A Kernis premiere wins the Pulitzer

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1998, the Lark Quartet gave the first performance of the String Quartet No. 2 by American composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Like much of his music, the new quartet drew upon an eclectic variety of influences.

As he put it: “My String Quartet No. 2 uses elements of Renaissance and Baroque dance music and dance forms as its basis and inspiration. For years I’ve played various Bach suites and pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book at the piano for my own pleasure, and I suspected for some time that their influence would eventually show up in my own work.”

The Lark Quartet had commissioned Kernis’ String Quartet No. 1, and, like the composer, were over the moon when they learned No. 2 had won the Pulitzer Prize for music. Just three months after its premiere, he got the news by phone as he was headed to the airport to catch a flight to Spain. “I haven’t had a martini in years, but that’s sort of what it felt like,” he recalled.

Kernis’ String Quartet No. 2 was a triple commission from Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Ohio University, and The Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, and was dedicated to Linda Hoeschler, the former Executive Director of the American Composers Forum.

Music Played in Today's Program

Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960): String Quartet No. 2 (musica instrumentalis); The Lark Quartet; Arabesque 6727

On This Day

Births

• 1910 - French composer and conductor Jean Martinon, in Lyons

• 1916 - American composer Milton Babbitt, in Philadelphia

Deaths

• 1895 - French composer Benjamin Godard, 45, in Cannes

• 1941 - British composer Frank Bridge, 61, in Eastbourne

Premieres

• 1676 - Lully: opera Atys, in St. Germain

• 1713 - Handel: opera Teseo at the Queen’s Theater in London. On the second night of the performance, the theater manager, a certain Owen Swiney, flees to Italy with the box office receipts (Gregorian date: Jan. 21).

• 1867 - Verdi: opera Don Carlos (second Italian-language version in four acts), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

• 1886 - first performance with orchestra of Bruckner: Te Deum in Vienna

• 1897 - d’Indy Istar for orchestra, simultaneously by Willem Mengelberg in Amsterdam and Eugène Ysayë in Brussels

• 1928 - Gershwin (and Sigmund Romberg): musical Rosalie at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City. This show included the classic Gershwin songs “How Long Has This Been Going On?” and “Say So!”

• 1931 - Ives: Three Places in New England, in New York City, by the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Nicholas Slonimsky conducting

• 1934 - Franz Schmidt: Symphony No. 4, by Vienna Symphony, Oswald Kabasta conducting

• 1960 - Stravinsky: Movements, at Town Hall in New York, by pianist Margit Weber during a Stravinsky Festival, with the composer conducting

• 1978 - Dutilleux: Timbres, Espaces, Mouvement for orchestra, in Washington, D.C.

• 1987 - Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 (later dedicated to Marin Alsop), by the Houston Symphony, Hans Vonk conducting

• 1998 - Kernis: String Quartet No. 2, at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, by the Lark Quartet. This work won that year's Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Others

• 1710 - Handel’s music is performed in London for the first time, when orchestral works from his opera Rodrigo are performed as incidental music during a revival performance of Ben Jonson’s play The Alchymist (Gregorian date: Jan. 21).