Grace Notes

Norman Gilliland gives the stories behind the struggle to create great music.

Hector Berlioz expressed himself in a grand way, both musically and romantically. In 1828 he was smitten with Harriet Smithson, an Irish actress who was playing Juliet and Ophelia with an English theater company in Paris. Full of unrequited love, Berlioz wrote to his friend Humbert Ferand in February 1830:

“Again, without warning and without reason my ill-fated passion awakens. She is still in London, yet I feel her presence all around me. I listen to my heartbeat. It’s like a sledgehammer. If only she could dream of the poetry, the infinite extent of a love like mine, she would...

Victor Herbert's Revenge

Tuesday, February 5, 2019, 11:30am

Victor Herbert was America's foremost composer of operettas. He was also involved in one of the most notorious lawsuits in the history of music.

Herbert was born in Dublin in 1859. He came to New York as a cellist in 1886 and soon began a career as a conductor and composer. In 1898 he became conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

He had long since become accustomed to good reviews and bad. But nothing prepared him for what he read in the New York Musical Courier one day in 1901. It was a review, not of an individual work of...

Kreisler's Other Hoax

Monday, February 4, 2019, 11:30am

Fritz Kreisler is known for perpetrating one of the great hoaxes in music history--passing off his own compositions as the works of great masters. But long before that scandal broke in 1935, Kreisler involved two major composers in a clever hoax.

Born on February 4th, 1875, Kreisler was only seven when he entered the Vienna Academy in 1882. He and his young fellow students may have been able to perform like adults, but they still had the sense of humor of boys. Kreisler's teacher for harmony and music theory was the great Anton Bruckner. Bruckner was a strong supporter of the...

The Stingy Virtuoso

Friday, February 1, 2019, 11:30am

The two had been an inseparable duo. Their music had taken the concert halls of Europe by storm. Now one of them was about to go under the knife and the other insisted on being present during the entire operation. It would be enough to rattle the nerves of any surgeon—the responsibility of saving the violin of the great virtuoso, Niccolo Paganini.

The “surgeon,” the restorer of fine violins, was the Parisian J.B. Vuillaume. As his chisel began opening the instrument there was a slight cracking noise and in a heartbeat, Paganini was out of his chair, bending nervously over...

Busoni Arrives in New York

Thursday, January 31, 2019, 11:30am

On January 31^st, 1915, one of Italy's great composers, a homesick Feruccio Busoni had just arrived in New York, and in a letter to pianist Egon Petri he turned his thoughts to the latest musical events.

“I sent you two long letters from on board ship. The morning was made magical by a light fog and the haze I describe as sun-particles. For each of us this arrival is confusing yet stimulating. I was moved by the spectacle. But by the time we had gotten to the center of town, my heart had sunk. And that's where it has stayed...

The Feast

Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 11:30am

The winter of 1937 was a tough one for the Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and his wife Victoria. Having grown up blind, Rodrigo was accustomed to difficulties, but as an exile in France during the Spanish Civil War, he was struggling just to get enough to eat. The couple was staying in an inexpensive hotel in Paris.

A friend referred them to someone who might be interested in buying some of their antiques. Weak with cold and hunger Rodrigo and Victoria went to see the prospective buyer. She apologized for having a dinner guest. "You'll have to wait a little...

Compromises

Tuesday, January 29, 2019, 11:30am

For a long time the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla had wanted to compose a work based on the novel The Three-Cornered Hat. His original idea was to make an opera of it, but the author's will did not permit it, so Falla opted to write it as a ballet. Early on, he learned important lessons about the compromises that come with performance.

Choreographer Serge Diaghilev had suggested Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain for the ballet, but Falla doubted that the music -- with its intricate orchestral detail and abstract feeling -- could be applied to ballet, so...

Orange Plantation Composer

Monday, January 28, 2019, 11:30am

“That man has music in his mind, but when he sets it down it’s almost impossible to play it.” So said an American friend of a young English composer named Frederick Delius. It’s not surprising that Delius’ music was unusual. He had found his calling in a very unusual way—managing an orange plantation in Florida.

At 22 Delius longed to be a musician, but he was stuck with a desk job that he found increasingly boring—a job in his father’s wool business. When he came across an article about Florida, he pleaded with his father to let him go there. ...

The Wedding March

Friday, January 25, 2019, 11:30am

One 19th century masterpiece brilliantly expresses the English character even though it was written before the composer had ever been to England.

