Another composer at Camelot: Vera and Igor Stravinsky at a 1962 White House event hosted by President and Mrs. Kennedy. Stravinsky said the Kennedys were "nice kids."

Casals plays at the White House (again) and some new concertos for his instrument, the cello

Pablo Casals (1876-1973): The Song of the Birds
Pablo Casals, vcl; Mieczyslaw Horzowski, p (live recording, November 13, 1961)
Spanish Sony (import disc only) 42-048126-11
&
Harold Farberman (b. 1929): Evolution (Part 1)
Leopold Stokowski and his Symphony Orchestra
EMI Classics 65614

American composer Aaron Copland was also invited to the November 13, 1961, White House Gala honoring Pablo Casals. In a diary entry, Copland noted: "I sat between Mrs. Walter Lippman and Mrs. William Paley. Pierre Salinger and Senator Mike Mansfield were at our table. President Kenendy was in full view the entire time, while ten violins played through dinner. Surprised at his reddish-brown hair. No evil in the face, but plenty of ambition there, no doubt. Mrs. K. statuesque. . . After dinner we were treated to a concert by Pablo Casals. No American music. The next step."

Births:
1817 - French composer and organist Louis Lefébure-Wély, in Paris;
1854 - American composer George Whitefield Chadwick, in Lowell, Massachusetts;
1921 - Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen, in Iisalmi

Deaths:
1868 - Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, in Passy, near Paris, age 76

Premieres:
1893 - Sibelius: "Karelia Suite," in Viborg, Finland

Other:
1937 - First live radio broadcast by the NBC Symphony Orchestra with Pierre Monteux conducting (Arturo Toscanini's first broadcast with the NBC Symphony would occur on Christmas Day, 1937).

Aaron Copland: a portrait of the artist as a young man (and without glasses).

Wish you could be here . . . Happy 100th, Aaron Copland!

David Del Tredici (b. 1937): Acrostic Song, fr Final Alice
Carol Wincenc, f; David Del Tredici, p.
Nonesuch 79114

A new Copland biography by Howard Pollack titled "Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man" (ISBN: #0805049096) was published in 1999; Copland's own account of his life is best told via the two volumes of the Copland/Vivian Perlis collaboration titled "Copland: 1900-1942" (ISBN: #0312011490) and "Copland: Since 1943" (ISBN: #0312050666) respectively.

Births:
1663 - [Baptism of] German composer, organist and teacher (of Handel and others) Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, in Leipzig;
1719 - German-Austrian composer Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang Amadeus), in Augsburg;
1778 - German composer and pianist Johann Nepomuk Hummel, in Pressburg;
1805 - German composer Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, sister of Felix, in Hamburg;
1939 - American composer Wendy [née Walter] Carlos, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Premieres:
1930 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4, in Boston, Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra;
1954 - Roy Harris: "Symphonic Epigram," in New York City, Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting New York Philharmonic

Other:
1943 - Little-known Leonard Bernstein fills in for ailing conductor Bruno Walter on nationwide New York Philharmonic broadcast, causing sensation and launching brilliant career; an aircheck recording of this broadcast concert has been issued as a benefit CD for the Philharmonic and is available via their Website: newyorkphilharmonic.org.

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven, benefits and (beep beep) the Roadrunner

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 4 in Bb, Op. 60
Nicolas Esterházy Orchestra; Béla Drahos, cond.
Naxos 8.553477
&
John Adams (b. 1947): Chamber Symphony
Absolute Ensemble; Krystian Järvi, cond.
CCn'C 00492 (distributed by Qualiton)

Births:
1738 - German-English astronomer, oboist and composer (Sir) William Herschel, in Hannover;
1934 - English composer, pianist and organist Peter Dickinson, in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire

Deaths:
1787 - German-Bohemian composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, in Vienna, age 73

Premieres:
1913 - Rachmaninov: choral symphonic poem, "The Bells," in St. Petersburg, composer conducting;
1920 - Holst: orchestral suite, "The Planets," Queen's Hall, London, conductor Albert Coates (first public performance);
1928 - Gershwin: "An American in Paris," in New York City, conductor Walter Damrosch;
1930 - Stravinsky: "Symphony of Psalms," in Brussels.

Other:
1926 - First broadcast of a music program on the NBC radio network, featuring the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch, the New York Oratorio Society, and the Goldman Band

W. C. Handy

Even composers get the blues . . . today it's C.W. Gluck's and W.C. Handy's turn

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787): Armide Overture
Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, cond.
Archiv 459 616
&
W.C. Handy (1873-1958)/arr. H. Brubeck: St. Louis Blues
Louis Armstrong, tpt; and his Quintet
Sony Classical 60566

The original text to W.C. Handy's "Mr. Crump (The Memphis Blues)" contains these lines (apparently sung in the persona of a not-so-law-abiding citizen of Memphis): "Mister Crump don't 'low no easy riders here/We don't care what Mister Crump don't' 'low/We gonna bar'l house anyhow/Mister Crump don't 'low no easy riders here."

Births:
1766 - French composer and violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, in Versailles;
1870 - Australian composer Alfred Hill, in Melbourne;
1895 - German composer, violist and conductor Paul Hindemith, in Hanau

Premieres:
1919 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes: "Poem" for flute and orchestra, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Society Orchestra;
1948 - Morton Gould: "Philharmonic Waltzes," Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting New York Philharmonic, which commissioned it

Other:
1900 - First concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra, conductor Fritz Scheel, pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch (see also listing for Nov. 12 above).

Peter Tchaikovsky at Cambridge, 1893

Russian composers wracked by doubt - and toothache

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Symphony No. 5 in e, Op. 64
Oslo Philharmonic; Mariss Jansons, cond.
Chandos 8351
&
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): The Rite of Spring
Columbia Symphony; Igor Stravinsky
Sony Classical 46291

Here's a quote from Stravinsky on composing his Rite of Spring: "I was guided by no system whatever . . . I had only my ear to help me. I heard and I wrote what I heard." [Quoted in "Composers on Music: Eight Centuries of Writings" Edited by Jonathan Fisk; Northeastern University Press; ISBN: #I-55553-279-9]

Births:
1919 - American composer-arranger Hershy Kay, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
1930 - American composer, hornist and conductor David Amram, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;

Premieres:
1866 - Ambroise Thomas: opera, "Mignon," in Paris;
1877 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, "The Sorcerer," first collaboration with D'Oyly Carte company;
1937 - Daniel Gregory Mason: "A Lincoln Symphony," John Barbirolli conducting the New York Philharmonic;
1977 - Vincent Persichetti: "Concerto for English Horn & Strings," soloist Thomas Stacy, Erich Leinsdorf conducting New York Philharmonic