Currier's 'Time Machines'

Synopsis

When you listen to classical music like Bach or Mozart, you are taking a trip in a time machine. Or, as Shirley MacLaine might put it, “Classical music is the soundtrack of your previous lives.”

American composer Sebastian Currier went even further, and said: “It’s only a little bit of an exaggeration to say that music is made of nothing but time ­­— well, and air too … melodic or rhythmic gestures are made of a series of events moving forward in time. … the rest is air. A musician bows a string, blows air in a cylinder, strikes a metal object, and a series of sound waves take that information to our ears … It has always been fascinating to me that an art form that is so penetrating … is made of such ephemeral stuff.”

So no surprise Currier gave the title Time Machines to his work for violin and orchestra that premiered in New York City on today’s date in 2011. The German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter was the soloist performing with the New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert, and they made a live recording of the new work.

Music Played in Today's Program

Sebastian Currier (b. 1959): Time Machines; Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; New York Philharmonic; Alan Gilbert, conductor (recorded live June 2, 2011); DG 477 9359

On This Day

Births

• 1835 - Russian composer, pianist and conductor Nicolai Rubinstein (brother of Anton), in Moscow (Gregorian date: June 14)

• 1857 - English composer Sir Edward Elgar, in Broadheath (near Worcester)

• 1863 - German composer and conductor Felix Weingartner, in Zara, Dalmatia (now Zadar, Croatia)

Deaths

• 1937 - French composer and organist Louis Vierne, 66, in Paris at Notre Dame Cathedral while playing an organ recital

Premieres

• 1914 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Pavlovsk (Gregorian date: June 15)

• 1937 - Berg: opera Lulu (Acts 1 & 2 only), in Zürich at the Stadtstheater. The first complete performance of the 3-act version of this opera with Berg’s unfinished Act 3 (arranged by Friedrich Cerha) premiered in Paris on February 24, 1979

• 1953 - Bliss: Processional in London, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

• 1953 - Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes in Buenos Aires

• 1953 - Walton: Coronation Te Deum and Orb and Sceptre March, in London, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

• 1954 - Leroy Anderson: Bugler’s Holiday at a Decca recording session in New York City, with the composer conducting. The three cornet soloist for this classic recording were Robert Cusamann, Carl Poole and Melven Solomon.

• 1983 - Henze: opera The English Cat, in Schwetzingen at the Schlosstheater

Others

• 1711 - The opera season at the Queen’s Theater in London ends with a production of Handel’s opera, Rinaldo, (Gregorian date: June 13) which had opened there on February 24 (Gregorian date: March 7) the same year. This was the first Handel opera produced in London, and the first Italian opera written specifically composed for the London stage, and proved extremely popular.

• 1938 - At the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Amy Beach begins work on a Piano Trio based on some of her earlier works. She would finish the trio fifteen days later (June 18th) and publish it as her Op. 150.