Archives for May 2021

by Daniel Hathaway

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Apollo’s Fire’s trio of outdoor concerts on Sunday and Monday are sold out.

That leaves us to recommend two online concerts. The first, on Sunday evening from Festival Casals, features Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower (pictured) and pianist Evan Solomon in music by J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Ginastera, and Beethoven.

On Monday morning at lunchtime in London, but breakfast time in Cleveland, the Wigmore Hall hosts Exaudi in “Chromatic Renaissance,” a program of 16th and 17th-century works interspersed with madrigals from contemporary composer James Weeks’s Primo Libro & four of Orlande de Lassus’s Sibylline Prophecies Motets.

Those online events have been culled from Musical America’s weekly guide to (mostly) free streams, which you can view by clicking the link at the top of our Concert Listings.

THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:

There’s a long list of births and departures to memorialize these three days.

Born on May 29: American-German-Bohemian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897), Greek-French composer Iannis Zenakis (1922), German organist and conductor Helmut Rilling (1933).

Born on May 30: American classical and jazz composer Benny Goodman (1909), Dutch harpsichordist, organist, teacher, and conductor Gustav Leonhardt (1928), American composer Pauline Oliveros (1932).

Born on May 31: French composer and gambist Marin Marais (1656) English countertenor and conductor Alfred Deller (1912), American mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett (1931), and American harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper (1941).

Those we lost on May 29 include British lyricist William S. Gilbert (1911), Czech composer Josef Suk (1935), and American composer George Rochberg (2005).

Obituaries were datelined May 30, 1971 for French composer and organist Marcel Dupré, and on May 31, 1809 for Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1809).

And Monday of this weekend was officially declared Memorial Day only in 1971, although commemorations of those who had perished in the U.S. Civil War had been organized within a few months of the cessation of hostilities in 1865. Among the first to hold such a memorial was a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina. The event, when graves were traditionally adorned with flowers, was known as Decoration Day well into the 20th century.

We’ll suggest below some music that seems particularly appropriate to this weekend’s tributes to those who have died in the course of wars and conflicts too numerous to mention.

MUSIC FOR MEMORIAL DAY:

Gerald Finzi: A Farewell to Arms. The English composer sets a lyric poem by the 16th century poet George Peele, written for the retirement ceremony in 1590 of Queen Elizabeth I’’s champion knight in which he pledges undying loyalty to his queen. It later served as the title of a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Hear it in a performance by James Gilchrist and the Bournemouth Symphony, directed by David Hill.

Paul Hindemith: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: Requiem for Those We Love. This video follows conductor Robert Shaw from his initial meeting with the musicians, through the rehearsal process, to the final performance of Hindemith’s setting of words by Walt Whitman in Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium.

Benjamin Britten: War Requiem. Composed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral after its destruction in World War II, the work makes sensitive use of the poetry of Wilfrid Owen. Marin Alsop conducts a performance at London’s Southbank Centre commemorating the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I that features hundreds of young performers.

Karl Jenkins: The Armed Man. Composed in 1999 and drawing on the mysterious Renaissance song “L’Homme Armé,” Welsh composer Karl Jenkins’s work is subtitled ‘A Mass for Peace’. Commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum’s move from London to Leeds, the mass was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. Listen here to a live performance in Sweden.

William Grant Still: In Memoriam —the Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy. Written in 1943, the work was first performed by Artur Rodzinski and the New York  Philharmonic on January 5, 1944. Listen here.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem. Commissioned to mark the centenary of the Huddersfield Choral Society, the cantata was composed in 1936 when a second World War was brewing. Listen to a performance from December 7, 2012 by the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and the Eastman School of Music Symphony Orchestra, with Michaela Anthony, soprano, Siddharth Dubey, baritone, and Yunn-Shan Ma, conducting.

