A birthday surprise for Pinkham

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1998 at King’s Chapel in Boston, a new work by American composer Daniel Pinkham received its first performance. Scored for baritone and organ, Three Latin Motets was intended as a birthday offering to Pinkham’s fellow composer and colleague Ned Rorem, with a dedication that read, “For Ned Rorem and a half century of friendship.”

But the premiere occurred on the Pinkham’s 75th birthday, as a surprise at a concert in his honor. Organist James David Christie and baritone Sanford Sylvan had sneakily persuaded him to write the motets for Rorem, who was born in 1923 — the same year as Pinkham — but intended all along to premiere the music as a surprise at a concert in his honor.

He was noted for his church music, and once quipped, “I just like to hear my pieces more than once, and when you write music for the church you have a better chance at that … I [tell people] am available for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs.”

Pinkham died in 2006, and Christie and Sylvan performed Three Latin Motets once again in January of 2007 — at Pinkham’s memorial service.

Music Played in Today's Program

Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006): Three Latin Motets; Aaron Engebreth, baritone; Heinrich Christensen, organ; Florestan FRP-1003

On This Day

Births

• 1882 - Russian-born American composer Igor Stravinsky, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), near St Petersburg, (Gregorian date: June 17). In the 19th century, the Julian calendar lagged behind the Gregorian by 12 days, and in the 20th century by 13 days. For most of the 20th century, Stravinsky chose to celebrate his birthday on June 18th, but it was officially celebrated on June 17th.

• 1905 - Estonian-born Swedish composer Eduard Tubin, in Kalaste, near Tartu (Gregorian date: June 18)

• 1923 - American composer Daniel Pinkham, in Lynn, Massachusetts

Deaths

• 1625 - English composer Orlando Gibbons, 41, in Canterbury

• 1722 - German composer Johann Kuhnau, 61, in Leipzig

• 1816 - Italian opera composer Giovanni Paisiello, 76, in Naples

• 1826 - German composer Carl Maria von Weber, 39, in London

• 1944 - Italian opera composer Riccardo Zandonai, 61, in Pesaro

Premieres

• 1715 - Handel: opera "Amadigi di Gauli" (Julian date: May 25)

• 1913 - Paris premiere of Mussorgsky: opera, Khovantschina, in a version completed and orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel

• 2003 - Oliver Knussen: Symphony No. 4, by the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel conducting

Others

• 1717 - For the last performance of Handel’s opera Rinaldo at the King’s Theater, the French dancer Marie Sallé appears as a performer for the first time in one of Handel’s works (Greogorian date: June 16)

• 1971 - Conductor James Levine makes his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, conducting Puccini’s Tosca. In 1973, Levine became the Met’s principal conductor and in 1976 its music director.