NOVEMBER 16 Today in classical music history

1569 Birth of German organist and composer Paul SARTORIUS in Nuremberg. d-28 February 1609, Innsbruck.

1615 Birth of French violinist and composer Guillaume DUMANOIR, II. As the ‘Roi des Violons’ (the head of the guild of violin players) he came into conflict with the dancing-masters, whom he wished to compel to contribute to the violinists' guild of Saint-Julien. Being unsuccessful in this, he wrote the abusive pamphlet Le Mariage de la musique avec la danse/The Marriage of Music and Dance (1664). He composed dance music enjoyed by Louis XIV, who appointed him ballet master of the royal pages. He was the son of Guillaume Dumanoir, I, whom he succeeded as head of the Confrérie de Saint-Julien (violinists' guild). d-1697. Search Amazon.com for Guillaume DUMANOIR

1667 Death of composer Nathaniel Schnittelbach, at 34. b-1633.

1715 Birth of composer Girolamo ABOS on the island of Malta. Italian opera and church music.  Search Amazon.com for Girolamo ABOS

1720 Birth of Italian composer Carlo Antonio CAMPIONI. Search Amazon.com for Carlo Antonio CAMPIONI

1757 Birth of American composer Daniel READ, of the First New England School, and one of the primary figures in early American classical music. d-4 DEC 1836. Search Amazon.com for composer Daniel READ

1766 Birth of French violinist, teacher and composer Rodolphe KREUTZER in Versailles. In 1810 broken arm ended virtuoso career. Beethoven dedicated sonata op 47 to him. d-Geneva, 6 JAN 1831. Search Amazon.com for Rodolphe KREUTZER.

1775 Death of German composer Karl Marian Paradeiser, at 28.

1780 Birth of English composer Robert Archibald SMITH.

1807 Birth of composer Francois HAINL.

1810 Birth of composer Friedrich Wilhelm KUCKEN. Search Amazon.com for Friedrich Wilhelm KUCKEN

1829 (JC, GC=28 NOV) Birth of Russian pianist, conductor and composer Anton G. RUBINSTEIN. Search Amazon.com for Anton G. RUBINSTEIN

1840 Birth of composer Frederick Scotson CLARK. Search Amazon.com for Frederick Scotson CLARK

1848 Chopin plays piano at a Polish benefit ball at Guildhall in London. Already ill- it is his final concert.

1850 FP of G. Verdi's opera Stifellio at the Teatro Grande in Trieste.

1852 Birth of American soprano Minnie HAUK in NYC. d-near Lucerne, 6 FEB 1929. Believed to be illegitimate daughter of Leonard Jerome. Début in Brooklyn, in Bellini's La Sonnambula at age 14. Sang with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, in the first Carmen presented in NYC. MET Opera début 10 FEB 1891 as Sélika in L'Africaine.

1854 FP of Rubinstein's Ocean Symphony in Leipzig. CD-Anton Rubinstein: Symphony No. 2

1860 Birth of Viennese harpist Edmund SCHUECKER. From 1891 with Chicago Sym Orch.

1861 Birth of composer Vaclav SUK.

1861 FP of J. Brahms' Piano Quintet No. 1 in g, Op. 25, at a rehearsal in Hamburg, with pianist Clara Schumann. CD-Brahms: The Complete Quintets

1862 The work noted above received its official premiere with members of the Hellmesberger Quartet; Brahms at the piano, in Vienna.

1870 Birth of Australian composer Alfred HILL in Melbourne. d-Sydney, 30 OCT 1960. Search Amazon.com for Alfred HILL

1873 Birth of Swedish tenor David Karl Björling, in Harmånger parish of northern Sweden's Hälsingland province. d. Aug. 16, 1926. 

1873 Birth of American composer W. C. HANDY. The father of the 'blues' born in Florence, AL. d- NYC March 28, 1958. Search Amazon.com for W. C. HANDY

1881 Birth of Italian composer Domenico ALALEONA in Montegiorgio. d-Montegiorgio, 28 DEC 1928.

1883 Birth of Flemish musicologist and composer Eugeen Van de VELDE.

1888 Birth of American composer Burnet Corwin TUTHILL in NYC. d- Knoxville, TN 18 JAN 1982. Search Amazon.com for Burnet Corwin TUTHILL

1889 Birth of Uraguayan composer Luis Cluzeau-MORTET. Search Amazon.com for Luis Cluzeau-MORTET

1890 Birth of composer Aloys-Henri-Gerard FORNEROD.

1893 Death of Irish composer, pianist and teacher George Alexander Osborne, at 87 in London. b-Limerick, 24 SEP 1806. Search Amazon.com for George Alexander Osborne

1894 Debut of opera star Enrico Caruso in Mario Morelli's L'Amico Francesco at Naples Teatro Nuovo. Search Amazon.com for Enrico Caruso

1895 Birth of German-born American composer, violist and conductor Paul HINDEMITH in Hanau. d-Frankfurt, 28 DEC 1963. Official Site. Search Amazon.com for Paul HINDEMITH

1896 Birth of American baritone Lawrence TIBBETT in Bakersfield, CA. d.NYC , 15 JUL 1960. MET Début: Nov. 24, 1923 [Lavitsky] Boris Godunov, 27 seasons (1923-50) 602 perf., 49 roles, 37 works. Search Amazon.com for Lawrence TIBBETT