Edward Elgar: Sospiri (“Sighs”), Op. 70, adagio for string orchestra, harp (or piano), and organ (or harmonium), was written just before the beginning of World War I. The work was performed by BlueWater Chamber Orchestra last week (video still available). Listen to a performance here by Sir John Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

Herbert Howells: Requiem. Performed by Downtown Voices, led by Stephen Sands on the Trinity Wall Street series in New York (full concert video here).

John Adams: Wound Dresser. Words by Walt Whitman. Performed here in October, 2018 by the University of North Carolina Symphony, Tonu Kalam, conducting.

Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin. Although structured like a keyboard suite written by a 17th century claveciniste and dedicated to the memory of François Couperin, each of the six movements is dedicated to the memory of one of Ravel’s friends who didn’t make it home from World War I. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the work here.

Gustav Holst: Dirge for Two Veterans. This is the same Whitman text Vaughan Williams set in his Dona Nobis Pacem. The U.S. Army Chorus performs the work on a Naxos Memorial Day Tribute.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Opferlied (Song of Sacrifice), Op. 121b. The composer worked on settings of a text by Friedrich von Matthisson from 1794 to 1825. Two versions are performed here.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY ONLINE:

Gazing at the skies, this is turning out to be a good day to enjoy some online performances from the comfort of your couch. Start at noon with South Africa’s Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, hosted by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (it’s available afterward on-demand).

This evening, the second episode in the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival features the CICGF debut of South Korean artist Ji Yeon (Jiji) Kim, and a performance by Dan Lippel of J.S. Bach’s “Lautenwerk” Suite on a guitar tuned to the composer’s favorite, non-equal temperament, Werckmeister III (read more about that mysterious subject in this preview.)

Later, Piffaro, the Renaissance wind ensemble, explores “Fuguing from Obrecht to Bach,” and the Philharmonic Society considers universal themes found in stories, legends, and myths with the assistance of guitarist Sergio Assad, vocalist Clarice Assad, and Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion.

Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

With regrets, we’ll pass over the birth of Irish lyricist Thomas Moore (born on this date in 1779, friend of Lord Byron, and admired by Robert Burns for his ability to adapt words to existing music like “The Last Rose of Summer,” and “Believe Me if all Those Endearing Young Charms,” later turned into “Fair Harvard” on the other side of the pond); and the deaths of Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang, in Salzburg in 1787; of Italian composer Luigi Boccherini in 1805 in Madrid; and of Czech composer Anton Reicha in Paris in 1836; and raise a glass to commemorate three other figures in music history.

Russian American conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, born in Kiev on this date in 1886, was tapped by Adella Prentiss Hughes to be the first conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. At 13, Sokoloff moved to the U.S. with his family, studied at Yale and in Paris, and joined the Boston Symphony as a violinist at 17. He had returned from conducting the Manchester Orchestra in England in 1918 when he met Hugues in Cincinnati, “and was persuaded to accept a position from the Musical Arts Association to make a survey in Cleveland’s public schools and outline an instrumental music program. He accepted the position on the condition that he would be able to organize and conduct his own orchestra.” (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History)

And organize and conduct he did for the next 14 years, taking The Cleveland Orchestra on important national and international tours, developing educational programs, and initiating the recording and broadcasting of its concerts. The orchestra’s first commercial recording, made in New York on January 23, 1924 featured Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture in a much trimmed version that allowed engineers to fit the music onto 78 rpm discs.

His tenure was not without controversy. On April 29, 1926, the New York Times reported an incident that took place while the Orchestra was on tour to Dayton.

“The trouble began yesterday when Frank Venezzie, first trumpeter, was dismissed by the conductor.

“When I told Venezzie to play not so loud, he played three times louder,” Sokoloff explained. “I told him to play right or leave. He left.” …

Among those at practice was Morris Kirschner, first bassoonist, who said that Sokoloff insulted him. “He called me a dummy,” Kirschner said. “Is that any way to talk to an artist?”

“They think they will get me excited,” the conductor said today. “Do I look excited? I am as calm as a clam. There will be a concert if I have to go out and direct a program alone.”

