Composers Datebook

• 'The Handmaid's Tale' opera by Ruders

  SynopsisOn today’s date in 2000, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen gave the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, a new opera based on the dystopian novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.The book and opera tell of a nightmarish future: following a nuclear disaster in the United States, infertility rates have soared, and a religious sect has staged a military coup, enslaving the few fertile women who remain as breeders, or “handmaids,” for the military and religious commanders of their sect. Said Atwood, “There is nothing new about the society I depicted in The Handmaid's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about have been done before — more than once, in fact.”Despite its grim subject matter, Danish composer Poul Ruders said he saw “huge operatic potential” when he first read the book back in 1992.The original production in Copenhagen was sung in Danish, but Ruders says he conceived the work in English. The opera was staged in that language first in London at the English National Opera, and subsequently, at the opera’s American premiere, in St. Paul by The Minnesota Opera, to great critical acclaim.Music Played in Today's ProgramPoul Ruders (b. 1949): The Handmaid’s Tale; Royal Danish Orchestra; Michael Schonwandt, conductor; DaCapo 9.224165-66

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• Shostakovich and his 'Leningrad Symphony'

  SynopsisThe eastern Russian city of Kuibyshev might seem an unlikely site for an important symphonic premiere, but from 1941 to 1943, Kuibyshev was the temporary capital of the Soviet Union. As German and Finnish troops advanced from the west, the Russian government and its cultural institutions moved east. Among the refugees relocated to Kuibyshev were the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra from Moscow and composer Dimitri Shostakovich from Leningrad. And so, on today’s date in 1942, Kuibyshev was the venue for the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad). A microfilm copy of the new score was flown to Tehran, then transported by car to Cairo, then flown to Brazil for transfer by the U.S. Navy to New York, where the American premiere was given on July 19, 1942, by the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini.Less than a month later, on August 9, 1942, the Leningrad Symphony was even performed in the besieged and starving city of Leningrad. The few musicians still capable of performing were given extra rations to keep up their strength, and, to ensure a measure of quiet during their performance, a Russian artillery commander ordered an intensive artillery bombardment on the enemy troops surrounding the city.Music Played in Today's ProgramDmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad); Kirov Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic; Valery Gergiev, conductor; Philips 376-02

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• Strong's 'Sintram' Symphony

  SynopsisAt Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 1893, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of a new symphony by 37-year-old American composer and New York native George Templeton Strong, Jr. This was a big deal at a time when the Philharmonic rarely played works by non-European composers.As the Philharmonic’s program book put it, somewhat defensively: “The acceptance of a work for performance is to a certain extent a declaration that it belongs to the very best class of contemporaneous literature according to the unbiased judgment of those who are entrusted with these concerts.”Strong’s Symphony No. 2 (Sintram), was inspired by a literary work of that name depicting the victory of good over evil. The New York Times review gave it high marks, praising the composer’s imagination and mastery of instrumentation, but ventured to suggest the new symphony was a tad long and “unremittingly serious in tone.”Strong was not present. He was in Switzerland, a country he was soon to adopt as his permanent home. His absence on the American scene caused his music, despite its merits, to be soon forgotten on this side of the Atlantic.Music Played in Today's ProgramGeorge Templeton Strong (1856-1948): Symphony No. 2 (Sintram); Moscow Symphony; Adriano, conductor; Naxos 8.559018

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• Carnival of the Animals

  SynopsisToday’s date in 1886 marks the premiere in Paris of The Carnival of the Animals, the most popular work of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who steadfastly refused to allow it to be published until after his death, fearing its frivolity might damage his reputation as a “serious” composer.Saint-Saëns had a point. The work was first heard at a pre-Lenten house concert, and a few days later at Émile Lemoine’s exclusive members-only chamber music series, where it became an annual Shrove Tuesday Carnival tradition. Once the famous pianist Harold Bauer was one of the Shrove Tuesday performers, as he recalled in his autobiography: “Everyone who participated had to wear makeup representing the animal whose music he was supposed to be playing. The flutist had a carboard head showing him as a nightingale. The cellist was a very flabby swan; the distinguished players of the string quartet were shown as donkeys of various breeds. Saint-Saëns and I were the two pianists — he made up to look like our host Lemoine, and I, furnished with a wig and beard, disguised as Saint-Saëns. [We two] pianists were provided with immense carboard hands and feet that were clipped off at the moment of performance, which was extremely hilarious.”Music Played in Today's ProgramCamille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Carnival of the Animals; David Owen Norris, piano; I Musici Montreal; Yuli Turovsky, conductor; Chandos 9246

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• Goffredo Petrassi

  SynopsisAsk a serious music lover to name major figures in 20th century music and it’s likely the names Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Bartók will crop up. But in addition to those Austrian, Russian and Hungarian composers, a lively group of Italian modernists were also active throughout the 20th century — only their names and music are not so well known.One of them was Goffredo Petrassi, born in 1904. Petrassi became one of the leading figures in a group of Italian composers that included Luigi Dallapiccola, Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero. This group tried to compensate for Italy’s almost total preoccupation with opera by concentrating more on instrumental pieces. Petrassi’s own musical influences range from the Italian Renaissance music he sang as a young choirboy in Rome to the works of abstract painters like Jackson Pollock that he viewed when visiting America.Petrassi’s largest body of work was his eight Concertos for Orchestra composed between 1933 and 1972, but in his final years he turned to chamber works, such as this Autumn Sestina completed in 1982, scored for six instruments. When asked where the “Autumn” in the title came from, the 78-year-old Petrassi responded, “Perhaps it’s got something to do with my age.”  Music Played in Today's ProgramGoffredo Petrassi (1904-2003): Sestina d’autunno; Compania; Andrea Molino, conductor; Stradivarius 33347

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