by Daniel Hathaway
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Two well-known composers were born on this date: Charles Gounod (in Paris, 1818) and Igor Stravinsky (in Oranienbaum, Russia, 1882). And two lesser-known American composers have anniversaries: Don Gillis was born in Cameron, MO in 1912, and Peter Mennin died in New York in 1983.
Gounod wrote a number of operas, of which his Faust is most frequently performed, but his operatic church music, like Rossini’s, also has a following. Watch a fuzzy video here of the incomparable Jessye Norman performing the “Sanctus” from Gounod’s Messe solennelle.
Stravinsky made his debut as guest conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra in February of 1925, conducting his Fireworks, Chant du Rossignol and Firebird Suite. Conductor Nikolai Sokoloff found him “something of a showman and not entirely endearing,” adding, “He was, in short, a pain in the neck.” (Rosenberg, The Cleveland Orchestra Story, p. 87). Stravinsky was more complimentary about his experience: “I have never seen an orchestra in which there was finer discipline and a greater responsiveness than right here in your Cleveland Orchestra.” Here’s a live performance of Le chant du rossignol by Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra from November, 1970.
Don Gillis’s music is pure Americana, and there’s a lot of it that he wrote on the side while serving as Arturo Toscanini’s producer for the NBC Orchestra. Click here to listen to a historical recording of a live broadcast of “Perpetual Emotion — Spiritual” from his Symphony No. 5½, “A Symphony for Fun.” The fun continues here with “Scherzofrenia – Conclusion.”
Born in Erie, PA in 1923, Peter Mennin served as president of both the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the Juilliard School in New York. He found the time to write nine symphonies among other compositions. If there’s a best-known work of his, it’s probably the Concertato for orchestra “Moby Dick,” commissioned in 1952 by the Erie Philharmonic, and one of the only programmatic pieces he wrote. Listen here to a performance by the Seattle Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz.
ON THE WEB TODAY:
Speaking of operatic church music, selections from Verdi’s Requiem are highlighted in today’s Lunchtime with The Cleveland Orchestra on WCLV 104.9 Ideastream. Youngstown State University hosts a virtual Juneteenth Celebration a few days early, and the MET Opera Archives yield a 2011 performance of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Susan Graham and Placido Domingo. Details in the Concert Listings.
