Tchaikovsky and North endure unkind cuts

Synopsis

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto was first performed on today’s date in 1881. The premiere took place in Vienna with Adolf Brodsky the violin soloist and the Vienna Philharmonic led by Hans Richter. It was not a big hit.

The next day, the conservative Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick wrote: “The violin is no longer played: it is tugged about, torn, beaten black and blue.” According to Hanslick, the concerto’s finale: “transports us to the brutal and wretched jollity of a Russian festival. We see gross and savage faces, hear crude curses, and smell the booze … Tchaikovsky’s Concerto confronts us for the first time with the hideous idea that there may be musical compositions whose stink one can hear.”

Ouch! Tchaikovsky’s score survived the bad review, but a more recent American work suffered a far unkinder cut. The original film score for the 1968 blockbuster movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey was written by Alex North, who was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on today's date in 1910. Director Stanley Kubrick hired North to write the music for 2001, but Kubrick ultimately decided to use pre-recorded classical and contemporary music instead.

When North attended the New York premiere of 2001, he was devastated that not one minute of the music he had written was included in the final edit.

Believe it or not, no one had informed him in advance!

Music Played in Today's Program

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Violin Concerto; Itzhak Perlman, violin; London Symphony; Alfred Wallenstein, conductor; Chesky 12

Alex North (1910-1991): Unused Opening Theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey; National Philharmonic; Jerry Goldsmith, conductor; Varese Sarabande 66225

On This Day

Births

• 1660 - Baptism of French composer André Campra, in Aix-en-Provence

• 1667 - Baptism of French composer and theorist Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, in Andelot

• 1879 - Irish composer and conductor (Sir) Hamilton Harty, in Hillsborough, County Down

Deaths

• 1935 - Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen, 71, in Oslo

• 1953 - American composer and writer on music Daniel Gregory Mason, 80, Greenwich, Connecticut

• 1976 - British composer Benjamin Britten, 63, in Aldeburgh

• 1993 - American composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, 52, in Los Angeles

Premieres

• 1693 - M.-A, Charpentier: opera, Médée, in Paris

• 1816 - Rossini: opera Otello, in Naples at the Teatro del Fondo

• 1920 - Korngold: opera Die Tote Stadt, simultaneously in Hamburg and Cologne; The Hamburg premiere was conducted by Egon Pollak, the Cologne premiere by Otto Klemperer

• 1845 - R. Schumann: Piano Concerto, in Dresden, Ferdinand Hiller conducting, with Clara Schumann the soloist

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, in Vienna by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Richter, with Adolf Brodsky as soloist

• 1885 - American premiere of Bruckner: Symphony No. 3, at the Old Metropolitan Opera House in New York, during an afternoon public rehearsal by the New York Symphony Society, with the 23-year old Walter Damrosch. The official concert occurred the following evening. This was the first time any Bruckner Symphony was performed in America. In his Preface to a 1942 book by Werner Wolff, Anton Bruckner: Rustic Genius, Damrosch incorrectly states it was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 (Romantic) that he performed on Dec. 5, 1885.

• 1895 - Rachmaninoff: Caprice Bohémien (Capriccio on Gypsy Themes), in Moscow, with the composer conducting (Julian date: Nov. 22)

• 1898 - Dvorák: symphonic poem Hero’s Song, in Vienna

• 1909 - Wolf-Ferrari: opera, Il Segreto di Susanna, in Munich, at the Hoftheater

• 1922 - Bax: Symphony No. 1, in London

• 1949 - Dallapiccola: opera I Prigioniero (The Prisoner), in a broadcast concert performance in Turin by the Italian Radio. The first staged performance of this opera took place on May 20, 1950, in Florence.