This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and 8, 2024
Welcome to the weekend! Here’s what’s happening on The Classical Station:
Saturday:
Join us for the Saturday Evening Request Program at 6pm ET to hear your favorites.
“When will my request be played?” (Check out the playlists here.)
“I want to make a request for next week!” (You can do that here.)
Sunday:
Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Space. (Photo by Matt Dine)
Great Sacred Music this week includes performances by the Temple Church Boys Choir, the Leipzig Radio Choir (MDR Rundfunkchor), and the American Symphony Orchestra. You’ll hear works by Tomaso Albinoni, Josef Haydn, Sir John Rutter, and others. This week’s featured work is The Last Judgment by Louis Spohr. Join Mick Anderson at 8am ET, following Sing for Joy.
And join us at 7pm ET for Preview! We’ll have the latest recordings for your listening enjoyment, including Music for the Venetian Ospedaletto – Works by Nicola Porpora, and pianist Robert Levin and the Academy of Ancient Music’s Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 6 & 8. In addition, Rob Kennedy will speak with members of the Neave Trio about their latest recording, Rooted.
On these dates in classical music history:
Portrait of Elisabetta de Gambarini by Nathaniel Hone, c. 1748. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
English composer, mezzo-soprano, organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and painter Elisabetta de Gambarini was born September 7, 1731, in St. Marylebone, Middlesex. Gambarini did not live long (d. 1765), but she was a multi-instrumentalist, reportedly an incredible singer, a composer of diverse works, and she ended up being the first woman in Britain to compose and publish a collection of keyboard music (The Six Sets of Lessons for the Harpsichord, Op.1). There isn’t much information about Gambarini’s musical education; it is likely that her mother was a music tutor and was her earliest teacher, and it is documented that she performed with violinist Francesco Geminiani, who may have also been a teacher to her. Gambarini began her career as a singer, in Handel’s Occasional Oratorio (1746–1747); Judas Maccabaeus and Joseph and his Brethren (1747); and her name appears in scores of Samson and Messiah. Handel and Geminiani were also both among the many subscribers to her published music. She began performing benefit concerts featuring her own compositions in 1748, at the Haymarket Theatre and the Concert Room in Soho. In addition to works for keyboard, Gambarini wrote songs and pieces for other instruments, including concerti for organ; overtures; and other works for timpani, brass, and strings.
Antonín Dvořák, c. 1894. (Unknown photographer – Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery (UK) NPG P1700(12d))
And September 8, 1841, was the birthdate of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák in Nelahozeves, Muhlhausen, near Prague. Dvořák was a talented violinist as a young child, and his father, František, played the zither; the early introduction of folk music (especially of Bohemia and Moravia) in Dvořák’s life was to influence his own compositions. As a child, he played violin in a village band and in church. At 13, he moved to Zlonice to live with his uncle and learn the German language; his first composition, the Forget-Me-Not Polka in C (Polka pomněnka) was written during this period. Dvořák studied organ, piano, violin, and music theory, then returned to Prague in 1857 to study organ, singing, and theory at the city’s Organ School. While a student and afterward, he performed in an orchestra at restaurants, parties and balls, and the theatre, and he gave piano lessons. All the while, he was composing. His works were first performed publicly in Prague in 1872 and 1873, and he began entering competitions in Germany and Austria; he won the Austrian State Competition three times between 1874 and 1877. Johannes Brahms, who was on the competition jury, recommended Dvořák to his publisher, N. Simrock, and Simrock commissioned what became the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, Dvořák’s first international success. London performances of his Stabat Mater in 1883 and his Symphony No. 7 in 1885 led to performances throughout Britain, the United States, and Russia. He started teaching composition at the Prague Conservatory of Music in 1891; the next year, he was appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. During his tenure in NY (1892-1895), he wrote his two most successful orchestral works (Symphony No. 9, From the New World, and his Cello Concerto in B minor) and his most famous piece of chamber music (String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, American). Dvořák returned to Bohemia in 1895 and he turned his focus to composing operas and more chamber music. His most successful opera was Rusalka, which premiered in 1901. He also returned to the Prague Conservatory as a professor and the school’s headmaster until his death in 1904. He never stopped composing, and many unfinished works were found after his death.
