Harbison goes Baroque

Synopsis

A now-obscure Englishman named Charles Caleb Colton is credited with the famous quote that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." A number of great composers have been "flattered" in that fashion, too.

On today's date in 1985, a new work by the American composer John Harbison premiered in Sarasota, Florida. It imitated the form and gestures of a Baroque Concerto Grosso in the style of J.S. Bach. Harbison's work was titled "Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Strings."

Harbison described his piece as follows: "The oboe, clarinet, and strings are equal partners. The first movement is declamatory, the second contemplative, and the last frenetic. Each movement sustains one affect [or mood], in the Baroque manner... The steady insistent rhythms are indeed baroque, the harmonies less so."

"One astute writer," commented Harbison, "referred to the piece as 'scenes from a marriage.' This metaphorical marriage between solo winds and strings contains quarrels, precarious balances, comic relief, misunderstandings, and eventual unanimity."

And, speaking of marriage, Harbison composed the work at Token Creek, in Wisconsin, an unincorporated community near Madison where his wife's family had farmed since the 1920s and where for some 25 years each summer John and Rose Mary Harbison have organized their own mini-Festival of chamber music.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Harbison (b. 1938) Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Strings Peggy Pearson , ob;Jo-Ann Sternberg, cl;Metamorphosen Chamber PlayersScott Yoo, cond. Archetype Records 60106

On This Day

Births

• 1730 - Italian opera composer Antonio Sacchini, in Florence;

• 1835 - Russian composer, pianist and conductor Nicolai Rubinstein (brother of Anton), in Moscow (Julian date: June 2); He is probably best known for his severe criticism of Tchaikovksy's Piano Concerto No. 1 when the new work was submitted to him for consideration in 1874; He eventually changed his mind, and conducted the work as part of all-Russian concerts at the Paris Exposition in 1878;

Deaths

• 1594 - Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus (aka Orlando di Lasso, Orlandus Lassus, Roland Delattre), in Munich, age 61 or 62 (exact date of his birth is not known);

• 1911 - Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist Johan Svendsen, age 70, in Copenhagen;

Premieres

• 1876 - Delibes: ballet, "Sylvia," in Paris;

• 1927 - Gliere: ballet, "The Red Poppy," in Moscow;

• 1952 - Americanized version of Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" translated by Marx Blitzstein premieres at Brandeis University as part of the first Festival of the Creative Arts, with Leonard Bernstein conducting;

• 1962 - Stravinsky: "The Flood," on CBS Television;

• 1985 - John Harbison: Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings, in Sarasota, Fla., with oboist Sarah Bloom and clarinetist Charles Russo, with the New College Festival Orchestra, Paul Wolfe conducting;

• 2001 - Daniel S. Godfrey: revised version of String Quartet No. 3, at the Seal Bay Music Festival in Rockport, Maine, by the Cassett Quartet;