Bach in the USA

Synopsis

In 1863, the price of The New York Times was three cents, and many plunked down their pennies to read front-page news about “the rebellion” — what we now call the Civil War.

But if you were a music aficionado back in 1863, the Times “Amusements” page noted that one of Verdi’s newest operas, Un Ballo in Maschera, had just closed at the Academy of Music, and the contemporary composer-pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk had given a concert of his latest works the day before.

After all that “modern” music, maybe you were in the mood for some really old music. The enterprising duo of William Mason and Theodore Thomas was offering a Soiree of Chamber Music at Dodworth’s Hall on April 21, 1863, and their program included the first public performance in America of the Concerto for Two Keyboards and Strings by J.S. Bach. Now this was really old stuff — predating the birth of America in 1776 by a good 50 years!

The Times did not review this Bach premiere, but the next documented American performance in Boston in 1877 was described in Dwight’s Journal as a “cheerful, lightsome, everyday sort of composition … full of vigor and life, the best of tonics.”

Music Played in Today's Program

J.S. Bach (1650-1721): Concerto for Two Keyboards

On This Day

Births

• 1899 - American composer and teacher Randall Thompson, in New York

• 1933 - American composer and pianist Easley Blackwood, in Indianapolis

Premieres

• 1845 - Lortzing: opera Undine, in Magdeburg at the Stadttheater

• 1889 - Puccini: opera Edgar, in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

• 1917 - Debussy: Sonata No. 2 for flute, viola and harp, at a concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante in Paris, by the trio of Manouvirier (flute), Jarecki (viola), and Jamet (harp)

• 1918 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 (Classical), in Petrograd, by the former Court Orchestra with the composer conducting

• 1922 - Frederick Converse: Symphony No. 2, by the Boston Symphony, Pierre Monteux conducting

• 1924 - Youmans: musical No, No Nanette, in Detroit. After stops in Chicago and London, the musical opened on Broadway on Sept. 16, 1925.

• 1937 - Copland: a play-opera for high school The Second Hurricane, at the Grand Street Playhouse in New York City, with soloists from the Professional Children's School, members of the Henry Street Settlement adult chorus, and the Seward High School student chorus, with Lehman Engle conducting and Orson Welles directing the staged production. One professional adult actor, Joseph Cotton, also participated (he was paid $10).

• 1939 - Leonard Bernstein’s first appearance as a conductor, leading his own incidental score to The Birds at Harvard

• 1942 - Bernstein: Clarinet Sonata, in Boston, with clarinetist David Glazer and the composer at the piano

• 1948 - Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6, at Royal Albert Hall in London, by the BBC Symphony, Sir Adrian Boult conducting

• 1973 - Bliss: Variations for orchestra, in London, with Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1985 - Morton Feldman: For Philip Guston, for chamber ensemble, in New York

• 1988 - Bernstein: Missa Brevis, in Atlanta by the Atlanta Symphony Chorus conducted by Robert Shaw

Others

• 1749 - Against Handel’s wishes, in advance of its official premiere scheduled for April 27, a public rehearsal of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks at Vauxhall Gardens takes place. Reports suggest 12,000 attended, causing traffic jams on London Bridge (Gregorian date: May 2).

• 1829 - Mendelssohn, 20, arrives in London for his first visit.

• 1863 - American premiere of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Claviers and Orchestra No. 2, at Dodworth’s Hall in New York during a Mason-Thomas chamber music Soiree, with Henry C. Timm and William Mason performing on two pianos.