Composers Datebook

• International Women's Day

  SynopsisAs today is International Women's Day, we thought we’d tell you about a wonderful French composer you may or may not have heard of before.Mélanie Hélène Bonis, or Mel Bonis as she preferred to be called, was a prolific composer of piano and organ works, chamber music, art songs, choral music, and several orchestral pieces. She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included César Franck. She was born in 1858 and died in 1937, so her lifetime spanned the age of Hector Berlioz to Alban Berg.In the 1890s, Bonis reconnected with her first love, a man she had met while still a student, who had encouraged her musical talent. So she left her husband, who did not encourage her, to devote herself full-time to her music. Initially performed and admired in Paris, after World War I her music was neglected, and she became bedridden from arthritis. Despite everything, she continued to compose up to the time of her death at 79.Among her works are seven piano portraits of women, collectively titled Femmes de Légende, or Legendary Women — some of which, like Salomé, she arranged for full orchestra.Music Played in Today's ProgramMel Bonis (1858-1937): Salomé; Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse; Leo Hussain, conductor; Bru Zane BZ-2006

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• Persichetti's 'Pageant'

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1953, Pageant, a new work for symphonic winds premiered with the University of Miami Band. It was written by American composer Vincent Persichetti, who conducted the performance, as he did the work’s New York City debut later that same year with the Goldman Band, then America’s premiere professional wind ensemble, who had commissioned the work. It might seem odd that an amateur, student ensemble should premiere a work commissioned for professionals, but in the 1950s, when the U.S. college system was rapidly expanding, the savvy Mr. Persichetti was ready and willing to supply both students and professionals with more than a dozen new wind band scores to perform.He put it this way: “I find wonderful performances in the universities around the country. They may be students, but … they’ll find something there that you maybe didn’t quite even dream of, and make something of it, whereas sometimes the professional orchestras don't always get it as quickly. [The student musicians] have to work harder, but they do this all through high school and college, and by the time they get to the end of college they know what music is about and can phrase and shape it with some conviction.”Music Played in Today's ProgramVincent Persichetti (1915-1987): Pageant; Winds of the London Symphony Orchestra; David Amos, conductor; Naxos 8.570123

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• 'The Handmaid's Tale' opera by Ruders

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 2000, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen gave the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, a new opera based on the dystopian novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.The book and opera tell of a nightmarish future: following a nuclear disaster in the United States, infertility rates have soared, and a religious sect has staged a military coup, enslaving the few fertile women who remain as breeders, or “handmaids,” for the military and religious commanders of their sect. Said Atwood, “There is nothing new about the society I depicted in The Handmaid's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about have been done before — more than once, in fact.”Despite its grim subject matter, Danish composer Poul Ruders said he saw “huge operatic potential” when he first read the book back in 1992.The original production in Copenhagen was sung in Danish, but Ruders says he conceived the work in English. The opera was staged in that language first in London at the English National Opera, and subsequently, at the opera’s American premiere, in St. Paul by The Minnesota Opera, to great critical acclaim.Music Played in Today's ProgramPoul Ruders (b. 1949): The Handmaid’s Tale; Royal Danish Orchestra; Michael Schonwandt, conductor; DaCapo 9.224165-66

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• Shostakovich and his 'Leningrad Symphony'

  SynopsisThe eastern Russian city of Kuibyshev might seem an unlikely site for an important symphonic premiere, but from 1941 to 1943, Kuibyshev was the temporary capital of the Soviet Union. As German and Finnish troops advanced from the west, the Russian government and its cultural institutions moved east. Among the refugees relocated to Kuibyshev were the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra from Moscow and composer Dimitri Shostakovich from Leningrad. And so, on today’s date in 1942, Kuibyshev was the venue for the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad). A microfilm copy of the new score was flown to Tehran, then transported by car to Cairo, then flown to Brazil for transfer by the U.S. Navy to New York, where the American premiere was given on July 19, 1942, by the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini.Less than a month later, on August 9, 1942, the Leningrad Symphony was even performed in the besieged and starving city of Leningrad. The few musicians still capable of performing were given extra rations to keep up their strength, and, to ensure a measure of quiet during their performance, a Russian artillery commander ordered an intensive artillery bombardment on the enemy troops surrounding the city.Music Played in Today's ProgramDmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad); Kirov Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic; Valery Gergiev, conductor; Philips 376-02

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• Strong's 'Sintram' Symphony

  SynopsisAt Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 1893, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of a new symphony by 37-year-old American composer and New York native George Templeton Strong, Jr. This was a big deal at a time when the Philharmonic rarely played works by non-European composers.As the Philharmonic’s program book put it, somewhat defensively: “The acceptance of a work for performance is to a certain extent a declaration that it belongs to the very best class of contemporaneous literature according to the unbiased judgment of those who are entrusted with these concerts.”Strong’s Symphony No. 2 (Sintram), was inspired by a literary work of that name depicting the victory of good over evil. The New York Times review gave it high marks, praising the composer’s imagination and mastery of instrumentation, but ventured to suggest the new symphony was a tad long and “unremittingly serious in tone.”Strong was not present. He was in Switzerland, a country he was soon to adopt as his permanent home. His absence on the American scene caused his music, despite its merits, to be soon forgotten on this side of the Atlantic.Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Templeton Strong (1856-1948): Symphony No. 2 (Sintram); Moscow Symphony; Adriano, conductor; Naxos 8.559018

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