Sokolowski’s influence on Cleveland continued even after he left town to direct the Federal Music Project in 1935, “channeling money into Cleveland for unemployed musicians, and providing the city with more opera and orchestral music than it had in many years.” (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History).

On this date in 1900, English musicologist Sir George Grove died in London at the age of 79. Trained as an engineer, Grove’s love for music got him appointed director of orchestra concerts for the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. He continued administering a concert series there after the building had been moved to Sydenham, and crafted admirable program notes for the benefit of amateur listeners. “I wrote about the symphonies and concertos because I wished to try to make them clear to myself and to discover the secret of the things that charmed me so; and from that sprang a wish to make other amateurs see it in the same way.”

One thing led to another, and Groves was invited by the publishers Macmillan and Company to produce a musical encyclopedia. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians was eventually issued by Macmillan in alphabetical volumes over a dozen years, ending in 1889.

One of Grove’s passions was the music of Schubert, then little appreciated in England. He was instrumental in discovering the score and parts for the incidental music to Rosamunde, the 1823 play by Helmina von Chézy, during an exploratory visit to Vienna in 1867. In honor of that find, listen to a studio recording of excerpts from Rosamunde with George Szell and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra made in Amsterdam in December, 1957.

Grove ended his career as director of the refounded Royal College of Music. His Encyclopedia lives on — online.

Finally, Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti was born on this date in 1923 in Dicsöszentmartin, Transylvania. One of the great innovators of the 20th century, he wrote music that is as attractive to the ear as it is challenging to the intellect.

Among his more remarkable works are the Piano Etudes, and of one of the more remarkable of those Pierre Laurent Aimard has written,

When I play Ligeti’s Étude No. 13: L’escalier du diable / The Devil’s Staircase, I have the feeling of climbing and of M.C. Escher’s endless staircases that Ligeti loved so much. I have the feeling not of looking at this famous architectural illusion, but of being part of it, and in vain of looking for an exit. And I feel deeply the existential dimension that this situation had for Ligeti.

Here’s Aimard’s elegant performance of No. 13, followed by a more athletic take on the work by Greg Anderson that includes arresting video effects.

by Mike Telin

STREAMED CONCERTS:

At 7:30 pm BlueWater Chamber Orchestra directed by Daniel Meyer will present “Honor, Hope and Gratitude: Tender reflections on a challenging year.” The online program features Frederick Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Angela Cheng as soloist (pictured), as well as music by Arvo Pärt,, Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Walker, Edward Elgar, Gerald Finzi, Florence Price, and Jean Sibelius. Pre-recorded at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available online.

IN THE NEWS:

We were saddened to learn that composer and electronic music pioneer Joel Chadabe passed away at his home in Albany, New York on May 2 at the age of 82. A graduate of Yale whose musical interests were grounded in jazz and opera, his musical career took a turn when in 1962 he was asked to run the electronic music studio at the State University of New York, Albany. Read about his fascinating life and contributions to the field in his New York Times obituary.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Why are the deaths of rock stars so often shrouded in mystery, making the circumstances of their passing fodder for the check-out line tabloids? Is Elvis really dead? What was happening during Prince’s final days?

On May 27, 1840, Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer Niccolò Paganini died of larynx cancer in Nice, France at age 57. Interestingly, he was born on October 27 —  Born and died on the 27th — uhmmmm?

During his life Paganini achieved rock star status as the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his generation. In fact, his talent was so far beyond his peers, rumors flourished that he had made a pact with the devil.

A child prodigy, he had a breakdown while on tour at age 15. He was a heavy drinker, gambler, and womaniser. Physically, he was tall and thin, with hollow cheeks, pale skin and thin lips, and long, thin fingers. During performances he often flailed about on stage — his nickname was ‘Rubber man.’ And since he died without receiving the last rites, and because of his rumored association with the devil, he was denied a Catholic burial in Genoa. Did Paganini make a pact with the devil? Click here to read the story behind the music and here to listen to Augustin Hadelich play the Caprice No. 17 accompanying the video Fantasia dei Gatti.

