Corigliano's 'Poem in October'

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1970, a new chamber work by American composer John Corigliano received its premiere performance at a concert given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the group that had commissioned it.

The new piece, Poem in October, was scored for tenor voice and eight instruments and was a setting of poetry by Dylan Thomas, the great Welsh poet who died in 1953.

“The thing that most appeals to me is the sound of his words,” he explained. “Phrases from Poem in October like ‘a springful of larks in a rolling cloud’ and ‘the blue altered sky streamed again a wonder of summer’ are in themselves musical.”

“The music itself is unabashedly lyrical. I sought to convey a pastoral feeling that would match the directness and simplicity of the text, to deal in understatement and succinctness rather than in complexity and theatrical effect,” Corigliano said.

His chamber scoring includes three “pastoral” wind instruments — flute, oboe and clarinet — plus strings, and, perhaps to give the work a slightly archaic feel, a harpsichord.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Corigliano (b. 1938): Poem in October; Robert White, tenor; Thomas Nyfenger, flute; Humbert Lucarelli, oboe; Joseph Rabbai, clarinet; American String Quartet; Maurice Peress, conductor and harpsichord; RCA 60395

On This Day

Births

• 1825 - Austrian composer and conductor Johann Strauss, Jr. (aka “The Younger,” or II), in Vienna

• 1838 - French composer Georges Bizet, in Paris

• 1864 - Russian composer Alexander Grechaninov, in Moscow (see Julian date: Oct. 13)

• 1923 - Australian composer Don Banks, in South Melbourne

Premieres

• 1823 - Weber: opera Euryanthe, in Vienna at the Kärtnertor Theater

• 1848 - Verdi: opera Il Corsaro (The Corsair), in Trieste at the Teatro Grande

• 1875 - Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, at the Music Hall in Boston, by the orchestra of the Harvard Musical Association conducted by B.J. Lang, with Hans von Bülow as soloist

• 1885 - Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in Meiningen, Germany, with the composer conducting

• 1912 - R. Strauss: opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, and incidental music to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, in Stuttgart at the Hoftheater (Kleines Haus), with the composer conducting, and vocal soloists Maria Jeritza (Ariadne), Margarethe Siems (Zerbinetta), and Hermann Jadlowker (Bacchus). A revised version of this work (with a newly composed prologue) premiered at the Vienna Court Opera on Oct. 4, 1916.

• 1923 - Milhaud: ballet, La Création du Monde, in Paris, by the Ballets Suédois at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

• 1949 - Frank Martin: Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion and Strings, by the orchestra of the Bern Musickgesellschaft, Luc Balmer conducting

• 1958 - Janácek: opera Fate (first staged performance) in Brno at the National Theater. This opera was written in 1904 and was premiered in a concert performance by the Brno Radio on September 18, 1934.

• 1973 - Martinu: Violin Concerto (composed in 1932), by the Chicago Symphony, Sir Georg Solti conducting, with Josef Suk as soloist

• 1979 - Earl Kim: Violin Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, with Itzhak Perlman as soloist

• 1986 - Christopher Rouse: Phantasmata (first complete performance of three orchestral pieces composed 1981-85: The Evestrum of Juan de la Cruz in the Sagrada Familia, 3 A.M. The Infernal Machine and Bump), by the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting