An opera debut for Britten and Bernstein ...

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976):  Sunday Morning and Storm, fr Peter Grimes
New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, cond
Sony Classical 47541

Mendelssohn and company get wet and wild ...

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847):  The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture
BBC Symphony; Sir Colin Davis, cond
Philips 426 978

Births:
1868 — British composer Sir Granville Bantock, in London;
1896 — Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, in Havana; He composed a number of popular Latin pop melodies, including his famous "Malagueña";
1921 — Czech-born, American composer and conductor Karel Husa, in Prague; He became an American citizen in 1959; In 1969 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his String Quartet No. 3;

Deaths:
1891 —London-born composer, pianist and music publisher Henry Charles Litolff, age 73, in Colombes (near Paris);

Premieres:
1912 — Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Moscow, the composer (age 21) soloing;
1977 — Hanson: Symphony No. 7 ("A Sea Symphony") at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan;
1991 — David Del Tredici: "An Alice Symphony" (first complete performance), during the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Mass.;

Chaminade in America ...

Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944):  L'Ondine, Op. 101 & Scherzo in C, fr Op. 35
Peter Jacobs, p 
Hyperion 66584 (distributed by Harmonia Mundi USA)

Births:
1905 — French composer André Jolivet, in Paris;
1921 — American composer Roger Nixon, in Tulare, Calif.;
1938 — Canadian composer Jacques Hétu, in Trois Rivières, Quebec;

Deaths:
1967 — Czech-born composer Jaromir Weinberger, age 71, commits suicide at his home in St. Peterburg, Florida (where he settled in 1939); Weinberger had composed one very popular work, his 1927 opera "Schwanda, the Bagpiper," but was reportedly despondent that he was unable to produce any equally successful works;

Premieres:
1942 — Poulenc: ballet "Les Animaux modèles" (The Model Animals), at the Paris Opéra;
1976 — David Del Tredici: "An Alice Symphony" (after Lewis Carroll) in San Francisco;

Other Anniversaries:
1912 — Sergei Diaghilev meets with Stravinsky at the resort of Karlsbad and commissions "Le sacre du printemps" for his Ballets Russes;
1967 — The scheduled premiere at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires of Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera's opera "Bomarzo" is cancelled by the military government due to the opera's unacceptable level of sex and violence depicted on-stage;

VERY public performances of orchestral works by Percy Grainger and Dimitri Shostakovich ...

Percy Grainger (1882-1961):  To A Nordic Princess
Danish National Radio Orchestra; Richard Hickox, cond.
Chandos 9721

&
Dmitri Shostakovich(1906-1975): Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad)
London Philharmonic; Bernard Haitink 
London 417 392

Births:
1686 — Italian composer Benedetto Marcello, in Venice;
1874 — Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor and music critic Reynaldo Hahn, in Caracas;
1875 — English light music composer Albert William Ketèlbey, in Aston;

Deaths:
1919 — Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, in Montecatini, age 62;

Premieres:
1862 — Berlioz: opera, "Béatrice et Bénedict," at Baden-Baden, composer conducting;
1949— Orff: opera"Antigone" at the Salzburg Festival in Austria;
1979 — Hanson: ballet "Nymph and Satyr" in Chautauqua, Tennessee;

Mozart finished two of his best-known works on today's date ...

Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Sir Neville Marriner, cond.
EMI Classics 65690
&
Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791): Symphony No. 41 in C (Jupiter)
Marlboro Festival Orchestra; Pablo Casals, cond.
CBS/Sony 47294

Births:
1813 — American composer and journalist, William Henry Fry, in Philadelphia;
1865 — Russian composer Alexander Glazunov,  in St. Petersburg;
1893 — American opera composer Douglas Moore, in Cutchogue (Long Island), N.Y.;
1932 — German-born English composer Alexander Goehr, in Berlin;
1935 — Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, in Tbilisi, former USSR;

Deaths:
1806 — Austrian composer Michael Haydn (younger brother of Franz Joseph), in Salzburg, age 68;
1970 — German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, age 52, commits suicide in Königsdorf, leaving behind his posthumous "Requiem";
1997 — American-Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow, age 84, in Mexico City;

Premieres:
1949 — Milhaud: Octet for Strings, at Mills College in California, by the combined Budapest and Paganini Quartets;
1965 — Wm. Schuman: "Philharmonic Fanfare," by the New York Philharmonic conducted by William Steinberg, at the orchestra's first outdoor concert in New York's Central Park;
1968 — Grofé: "Virginia City: Requiem for a Ghost Town," in Virginia City, Nevada;

Other Anniversaries:
1895 — The "Promenade Concerts," better known simply as "The Proms," are launched in London by Sir Henry Wood and Robert Newman.

Bernstein in Hollywood ...

Leonard Bernstein(1918-1990): On the Waterfront Suite
Israel Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, cond. 
DG 415 253

Births:
1900 — Soviet composer Alexander Mossolov, in Kiev;
1929 — Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, in Bargoed (Wales);

Premieres:
1943 — R. Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 2, at the Salzburg Festival by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm, with Gottfried von Freiburg, the principal horn of the orchestra, as soloist;
1957 — Hindemith: opera, "The Harmony of the World," in Munich;
1968 — Milhaud: "Music for New Orleans" at the Aspen Festival in Colorado; This work was commissioned originally to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of New Orleans in 1966, but was rejected by the anniversary committee as unfit for the occasion;

Other Anniversaries:
1922 — Founding of the International Society for Contemporary Music in after a Festival of Contemporary Music in Salzburg, Austria (with the Society's central office to be located in London);

Del Tredici in Wonderland ...

David Del Tredici (b. 1937):  Acrostic Song
Carol Wincenc, flute; David Del Tredici, p. 
Nonesuch 79114

Births:
1644 — Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber, in Wartenburg;

Deaths:
1612 — Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, age c. 54-55 (his birthdate and birthyear are uncerrtain), in Venice;
1992 — American composer John Cage, age 79, in New York;

Premieres:
1964 — Panufnik: "Sinfonia Sacra," in Monaco, as the prize-winning work in an international competition  sponsored by Prince Rainer III;
1984 — Berio: opera "Un Re in ascolto" (A King Listening), at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Lorin Maazel;

Other Anniversaries:
1877 — American inventor Thomas Alva Edison records his own voice reciting "Mary had a little lamb" on a tin-foil cylinder phonograph of his own design; 11 years later, in April of 1888, in London, Edison's phonograph would record excerpts from a live Crystal Palace performance of Handel's oratorio, "Israel in Egypt";