WCPE tower by Jonny Pierce
Enjoy your weekend, and keep it tuned to The Classical Station.
Friday, September 6, 2024
It’s All-Request Friday, so we’re playing your favorites ALL. DAY. LONG. (And we’ll do it again tomorrow evening on the Saturday Evening Request Program.)
Want to know when your request will be played? Check out the playlists here.
Want to make a request for next week? You can do that here.
Evgeny Svetlanov’s memorial plaque in Moscow (SVR, CC0, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
On this date in the history of classical music:
Russian conductor, pianist, and composer Evgeny Svetlanov was born in 1928 in Moscow. Svetlanov studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory and debuted as a conductor on the radio in 1953. In 1955, he was appointed to the Bolshoi as principal assistant, then made principal conductor in 1962 (he led the Bolshoi’s first tour in Italy during this tenure). Svetlanov was appointed principal conductor of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra in 1965 and he kept the post until 2000, when he was fired by Russian minister of culture Mikhail Shvydkoy for allegedly spending too much of his time conducting outside of Moscow. Shvydkoy may have had a point: Svetlanov was a conductor for the BBC, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, the Strasbourg Philharmonic and Montpellier National Orchestra, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre du Théâtre royal de La Monnaie, the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish and Danish Radio Orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, and was principal conductor of the Hague Het Residentie Orchestra. Svetlanov made many recordings with several of those orchestras, and he wrote his own compositions, including Siberian Fantasy for Orchestra, Op. 9 (1953), Images d’Espagne, Rhapsody for Orchestra (1954), Piano Concerto in c minor (1976), and Poem for Violin and Orchestra “To the Memory of David Oistrakh” (1975). Oh, and he also has an asteroid named after him.
Joan Tower (Photo by Cynthia Del Conte, Bard College)
And it’s the birthday of American composer, conductor, pianist, and educator Joan Tower, born in 1938 in New Rochelle, New York. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Bolivia, where she began piano lessons and her musical training. She returned to the U.S. as a young adult to study music at Bennington College, then Columbia University. Tower was a founding member and performer from 1969 to 1984 with the Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her works, including Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman. She began teaching at Bard College in 1972 and is currently Asher Edelman Professor of Music. She was the first woman to win the Grawemeyer Award in 1990 for her work Silver Ladders, and was the first composer chosen for a Ford Made in America consortium commission of 65 orchestras. Tower’s commission, Made in America, was recorded by Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and won multiple Grammy awards (2008). She was also the third composer commissioned by the Dumbarton Oaks Estate (following Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland) and she wrote her Dumbarton Quintet (2008). Tower has composed and continues to compose a wide variety of music for many types of instruments and performers.
Heads-Up! Ticket Giveaway on Classical Café – Wednesday, September 11
Next Wednesday between 11am and 12pm, George Leef will give away a pair of tickets to the North Carolina Symphony’s Symphonie fantastique (September 20-21, Raleigh, NC).
Violinist James Ehnes with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, c. 2022. (Photo by Nathaniel Lim, The Straits Times)
Carlos Migues Prieto with the North Carolina Symphony
Carlos Migues Prieto conducts the NCS and violinist James Ehnes, with music by Gabriela Ortiz, Sergei Prokofiev, and Hector Berlioz.
Tune in to win!
Thursday, September 5, 2024
On this week’s Thursday Night Opera House, Sir Georg Solti conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra; the John Alldis Choir; the Boys’ Chorus from Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, Elstree; and a stellar cast of soloists in a 1975 recording of Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Bizet never visited Spain, but he managed to imbue his most popular opera with the vivid and vibrant melodies from that country. Since its first performance in 1875, it has remained a favorite of opera goers worldwide. Tatiana Troyanos sings the lead role, with Placido Domingo as Don José. Join us at 7pm ET.
