September 26 Today in classical music history

Alfred CORTOT

1614 Death of Italian composer Felice Anerio in Rome. He was successor to Palestrina at the Papal Chapel. b-Rome, c.1567.Search Amazon.com for Felice Anerio

1714 Handel Te Deum is sung for the new English king George I, at St. James palace.

1767 Birth of composer Wenzel Muller, composer

1775 FP of GOSSEC's "Alexis et Daphné" in Paris.

1775 FP of GOSSEC's "Philémon et Baucis" pastorale, in Paris.

1782 FP of PAISELLO's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia, ossia La precauzione inutile"
in St. Petersburg.

1786 FP of CIMAROSA's "Le trame delues" Naples.

1800 Death of American composer William Billings in Boston. b-Boston, 7 OCT 1746.

1807 FP of FIORAVANTI's "I virtuosi ambulanti" in Paris.

1812 FP of ROSSINI's "La pieta del paragone" La Scala.

1816 FP of ROSSINI's "La Gazzetta" Naples.

1829 FP of CARAFA:'s"Jenny" Paris.

1832 Birth of Russian musicologist and composer Peter SOKALSKY in Kharkov. d-Odessa, 11 APR 1887. Uncle of composer Vladimir Sokalsky.

1835 FP of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, at the Teatro San Carlos in Naples.

1838 FP of CARAFA's "Thérèse" Paris.

1839 FP of the revision of DONIZETTI's "Lucia di Lammermoor" Paris.

1841 Birth of composer Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg

1866 Birth of Australian pianist, composer and critic George Howard CLUTSAM in Sydney. d-London, 17 NOV 1951. Arranged Schubert music for Lilac Time in London.

1867 Birth of Belgian tenor Adolphe Maréchal, in Luettich. d. Brussels, Feb. 1, 1935: Studied in Liège, and made his début in Dijon (1891), then sang in Rheims, Nice and Bordeaux. In 1895, he was invited to sing in Paris, where he created [Julien] in Charpentier's Louise (1900), and the [Jougleur] in Massenet's Le Jongleur de Notre Dame. He sang in Russia, and was a frequent visitor to Monte Carlo, and Brussels. In 1902, he sang at Covent Garden, London. At the age of forty he gave up his career and returned to Brussels.

1868 Birth of American composer Henry Franklin Belknap GILBERT in Sommerville, MA. d-Cambridge, MA 19 MAY 1928.

1873 Birth of composer Amilcare Zanella

1877 Birth of French pianist and conductor Alfred CORTOT (kor TOH) in Nyon, Switzerland.
d-Lausanne, 15 JUN 1962. Search Amazon.com for Alfred CORTOT

1891 Birth of French (Alsatian) conductor Charles MUNCH in Strasbourg. d-Richmond, VA 6 NOV 1968.Search Amazon.com for Charles MUNCH

1892 John Philip Sousa gave FP with his Band at Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, New Jersey. Giving the FP of his Liberty Bell March. (Recognizable as the theme music for the Monty Python BBC-TV Show) The Liberty Bell March was written by John Philip Sousa for the Liberty Bell's visit to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.Search Amazon.com for John Philip Sousa

1895 FP of HERBERT's "The Wizard of the Nile" Operetta, in Chicago.

1896 FP of GIANNETTI's "Padron Maurizio" in Naples.

1898 Birth of American composer and pianist George GERSHWIN in Brooklyn, NY. aka Jacob Gershovitz. d-LA, CA, 11 JUL 1937. Search Amazon.com for George GERSHWIN

1898 Birth of American conductor and trombonist William Levi DAWSON in Anniston, AL. d-Tuskegee, AL, 2 MAY 1990.

1898 FP of Victor Herbert's operetta, The Fortune Teller in Toronto.

1900 Birth of Swedish soprano Helga Görlin, in Eda. d. 1993.

1911 Birth of Japanese conductor Hisatada OTAKA in Tokyo. d-Tokyo, 16 FEB 1951. Search Amazon.com for Hisatada OTAKA

1812 Birth of Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Elena Nicolai, [Elena Stoianka Nikolova] in Sofia. d. Oct. 24, 1993.

1915 FP of Max Von Schillings' opera Mona Lisa at the Hoftheater in Stuttgart. w/ Karl Agard Oestvig (t)
(1889-1968) Norw. [Giovanni].

1926 Birth of composer Giuseppi Chiari

1926 Birth of composer Imre Vincze

1930 Birth of German tenor Fritz WUNDERLICH aka Friedrich Karl Otto, in Kusel. d-Heidelberg, 17 SEP 1966. Search Amazon.com for Fritz WUNDERLICH

1932 Birth of Italian composer and teacher Giacomo MANZONI in Milan.

1938 FP of WEILL's "Knickerbocker Holiday" operetta, Hartford, CT. Search Amazon.com for WEILL's "Knickerbocker Holiday

1941 Birth of Italian violinist Salvatore ACCARDO in Turin. Search Amazon.com for Salvatore ACCARDO

1945 Death of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in NYC. b-Nagyszentmiklos, 25 MAR 1881. Obituary.Search Amazon.com for Bela Bartok

1946 Birth of American composer Stephen TRUELOVE in Hobart, OK.

1947 Birth of American baritone Dale DUESING.Search Amazon.com for Dale DUESING

1949 Birth of American soprano Deborah Polaski, in Richmond Center, WI. MET: Début: Apr. 9, 1992 [Kundry] Parsifal, 4 seasons (1991-92, 97-thru 2000) 16 perf., 3 works.Search Amazon.com for Deborah Polaski

1950 Birth of American tenor Gary Lakes, in Dallas. MET Début: Apr. 2, 1986 [Re di Creta] Idomeneo, 11 seasons (198 5-94, 95-97) 105 perf., 13 works.

1957 FP (NYC) Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's broadway production of West
Side Story.  The production opens in NYC at Winter Garden Theater. THEATERHISTORY.COM Search Amazon.com for West Side Story

1962 First visit to Russia in 48 years by composer Igor Stravinsky prompts a concert by the Moscow State Symphony. Stravinsky conducting his Ode and Orpheus Ballet, Robert Craft conducting Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Encore was Stravinsky conducting his 1917 arrangement of the Volga Boatmen's Song.Search Amazon.com for Igor Stravinsky

1964 Birth of American composer John ROSCIGNO in Bronx, NY.

1967 Death of Austrian composer Ernest Steffan in Berlin. b-Vienna, 22 JAN 1896.

1967 FP of Dimiti Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2. soloist David Oistrakh and Kiril Kondrashin conducting Moscow Philharmonic. Search Amazon.com for Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2

1972 Birth of American composer Gabriela Lena FRANK in Berkeley, CA.Search Amazon.com for Gabriela Lena FRANK

1991 FP of Charles Wuorinen's cantata Genesis. Herbert Blomstedt conducting San Francisco Symphony.

1997 FP of Leon Kirchner's Of Things Exactly As They Are. Roberta Alexander and William Stone, with the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Chorus conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

1998 FP of Philip Glass' opera The White Raven. San Carlos National Theater with Dennis Russell Davies conducting at the World Expo in Lisbon, Portugal.