Rachmaninoff and Hanson get romantic

Synopsis

According to historians, the 19th Century was the great age of Romanticism — but tell that to Sergei Rachmaninoff and Howard Hanson! On today’s date, two of their quintessentially Romantic works were both premiered in the 20th century.

In 1909, Rachmaninoff came to the U.S. for his first American tour, and on today’s date appeared as the piano soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 with the New York Symphony. Now, if you believe the movie Shine, this is the most difficult of all Romantic piano concertos. Even its composer confessed he need to practice it on the boat to America!

By 1930, when American composer Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 premiered on today’s date in Boston, Romantic music was increasingly considered old fashioned. But he defiantly subtitled his new Symphony The Romantic.

“My symphony represents a definite embracing of the Romantic. I recognize, of course, that Romanticism is, at the present time, music’s poor stepchild … Nevertheless, I embrace her all the more fervently, believing as I do that Romanticism will find in this country rich soil for new growth,” he wrote.

And how about outer space? Decades after its premiere, Hanson’s popular Romantic Symphony even showed up as part of the film score to the sci-fi classic Alien.

Music Played in Today's Program

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Piano Concerto No. 3; Martha Argerich, piano; Berlin Radio Symphony; Riccardo Chailly, conductor; Philips 446 673

Howard Hanson (1896-1981): Symphony No. 2 (Romantic); RCA Symphony; Charles Gerhardt, conductor; Chesky 112

On This Day

Births

• 1784 - Baptismal date of German composer and pianist Ferdinand Ries, in Bonn

• 1829 - Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein, in Vikhvatinets, Podolia (see Julian date: Nov. 16)

Deaths

• 1972 - British composer Havergal Brian, 96, in Shoreham-by-Sea. He composed 32 symphonies between 1919-1968 (most remained unperformed during his lifetime).

Premieres

• 1723 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 61 (Nun komm der Heiden Heiland I) performed on the 1st Sunday in Advent as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)

• 1811 - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Johann Philip Christian Schultz conducting, and Friedrich Schneider as the soloist

• 1895 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera Christmas Eve, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 10)

• 1896 - Mussorgsky: opera Boris Godunov (Rimsky-Korsakov version), in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 10)

• 1909 - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3, in Carnegie Hall, composer at piano, Walter Damrosch conducting New York Symphony Society Orchestra

• 1919 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes: The Pleasure Dome of Kublai Khan, Pierre Monteux conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra

• 1930 - Hanson: Symphony No. 2 (Romantic), by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1930 - Kodály: Marosszék Dances, in Dresden

• 1940 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 20, in Moscow

• 1990 - Christopher Rouse: Concerto per Corde (Concerto for Strings), at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, by the American Symphony Orchestra, Catherine Comet conducting