May 27 also marks the passing of Italian experimental composer Luciano Berio in 2003 in Rome. A leader in the realm of electronic music, in 1955 he co-founded Studio di Fonologia in Milan. He served as Composer in Residence at Tanglewood and held teaching positions at Mills College, the Juilliard School, and was director of the electro-acoustic division of IRCAM in Paris. In 1994 was named Distinguished Composer in Residence at Harvard. Click here to read more about his life and musical output and here to listen to Jennifer Koh play Sequenza VIII for solo violin.

Today’s births include American composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater Harold Jacob “Hecky” Rome in 1908 in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied architecture and law at Yale University. After graduating he worked as an architect in New York City and pursued his musical interests by arranging for local bands and writing for revues at Green Mansions, a summer resort in the Adirondacks. Rome made his Broadway debut in 1937 as co-writer, composer, and lyricist for Pins and Needles. Click here to listen to  It’s Better with a Union Man from that show.

And in 1928 Scottish composer Thea Musgrave was born in Barnton, Edinburgh. A student of Nadia Boulanger, she also studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. In 1970 she was named Guest Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and from 1987 to 2002 was Distinguished Professor at Queens College, City University of New York.

Musgrave’s catalogue includes the Concerto for Orchestra (1967), Concerto for Horn (1971), and the oboe concerto Helios (1994), in which the soloist represents the Sun God. The visual arts have been a constant source of inspiration for Musgrave. The Seasons was the result of a visit to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Turbulent Landscapes, commissioned by the Boston Symphony, depicts paintings by J. M. W. Turner.

Her operas and music theater works often have historical figures as central characters including Mary, Queen of Scots (1977), Harriet Tubman (Harriet, the Woman called Moses, 1984), and Simón Bolívar (1993).

When asked by Tom Service of the BBC about being a ‘woman composer,’ Musgrave replied, “Yes I am a woman, and I am a composer. But rarely at the same time.” When asked what advice she would give to young composers she said, “Don’t do it, unless you have to. And if you do, enjoy every minute of it.”

Click here to learn more about Thea Musgrave and here for a performance of Night Music (1968) played by the London Sinfonietta under the direction of Frederik Prausnitz.

by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY ONLINE:

Tuesday Musical sometimes presents on other days of the week — like today, Wednesday, when the Akron organization brings the Sphinx Virtuosi to E.J. Thomas Hall for an in-person concert. “Land of the Free” features music by Xavier Foley, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Samuel Barber, and Andrea Casarrubios, ending with the finale from Dvořák’s “American” Quartet.

And North Coast Winds — Kimberly Zaleski, flute, Adrian Gonzalez, oboe, Ben Chen, clarinet, Emily Shelley, horn, and Arleigh Savage, bassoon — live stream a free program tonight from the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

Casting a wider net, today at noon, Kirill Gerstein talks with NY Philharmonic CEO Deborah Borda on the subject of “Unexpected Solutions—A Consideration of Positive Outcomes and Potential Growth Arising from the Pandemic,” Philadelphia Chamber Music Society hosts the Jasper Quartet and soprano Sarah Shafer, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s pairs Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet with Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto (with Jeremy Denk at the keyboard), and the Baltimore Symphony brings its brass section out of storage for music by Adolphus Hailstork, Karel Husa,  Einojuhani Rautavaara, Florent Schmitt, Michael Daugherty, and Benjamin Britten.

Details in our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Today’s honorees are Dutch organist, harpsichordist, and composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and American composer and pianist William Bolcom.

16th century birth records are less dependable than death certificates. Although our main reference for the Almanac tells us that Sweelinck was born on this date in 1562 in Amsterdam, other sources place that event vaguely during April or May, and in the town of Deventer. And if contemporary sources aren’t all that accurate in dating events, they’re not so dependable in spelling names either: our birthday boy is variously known as Swelinck, Zwelinck, Sweeling, Sweelingh, Sweling, or Swelingh. He wasn’t alone: there are said to be some 80 variant spellings of Shakespeare, who was also born in the 1560s.