As a boy, Felix Mendelssohn experienced the English personality through the plays of Shakespeare. Using the latest German translations, his family often acted them out for their own entertainment. So it was natural for Mendelssohn, at seventeen, to write his overture A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sixteen years later--in 1842--after he had traveled in England--Mendelssohn encountered another fervent admirer of Shakespeare--the King of Prussia. With an enthusiasm not to be denied, the King demanded that Mendelssohn write incidental music to...

Liszt's Wild Party

Thursday, January 24, 2019, 11:30am

Eighteen forty-eight. Piano virtuoso Franz Liszt was dazzling Europe in one concert after another. The slender, dark-haired virtuoso was the heartthrob of many a lady. But one day the arch-romantic became a little too flamboyant.

The occasion was a farewell party for a friend leaving Weimar. The partygoers toasted the guest of honor by passing around a boot of champagne, and before long the gathering became very merry. As the proceedings progressed, Liszt took off his jacket and tie. It occurred to him that the doctor sitting next to him had promised to sound his chest when the opportunity occurred. ...

The Scandalous Salome

Wednesday, January 23, 2019, 11:30am

Richard Strauss silhouette created by Hans Schliessmann in Vienna in 1918

Richard Strauss' notorious opera Salome tells the lurid story of King Herod's stepdaughter and her lust for John the Baptist. In its early days the opera itself was almost as sensational.

On January 23rd, 1907, the day after Salome was introduced at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, the press attacked it as "diseased in mind and morals." But before the curtains had parted, Strauss' opera was already linked to a scandal because Oscar Wilde, the author of the play on which it was based, had spent two years in prison for homosexual practices. [Wilde had been unable to publish Salome...

In the Presence of Greatness

Tuesday, January 22, 2019, 11:30am

On the night of January 22, 1937, the Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos gave the fourth of five dazzling concerts in Boston. Particularly impressed was a young Harvard student whose life was about to be changed by the performances.

During three previous concerts, Mitropoulos had impressed everyone with his triple talent. In one concert he conducted his own arrangements of music by Purcell and Beethoven, conducted -- and soloed in -- Ottorino Respighi's Toccata for Piano and Orchestra, and ended with a suite from Alfredo Casella's opera La Donna Serpente. Mitropoulos had conducted the entire program from memory.

The young Harvard pianist had met...

The Devil's Trill

Monday, January 21, 2019, 11:30am

For centuries the violin was been thought of as an instrument of the devil. In 1770 the English music historian Charles Burney came across the remarkable story of "the Devil's Trill."

Burney's primary interest was contemporary music, and he was disappointed to arrive in Padua a few months after the death of the city's famed composer, Giuseppi Tartini. But from Tartini's friends Burney pieced together a profile of the composer. The recollections included the strange story of how Tartini had come to write his celebrated violin sonata known as "The Devil's Trill."

According to Tartini, he dreamed one night in...

Why Bother To Get Up?

Saturday, January 19, 2019, 11:30am

Gioacchino Rossini was one of the most active opera composers of all time, but according to one of his contemporaries he was notoriously lazy.

During the winter of 1813 Rossini was lodging at a cheap inn in Venice. He was composing in bed to avoid paying for a fire. He was just finishing a duet when the sheet of paper slipped through his fingers and fluttered down to the floor. Rossini leaned over and tried to find it, but in vain. It had slipped beneath the bed.

Suddenly chilled, Rossini pulled back under the blankets muttering, "I'd rather write the...

The Faust Stratagem

Friday, January 18, 2019, 11:30am

For one reason or another some operas fail to draw crowds. When it happened to Charles Gounod's opera Faust in London in 1863, the composer was lucky enough to have the services of a clever and daring impresario.

With the opera's London debut just a few days away, only a handful of tickets had been sold. Impresario James Henry Mapleson was faced with the prospect of a complete failure. He took a bold step and told the box-office manager that Faust would be performed four nights in a row. The box-office manager assured him that he was mad,...

Mendelssohn in Rome

Thursday, January 17, 2019, 11:30am

In the 19th century many a composer made a pilgrimage to Rome and was awestruck by the greatness of its ruins. When 22-year-old Felix Mendelssohn made the trip, he saw ruins but little greatness. To his family in Berlin he reported on January 17th, 1831:

“The night before last a theater opened with a new opera by Picini. There was a tremendous crush. The boxes were full of the most elegant people. Picini took his seat at the piano and received an ovation. He had not written an overture. The opera began with a chorus during which a tuned anvil...

Breaking In

Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 11:30am

In his native land Fernando Sor learned how to make music and developed a career as a performer and composer. He was a gifted guitarist and also wrote an opera, a motet, and songs. But Spain wasn't in the mainstream of music making and so in 1813, at the age of 35, Sor went to Paris to become an opera composer.

