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January 15 - 19, 2001
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| Jazz compser Charles Mingus on a US postage stamp |
SYNOPSIS:
Some music for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...
MUSIC PLAYED ON TODAY'S PROGRAM:
Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943): New Morning for the World (Daybreak of Freedom)
National Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, cond.
BMG Classics 68692
&
Charles Mingus (1922-1979): Better Get It In Your Soul, from Epitaph
ensemble; Gunther Schuller, cond.
Columbia 45428
ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1893 English composer Ivor Novello (née David Ivor Davies), in Cardiff;
1909 American composer Elie Siegmeister, in New York City;
Premieres:
1890 Tchaikovsky: ballet, "Sleeping Beauty," in St. Petersburg;

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| French composer Germaine Tailleferre |
SYNOPSIS:
Music by two noteworthy women composers...
MUSIC PLAYED ON TODAY'S PROGRAM:
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983): Violin Sonata No. 1
Franco Mezzena, vn; Bruno Mezzena, p.
Dynamic 223 (distributed by Qualiton Imports)
&
Janika Vandevelde (b. 1955): Genesis V
Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
Albany Troy-207
ADDITIONAL ANECDOTES:
Collet's original article was entitled "The five Russians, the six French, and
Monsieur Satie." The five Russians referred to were the leading Nationalist
composers such as Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, and the analogy was deliberate:
French music, as the writer Jean Cocteau had demanded, must be liberated from
all foreign influence especially German. Wagner and Strauss should no longer
hold French composers in reverential awe, or Stravinsky either, or even that
dangerous French maverick, Debussy.
"Les Six" was never really a formal grouping. It was more of an artificial
concept in Collet's mind. In any case, its members considered themselves disbanded
within a year, and went their own ways, with only Poulenc continuing to follow
at all faithfully the principles that had supposedly held them together.
ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1905 Spanish composer Ernesto Halffter, in Madrid;
1934 American composer Richard Wernick, in Boston, Massachusetts;
1943 English composer and teacher Gavin Bryars, in Goole, Yorkshire;
1943 English composer Brian Ferneyhough, in Coventry;
Premieres:
1739 Handel: oratorio, "Saul," in London;
1869 Borodin: Symphony No. 1, in St. Petersburg;

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| Albert Einstein performing as a violinist at a charity recital in a Berlin synagogue in the early 1930s |
SYNOPSIS:
Einstein in recital and on the opera stage...
MUSIC PLAYED ON TODAY'S PROGRAM:
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Double Concerto in d, S. 1043
Oscar Shumsky, John Tunnell, vn; Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Nimbus 7031
&
Philip Glass (b. 1937): Violin Concerto
Adele Anthony, vn; Ulster Orchestra; Takuo Yuasa, cond.
Naxos American Classics 8.559056
ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1706 American statesman, composer of string quartets, publisher and inventor
of the glass harmonica Benjamin Franklin, in Boston, Massachusetts;
1712 English composer John Stanley, in London;
1734 Belgian composer François-Joseph Gossec, in Vergnies;
1907 Dutch composer Henk Badings, in Bandung, Java;
1927 American composer Donald Erb, in Youngstown, Ohio;
1934 Canadian-born American composer, conductor and clarinetist Sydney Hodkinson,
in Winnipeg, Manitoba;

SYNOPSIS:
Music and photography intersect in New York and California ...
MUSIC PLAYED ON TODAY'S PROGRAM:
Julián Orbón (1925-1991): Pavana (Luis de Milan), from
Tres Versiones Sinfónicas
Simón Bolívar Symphony; Eduardo Mata, cond.
Dorian 90179
ADDITIONAL ANECDOTES:
Former Life magazine photographer Bruce Davidson's group shot of 52 composers
appeared in the Oct. 31, 1999 edition of the New York Times.
ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1835 Russian composer César Cui, in Vilnius, Lithuania;
1841 French composer Emmanuel Chabrier, in Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme;
1903 German-born English composer and conductor Berthold Goldschmidt, in Hamburg;

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| Wolfgang Mozart |
SYNOPSIS:
Music with a sense of place in name, at least...
MUSIC PLAYED ON TODAY'S PROGRAM:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Symphony No. 38 in D, S. 504 (Prague)
Prague Chamber Orchestra; Sir Charles Mackerras, cond.
Telarc 80148
&
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974): Symphony No. 10, Op. 382 (Music for Oregon)
Basel Radio Symphony; Alun Francis, cond.
CPO 999 354
ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1676 English composer John Weldon, in Chichester;
1884 French conductor and composer Albert Wolff, in Paris;
1903 German composer Boris Blacher, in Niu-chang, China;
Premieres:
1853 Verdi: opera, "Il trovatore," in Rome;
1884 Massenet: opera, "Manon," at the Opéra-Comique, Paris;
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