SynopsisOn today’s date in 1926, Giacomo Puccini’s last opera, Turandot, had its belated premiere at the La Scala Opera House in Milan, with Arturo Toscanini conducting. The originally scheduled 1925 premiere had to be postponed, as Puccini had

Seasonal music by Haydn

1 day ago 2m

SynopsisHaydn’s oratorio The Seasons had its premiere performance on this date in Vienna in 1801. Like its predecessor, The Creation, Haydn’s new oratorio was a great success, and, as before, Haydn received help with the text and a lot of advi

Meeting deadlines: Tchaikovsky and Zaimont

2 days ago 2m

SynopsisDeadlines are a fact of life for many of us — and composer are no exception.In 1875, Peter Tchaikovsky agreed to write 12 short solo pieces, one a month, for a St. Petersburg music magazine, beginning with their January 1876 issue. Tcha

Morton Gould rewrites history

3 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn this date in 1948, the ballet Fall River Legend was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House by the Ballet Theatre of New York. The choreography was by Agnes de Mille, and the music by Morton Gould.The previous year, de Mille and Go

Bernstein and the birds

4 days ago 2m

SynopsisIn the biographical film Maestro, Leonard Bernstein’s dramatic 1943 Carnegie Hall debut conducting the New York Philharmonic, filling in at the last moment for Bruno Walter, receives a masterful cinematic treatment.But the first time Be

Rimsky-Korsakov joins the Navy (and sees the world)

5 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1862, an 18-year-old Russian named Nicolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov graduated as midshipman from the Russian Naval Academy and prepared for a two-year’s training cruise around the world. His uncle was an admiral an

Violin Concerto No. 2 by George Tsontakis

6 days ago 2m

SynopsisA concerto, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “a piece for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements.” And for most classical music fans, “concerto” means one of big romantic ones by Beethoven or Tchaikovsk

Bernstein's 'Fancy Free'

7 days ago 2m

SynopsisIt was on today’s date in 1944 that the ballet Fancy Free — with music Leonard Bernstein and choreography by Jerome Robbins — was first staged by the Ballet Theater at the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. It was a big hit.

Hugo Wolf and the Wagner-Brahms Wars

8 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1887, readers of the Wiener Salonblatt, a fashionable Viennese weekly artspaper, could enjoy the latest critical skirmish in the Brahms-Wagner wars.At the close of the 19th century, traditionalist partisans of the Sym

Meyerbeer and Lloyd Webber: "On Ice"

9 days ago 2m

SynopsisA century before crowds of extras and gigantic sets first filled the silver screen of Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood extravaganzas, the Paris Opera brought similar resources to the stage for their historical operas—offering shipwrecks, ex

Bryars and Horner on the Titanic

10 days ago 2m

SynopsisAt 2:20 a.m. on this date in 1912, the luxury liner S.S. Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Of the 2201 people of on board, only 711 reached their intended destination in New York. Eight British musicians, memb

Jay Ungar and Roy Harris meet Ken Burns

11 days ago 2m

SynopsisFiddler Jay Ungar wrote a melancholy tune in 1982 and titled it Ashokan Farewell. It reflected, he wrote, the wistful sadness he felt at the conclusion of a week-long, summer-time fiddle and dance program in the Catskill Mountains at As

Handel recycled by Zwilich (and himself)

12 days ago 2m

SynopsisOne of the best-loved works of classical music, Handel’s oratorio Messiah, had its first performance on today’s date in Dublin, Ireland, in 1742. Handel wrote Messiah in a period of only four weeks, then put it aside until he received a

Castelnuovo-Tedesco in New York

13 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1933, the New York Philharmonic presented the premiere performance of Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Violin Concerto No. 2.He was born in Florence in 1895 and enjoyed early success in Europe, but, becaus

George Walker's 'Visions'

14 days ago 2m

SynopsisIn 1996, American composer George T. Walker, Jr. became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. That was for his Lilacs, a setting for solo soprano and orchestra of Walt Whitman’s poem, “When Lilacs Last in the D

Antheil at Carnegie Hall

15 days ago 2m

Synopsis“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” If George Antheil were asked that question in 1927, he would have answered that it was easy. After the scandalous Paris premiere of his aggressively avant-garde Ballet Mécanique, scored for eight piano

C.P.E. Bach's 'Magnificat'

16 days ago 2m

SynopsisWe’re cranking up the Datebook time machine today to take you back to a charity concert that took place in Hamburg on today’s date in 1786. The concert was organized and conducted by 72-year-old composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who h

A Bartok premiere (and patron)

17 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1935, the Kolisch Quartet gave the premiere performance of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 in the auditorium of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. That performance was part of a chamber music festival spon

Beethoven's 'Eroica' premiere

18 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1805, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted the first public performance of his Symphony No. 3, subtitled Eroica at Theater an der Wien in Vienna. It was a symphony bolder, louder, and twice as long as any Mozart or Haydn ev

Ravel's 'Duo'

19 days ago 2m

SynopsisIn 1920, a French publisher commissioned several works in memory of Claude Debussy, who had died two years earlier. Maurice Ravel’s contribution was a single-movement piece for violin and cello.Ravel then expanded this music into a four

Lou Harrison conducts an Ives premiere

20 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1946, composer Lou Harrison conducted the premiere performance of an orchestral work written 45 years earlier. It was Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 3, composed between 1901 and 1904.Early in 1911, Ives had sent the score

Of success and sorrow: Gorecki's Third

21 days ago 2m

SynopsisOn today’s date in 1977, Polish composer Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 was performed for the first time in Royan, France, by the Southwest German Radio Orchestra.Gorecki’s symphony has a subtitle — Symphony of Sorrowful Songs — and se

Marvin Hatley goes cuckoo

22 days ago 2m

SynopsisThe composer of “Dance of the Cuckoos” was born on this date in 1905.Thomas Marvin Hatley worked for the Hal Roach film studio that produced the famous Laurel and Hardy comedies, for which he wrote memorable music. His “Cuckoo” theme wa

Politically correct Bruckner, circa 1937

23 days ago 2m

SynopsisAn invitation-only audience attended a historic Bruckner concert in Munich on today’s date in 1932. On the first half of the program, Siegmund von Hausegger conducted Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9, using the posthumous edition prepared by

Havergal Brian says 'Hail and Farewell'

24 days ago 2m

SynopsisProlific British composer Havergal Brian wrote 32 symphonies. His last was completed in 1968 when he was 92. Just before completing his Symphony No. 32, perhaps as insurance in case he died before finishing it, Brian wrote a shorter wor