Despite his versatility, Sor was still known as a composer of guitar music, and the guitar was thought of as a purely Spanish instrument. There was no telling how well guitar music would go over in Europe beyond Spain....

Indoor and Outdoor Culture at the White House

Tuesday, January 15, 2019, 11:30am

Although the President was a noted outdoorsman, he also he enjoyed the subtleties of chamber music. And sometimes the wild and the refined met cheek to jowl in the White House of Theodore Roosevelt.

When he came into office in 1901, Roosevelt brought a new sophistication to music making in the executive mansion. In addition to the reliable Marine Band, Roosevelt enjoyed the Marine Band Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony, and the renowned Kneisel Quartet.

But the best-remembered performance in the White House of Theodore Roosevelt was a solo recital on the evening of January 15", 1904...

The Dangerous Host

Monday, January 14, 2019, 11:30am

Music making can be hard enough for those whose instruments are mainstays of the orchestra. For harmonica-player Larry Adler the early years were tough--and a little scary.

In 1928 or so, at age 14, Adler left his home in Baltimore to audition in a New York harmonica band. Adler played the Poet and Peasant Overture. The bandleader's evaluation--"Kid, you stink."

Adler took it hard, but not for long. On his way back to Penn Station, he passed the Paramount Theater, where Rudy Valee was performing. He finagled a spot on Valee's show. But he flopped. He couldn't get the audience...

Weber & the Wrong Bottle

Friday, January 11, 2019, 11:30am

In 1804 Carl Maria von Weber was a 17-year-old composer and singer with little conducting experience. He was invited to lead the theater orchestra in Breslau, and accepted the position in part because he hoped that its modest salary would enable him to support his father, an unsuccessful engraver. He tried to bring in new musicians and new repertory, but at every turn he met resistance. Then, in the midst of this series of temporary professional setbacks, Weber suffered a personal calamity that would last a lifetime.

One evening early in 1806 Weber asked a friend, Friedrich Wilhelm Berner, to...

Weber's Conducting Ordeal

Thursday, January 10, 2019, 11:30am

In the spring of 1804 Carl Maria von Weber was not yet 18 years old. But he already had some distinguished compositions to his credit, and though he had little conducting experience, he was invited to lead the theater orchestra in Breslau. The salary was small and the position modest, but it would help Weber to support his unproductive father. He accepted the invitation. Within two years that decision would cost him dearly.

Weber started off badly in Breslau although he didn't know it. An influential violinist had wanted Weber's conducting job, and before Weber even arrived in town, the...

The Adventuresome Soprano

Wednesday, January 9, 2019, 11:30am

Anna Riviere was one of the most admired of 19th-century English sopranos. She was also one of the most adventuresome.

She was born in London on January 9th, 1810. She entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 14. Seven years later, just after her professional debut, Anna married Sir Henry Bishop, who was 24 years her senior. Her reputation as a singer grew rapidly, based largely on [her performances of English songs and sacred music and] her tours with Sir Henry and harpist Nicholas Bochsa. After a tour of

Dublin, Edinburgh, and London, Anna Bishop deserted her...

The Cure

Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 11:30am

One night in 1994 72-year-old pianist Abbey Simon and his wife were in The Hague, crossing a street in a rainstorm when an inattentive driver smashed into them. Simon’s wife was badly injured. His own injuries were not life threatening, but he had four broken fingers. The pianist’s doctor was blunt. “The bad news,” he said, “is that you’ll never play the piano again. The good news is that we can experiment because we have nothing to lose.”

The “good news” gave Simon little comfort. “I was in hysterics,” he recalled a few years later. “I used to come home...

The Beethoven Conspiracies

Monday, January 7, 2019, 11:30am

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler

Beethoven is said to have described composing as ten percent talent and ninety percent work. On January 7th, 1809 he wrote from Vienna to his publisher in Leipzig suggesting that the hardest work comes after composing.

The Frozen Train

Friday, January 4, 2019, 11:30am

In January 1864 New Orleans-born pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk was on a train, making a concert tour of the northern states. Stalled near Harvard, Illinois, and worn by war and weather, he found comfort where he could, as he relates in his diary:

"Even though I had spent the night with my clothes on, with a woolen comforter around my neck and a fur cap on my head, lying all the while under a mountain of covers, when I woke up, my mustache was covered with frost. The thermometer sat at 32 degrees below zero! Our shoes are frozen.
...

