On This Day

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Penderecki: Viola Concerto
Premiered Today in 1983
24 July 1983 marked the 200th birthday of Simón Bolívar, known around South America as “El Libertador.” The Venezuelan military and political leader played a significant role in the establishment of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama as sovereign
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Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Premiered Today in 1864
On 22 July 1864 Clara Schumann and conductor Hermann Levi played through a piano sonata for two pianos by Johannes Brahms. Clara was overwhelmed by the music’s grandeur, and wrote to the composer. “The work is splendid, but it cannot
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Ginastera: Concierto Argentino
Premiered Today in 1941
In the wide world of music, it is not always easy to determine what actually constitutes the premier performance. The process of introducing works to a wider audience is by definition a complicated one, and rather frequently a composition disappears
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Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail K. 384
Premiered Today in 1782
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 16 July 1782. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II was in the audience and famously said, “Too many notes my dear
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Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in d-flat major, Op. 38
Premiered Today in 1937
Aram Khachaturian might easily be considered the poster child of Soviet realism in music. Joseph Stalin decreed that a composer in Soviet society had to be “an engineer of the human soul by writing music that communicates directly with the
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Ditters von Dittersdorf: Doktor und Apotheker (The Pharmacist and the Doctor)
Premiered Today in 1786
Premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater on 11 July 1786, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s comic opera Doktor und Apotheker (The Pharmacist and the Doctor) was a resounding success. The contemporary press declared it “the one work among all new German operas
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Haydn: Symphony Nr. 92 in G major “Oxford”
Premiered Today in 1791
By the mid-1780s Joseph Haydn was the most famous composer in Europe. Although he had worked in relative obscurity in the service of the Esterházy family for many decades, his reputation had spread far and wide. And when Johann Peter
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J.S. Bach: Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147
Premiered Today in 1723
Say what you want, but Johann Sebastian Bach certainly knew a good tune when he heard one! And he certainly was not shy reusing his own tunes when time was of the essence. Bach took up the position of Thomaskantor,
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