On this date in classical music history:
Johann Christian Bach, c. 1776. (Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Johann Christian Bach in Leipzig in 1735. He was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, who gave J.C. lessons in music theory and keyboard instruments until he was 14, when his father died; elder half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel continued J.C.’s studies in Berlin. In 1755, J.C. found a patron in Milan, Italy; Count Agostino Litta supported him and introduced him to teachers. J.C. converted to Catholicism during this period, and his compositions focused on Latin church music. He was appointed deputy organist at Milan Cathedral (1760) and then kapellmeister at the Church of Santa Maria di Caravaggio (1761). He also began composing operas (Artasere and Catone in Utica) and writing arias and overtures for other composers. In 1762, J.C. was commissioned to compose two operas for the King’s Theatre and he moved to London. He became a music tutor to Queen Charlotte in 1763 (he dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1 to her) and became highly involved in the city’s music scene; he and his friend Karl Friedrich Abel organized the Bach-Abel Concerts, performed their own compositions, and arranged benefit concerts to support former musicians and their dependents. Throughout the 1770’s, J.C. received commissions for operas in London and in Mannheim, Germany; spent time in Paris where he renewed an acquaintance with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and became ill after a steward embezzled most of his fortune. He died in 1782; Queen Charlotte set up a lifetime pension for his widow, Italian opera singer Cecilia Grassi. The full catalog of his compositions wasn’t compiled and published until 1999.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, c. 1895. (George Grantham Bain Collection – Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
And it’s the birthdate of Amy Marcy Cheney Beach in 1867 in Henniker, New Hampshire. She was a prodigy who began memorizing songs at the age of one; teaching herself to read at age three; and playing four-part hymns and composing simple waltzes on the piano at age four. Cheney was performing publicly by the age of seven, in recitals of works by Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, and some of her own pieces. She moved with her family to Boston in 1875; a decade later, she had her first performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. That same year (1885), she married physician Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, who requested that she not perform publicly as often. She turned her focus to composing and independent study of harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration, becoming the first American woman recognized as a composer of large-scale orchestral works. 1892 was a highly successful year for Cheney Beach: her Mass in E-flat was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society to notable acclaim (music critics of the time compared the work to masses by Bach and Cherubini); her Symphony, Op. 32 (Gaelic Symphony); Violin Sonata, Op. 34; and Piano Concerto, Op. 45 found the same success; and the Symphony Society of New York premiered her concert aria, Eilende Wolken, Op. 18, which was the first composition by a woman that the orchestra has ever played. Her husband died in 1910 and Cheney Beach spent a few years performing and composing in Europe. She returned to the U.S. in 1914; became a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire (1921); and in 1925, she founded and was first president of the Society of American Women Composers.
Tomorrow is All-Request Friday on The Classical Station! Did you make a request? Check out the playlist to see when your favorite will air.
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
A good day to you, Listeners!
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On this date in the history of classical music:
Darius Milhaud, c. 1923. (Photo by Agence de presse, Meurisse – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
French composer Darius Milhaud was born in Marseille in 1892, though he lived most of his childhood in Aix-en-Provence and considered that to be his true hometown. Milhaud began as a violin student, but studied composition at the Paris Conservatory with Charles Widor (along with fellow students and Les Six or Group of Six members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre). He also took private lessons with Vincent d’Indy. He served briefly (1917-1919) as secretary to Paul Claudel, the French ambassador to Brazil who was also a poet and dramatist; the two collaborated for many years afterward and Milhaud wrote music for many of Claudel’s poems and plays. Milhaud was one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century and is considered to be a key modernist composer, with compositions influenced by contemporary European influences (like Arnold Schoenberg), Brazilian music, and jazz, and regularly incorporating polytonality. He moved to the U.S. in 1940 to escape Germany’s occupation of France. He taught at Mills College in Oakland, California (Dave Brubeck was one of his students); was one of the founders of the Music Academy of the West summer conservatory (songwriter Burt Bacharach was one of his students); and was on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School (William Bolcom and Steve Reich were among his students). Milhaud composed more than 440 works; among his best-known are the ballets Le bœuf sur le toit and La création du monde, and the dance suite Saudades do Brasil.
