Corigliano starts at the beginning

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1984, the Milwaukee Symphony and conductor Lukas Foss premiered a new work for narrator and orchestra by American composer John Corigliano. The new piece was entitled “Creations,” and was based on the creation story in the Biblical book of Genesis.

“Creations” began as a 1971 commission for a television pilot. The original idea was to have a variety of major composers illustrate in music selected chapters from the Bible, with the text narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. The TV project fell through, and Corigliano thought this music for the pilot episode, “Genesis,” would remain unheard. But then, in 1984, Lukas Foss commissioned a revised version for a concert with the Milwaukee Symphony.

“Creations challenged me to write specifically for a recorded medium,” wrote Corigliano. “It also offered a chance to build music more abstractly than I’d done before… often out of pure sonority, rather than harmony and line. Much of my later work uses techniques I developed for the first time while scoring Creations… I envisioned the music as growing from abstract sounds into actual themes.”

Music Played in Today's Program

John Corigliano (b. 1938) Creations Sir Ian McKellen, narrator; I Fiamminghi; Rudolf Werthen, cond. Telarc 80421

On This Day

Births

• 1923 - Polish-born American composer and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, in Lwow;

• 1936 - American composer Steve Reich, in New York;

Deaths

• 1931 - Danish composer and conductor Carl Nielsen, age 66, in Copenhagen;

• 1953 - English composer Sir Arnold Bax, age 69, in Cork, Ireland;

Premieres

• 1822 - Beethoven: "Consecration of the House" Overture, Op. 124, for the opening of the Josephstadt Theater in Vienna;

• 1860 - Brahms: Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11, in Hanover, conducted by Joseph Joachim;

• 1888 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, "The Yeomen of the Guard," at the Savoy Theatre in London;

• 1900 - Elgar: oratorio, "The Dream of Gerontius," at Birmingham, Hans Richter conducting;

• 1929 - Walton: Viola Concerto, by the Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by the composer, with Paul Hindemith the soloist;

• 1963 - Ginastera: Violin Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting, with Ruggiero Ricci the soloist;

• 1968 - William Schuman's "To Thee Old Cause" at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bernstein (dedicated to memory of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy);

• 1971 - Copland: "Duo" for flute and piano, in Philadelphia, by flutist Elaine Shaffer and pianist Hephzibah Menuhin;

• 1984 - Corigliano: "Creations" for narrator and chamber orchestra, in Milwaukee, Wisc., with Lukas Foss conducting;

• 1996 - James MacMillan: Cello Concerto, at the Barbican in London, by Mstislav Rostropovich with the London Symphony, Sir Colin Davis conducting;

• 1997 - Anthony Davis: "Jacob's Ladder," by the Kansas City Symphony, Bill McGlaughlin conducting;

Others

• 1833 - Berlioz marries Irish actress Harriet "Henrietta" Smithson at the British embassy in Paris; Liszt acts as one of the witnesses.