More importantly, 2021 marks the 400th anniversary of his death on October 16, 1621, so we’ll talk today about the keyboard works for which he’s best known, and save his vocal works for October.

Sweelinck was associated with Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk for 44 years, where he succeeded his father as organist at the age of 14. During his tenure, the religious establishment changed drastically, from Catholic to Calvinist to Lutheran, calling for major alterations in his musical duties.

Calvinists prohibited instrumental music in their services, subsisting on a diet of Genevan psalm tunes sung in unison without accompaniment. Sweelinck was thus on the payroll of the City of Amsterdam and organs in churches were owned and maintained by city authorities. His duties included improvising on psalm tunes and providing music between services, especially on rainy days when the burghers of the city conducted their business and tourists visited.

Oberlin will mark the 400th anniversary of Sweelinck’s death with a week-long Sweelinck Studies course from June 14-19 that will examine the influence of a composer known during his lifetime as “The Orpheus of Amsterdam” and the “German Organist Maker” (details here).

Straddling as he did the Renaissance and Baroque periods, Sweelinck had a strong hand in creating what would become the North German organ style.

Jacques Van Oortmessen performs a selection of Sweelinck’s organ works here on the instrument in the Grote Of St Janskerk, Schiedam, and Jean Rondeau plays his Fantasia cromatica on a harpsichord tuned in mean tone here.

Some of Sweelinck’s most popular keyboard works are variations on secular songs. Matthias Havinga plays Mein junges Leben hat ein End on the organ in Amsterdam’s Westerkerk, rebuilt by Flentrop Orgelbouw in 1989-92 using the situation of 1686/1727 as a point of departure. And Matteo Imbuno performs Onder een linde groen on the Jürgen Ahrend and Gerhard Brunzema transept organ in the Oude Kerk, built in the mid-1960s (note the graphics of Amsterdamers wandering in the church during the music).

 

William Bolcom was born in Seattle on this date in 1938. During his long career on the faculty of the University of Michigan (1973-2008) he effortlessly navigated his way between the worlds of concert music and cabaret, writing nine symphonies, a dozen string quartets, four volumes each of Gospel Preludes for organ and cabaret songs, and four major operas for Lyric Opera Chicago.

Here’s a selection of cabaret songs performed by Bolcom’s wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, pianist Logan Skelton, drummer Andrew Grossman, and the University of Michigan Symphony Band. And here’s an example of his piano rags — Spencer Myer plays his Graceful Ghost.

Bolcom appears in this profile, along with Morris, to talk about being an American composer, and an episode of “Laughter at the Happy Hour” featuring both musicians celebrates Morris’s birthday with a gift to their audience. Morris explained, “One thing I loved about the Hobbit books is that on their birthdays, hobbits give presents to other people instead. So that’s what this program will be.”

A long-term project, Bolcom’s desire to set the complete texts of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, was 25 years in the making. In 2004, Naxos Records produced a recording made in Hill Auditorium featuring almost the entire music department of the University of Michigan, led by Leonard Slatkin. It won four Grammy Awards in 2006. Listen here.

 

by Daniel Hathaway

TRANSITIONS:

Marsha Dobrzynski, who has led the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning as its President and CEO for 27 years, will retire this summer. An endowed fund is being created in her honor that will ensure the continuation of CAL’s youth programming, including ArtWorks. Contributions can be made here. Read more about Dobrzynski’s career and accomplishments here.

ONLINE TODAY:

The only concert on the horizon is this evening’s online performance by L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal that features violinist James Ehnes as both conductor and soloist in J. S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in d. Andrew Wan does similar double duty in Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in c, (arr. R. Barshai), and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. See our Concert Listings for details.