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Hello, dear Listeners! It’s a gorgeous day here at The Classical Station.
Put in your requests for this week’s All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program, if you haven’t already. We always look forward to hearing from you, seeing what you’ve chosen, and reading your dedications. It’s a major highlight of the week for the announcers (and for your fellow listeners)!
On this date in the history of classical music:
Pietro Locatelli, c. 1733. (Mezzotint by Cornelis Troost, Rijksmuseum – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Italian composer and violin virtuoso Pietro Locatelli in Bergamo in 1695. His life as a professional musician began at age 14, when Locatelli became a member of the instrumental ensemble of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. When he was 16 he went to Rome to study with Arcangelo Corelli, then toured and performed in Italy and Germany throughout the 1720s. Locatelli settled in Amsterdam in 1729 and gave up performing for large audiences (he also reportedly did not want professional musicians attending his performances); instead, he gave regular concerts for wealthy patrons and lessons to amateur musicians. He also began publishing his own compositions and selling violin strings, and he was one of (if not THE) most highly paid musicians in Amsterdam at the time.
Marcel Grandjany at Juilliard School of Music, c. 1920. (Charles Ringling Family Collection – Courtesy of University of South Florida)
And French-American harpist, composer, and educator Marcel Grandjany was born in Paris on this date in 1891. Grandjany was orphaned as a young child and was brought up by his cousin Juliette, who had studied harmony and accompaniment at the Paris Conservatoire. Grandjany studied music theory at the Conservatoire, became a private harp student of Henriette Renié, then entered the Conservatoire’s harp class in 1902. At 13, he was awarded the Premier Prix for harp, then again for harmony and for counterpoint and fugue (1909). He was head of harp studies at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau (1921-1926), then left the pre-war turmoil in Europe for the U.S. in 1936. Grandjany was appointed head of the Harp Department at the Juilliard School in 1938, and taught there until his death in 1975. He also organized the harp department of the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique à Montréal (1943); was head of the harp department at the Manhattan School of Music (1956-1967); and was a founder of the American Harp Society. As a composer, Grandjany was almost totally focused on expanding the repertoire for the harp, and he wrote many original works for harp as well as a number of transcriptions for harp from existing works for other instruments.
We’re right here (all the time, 24 hours a day) and we’re also on The Classical Station app (Google Play & Apple Store). Don’t forget to make those requests for Friday and Saturday!
Monday, September 2, 2024
Hello, Listeners! (And a Happy Labor Day holiday to some of you.)
It’s also Classical Music Month, so you know we’re celebrating that, too (as we do every single day/month/year here at The Classical Station).
John Jeter, Fort Smith Symphony
The September edition of My Life In Music features conductor John Jeter, Music Director and Conductor of the Fort Smith Symphony in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Join Rob Kennedy at 7pm ET.
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s maison symphonique.
This week, Monday Night at the Symphony features the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1934. The program includes music by Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Gustav Mahler, and is conducted by Charles Dutoit, Kent Nagano, and current music director Rafael Payare. Join us for the symphony at 8pm ET.
On this date in classical music history:
Sheila Bromberg, c. 2010. (Photo by David Laurence – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of British classical and session harpist Sheila Bromberg in London in 1928. Bromberg was an early and accomplished pianist and turned to the harp when she attended the Royal College of Music (she also attained a degree in music therapy much later in her life). She played harp professionally with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Top of the Pops Orchestra; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; and she performed in the orchestra for the London run of the musical Phantom of the Opera and on the soundtracks for the James Bond films Dr. No and Goldfinger. She was also a session musician for Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, the Bee Gees, Dusty Springfield, Sammy Davis Jr., and the disco band Heatwave, among others, and she made history in 1967 as the first woman to appear on a Beatles song when she was hired to play the harp on “She’s Leaving Home” on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.