Worthington's Dream

Synopsis

Recordings can be an effective calling card for composers — but the expense of recording an orchestral work in the U.S. is rather daunting, so composers often work with record labels that use orchestras abroad.

American composer Rain Worthington made a recording of her orchestral work Tracing a Dream with the Russian Philharmonic on today’s date in 2010, and, in quintessential 21st-century fashion, planned to “attend” the Moscow recording session via Skype.

“But just as I was about to log in, the recording assistant emailed the Russian authorities had revoked the permission to Skype. At the last minute an appeal by my American recording producer, Bob Lord, who was present in the studio, somehow convinced them to allow the connection. So I spent the morning ‘virtually’ in Moscow, listening to and participating in the three-hour recording session!” she recalled.

“Tracing a Dream taps into the impressionistic logic of dreams,” she said. “Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order.“

Six years after its recording in Moscow, Tracing a Dream received its public premiere by the Missouri State University Orchestra conducted by Christopher Kelts and was awarded an Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music.

Music Played in Today's Program

Rain Worthington (b. 1949): Tracing a Dream; Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Ovidiu Marinescu, conductor; Navona 6025

On This Day

Births

• 1824 - Bohemian composer Bedrich Smetana, in Leitomischl

• 1900 - German-born American composer Kurt Weill, in Dessau

• 1905 - American composer Marc Blitzstein, in Philadelphia

• 1917 - British composer John Gardner, in Manchester

• 1921 - British composer Robert Simpson, in Leamington

Deaths

• 1959 - Finnish composer Yrjö (Henrik) Kilpinen, 97, in Helsinki. He was the most famous Finnish composer of art songs (lieder).

• 2003 - Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi, 98, in Rome

• 2003 - Australian composer Malcolm Williamson, 71, in Cambridge, England. In 1975 he became the first non-British born composer to serve as the Queen’s Master of Music.

Premieres

• 1724 - Handel: opera Giulio Cesare in London (Julian date: Feb. 20)

• 1744 - Handel: oratorio Joseph and his Brethren in London at the Covent Garden Theater (Gregorian date: March 13)

• 1792 - Haydn: Symphony No. 98, conducted by the composer, at the Hanover-Square Concert Rooms in London

• 1795 - Haydn: Symphony No. 103 (The Drumroll), conducted by the composer, at the King’s Theater in London

• 1874 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 3, in St. Petersburg, with the composer conducting. This was a benefit concert for the victims of the Volga famine, and marked Rimsky-Korsakov’s debut as a conductor (Julian date: Feb. 18).

• 1887 - R. Strauss: Aus Italien (From Italy), in Munich

• 1911 - Scriabin: Symphony No. 5 (Prometheus: Poem of Fire), in Moscow (Gregorian date: Mar. 15)

• 1961 - Copland: Nonet for Strings, at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., by members of the National Symphony conducted by the composer

• 1977 - Benjamin Lees: Dialogue for cello and piano, in New York City.