A Dangerous Reward

Thursday, January 3, 2019, 11:30am

In 1853 the famed contralto Marietta Alboni was about to give a farewell concert and the manager of New York's Broadway Theater was desperate to have her perform on his stage. He approached conductor Luigi Arditi and asked him to convince the star to sing the part of Norma at his theater. As a reward the manager promised to buy Arditi the most handsome baton in New York.

Arditi wanted the handsome baton, but even more he wanted to hear Alboni sing Norma – a performance that would be an artistic triumph. As Arditi said later, "I knew the extraordinary...

A New Year's Letter from Tchaikovsky

Wednesday, January 2, 2019, 11:30am

On January second, 1877, Peter Tchaikovsky chided his brother Modeste for not being a better correspondent.

“Most Honorable Sir Modeste Ilyich:

“I don't know if you still remember that I exist. I happen to be your own brother. I hold the position of professor at the Moscow Conservatory and have written several compositions--operas, symphonies, overtures and so forth. There was a time when you deigned to take an interest in me. We even took a trip abroad last year, which has left an unforgettable memory in my heart.

“Formerly you wrote frequent charming and interesting letters to me. But now...

Mussorgsky's Mysticism

Wednesday, September 26, 2018, 11:30am

Mysticism came easily to Modeste Mussorgsky. A little too easily according to a letter Mussorgsky wrote to his fellow composer Mili Balakirev on September 26^th, 1860:

“I think you will be interested in how I spent my time in the Moscow countryside.

My illness dragged on almost until August so that I could devote myself to music

only for short periods of time. All the same I gathered some materials that I'll need later. Oedipus and the little sonata have progressed somewhat. The sonata is just about ready. Something has to be tidied up in the middle section but the...

It Happens to the Greatest of Them

Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 11:30am

Nowadays world class guest soloists usually rehearse a familiar concerto at least once with an orchestra. But before the middle of the 20th century, great soloists frequently didn't rehearse familiar works at all -- and occasionally experienced some uncomfortable surprises.

In his book "Gentleman, More Dolce Please!", long-time Boston Symphony associate Harry Ellis Dixon relates two such incidents. The sophisticated French violinist Jacques Thibaud had played the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Boston symphony so many times that on occasion he didn't arrive at Symphony Hall until the day of the concert a few minutes before his performance was to begin. Thibaud walked onstage, tuned his violin, and...

The Shocking Conductor

Monday, September 24, 2018, 11:30am

At orchestra concerts today we take for granted the conductor directing the music with a baton. According to Louis Spohr things were done very differently in 1820 when he went to London to conduct a Philharmonic concert:

"In those days it was customary there that when symphonies and overtures were performed, the pianist had the score in front of him, not to conduct from it so much as to play with the orchestra as he saw fit, which sounded awful. The actual conductor was the first violinist, who gave the tempi -- and every so often, when the orchestra
...

Bruckner's Clutter

Wednesday, May 22, 2019, 11:30am

He wrote vast dramatic symphonies but Anton Bruckner led a life that tended to be prosaic and more than a little cluttered. He didn’t look like other musicians of the 1880's. He kept his hair cut so short that many people remembered him as being bald. He wore a short jacket and voluminous trousers...

The Man I Was Looking For

Tuesday, May 21, 2019, 3:05pm

He ‘s generally thought of as a singularly English composer, but early in his career, Ralph Vaughan Williams had trouble developing his style in England. He needed the right teacher and he found him in an unexpected place. One of Vaughan Williams' first teachers was Charles Villiers Stanford, who...

The Plow That Broke the Plains

Monday, May 20, 2019, 11:30am

The Great Depression was a difficult time for most Americans, including musicians. In 1936 Virgil Thomson was a forty-year-old composer struggling for recognition and cash. His friend John Houseman recommended Thomson to a documentary filmmaker named Pare Lorenz. Lorenz had already interviewed...

The Meeting of Three Arts

Friday, May 17, 2019, 11:30am

Many fine works of art have resulted from the connection between music and painting. In his memoirs, British baritone George Henschel tells of an occasion when the two arts benefited from a third. In 1877 Henschel was attending a dinner part at the town house of Lord and Lady Airlie. The guests...

Distractions

Thursday, May 16, 2019, 11:30am

Composers of concert music have enough distractions to cope with. Composers of movie music have even more. Consider the case of Bernard Hermann, one of America's leading writers of film music, when he was visiting Hollywood in 1943. Hermann and his wife were having a working lunch at the home of...

Dangerous Diobediance

Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 11:30am

Vienna in 1787. It could be a risky place and time for a composer to make a living. And Antonio Salieri took a big risk. He disobeyed the Emperor. Salieri had recently returned from Paris where his opera Tarare had been produced. Emperor Joseph the Second ordered Salieri and his librettist Lorenzo...

