Composers Datebook
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Composers Datebook
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessi...
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238 episodes
Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'
The stage directions read: “The garden of the Grimaldi Palace outside Genoa. On the left side, the palace, directly in front, the sea. Dawn is breakin...
Ruggles and Cowell anniversaries
Today’s date marks the birth anniversaries of two major 20th century American composers: Carl Ruggles was born in East Marion, Massachusetts on today’...
Rachmaninoff's 'Vespers'
On today's date in 1915, the Moscow Synodal Choir gave the premiere performance of a new choral work by Sergei Rachmaninoff. In Russian, the work was...
Tabloid Paganini?
If TikTok influencers were around in Paris in 1831, they would probably have offered a breathless special edition report on a concert that occurred on...
Charlotte Sohy
Today is International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the social, economic, political, and cultural achievements of women, so here’s a French co...
Daniel Pinkham
Some special music had its premiere at Harvard University (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) on today’s date in 1980. It was commissioned to honor the memo...
Beethoven's Op. 127
Today in 1825, one of Beethoven's late chamber works, his String Quartet No. 12, received its premiere in Vienna by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The Quar...
Zwilich's Cello Concerto
On today’s date in 2020, a new cello concerto by American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was given its premiere in Fort Lauderdale, by cellist Zuill Ba...
A hopeful fanfare
Perhaps the fanfare is the most optimistic and hopeful of all musical forms, since it signals the start of something new and worth noting.
Ameri...
Richard Strauss, hero
Oscar Wilde often gets credit for the line, “But enough about me — what do you think about me?” Roughly a century ago, this portrait of the self-absor...
Worthington's Dream
Recordings can be an effective calling card for composers — but the expense of recording an orchestral work in the U.S. is rather daunting, so compose...
Higdon's 'An Exaltation of Larks'
English is a quirky language, take for example the way English labels groups of birds — it can be quite idiosyncratic and even poetic: “A conspiracy o...
Nielsen's Symphony No. 3
Today, some “off-the-cuff” remarks about the role of shirt cuffs in music history.
Starched, button-on, detachable cuffs for men’s shirts were v...
Timely music by Beethoven and Leroy Anderson
On this date in 1814, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 8. As the scherzo movement of his new symphony, Beet...
Symphonies by Bizet and Harris
Two interesting symphonies had their premieres on today’s date just eight years apart. Oddly enough, they were composed nearly ninety years apart.
Opening of Royal Albert Hall
In London on today’s date in 1871 an audience gathered in the newly-finished Royal Albert Hall to attend the first-ever concert to be performed there....
'The Wound Dresser' by John Adams
It’s quite possible that you or someone you know is the caregiver for an ill or aging relative or friend. If so, you know the emotional rewards — and...
Julia Perry's Violin Concerto
On today’s date in 2022, violinist Roger Zahab and the University of Pittsburgh Symphony premiered a Violin Concerto written some 50 years earlier by...
Bernstein conducts Ives
On today’s date in 1951, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere performance of Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2. Ives was t...
The Theatrophone
Many music lovers will confess they prefer to hear symphonies or operas in the comfort of their own home rather than live in person at a concert hall...
Harbison's 'Olympic Dances'
In 1996, American composer John Harbison received an unusual commission — a ballet for dancers and symphonic winds. The commission came from a consort...
Smyth the Prisoner
The British composer Ethel Smyth needed both talent and fierce determination to succeed in a professional musical career in her day. Born in 1858, she...
Music by and about telephones
On today’s date in 1947, Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera, The Telephone premiered at the Heckscher Theater in New York. The story involves a young man who...
The Night the Lights Went Out on Elliott Carter
On today’s date in 1994, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Chicago Symphony and conductor Daniel Barenboim gave the world premiere performance of Part...
A Romance for Bassoon
Famous composers have been, on occasion, famous performers as well. Think of Bach on the organ, or Rachmaninoff on the piano. And if Mozart’s father i...
A belated Elgar premiere
We probably have the irrepressible playwright, music critic, and ardent socialist George Bernard Shaw to thank for this music — the Symphony No. 3 of...
Orff's 'Trionfo di Aphrodite'
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!
On today's date in 1953, a new choral work by German composer Carl Orff received its premiere performance at the La...
Elsa Barraine
Today’s date in 1910 marks the birthday in Paris of a French composer you perhaps have never heard of, but Elsa Barraine is well-deserving of your att...
The Brothers Johnson write an anthem
On today’s date in the year 1900, the principal of Stanton Elementary in Jacksonville, Florida was asked to give a Lincoln’s Day speech to his student...
'Music for Two Big Instruments'
If the bassoon is rather unkindly known as the “clown” of the orchestra, what does that make the poor tuba?
Just say “tuba” to someone, and they...
Hanson's 'Merry Mount' at the Met
On today’s date in 1934, the audience at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City demanded — and got — 50 curtain calls for the cast and conductor of t...
Mozart starts keeping track
On today’s date in 1784, in the city of Vienna, Wolfgang Mozart finished one bit of work and started another — which he would continue until the end o...
Virgil Thomson and Wallace Stevens in Hartford
On this day in 1934, an excited crowd of locals and visitors had gathered in Hartford, Connecticut, for the premiere performance of a new opera, Four...
Borodin's String Quartet No. 2
One of the most popular Romantic string quartets had its premiere performance on today’s date in 1882 at a Russian Musical Society concert in Saint Pe...
Stephen Paulus and the Commissioning Club
For most of the 18th and 19th centuries, commissioning new musical works was the exclusive prerogative of the Church, royalty, and the wealthy nobilit...
Verdi's 'Otello' premieres
One of the greatest of all Italian operas had its first performance on this day in 1887. Otello, by Giuseppe Verdi, was a musical version of Shakespea...
The passing of Iannis Xenakis
Many 20th century composers were scarred by the violence and turmoil of their times — but none quite so literally as Greek composer, engineer, and arc...
Kurtag's Tribute
Contemporary Hungarian composer György Kurtág is famous for writing short, sparse and concentrated musical works. He has, however on occasional writte...
Haydn's 'real' Miracle Symphony
On today’s date in 1795, Haydn was in England and about to conduct one of his new symphonies at The King’s Theater in London. An early biographer reco...
Brahms in New York
On today's date in 1862, while President Lincoln was fretting over General McClellan’s unwillingness to confront Secessionist rebels, New York concert...