'Hello, Mr. Addinsell?'

Synopsis

Today’s date in 1904 marks the birthday of Richard Addinsell, a versatile British musician who became one of the most famous film score composers of his generation.

Addinsell was born in London, studied music at the Royal College of Music, and pursued additional studies in Berlin and Vienna before heading off to America in 1933 for some practical education at Hollywood film studios. He put both his theoretical and practical learning to good use when he returned to England, where he began composing for a series of successful British movies, like the Oscar-winning 1939 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Addinsell also became a popular songwriter and accompanist for British comediennes and cabaret singers of the day.

But Addinsell is best known as the composer of the Warsaw Concerto, a piano concerto consciously modeled on the big Romantic scores of Rachmaninoff. This music originally appeared in the 1941 British adventure film Dangerous Moonlight, retitled Suicide Squadron when it was released in the U.S. in 1942.

After that mega-hit, Addinsell’s fluent and versatile writing continued to grace a goodly number of Post-War British films and TV dramatizations, ranging from historical epics to psychological thrillers, gritty “slice-of-life” dramas, and whimsical, light-hearted comedies.

Addinsell died in London at 73 in 1977.

Music Played in Today's Program

Richard Addinsell (1904-1977): Goodbye, Mr. Chips; BBC Concert Orchestra; Kenneth Alwyn, conductor; Marco Polo 8.223732

Richard Addinsell (1904-1977): Warsaw Concerto; Cristina Ortiz, piano; Royal Philharmonic; Moseh Atzmon, conductor; London 414 348

On This Day

Births

• 1690 - German composer Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, in Grünstadtl

• 1866 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov, in Voin (Julian date: Jan 1.)

• 1904 - British composer Richard Addinsell, in London

Deaths

• 1864 - American composer Stephen Foster, 37, in Bellevue Hospital, New York

• 1980 - Russian-born American conductor and arranger André Kostelanetz, 78, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 32 (Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen) performed on the 1st Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)

• 1775 - Mozart: opera La Finta Giardiniera (The Feigned Gardener), in Munich at the Opernhaus St. Salvator

• 1873 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Maid of Pskov (first version) in St. Petersburg, Napravnik conducting; This was Rimsky-Korsakov’s first opera (Julian date: Jan. 1)

• 1904 - Bartók: tone-poem Kossuth, in Budapest; Bartók’s parody of the German national hymn in this work caused an uproar at the work’s premiere

• 1944 - Stravinsky: Circus Polka (concert version) and Four Norwegian Moods, in Cambridge at the Garden Theatre, with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer

• 1945 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5, by the Moscow State Philharmonic, with the composer conducting

• 2000 - Danielpour: Voices of Remembrance for string quartet and orchestra, in Washington, D.C. with the Guarneri String Quartet and the National Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting

Others

• 1910 - Lee De Forest relays experimental Met Opera performances via a radio transmitter (see also Jan. 12)