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Sunday, February 7, 2016

You can listen to the Classical Music Almanac Podcast Daily here.

Birthdays

Wilhelm Stenhammar

In 1871 Wilhelm Stenhammar was born Stockholm, where he received his first musical education. He then went to Berlin to further his studies in music. He became a glowing admirer of German music, particularly that of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner. Stenhammar himself described the style of his First Symphony in F major as “idyllic Bruckner”. He subsequently sought to emancipate himself and write in a more “Nordic” style, looking to Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius for guidance. The latter’s Symphony No. 2, especially, had a great effect on him, leading him to change his style and refuse to refer to his First Symphony as anything but a trivial piece. From 1906 to 1922 he was Artistic Director and chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony, the first full-time professional orchestra in Sweden. In this capacity, he organised many performances of music by contemporary Scandinavian composers. In 1909, he briefly held the position of director of music at Uppsala University, where he was succeeded the following year by Hugo Alfvén. Wilhelm Stenhammar died of a stroke at 56 years of age in Jonsered in the historic province of Västergötland. He is buried in Gothenburg. 1

Quincy Porter

In 1897 Quincy Porter was born in New Haven, Conn. He went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the Steinert Prize for orchestral composition. He performed the winning composition, a violin concerto, at graduation. Porter earned two degrees at Yale, an A.B. from Yale College and a Mus. B from the music school. After graduation he spent a year in Paris, studying at Schola Cantorum, then went to New York where he studied with Ernest Bloch and Vincent d’Indy. In 1923 Porter joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was later appointed head of the Theory Department. He remained there until 1928 when he resigned to focus on composition. Returning to Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship Porter began composing in earnest. During his 3 years in Paris he composed Blues Lointains (1928), the Suite for Viola Alone (1930), his 3rd String Quartet (1930), 4th String Quartet (1931), his 2nd Violin Sonata (1929), and his Piano Sonata (1930). In 1931 Porter returned to the United States, first rejoining the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, then teaching at Vassar, where he was appointed a professor in 1932. In 1954, Porter’s 1953 Concerto Concertante, a concerto for two pianos and orchestra, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Tawa calls the piece, “affectively compelling, orchestrallyluminous, and contrapuntally active”; cooperative rather than competitive. In 1938 later Porter became dean (1938–42) and then director (1942–46) of the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 1946 returned to Yale, as professor, to teach until 1965. Porter also served, from 1958 until his death, as chairman of the board of directors of the American Music Center, which he had founded with Howard Hanson and Aaron Copland in 1939. He died in Bethany, Connecticut. He wrote a substantial amount in the “absolute (established) forms”, including nine string quartets (1923–1953), several concertos (including one for harpsichord, one for viola, and one for two pianos, the latter work receiving the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Music), and two symphonies. His later music—while tonal—is harmonically acerbic and dissonant. 2

Marius Constant

In 1925 Marius Constant was born in Bucharest. Although known in the classical world primarily for his ballet scores, his most widely known music was the iconic theme for the Twilight Zone TV series. He studied piano and composition at the Bucharest Conservatory, receiving the George Enescu Award in 1944. In 1946 he moved to Paris, studying at the Conservatoire de Paris withOlivier Messiaen, Tony Aubin, Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger. His compositions earned several prizes. From 1950 on he was increasingly involved with electronic music and joined Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète. From 1956 to 1966 Constant conducted at the Ballets de Paris, then directed by Roland Petit. To this period belong the numerous ballet scores for Petit and Maurice Béjart, namely: Haut-voltage (1956), Contrepointe (1958), Cyrano de Bergerac (1959), Éloge de la folie (1966) and Paradis perdu (1967). For the 1957 Aix-en-Provence Festival 1957 he wrote a piano concerto, but won wider recognition for the premiere, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, of 24 Préludes pour Orchestre (1958). Turner (1961) was a tone poem inspired by the English painter William Turner. In 1963 Constant founded the pioneering Ensemble Ars Nova. In 1970 he took over the musical direction of the ORTF; from 1973 to 1978 he directed at the Paris Opera, and in 1988 and 1989 was Professor of Orchestration at the Paris Conservatory. Besides these appointments, he taught at Stanford University and in Hilversum. Later ballets include Septentrion (1975), Nana (1976) and L’ange bleu (1985). La tragédie de Carmen (1981), his adaptation of Bizet’s opera for director Peter Brook, was an international success. He 1983 wrote a Symphonie based on Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1987 he arranged the orchestral music for the ballet Les mariés de la tour Eiffel, a pastiche by various French composers, for an ensemble of 15 instruments. In 1990 he also made an orchestral arrangement of the piano composition Gaspard de la nuit by Maurice Ravel. He died in Paris in 2004, aged 79. 3

Premieres

In 1786 Mozart’s opera Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impressario) was premiered in Vienna at the Orangerie at Schönbrunn.

In 1792 Domenico Cimarosa’s opera The Secret Marriage premiered.

In 1873 Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 (also known as “Little Russian”) was premiered in Moscow.

In 1875 Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole for Violin and Orchestra was premiered in Paris with Edouard Colonne conducting and Pablo de Sarasate the soloist.

In 1893 Brahms’ Capriccio in d, No. 7 from “Fantasies” for Piano, Op. 116 was premiered in Vienna.

In 1894 Puccini’s revised version of his opera Manon Lescaut was premiered in Milan. The revision was a complete change of the ending to Act I.

In 1908 Chadwick’s Symphonic Sketches was premiered by the Boston Symphony with Karl Muck conducting.

In 1941 Hindemith’s Cello Concerto, Op. 7 was premiered by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting and Gregor Piatigorsky the soloist.

In 1964 Sessions’ Symphony No. 5 was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy conducting.

On This Day in Classical Music

In 1809 Joseph Haydn signed his last will and testament. He would die three months later.

In 1914 Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar, Engelbert Humperdinck and Camille Saint-Saëns were all given honorary membership in the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Recommended Listening

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 (also known as “Little Russian”) performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “Wilhelm Stenhammar,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilhelm_Stenhammar&oldid=702867904 (accessed February 7, 2016).
  2. Wikipedia contributors, “Quincy Porter,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quincy_Porter&oldid=697709302 (accessed February 7, 2016).
  3. Wikipedia contributors, “Marius Constant,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marius_Constant&oldid=678972360 (accessed February 7, 2016).