Composers Datebook

• The long and the short of it

  Synopsis“Time is a funny thing,” as one of the more philosophically-inclined Viennese characters so wisely observed in Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier.Der Rosenkavalier had its premiere in 1911, and coincidentally, on today’s date that year, Viennese composer Anton von Webern completed one of the shortest orchestral works ever written — the fourth of his Five Pieces for Orchestra, which lasts about 20 seconds time. It’s so short, it takes longer to describe the music than to actually hear it!Webern was attempting to render down the extravagant style of late-Romantic composers like Strauss and Mahler into its quintessence — a haiku-like concentration of gesture and color, the musical equivalent of a Japanese painting of just a few deft brush strokes across a blank canvas, with more implied than actually shown.In the same spirit, but at the opposite end of the time spectrum, is the work of American composer Morton Feldman, who holds the record for composing some of the longest pieces ever written. Feldman was friends with, and inspired by, painters of the so-called New York School, including Mark Rothko and Philip Guston. A 1984 work by Feldman is titled For Philip Guston, and, in complete performance, it’s a piece that runs about four hours.Music Played in Today's ProgramRichard Strauss (1864-1949): Der Rosenkavalier: Suite; New York Philharmonic; Lorin Maazel, conductor; DG 7890Anton Webern (1883-1945): No. 4, from Five Pieces for Orchestra; Ensemble InterContemporain; Pierre Boulez, conductor; DG 437786Morton Feldman (1926-1987): For Philip Guston; The California EAR Unit; Bridge 9078

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• Sallinen and Kronos

  SynopsisTo some it seemed an act of sheer madness for a string quartet to announce in the 1970s that it would not perform the classic repertory of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but devote itself instead to music written after 1900, especially newly-composed works. But the Kronos Quartet has proved the skeptics wrong. Founded in Seattle in 1973, and reformed in San Francisco five years later, the Kronos Quartet has established itself as a major player on the international music scene, premiering hundreds of new works by living composers.On today’s date in 1984, the Kronos Quartet was at the Kukmo Music Festival in Finland, where they gave the premiere performance of Pieces of Mosaic, the String Quartet No. 5 by Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen. This quartet is a string of 16 short fragments, and, as the composer explained, reflected a pessimistic view of world affairs, circa 1984, the ominously Orwellian year of its composition. “It seems somehow crazy that a composer should create extended symphonic forms for the world we live in. This quartet is the kind of work the world deserves: one which is smashed into fragments,” Sallinen said. Sallinen is one of the best-known Finnish composers since Sibelius, and in addition to chamber works like his Quartet No. 5, he has written symphonic works and a number of successful operas.Music Played in Today's ProgramWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): String Quartet No. 17 (Quartetto Italiano); Philips 422 512 Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935): String Quartet No. 5 (Pieces of Mosaic); Sibelius Quartet; Ondine 831

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• Water music by Handel and Larsen

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 1717, King George and his entourage took a barge trip on the river Thames, traveling from Whitehall to Chelsea, accompanied by about 50 musicians, also on barges. A contemporary newspaper account reported that they performed “the finest Symphonies, composed express for this occasion by Mr. Handel, which his Majesty liked so well that he caused it to be played three times in going and returning.”Another report refers to “trumpets, horns, oboes, bassoons, flutes, recorders, violins and basses” being employed. In our time, Handel’s Water Music — as the three suites have come to be known — is one of the best-known and best-loved works of the entire Baroque Age.In 1985, three hundred years after the birth of Handel, American composer Libby Larsen composed a Symphony she titled Water Music, written as a tribute to Handel and as an expression of her own enthusiasm for sailing.Larsen is one of today’s busiest American composers, and in the year 2000 the American Academy of Arts and Letters presented her with its Award in Music, honoring her lifetime achievements as a composer. When asked how she finds time to balance her busy life as a composer, she answered, “I can’t not do it — having a life and a life in music is as natural and necessary to me as breathing.”Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Water Music; Royal Philharmonic; Yehudi Menuhin, conductor; MCA 6186 Libby Larsen (b. 1950): Symphony (Water Music); Minnesota Orchestra; Sir Neville Marriner, conductor; Nonesuch 79147

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• Dale Trumbore's 'How to Go On'

  SynopsisFollowing the death of a loved one, American poet Barbara Crooker wrote, “How can we go on/knowing the end of the story?”American composer Dale Trumbore attempted to answer that question with her haunting choral work, How to Go On, given its premiere performance on today’s date in 2016 in Anaheim, California by the Choral Arts Initiative.Rather than setting the traditional Latin text of the Requiem Mass like Verdi, or passages from the Bible like Brahms, Trumbore crafted a kind of “secular requiem,” choosing texts by Crooker and two other contemporary American poets addressing fundamental questions of life, love, and loss.“I have moments of utter panic about my own mortality, and I know many other people do as well, although we may not openly discuss or address our fears about death,” she confessed. “Taken together, the seven poems of How to Go On recognize these fears while also cultivating a feeling of everything ultimately being at peace. Hopefully the music adds to that visceral feeling of reassurance.“Trumbore, a New Jersey native, studied with the great choral composer Morten Lauridsen at the University of Southern California and her own vocal works are noted for what The New York Times described as her “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies.”Music Played in Today's ProgramDale Trumbore (b. 1987): How to Go On; Choral Arts Initiative; Brandon Elliott, conductor; CAI 2017

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• Bernstein's sabbatical psalms

  SynopsisIn 1965, Leonard Bernstein took a sabbatical year from his duties as music director of the New York Philharmonic. In 1964, the busy Mr. Bernstein had just finished conducting Verdi’s opera Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 1966, would make his debut at the Vienna State Opera, conducting the same work. But he reserved 1965 to concentrate on composing.“In the course of that year, I had the luxury to do nothing but experiment,” Bernstein recalled. “And part of my experimentation was to try to write some pieces that, shall we say, were less old-fashioned. I wrote a lot of music, 12-tone music and avant-garde music of various kinds, and a lot of it was very good, but I threw it all away. What I came out with at the end of the year was a piece called Chichester Psalms, which is simple and tonal and as pure B-flat as any piece you can think of … because that was what I honestly wished to write.”Bernstein conducted the premiere performance at Lincoln Center with the Camerata Singers and the New York Philharmonic on July 15th, 1965, and later in the month, traveled to Chichester Cathedral in England, which had commissioned the work in the first place, for the British premiere of his Chichester Psalms.Music Played in Today's ProgramGiuseppe Verdi (1913-1901): Act III excerpt, from Falstaff; soloists; Vienna Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 42535 Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Chichester Psalms; Camerata Singers; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 47162

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