1900 At the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, First concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Founder, Fritz Scheel, conducting. Russian-American pianist Ossip Gabrilowitch, soloist. Philadelphia Orchestra Fiftieth Anniversary Season: Fifty Years of Highlights with the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1900-1950

Scheel was its' conductor until 1907. Followed by Karl Pohlig (1907–12). Then (1912–38) by Leopold Stokowski, who helped the orchestra become one of the world's finest ensembles. Eugene Ormandy, was appointed co-conductor with Stokowski in 1936, conductor-music director from 1938 to 1980. Riccardo Muti, 1980-1993. Wolfgang Sawallisch from 1993-2003. Christoph Eschenbach 2003-2008. Charles Dutoit, was appointed chief conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra from the 2008-09 season through the 2011-12 season. The orchestra has toured extensively in the United States and abroad and now performes in the Kimmel Center. In 1973 it became the first American orchestra to play in mainland China. It has played summer seasons at the Robin Hood Dell, now Mann Center amphitheater in Philadelphia and at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Special Historical CD series

1902 Birth of Belgian musicologist Marcel BOEREBOOM. d-4 DEC 1985. Search Amazon.com for Marcel BOEREBOOM

1904 First American tour concert by English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. He conducts choral trilogy Hiawatha in Washington, DC. Search Amazon.com for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

1908 Conducting debut in NYC of Arturo Toscanini. Aida at the MET. Search Amazon.com for Arturo Toscanini

1909 Death of composer Francis Thome, at 59. b-1850. Search Amazon.com for Francis Thome,

1919 FP of Charles Tomlinson Griffes' Poem for flute and orchestra, the New York Symphony, Walter Damrosch conducting. CD-Alexa Still - Flute

1919 Birth of composer Udo KASEMETS.

1924 Death of composer Alexander Andreyevich Archangelsky, at 78. b-23 OCT 1846.

1924 Death of composer Edward Everett Rice, at 75.

1926 Birth of Dutch composer Ton de LEEUW Rotterdam. d-Paris, 31 MAY 1996. Search Amazon.com for Ton de LEEUW

1930 Birth of American soprano Maralin NISKA in San Pedro, CA. Attended UCLA majoring in English Literature. Had an international performing career in opera. MET Début Mar. 17, 1970 [Violetta] La Traviata, 6 seasons (1969-70, 73-78) 42 perf., 7 works. From 1978 taught privately in Santa Fe, NM. Puccini - La Boheme / Pavarotti, Scotto, Niska, Wixell, Plishka, Levine, Metropolitan Opera

1934 FP of William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting. CD-Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony; Ellington: Suite From the "River," "Solitude"

1935 Death of German composer Kurt Schindler, at 53.

1936 Birth of Argentinian soprano Marta Serrano, in Buenos, Aires. 

1936 Birth of composer Shirvani CHALAYEV (Tchalaev) in Khosrekh, Dagestan .

1938 Birth of American composer Richard LANDRY. Modern to Classic

1940 FP of Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in Moscow. CD-Glazunov, Khachaturian, Kabalevsky: Violin Concertos

1940 FP of N. Miaskovsky's Symphony No. 21, at the Moscow Festival of Soviet Music. Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony, gave the American premiere on 26 DEC 1940. CD-Miaskovsky: Symphony No.2/Symphony No.22

1940 ('41?) Birth of Bulgarian soprano Ghena DIMITROVA in Begli. Search Amazon.com for Ghena DIMITROVA MET Début: Dec. 14, 1987 [Turandot] Turandot, 9 seasons (1987-90, 91-97) 74 perf., 6 works.

1945 FP Milhaud's Suite for Violin and Orchestra, with Zino Francescatti, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting. Suite Anglaise for Harmonica (or violin or accordion) and Orchestra. Search Amazon.com for Milhaud's Suite for Violin and Orchestra

1948 FP of Morton Gould's Philharmonic Waltzes the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. CD-Morton Gould Conducts

1949 Birth of American composer and pianist William ACKERMAN. Founded Windham Hill Records. Search Amazon.com for William ACKERMAN

1950 Birth of English baritone David WILSON-JOHNSON. Search Amazon.com for David WILSON-JOHNSON

1954 Birth of Scottish conductor Donald RUNNICLES. Search Amazon.com for Donald RUNNICLES

1964 Death of composer Albert Hay Malotte, at 69.  Set The Lord's Prayer to music. Sing the Lord's Prayer with Orchestra for Medium Low Voice (Book with CD)

1970 Death of Austrian conductor and composer Kurt List in Milan. b-Vienna, 1913.

1972 Death of Italian mezzo-soprano/soprano Nini Giani. b- Milan, 1904. Début Rome [Amneris] Aida (1930).

1972 Death of composer Andrey Filippovich Pashchenko, at 87.

1974 Birth of American composer Michelle WILLIS in Idaho Falls, ID.

1993 Death of Chech-Austrian soprano Lucia Popp, at 54. Search Amazon.com for Lucia Popp

2000 100th Birthday gala of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Bach, Dukas, Rachmaninoff, Sarasate, Copland and Stravinsky. Performers: Andre Watts, piano; Sarah Chang, violin; Thomas Hampson, baritone; Anna Moffo, host. WHYY - Philadelphia Performs! (The Philadelphia Orchestra's 100th Birthday Gala)

2001 FP of Magnus Lindberg's Parada. Recording session by The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, in London. Search Amazon.com for Magnus Lindberg's Parada