Composers Datebook

• Rossini asks 'Who was that masked man?'

  SynopsisA fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty “Hi-yo, Silver!”Generations of American baby boomers first heard Rossini’s William Tell Overture as the opening credits of the old Lone Ranger TV western, but we suspect only a few of them ever realized the overture by an Italian composer was written for a French opera about a Swiss archer, which was adapted from a German play by Friedrich Schiller. Like a Facebook relationship, “It’s complicated.”Anyway, Rossini’s William Tell was first heard in Paris on today’s date in 1829. Rossini hoped William Tell would be considered his masterpiece. Ironically, the complete opera is only rarely staged these days, but the William Tell overture became a familiar concert hall showpiece — so familiar, in fact, as to become something of a musical cliché.Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich gave a dark 20th-century spin to Rossini’s overly familiar theme, when he quoted the William Tell Overture in the opening movement of his Symphony No. 15. In the context of Shostakovich’s enigmatic final symphony, Rossini’s jaunty little theme comes off like a forced smile, and audiences are free to read whatever political subtext they wish into its rather sinister context.Music Played in Today's ProgramGioacchino Rossini (1792-1868): William Tell Overture; Philharmonia Orchestra; Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor; EMI 69042 Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 15; London Philharmonic; Mariss Jansons, conductor; EMI 56591

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• Gluck and Glass in the underworld

  SynopsisIn Greek mythology, Orpheus was a priest of Apollo and a fabulous musician, who attempted to bring his dead wife Eurydice back from the underworld.On this day in 1774, in Paris, the first performance of the French version of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck took place. Gluck originally wrote the opera in Italian, but for the French version in 1774, he added some new instrumental music, including a serene interlude depicting the Dance of the Blessed Spirits — an excerpt that has become one of Gluck’s most famous and best-loved works.Over the centuries, more than 60 operas have been written on the theme of Orpheus and Eurydice. In fact, two of the very first operas ever written are based on this legend, both by Italian composers of the late Renaissance: one by Jacopo Peri performed in 1600 and another by Claudio Monteverdi from 1607.One of the more recent operas based on the Orpheus legend is by the American composer Philip Glass, based on a libretto he adapted from the 1950 movie, Orpheus, by surrealistic French poet and film director Jean Cocteau. The American Repertory Theatre and the Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned Glass’s version in 1993.Music Played in Today's ProgramChristoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787): Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orphée; Academy of Ancient Music; Christopher Hogwood, conductor; L’oiseau Lyre 410 553 Philip Glass (b. 1937): Act 2 Interlude from Orphée; Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor; Nonesuch 79496-2

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• Dvorak's 'American Quintet'

  SynopsisMost classical music lovers know and love Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Opus 95, and his American String Quartet, Opus 96, but fewer know the work he wrote next: his String Quintet, Opus 97. We think that’s a shame, since all three rank among the finest things the Czech composer ever wrote.Dvořák’s Quintet is also nicknamed the American — and for good reason: It was completed in 1893 on today’s date in Spillville, Iowa, during the composer’s summer vacation in that small, rural community of Czech immigrants, where he and family could escape the noise and bustle of New York City and his duties there at the National Conservatory.Dvořák had been brought to America to teach Americans how to write American music, but, like any good teacher, he was as eager to learn as to teach. In New York, Henry T. Burleigh, a talented African-American Conservatory student, taught him spirituals, and in Spillville, he eagerly attended performances of Native American music and dance by a group of touring Iroquois.Traces of those influences can be heard in Dvořák’s American works. In his Quintet, for example, unison melodic lines and striking rhythms seem to echo the Iroquois chants and drums Dvorak heard during his summer vacation in Spillville.Music Played in Today's ProgramAntonín Dvořák (1841-1904): II. Allegro Vivo from String Quintet No. 3; Vlach Quartet Prague with Ladislav Kyselak, viola; Naxos 8.553376

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• Bach at rest

  SynopsisTwo or three days after his death on July 28, 1750, the final rites were held in Leipzig, in St. John’s Church, for Johann Sebastian Bach, considered by many the greatest composer who ever lived. Bach was buried in the churchyard of St. John’s. In 1894, his remains were discovered during excavations and were reburied inside.Although not unappreciated in his lifetime, and not completely forgotten for nearly a century as myth would have it (Mozart and Beethoven both revered him), it’s true that Bach’s real stature was not fully recognized by the wider public until Felix Mendelssohn’s famous revival performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829.And since Mendelssohn’s 19th century revival, Bach’s Passion settings and cantatas have been staged as operas or ballets in the 20th and 21st. His music has survived arrangements for solo piano, full symphony orchestra, Moog synthesizer, authentic “period” instruments, Japanese koto orchestra, shakuhachi flute, and the various jazz stylings of the Swingle Singers and the late pianist of the modern jazz quartet, John Lewis.However it was adapted or altered by the passing fashion or fads of the day, Bach’s music continues to touch whoever plays it or listens to it.Music Played in Today's ProgramJ.S. Bach (1685-1750): St. Matthew Passion; SW German Madrigal Chorus; Wolfgang Gönnenwein, conductor; EMI Classics 79544 J.S. Bach (1685-1750) (arr. Chris Brubeck): Variations on Themes by Bach; Joel Brown, guitar; London Symphony; Joel Revzen, conductor; Koch International 7485

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• Ellington honored -- finally!

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1965, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of an orchestral work by Duke Ellington, The Golden Broom and the Green Apple, with the composer conducting. On the same program, Lukas Foss conducted the very belated, posthumous premiere of From the Steeples and the Mountains, by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Charles Ives.In 1965, Duke Ellington, too, had been nominated for the Pulitzer, but didn’t get it. The Pulitzer jury did, however, recommend that he receive a Special Citation in honor of “the vitality and originality of his total productivity.” That recommendation was rejected, and when word leaked out, a scandal ensued. The 66-year old Ellington remained unflappable, and said, with just a tiny hint of irony, “Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.”“I work and I write,” he said. “My reward is hearing what I’ve done. I’m hardly surprised that my kind of music is still without official honor at home. Most Americans will take it for granted that European music — classical music, if you will — is the only really respectable kind. Jazz is like the kind of man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.”In 1999, the Pulitzer Committee made amends, and Ellington was awarded a Special Citation — belatedly and posthumously — to commemorate the centennial year of his birth.Music Played in Today's ProgramEdward Kennedy (“Duke”) Ellington (1899-1974): The Golden Broom and the Green Apple; Duke Ellington, piano; Cincinnati Symphony; Erich Kunzel, conductor; MCA 42318

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