'Toscanini and the Fascists'

Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 11:30am

You might think that conducting an orchestra would be a safe profession, but at times a conductor can fall into a life-threatening situation. So it was with Arturo Toscanini in Bologna,Italy on May 14th, 1931. Toscanini had accepted an invitation to conduct two concerts in Bologna. The purpose was...

'Faces to Make One Miss Notes'

Monday, May 13, 2019, 11:30am

New Orleans-born pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk toured the northern states during the Civil War. As he traveled through New York State he was occasionally able to forget about the war and concentrate on the two great loves of his life--music and women. In May 1864 he wrote in his...

Offenbach's Short Comeback

Friday, May 10, 2019, 11:30am

Eighteen-seventy-one. It was the end of an epic in France. Years of opulence and gaiety had been blasted by the grim, disastrous Franco-Prussian War. One of the less obvious casualties was a musician huddled in an oversized coat. He was Jacques Offenbach, composer of buoyant operettas that must've...

Only You

Thursday, May 9, 2019, 11:30am

Paris Opera director Andre Messager conducted the debut of Claude Debussy's opera Pelleas and Melisande . Then he had to leave the country to fulfill other commitments. That left the direction of the opera to the second conductor, Henri-Paul Busser. A despondent Debussy wrote to Messager on May 9,...

Richard Strauss and the Yanks

Wednesday, May 8, 2019, 11:35am

May 8th, 1945 -- V.E. Day. Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe. Composer Richard Strauss was among the many who were glad that the war was over regardless of who had won. He and his family had been suffering under the Nazi regime while living near the village of...

The Money Back Guarantee

Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 11:30am

The following letter to Giuseppe Verdi in 1872 shows that to be a composer is to expose oneself to criticism from anyone and everyone: Much Honored Signor Verdi, “On the second of this month I went to Padua, lured by the sensation caused by your opera Aida. I was so intrigued that I was in my seat—...

Chopin in Vienna

Monday, May 6, 2019, 11:30am

In 1831 a young pianist and composer named Frederick Chopin left his native land, Poland, in order to establish himself in European musical circles. He was a popular success as a concert performer, but at times was lonely in a crowd. In Vienna in the spring of 1831 Chopin wrote in his journal: “...

How to Beat a Deadline

Friday, May 3, 2019, 11:30am

Sooner or later every composer has to deal with a deadline. Gioacchino Rossini shared some of his trade secrets in a letter that shows his sense of humor: “Wait until the evening before the performance. Nothing stirs up a person’s enthusiasm so much as pure necessity, a copyist waiting for your...

No Deal!

Thursday, May 2, 2019, 11:30am

As World War II raged in Europe, English composer Arthur Bliss was director of music at the BBC. His family was in America and he was looking for a way to go to America so that he could arrange to bring them back to England. An offer of assistance came from an unexpected source via a phone call...

The Cold-Hearted Duchess

Wednesday, May 1, 2019, 11:35am

The 22-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had arrived in Paris to build an international reputation. He wrote to his father, Leopold, in Salzburg on May 1st, 1778: "Responding to an invitation of eight days prior, I drove to the house of the Duchesse de Chabot. I waited half an hour in a large room without any fire and as cold as ice. At last the Duchess came in. She was very polite, and implored me to excuse her piano since none of her instruments were in good order, but she asked me at least to give it a try."

Liszt Plays Grieg

Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 11:30am

Edvard Grieg was 25 years old when he wrote his masterpiece, the Piano Concerto in A minor. One of the first to see it was Franz Liszt, who not only played it and critiqued it, but afterward offered Grieg advice to last a lifetime. The occasion came during a gathering of friends one evening in 1865...

The Dresden Gamble

Monday, April 29, 2019, 11:30am

The same piece of music can draw very different reactions from city to city as Carl Maria von Weber reported from Dresden to a friend in Berlin in April 1824: “I’ve been going through a rough patch, and maybe it’s just as well that my enormous workload didn’t give me much time to think. But still I...

The Composing Machine

Sunday, April 28, 2019, 11:30am

Today he is best known for his technical studies such as The School of Velocity- -methodical, mechanical approaches to piano mastery. Carl Czerny was actually an extraordinarily prolific composer whose curiously mechanical way of working made his vast output possible. The English writer John Elia...

The Loner

Friday, April 26, 2019, 11:30am

Peter Tchaikovsky wrote some of his best music during long trips to Italy. But even there, music and friends could put him out of sorts. To his brother Modeste he wrote from Rome in April 1890. “For two days now I've been in a bad mood to the point of despair. I've lost both my appetite and my...

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