Symphonies by Bizet and Harris

Synopsis

Two interesting symphonies had their premieres on today’s date just eight years apart. Oddly enough, they were composed nearly ninety years apart.

The first was the Symphony No. 1 by Georges Bizet, written in 1855 when the composer was only 17. It was mislaid in his papers, ignored by Bizet himself as a naive youthful exercise, and not revived until 1935. It was performed for the first time on February 26 that year in Basel, Switzerland under the baton of Felix Weingartner, who found a copy of the score that had been kept in the Paris Conservatory.

The other work that premiered today was American composer Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 5. It was written in 1942, during World War II, and was reportedly inspired by reports of heroic resistance by the Soviet Union to the Nazi invasion. He dedicated this symphony to the Red Army in honor of its 25th anniversary.

The first performance — given by Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony on February 26th, 1943 — was broadcast via short wave to the Soviet Union. Ironically, despite Harris’ unquestionable credentials as a loyal American and enthusiastic patriot, his pro-Soviet Symphony No. 5 was to become something of an embarrassment when our one-time Soviet allies became Public Enemy No. 1 during the long Cold War period that followed the end of World War II.

Music Played in Today's Program

Georges Bizet (1823-1892): Symphony No. 1; ORTF Orchestra; Jean Martinon, conductor; DG 437 371

Roy Harris (1899-1979): Symphony No. 5; Louisville Orchestra; Robert Whitney, conductor; Albany 012

On This Day

Births

• 1770 - Bohemian-French composer Anton (Antoine) Reicha, in Prague

• 1879 - English composer Frank Bridge, in Brighton

Deaths

• 1770 - Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini, 77, in Padua

• 1981 - American conductor, composer and Eastman School of Music director, Howard Hanson, age 84, in Rochester, New York

Premieres

• 1752 - Handel: oratorio Jephtha, in London at the Covent Garden Theatre (Gregorian date: Mar. 8)

• 1877 - Borodin: Symphony No. 2, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: March 10)

• 1899 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 (heavily cut), by Vienna Philharmonic, with Gustav Mahler conducting. On February 11, 1883, Wilhlem Jahn had conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in premiere public performance of this symphony’s second and third movements only.

• 1922 - Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals, in Paris

• 1927 - Respighi: Vetrate di Chiesa (Church Windows), by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1935 - Bizet: Symphony No. 1, posthumously, in Basel, Switzerland, with Felix Weingartner conducting; This symphony was composed by the 17-year old Bizet in 1855

• 1939 - Copland: Sextet (arranged from Short Symphony), at Town Hall in New York City, by a Juilliard graduate ensemble

• 1943 - Roy Harris: Symphony No. 5, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzsky conducting

• 1946 - R. Strauss: Oboe Concerto, by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by Volkmar Andreae, with Marcel Saillet as soloist. This composition of this work had been prompted by a chance comment made by American oboist (and then U.S. soldier) John de Lancie during a post-war visit with the elderly composer in Bavaria that Strauss should consider writing an oboe concerto (Strauss offered de Lancie the American premiere, but the work was given its first U.S. performance in 1948 by oboist Mitchell Miller and the Columbia Concert Orchestra under Daniel Saidenberg. Many years later, De Lancie made a stereo recording of the piece for RCA Victor, which has been re-released on compact disc).

• 1953 - Bernstein: musical Wonderful Town, at the Winter Garden in New York City. A trial run of the show had opened in New Haven at the Schubert Theater on January 19, 1953.

• 1953 - Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 1 at Columbia University in New York City, by the Walden Quartet

• 1959 - Rochberg: Symphony No. 2, in Cleveland

• 1981 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 2, at Boston's Symphony Hall, by the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting

• 2001 - Klass De Vries: sub nocte per umbras (through the realm of spirits), at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, by the San Francisco Contemporary Players

Others

• 1832 - Chopin makes his debut in Paris at the Salle Pleyel, playing his Piano Concerto No. 2. Liszt attends the performance.

• 1856 - American premiere of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Three Claviers and Orchestra No. 1, at Dodworth’s Hall in New York during a Eisfeld chamber music Soiree, with Henry C. Timm, William Scharfenberg, and William Mason at three pianos, accompanied by a string quintet. An 1856 edition of Dwight’s Journal waxed poetical about this performance, commenting: “The leaven of blurred blockwork of the tyro instrumentalists was forgotten whilst the splendid artistic rendering of the occasion shadowed forth the truly sculpturesque effects designed by the incomparable author.”

• 1874 - First documented American performance of Handel’s Coronation Athem “Zadok the Priest,” at Steinway Hall in New York, by the Oratorio Society, Leopold Damrosch conducting. Theodore Thomas introduced this anthem in Cincinnati on May 21, 1881, during that city’s May Festival.