Synopsis
American composer Philip Glass was born in Baltimore on this date in 1937.
Glass says he discovered music via his father’s radio repair shop, where, in addition to servicing radios, Papa Glass sold records. When certain titles sold poorly, Papa would take them home and play them for his three children, trying to discover why they didn't appeal to customers. And so the future composer rapidly became familiar with commercially unsuccessful records of Beethoven string quartets, Schubert piano sonatas, and Shostakovich symphonies.
After some decades studying music, both commercially successful and not, Glass struck out on an original path. In the 1970s, he made a name for himself as both a composer and a performer of hypnotically and repetitiously patterned music for dance and theatrical events in association with Mabou Mines and avant-garde theatrical director Robert Wilson. In 1976 the Philip Glass-Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach premiered in France and was subsequently staged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
In the decades that followed, Glass has composed many more operas, symphonies, and film scores, and has the dubious distinction of generating of “Philip Glass jokes,” the most famous being:
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Philip Glass.
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Music Played in Today's Program
Philip Glass (b. 1937): Symphony No. 3; Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor; Nonesuch 79581
On This Day
Births
1759 - French composer a François Devienne, in Joinville
1797 - Austrian composer Franz Schubert, in Lichtenthal near Vienna
1906 - English composer Benjamin Frankel, in London
1937 - American composer and performer Philip Glass, in Baltimore, Maryland
1960 - English composer and pianist George Benjamin, in London
Premieres
1727 - Handel: opera "Admeto" in London at the Haymarket Theater in London. This premiere was scheduled for earlier in the month, but was delayed awaiting the arrival in London of the Italian castrato Senesino, who was recovering from an illness (Gregorian date: Feb. 11).
1925 - Vladimir Dukelsky (a.k.a. Vernon Duke): ballet Zéphir et Flore in Paris
1935 - Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Cello Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, with Gregor Piatigorsky as the soloist
1943 - R. Strauss: Divertimento on pieces by Couperin, in Vienna
1952 - Leon Kirchner: Sinfonia in New York City
1953 - Vittorio Giannini: opera The Taming of the Shrew (in concert form) in Cincinnati
1959 - Martinu: Fantasia Concertante for piano and orchestra, in Berlin, with Margrit Weber the soloist
1986 - Joan Tower: Piano Concerto (Homage to Beethoven), by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imre Pallo, with piano soloist Jacquelyn M. Helin
1987 - David Maslanka: Wind Quintet No. 2 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, by the Manhattan Quintet
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.