Stravinsky and Rochberg start trends

Synopsis

Today we celebrate two premieres and one three-letter prefix: "neo, n-e-o, meaning "new".

On today's date in 1920, Igor Stravinsky's ballet "Pulcinella" was produced for the first time in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Stravinsky incorporated into the score some instrumental pieces attributed to the 18th century Italian composer Pergolesi. For the next 30 years, Stravinsky turned again and again to 18th-century forms and styles for inspiration, and created a style that was soon dubbed "neo-classical."

Fifty-two years after Pucinella, a "neo-Romantic" movement of sorts was born when, on May 15, 1972, at New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Concord Quartet gave the premiere performance of the String Quartet No. 3 written by American composer George Rochberg.

Rochberg's new quartet took the critics by surprise. While his previous two quartets had been written in an aggressively atonal style, his new quartet contained melodies that might have come from a late Beethoven string quartet, or a lost work by Mahler.

In a kind of manifesto, Rochberg explained his use of Romantic styles: "We bear the past in us. We do not, cannot, begin all over again in each generation. I came to realize that the music of the old masters was a living presence; that its spiritual values had not been displaced or destroyed by the new music. The shock wave of the enlargement of vision was to alter my whole attitude towards what was musically possible today."

Music Played in Today's Program

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971) Pulcinella Suite CBC Vancouver Orchestra; Mario Bernardi, cond. CBC 5161

George Rochberg (b. 1918) String Quartet No. 3 Concord String Quartet New World 80551

On This Day

Births

• 1567 - Baptismal date of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, in Cremona;

• 1808 - Irish composer Michael William Balfe, in Dublin;

• 1908 - Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson, in Akarp (near Lund);

• 1941 - American composer and pianist Richard Wilson, in Cleveland;

Premieres

• 1913 - Debussy: ballet "Jeux" (Games), at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées by the Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1920 - Stravinsky: ballet "Pulcinella," by Ballet Russe; at the Paris Opéra, with Ernest Ansermet conducting;

• 1939 - Douglas Moore: opera "The Devil and Daniel Webster," in New York City;

• 1949 - Hindemith: Concerto for Winds, Harp and Orchestra, in New York;

• 1949 - Randall Thompson: Symphony No. 3, Columbia University, in New York, Thor Johnson conducting;

• 1958 - Cage: Piano Concerto, in New York City;

• 1960 - Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7, in Leningrad, by the Beethoven Quartet;

• 1972 - Rochberg: String Quartet No. 3, at Tully Hall in New York City, by the Concord Quartet;

• 1992 - Stephen Paulus: "Air on Seurat (The Grand Canal)", for cello and piano, at the National Cello Competition at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Ariz.;

• 1993 - Steve Reich: opera "The Cave," in Vienna at the Wiener Festspielhaus;

Others

• 1750 - First documented report of an audience standing during the "Hallelujah" chorus of Handel's "Messiah"; On May 1 and 15 in 1750, "Messiah" had been performed as a benefit for the Foundling Hospital charity (Gregorian dates: May 12 and 26, respectively).