Composers Datebook®

A less-than-magnificent reception for Bach 's "Magnificat"

Composers Datebook for May 13, 2017

Synopsis

On today's date in 1875, American conductor Theodore Thomas, a passionate advocate for both old and new music, led the Cincinnati May Festival chorus and orchestra in the first American performance of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat."

Bach composed this work in 1723, originally for Christmas use in Leipzig, then revised the score ten years later in 1733. The American premiere, 142 years after that, was also a reworking, since the original instrumentation was expanded for large 19th century orchestra and Bach probably would have been astonished at the size of the Cincinnati chorus performing his music.

Bach's "Magnificat" served as the opener for a Festival performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Beethoven was a huge success, and Cincinnati newspapers of the day referred to "Ninth Symphomania" breaking out in their city.

The newspapers were less impressed with Bach's "Magnificat." The Cincinnati Commercial review opined: "The work is difficult in the extreme… most of the chorus abounds with rambling sub-divisions. We considering the 'Magnificat' the weakest thing the chorus has undertaken… possessing no dramatic character and incapable of conveying the magnitude of the labor that has been expended upon its inconsequential intricacies."

Well, no one who actually heard that 1875 performance is still alive to ask whether it was really as terrible as all that, and in any case, we suspect American audiences and performers have a gotten a little more used to Bach's "inconsequential intricacies" since then.

Music Played in Today's Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Magnificat, S. 243

On This Day

Births

  • 1842 - English composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, in Lambeth (London);

  • 1913 - American organist and record retailer, William Schwann, in Salem Ill.; In 1949 he began publication of the Schwann Record Catalog, a guide to phonograph records in print;

Premieres

  • 1833 - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 ("Italian"), in London, by the Philharmonic Society, with the composer conducting;

  • 1877 - Franck: "Les Eolides," in Paris at a Lamoureux Concert;

  • 1949 - Panufnik: "Sinfonia Rustica," in Warsaw;

  • 1987 - Harbison: Symphony No. 2, by the San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt conducting;

  • 1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Bassoon Concerto, by the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Lorin Maazel, with Nancy Goeres the soloist;

  • 1995 - first professional production of Any Beach: opera "Cabildo," at Alice Tully Hall in New York City as a "Great Performances" telecast conducted by Ransom Wilson; The world premiere performance was given on Feb. 27, 1945 (two months after Beach's death), by the Opera Workshop at the University of Georgia in Athens, directed by Hugh Hodgson;

  • 2001 - Harbison: "North and South (Elizabeth Bishop Cycle)," by the Chicago Chamber Musicians;

Others

  • 1862 - First concert by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York City; His program includes the American premieres of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture and Liszt's arrangement for piano and orchestra of Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy."

  • 1875 - American premiere of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat," during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas; The Cincinnati Commercial review of May 14 was not favorable: "The work is difficult in the extreme and most of the chorus abounds with rambling sub-divisions. We considering the ‘Magnifcat' the weakest thing the chorus has undertaken . . . possessing no dramatic character and incapable of conveying the magnitude of the labor that has been expended upon its inconsequential intricacies. If mediocrity is a mistake, the ‘Magnifcat' is the one error of the Festival"; Thomas also conducted the next documented performance in Boston on Mar. 1, 1876 (for which composer John Knowles Paine performed as organ accompanist to a chorus of 300).

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About Composers Datebook®

Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.

He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.

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