John Tavener

Synopsis

Late in 2013, the musical world was gearing up to celebrate the 70th birthday of British composer John Tavener, but sadly he died, so his 70th birthday, which fell on today’s date in 2014, became a memorial tribute instead.

Tavener had suffered from ill health throughout his life: a stroke in his thirties, heart surgery and the removal of a tumor in his forties, and two subsequent heart attacks.

In his early twenties, he became famous in 1968 with his avant-garde cantata, The Whale, based loosely on the Old Testament story of Jonah. That work caught the attention of one of The Beatles, and a recording of it was released on The Beatles’ own Apple label.

Tavener converted to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1977, and his music became increasingly spiritual. Millions who watched TV coverage of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, were deeply moved by his “Song for Athene,” which was performed to telling effect as Diana’s casket left Westminster Abbey. He was knighted in 2000, becoming Sir John Tavener.

In 2003, his Ikon of Eros, commissioned for the Centennial of the Minnesota Orchestra, and premiered at St. Paul’s Cathedral — the one in St. Paul, Minnesota, that is, not the one in London — and Tavener came to Minnesota for the event.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Tavener (1944-2013): Ikon of Eros; Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Minnesota Chorale; Minnesota Orchestra; Paul Goodwin, conductor; Reference Recording 102

On This Day

Births

• 1791 - French opera composer Louis Joseph F. Herold, in Paris

• 1898 - Italian-American composer Vittorio Rieti, in Alexandria, Egypt

  1944 - British composer Sir John Tavener, in London

Deaths

• 1935 - Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, 75, in Moscow

• 1947 - Venezuelan-born French composer Reynaldo Hahn, 72, in Paris

Premieres

• 1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 92 (Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn) performed on Septuagesimae Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach’s second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25)

• 1828 - Schubert: Piano Trio, at a private performance by Ignaz Schuppanzigh (violin), Josef Linke (cello), and Carl Maria von Bocklet (piano)

• 1830 - Auber: opera Fra Diavolo in Paris at the Opéra-Comique

• 1876 - Tchaikovsky: Serenade Mélancolique for violin and orchestra, in Moscow (Julian date: Jan. 18)

• 1897 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 5, in London

• 1915 - Ravel: Piano Trio, in Paris, by Gabriel Wilaume (violin), Louis Feuillard (cello), and Alfredo Casella (piano)

• 1916 - Granados: opera Goyescas, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York

• 1927 - Copland: Piano Concerto, by the Boston Symphony conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, with the composer as soloist

• 1941 - Copland: Quiet City, at Town Hall in New York City by the Little Symphony conducted by Daniel Saidenberg. This music is based on incidental music Copland wrote for Irwin Shaw’s play of the same name produced by the Group Theater in New York in 1939.

• 1944 - Bernstein: Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah), at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by the composer, with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel as vocal soloist

• 1972 - Scott Joplin: opera Treemonisha (orchestrated by T.J. Anderson), in Atlanta

• 1990 - Joan Tower: Flute Concerto, at Carnegie Hall in New York, with soloist Carol Wincenc and the American Composers Orchestra, Hugh Wolff, conducting

• 1995 - Elinor Armer: Island Earth (to a text by Sci-Fi writer Usula K. Le Guin), at the University of California, Berkeley, by the various San Francisco choirs and the Women’s Philharmonic, conducted by JoAnn Falletta. On the same program were the premiere performance’s of Chen Yi’s Antiphony for orchestra and Augusta Read Thomas’ Fantasy for piano and orchestra (with piano soloist Sara Wolfensohn).

• 1997 - Morten Lauridsen: Mid-Winter Songs (final version) for chorus and orchestra, by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, John Currie conducting. Earlier versions of this work with piano and chamber orchestra accompaniment had premiered in 1981, 1983, and 1985 at various Californian venues.

• 2000 - André Previn: Diversions, in Salzburg, Austria, by the Vienna Philharmonic, the composer conducting

Others

• 1742 - Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin (and the author of Gulliver’s Travels), objects to the cathedral singers taking part in performances of Handel's works while the composer is in that city (Gregorian date: Feb. 8). Rehearsals for the premiere performance of Handel’s Messiah would begin in April of that year, involving the choirs of both Christ Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals in Dublin.

• 1971 - William Bolcom completes his Poltergeist Rag (dedicated to Teresa Sterne, a one-time concert pianist who was then a producer for Nonesuch Records). According to the composer’s notes, the Poltergeist Rag was written “in a converted garage next to a graveyard in Newburgh, New York.”