okeford, Dorset

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 139 (Wohl Dem, der Sich auf Seinen Gott) performed on the 23rd Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach’s second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25)

• 1866 - Delibes: ballet La Source, at the Paris Opéra

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Theodore Thomas, with Madeleine Schiller the soloist

• 1888 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic fantasy overture Hamlet, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Nov. 24)

• 1931 - Rachmaninoff: Oriental Sketch for solo piano, in New York City, by the composer

• 1943 - William Schumann: Symphony No. 5 (Symphony for Strings), in Boston

• 1973 - Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14, in Leningrad, by the Beethoven Quartet

• 1974 - Crumb: Makrokosmos II for amplified piano, in New York

• 2002 - David Del Tredici: Grand Trio in New York City at the 92nd Street Y by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

Others

• 1738 - Handel completes Part II (Moses’ Song) of his oratorio Israel in Egypt (see Julian date: November 1)