Today in classical music history July 30

Maria A [Nannerl] Mozart
  • 1511 Birth of painter, architect and art historian Giorgio VASARI.
  • 1523 Death of Spanish composer Juan de Anchieta, chaplain to Ferdinand and Isabella.
  • 1612 Italian composer Claudio Monteverde is fired from his position at Mantua by Vincenzo's successor Francesco Gonzaga.
  • 1655 Death of German opera composer and organist Sigmund Staden in Kalmbach. His songspiel Seelwig was the first operatic work to be published, (1644). bap-Kulbach, 6 NOV 1607.
  • 1747 Birth of composer Antonio Benedetto Maria Puccini
  • 1751 Birth of Austrian pianist Maria A [Nannerl] Mozart. Wolfgang's sister.
  • 1752 Birth of American composer Abraham WOOD. A native of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and drummer during the Revolutionary War. d-1804.
  • 1793 Birth of composer Josepf Fran‡ois Snel
  • 1792 500 Marseillaisian men sing France's national anthem for the 1st time.
  • 1802 Birth of Scottish tenor John TEMPLETON. Chosen by Malibran to support her performances in London.
  • 1806 FP of ISOUARD: "Idala ou la sultanine" Paris (1806).
  • 1815 Birth of Norwegian organist and composer Hermann Severin von LOVENSKJOLD.
  • 1817 Birth of composer Charles Radoux-Rogier
  • 1824 Birth of composer Eugenio Terziani
  • 1829 Mendelssohn started his Scotch Symphony in Edinburgh. CD-Mendelssohn: Symphonies 3 & 4 / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
  • 1831 Helene P Blavatsky, founder (Theosophist Cooperation)
  • 1852 FP of Graffigna: "L'assedio de Malta" Padua, 1852.
  • 1855 FP of Offenbach: "Le Rêve d'une nuit d'été" Paris, 1855.
  • 1873 Birth of soprano Anita Rio, in Almeda, CA. d. Aug. 26, 1971. Sang in concert with the Orpheus Club, Springfield, MA, Messiah (1905). Debut as Elvira in Don Giovanni (Mozart) 1909 Teachers, Florenza D'Arona, J Armour Galloway
  • 1875 Birth of composer James William Tate
  • 1877 Birth of Belgian composer Charles RADOUX.
  • 1878 Birth of Swiss violinist Alfred POCHON near Lausanne. Member of the Flonzaley Quartet.
  • 1886 Birth of Swedish composer Algot HAQUINIUS in Sveg. d-Stockholm, 6 FEB 1966.
  • 1890 Birth of Italian-American composer Anthony Louis SCARMOLIN in Schio. d-Union City, NJ 13 JUL 1969.
  • 1890 Birth of American opera composer George WEHNER in Detroit. d. Brooklyn, Jan. 12, 1970. Composed fourteen operas.
  • 1899 Birth of English pianist and accompanist Gerald MOORE in Watford, July 30, 1899; d. Buckinghamshire, Mar. 13, 1987: Accompanied most of the major vocal artists of his time in recital and on disc.
  • 1899 Birth of composer John Woods Duke
  • 1906 Birth of composer Ludovit RAJTER in Pezinok, Slovak Republic. d-Bratislava, Slovak Republic 6 JUL 2000.
  • 1906 Birth of composer Serafin Pro
  • 1907 Death of German-American pianist and teacher Carl Wolfsohn. Noted for Wagner performances. He founded the choral group Beethoven Musical Society, later known as the Apollo Musical Club.
  • 1912 Birth of American soprano Eleanor Lausch Dietrich. d. Island Park, NY, May 4, 2001:
  • 1913 Birth of composer Ivo Lhotka-Kalinski
  • 1914 Birth of soprano Melanie Geissler.
  • 1916 Birth of composer Leonard Gilbert RATNER. Professor Emeritus of Music, Stanford University. b-1916.
  • 1921 Birth of American pianist Grant JOHANNESON in Salt Lake City, UT. d-Berlin, 27 MAR 2005. He was president of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1977 to 1985. His first wife, Helen Taylor, died in an auto accident in 1950. His marriage to cellist Zara Nelsova ended in divorce.
