The Night the Lights Went Out on Elliott Carter

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1994, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Chicago Symphony and conductor Daniel Barenboim gave the world premiere performance of Partita by American composer Elliott Carter, specially commissioned in honor of the composer’s 85th birthday.

It was a major work, and a major occasion — but, as the Chicago Tribune’s music critic John von Rheim put it, that date “will forever be known as the Night the Lights Went Out on Elliott Carter.”

Just as the orchestra was playing the final pages of Carter’s complex score, the house lights went out. The audience gasped. The orchestra stopped playing. Not sure what to do, the audience started applauding. Then, after a moment or two the lights came back on. After breathing a sigh of relief, Barenboim and the orchestra prepared to pick up where they had left off — and then the lights went out again!

Turning to the audience, Barenboim quipped, “It’s a good thing we and Mr. Carter are not superstitious.”

Well, eventually the lights came back on — and stayed on, enabling the Orchestra to finish the premiere of Carter’s Partita.

But, perhaps as a kind of insurance policy — later on Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony also made a live recording of the new work.

Music Played in Today's Program

Elliott Carter (1908-2012): Partita; Chicago Symphony; Daniel Barenboim, conductor (live recording); Teldec CD 81792

On This Day

Births

• 1653 - Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli, in Fusignano (near Imola)

• 1820 - Belgian composer Henri Vieuxtemps, in Verviers

• 1862 - English composer Edward German (Jones) in Whitechurch

• 1887 - Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja, in Oulu (Uleaborg)

• 1920 - American composer Paul Fetler, in Philadelphia

• 1926 - Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha, in Vienna

• 1926 - American composer Lee Hoiby, in Madison, Wisconsin

Deaths

• 1732 - French composer and organist Louis Marchand, 63, in Paris

• 1841 - Italian composer and guitarist Ferdinando Carulli, 70, in Paris

• 1924 - Finnish composer Oskar Merikanto, 55, in Hausjärvi-Oiti

• 1970 - American composer and conductor Alfred Newman, 69, in Los Angeles

• 1982 - American Jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk, 64, in Englewood, New Jersey

Premieres

• 1728 - Handel: opera Siroe, Re di Persia (Cyrus, King of Persia), in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Feb. 28). This was the first Handel opera with a libretto by Metastasio.

• 1792 - Haydn: Symphony No. 93, conducted by the composer, at the Hanover-Square Concert Rooms in London

• 1855 - Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Weimar, with the composer as soloist and Hector Berlioz conducting

• 1859 - Verdi: opera Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball), in Rome at the Teatro Apollo

• 1889 - Franck: Symphony in d, in Paris

• 1901 - Mahler: oratorio Das Klagende Lied (Song of Lamentation), in Vienna, with composer conducting

• 1904 - Puccini: opera Madama Butterfly, in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

• 1914 - Ernst von Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Song for piano and orchestra, in Berlin, with the composer as soloist

• 1927 - Deems Taylor: opera The King’s Henchmen, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York

• 1943 - Copland: Music for Movies, at a Town Hall Forum concert in New York City

• 1947 - Copland: Danzón Cubano (orchestral version), by the Baltimore Symphony

• 1948 - David Diamond: Violin Sonata No. 1, at Carnegie Hall in New York, by Joseph Szigeti (violin) and Josef Lhevinne (piano)

• 1952 - Henze: opera Boulevard Solitude, in Hanover at the Landestheater

• 1961 - Elie Siegmeister: Flute Concerto, in Oklahoma City

• 1977 - Elliott Carter: A Symphony of Three Orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez conducting

• 1982 - George Perle: Ballade for piano, at Alice Tully Hall in New York, by Richard Goode