A reminder about an opportunity we mentioned last week: Oberlin College and Conservatory will host the Crafting Change Symposium, a fully virtual series of presentations, concerts, panel discussions, and workshops, through which teachers — from kindergarten through college level — and artist-makers from a wide array of disciplines share their creative approaches to exploring science, humanities, art, and more, with an emphasis on inclusion. Crafting Change is free and runs from Tuesday, May 25 through Saturday, June 19. View a schedule of events here.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Anniversaries to observe on May 25 include a dazzling soprano, a cherished British  composer, and two storied concert halls. Plus a memorable event that took place in yet another famous performing venue.

The soprano is Beverly Sills, born Belle Miriam Silverman on this date in Brooklyn in 1929, and known to her close friends as “Bubbles.” In addition to her brilliant career as a coloratura soprano who specialized in Donizetti and Mozart, she waded into the troubled waters of New York’s City Opera to serve as general manager of the company from 1979-1989, then crossed the Lincoln Center patio to become chairwoman of the arts complex from 1994-2002. Her final role at Lincoln Center was chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera from 2002-2005.

Sills moved to Cleveland from 1956-1960, having married Plain Dealer journalist Peter Greenough. Their two children born there suffered from severe birth defects which led Sills to take on charity work for the prevention and treatment of such conditions.

Watch “a unique portrait-interview with rare recordings” here, and a profile of the soprano, “Worth Quoting.” here.

My most vivid recollection of Sills happened at Tanglewood, when she sang the show-stopping aria “Martern aller Arten” from Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. It’s an amazing piece for several reasons, including the woodwind concertante that lasts several minutes until the soprano enters. She’s been left stranded alone onstage with nothing to do, a situation that’s perplexed many stage directors, but I recall that Sills’ magnetic personality transfixed the audience even when she wasn’t singing. She sings the aria here with Aldo Ceccato and the London Philharmonic.

Finally, Beverly Sills and Carol Burnett put their riveting stage personae together on a number of occasions. Here’s one that marked Sills’ last night at the New York City Opera on October 27, 1980. The playlist can be found in the comments.

The composer is Gustav Holst, the quiet, self-effacing trombonist who spent most of his career teaching music at St. Paul’s Girls School in London, where he wrote his most famous work, The Planets, in free periods between classes. His daughter Imogen, herself a composer, recalls her father here. He died on this day in 1934 in London.

Holst and Vaughan Williams were great and lifelong friends who spent afternoons together critiquing each other’s compositions. RVW’s interest in English folksong rubbed off on Holst, as we can hear in the latter’s carol-like This have I done for my true love, sung here by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, led by Stephen Darlington.

But Holst’s ability to write great, noble melodies are what have principally endeared him to the British public. Like the theme of “Jupiter” from The Planets, played here by Jonathan Scott on the organ of Huddersfield Town Hall. Made into the hymn tune Thaxed, named after the village where Holst lived, and set to the words “My Soul, there is a Country” by Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the tune has moved many a non-Brit to tears in Remembrance Day ceremonies like this one in 2013 at the Royal Albert Hall.

The concert halls include the Vienna State Opera, which opened on this date in 1869 after eight and a half years of construction with a German version of Don Giovanni. Alas, its architects, August von Siccardsburg and Eduare van der Nüil, were not in attendance, having fallen on their swords after Emperor Franz Joseph complained that the steps of the entrance stairs were too shallow.

The Teatro Colón opened its doors in Buenos Aires on this date in 1908, with Verdi’s Aïda under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, and apparently without incident even though its 20 year construction period was interrupted by the sudden death of Francesco Tamburin, its original architect, a financial crisis, and the murder of Tamburin’s partner Victor Meano in his own home in 1904, after being caught in a love triangle with his valet. Ah, opera!

Speaking of Toscanini, on this date in 1944 in Madison Square Garden, the Italian maestro conducted the combined NBC Symphony and New York Philharmonic in music by Wagner, Verdi, and Sousa in a benefit that raised $100,000 for the Red Cross. And during an intermission, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia auctioned off Toscanini’s baton for an extra $10,000.