  • 1922 Birth of English conductor Meredith DAVIES.
  • 1922 Birth of composer Zbigniew Wiszniewski
  • 1923 Birth of Argentine bass Carlos Feller in Buenos Aires.
  • 1924 Birth of composer Christopher Shaw
  • 1925 Birth of composer Antoine Duhamel
  • 1926 Birth of American classical music commentator Martin BOOKSPAN.
  • 1927 Birth of American composer Frederic GOOSSEN in St. Cloud, MN.
  • 1928 Birth of soprano Denise Monteil, in Paris. d. July 7, 1984.
  • 1931 Birth of Israeli conductor Moshe ATZMON.
  • 1934 Birth of composer Andre Prevost
  • 1936 Birth of composer Istvan Zelenka
  • 1936 Birth of composer Yuri Alexandrovich Falik
  • 1937 Birth of Danish tenor Tonny Landi, in Copenhagen. Debut as Alfredo in Traviata (Verdi) 1966 Teachers, Luigi Ricci, Karl Schmitt-Walter.
  • 1943 Death of English composer Benjamin Dale in London. b-London, 17 JUL 1885.
  • 1944 Birth of English soprano Teresa CAHILL in Maidenhead. Début [Rosina] Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1967). Cahill's operatic career began at Glyndebourne, where she sang the [First Lady] Die Zauberflöte and later [Alice Ford] Falstaff. She has sung over 100 performances at Covent Garden, including Der Rosenkavalier [Sophie] with Carlos Kleiber, Don Giovanni [Zerlina] & [Elvira] and La Clemenza di Tito [Servilia], which she also sang at La Scala. As a recitalist she has specialized in the songs of Richard Strauss and Elgar, and in the field of contemporary music, Richard Rodney Bennett, John Casken, David Blake and Robert Simpson have all written works for her. Teachers, John Caunce, Andrew Field, Audrey Langford, Joyce Newton Vera Rozsa Created Lady & First Madwoman in We Came to the River (Henze) Pauline Lecclerc in Toussaint (Blake).
  • 1949 Birth of Canadian composer and pianist Alexina Diane LOUIE in Vancouver.
  • 1953 Birth of soprano Marie Angel in Australia. Teachers, Peter Gellhorn, Audrey Langford, Donald Munro, Geoffrey Parsons Erich Vietheer Created Morgan Le Fay in Gawain (Birtwistle) Hecates & Oracle of Dead in Mask of Orpheus (Birtwistle)
  • 1955 Birth of English violinist and conductor Christopher WARREN-GREEN.
  • 1957 Death of Dutch composer Sem Dresden in Den Haag. b-Amsterdam, 20 APR 1881.
  • 1965 FP Duke Ellington's The Golden Broom and the Golden Apples by the New York Philharmonic, with the composer conducting. See next entry.
  • 1965 FP of Charles Ives' From the Steeples and the Mountains with Lukas Foss conducting New York Philharmonic. See above entry. CD-From the Steeples and the Mountains
  • 1966 Death of soprano Marcella Lindh Jellinek. Born 1867 in Kalamazoo. Teacher, Hedwig von Reichenstein
  • 1966 FP of KAUFMANN: "Hoosier Tale" Bloomington, IN (1966).
  • 1968 Death of Icelandic composer Jon Leifs at age 68, in Reykjavik. b-1899.
  • 1970 Death of Hungarian-American conductor and pianist George Szell in Cleveland. Cleveland Orchestra. b-Budapest, 7 JUN 1897.
  • 1981 Death of American soprano Bianca Saroya. b. Germantown, PA, 1893. Debut as Eurydice in Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) 1916.
  • 1983 FP of Michael Torke's Ceremony of Innocence for chamber quintet, by fellows of the Tanglewood Center, Gunther Schuller conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA.
  • 2005 FP of the revised version of Argentine-born composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar "Fountain of Tears" at the Santa Fe Opera. Fort Worth Symphony music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya will conduct and Peter Sellars will direct the production, which will include soprano Dawn Upshaw.