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Thursday, March 3, 2016

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

Birthdays

Henry Wood

In 1869 Henry Wood was born in London. He was an English conductor best known for his association with London’s annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the “Henry Wood Promenade Concerts”, although they continued to be generally referred to as “the Proms”. Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D’Oyly Carte’s opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. He was soon engaged by the larger Carl Rosa Opera Company. One notable event in his operatic career was conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in 1892. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen’s Hall, offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. The series was successful, and Wood conducted annual promenade series until his death in 1944. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. When the Queen’s Hall was destroyed by bombing in 1941, the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall. Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries. 1

Premieres

In 1783 Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 was premiered in Vienna.

In 1794 Joseph Haydn conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 101 at London’s Hanover Square Rooms.

In 1842 Mendelssohn conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 3 – better known as his Scottish symphony – in Leipzig.

In 1875 Georges Bizet’s Carman was premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris.

In 1944 Samuel Barber’s Symphony No, 2 was premiered by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting.

In 1951 Otto Luening conducted the Louisville Orchestra in the premiere of his Kentucky Concerto.

In 2004 Peter Sculthorpe’s Requiem for chorus, didgeridoo and orchestra was premiered in Adelaide, Australia.

On This Day in Classical Music

In 1766 Joseph Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister for the Esterhazy family, setting him up financially for life.

In 1772 Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf married soprano Nicolina Trink.

In 1802 Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 – you know it as the Moonlight Sonata – was published.

In 1852 Brahms travelled to Dusseldorf to help Clara Schumann look after her ailing husband and his friend Robert Schumann.

In 1875 Georges Bizet was made a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.

Recommended Listening

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 102 in B flat major performed by Orchestra of the 18th Century conducted by Frans Brüggen.

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “Henry Wood,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Wood&oldid=702675789 (accessed March 1, 2016).