French composer Georges Bizet

Two symphonies touched by the fickle finger of fate...

George Bizet (1838-1875): Symphony in C
National Philharmonic; Leopold Stokowski, cond.
CBS Records 39498
&
Roy Harris (1898-1979): Symphony No. 5
Louisville Orchesttra;
Albany First Edition AR-012 (out-of-print)

ALSO ON THIS DATE:
Births:
1770 — Bohemian-French composer Anton (Antoine) Reicha, in Prague;
1879 — English composer Frank Bridge, in Brighton;

Deaths:
1770 — Italian composer, violinist and theorist Giuseppe Tartini, in Padua, age 77;

Premieres:
1751 — Handel: "Jephtha," in London;
1922 — Saint-Saëns: "Carnival of the Animals," in Paris;

Other:
1832 — Chopin makes his debut in Paris playing his Piano Concerto No. 2.

Two famous musical timepieces...

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93
Cleveland Orchestra; Rafael Kubelik, cond.
DG 459 463
&
Leroy Anderson (1908-1975): The Syncopated Clock
Boston Pops; Arthur Fiedler, cond.
RCA Gold Seal 62698

Births:
1846 — Spanish composer Joaquin Valverde, in Badajoz;
1848 — English composer (Sir) Hubert Parry, in Bournemouth;

Deaths:
1887 — Russian composer Alexander Borodin, in St. Petersburg, age 53;

Premieres:
1814 — Beethoven: Symphony No. 8, in Vienna;
1913 — Walter Damrosch: opera, "Cyrano de Bergerac," at the Met in New York City;
1947 — Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 3, Walter Hendl conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Portrait of the French composer Maurice Ravel as a young man

Musical tributes to the refined and the ridiculous...

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Le tombeau de Couperin
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff, cond.
Teldec 74006
&
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954): Le tombeau de Liberace
Paul Crossley, p; London Sinfonietta; Markus Stenz, cond.
Argo 458 145

Here's a remark attributed to Ravel: "Basically, the only love affair I ever had was with music." [quoted in "Composers on Music: Eight Centuries of Writings" edited by Josiah Fisk; ISBN #I-55553-278-9]

Births:
1876 — American composer John Alden Carpenter, in Park Ridge, Illinois;

Premieres:
1920 — Ravel: "Le Tombeau de Couperin," at a Pasdeloup Concert in Paris.

A fanfare for Women's History Month . . .

Joan Tower (b. 1938): Fanfare No. 1 for the Uncommon Woman
Colorado Symphony; Marin Alsop, cond.
Koch International 7469

For the record, here's the list of the other "Uncommon Women" to whom Joan Tower dedicated four additional Fanfares: No. 2 - Joan Briccetti, general manager of the St. Louis Symphony from 1985-87; No. 3 - Frances Richard, director of concert music at ASCAP; No. 4 - the conductor JoAnn Falletta; No. 5 - arts patron Joan Harris, who with her husband funded a new concert hall in Aspen, Colorado.

Births:
1810 — Polish composer and pianist Frederick Chopin in Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw, Poland (March 1, 1810 was the birth date given by the composer himself in a letter dated 1833, and is traditionally accepted as such; his certificate of baptism, however, says he may have actually been born on Feb. 22, 1810);
1904 — American bandleader Glenn Miller in Clarinda, Iowa;
1939 — Cuban composer Leo Brower in Havana;.
1971 — English composer and pianist Thomas Adès;

Deaths:
1643 — Italian organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi in Rome, age 59;

Premieres:
1942 — Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad") in Kuibishev, USSR.

Fritz in Florida . . .

Frederick Delius (1862-1934): Florida Suite
English Northern Philharmonia; David Lloyd-Jones, cond.
Naxos 8.553535

Births:
1824 — Czech composer Bedrich Smetana, in Leitomischi, Bohemia;
1905 — American composer Marc Blitzstein, in Philadelphia;
1921 — English composer Robert Simpson, in Leamington, Warwickshire;
1934 — English-born American composer Bernard Rands, in Sheffield;

Premieres:
1795 — Haydn's Symphony No. 103 ("The Drumroll,") at the King's Theatre in London, with the composer conducting