January 5

1596 (bapt) Henry Lawes

1871 Frederick Shepherd Converse

1880 Nikolay Medtner

1881 Nikolay Roslavets

1897 Theo Mackeben

1930 Frederick Tillis

1957 Roger Zahab

 

January 12

1715 Jacques Duphly

1837 Carlos Troyer

1876 Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

1921 Leo Smit

1926 Morton Feldman

1927 Salvatore Martirano

1955 Lori Laitman

1972 Dan Coleman

 

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

Birth: January 12, 1876 in Venezia, Italy

Death: January 21, 1948 in Venezia, Italy

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was an important Italian composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His comic operas may be his best-known works, but none have endured in the standard repertory. He was born to a Bavarian father and an Italian mother. He showed a talent for both music and painting at an early age. He enrolled at the Academia di Belle Arti when he was 15 and 2 years later relocated to Munich to pursue further art instruction. However, he soon began composition studies with Rheinberger at the Munich Akademie der Tonkunst. His first compositions date from 1893, his Serenade in E flat possibly being the earliest serious effort. In 1895, he added his mother's maiden name, Ferrari, to his surname. He returned to Venice that year in an attempt to begin a composing career. He also spent some time in the late 1890s in Milan, where he became a protégé of Boito and met Giulio Ricordi, who did not, however, accept his music for publication. His first serious effort at opera, Cenerentola, did reach the stage in Venice in 1900. Though it failed, the composer's 1902 revision achieved great success in Bremen. Wolf-Ferrari's next operas met with general acceptance as well. Le donne curiose, I quattro rusteghi, and Il segreto di Susanna, all comedies, were staged in Munich. The latter two became quite popular on the world's operatic stages for some time. During the first decade of the 20th century Wolf-Ferrari served as director of the Liceo Musicale in Venice. After 1909 he made his living largely from his compositions. The First World War forced Wolf-Ferrari to abandon Munich for Zurich. He composed little during the conflict or the years immediately thereafter. His output remained meager until the mid-1920s when he completed Das Himmelsklied. His next opera was Sly, perhaps his most complex and most underrated. The U.S. premiere of the work did not take place until 1999, when the Washington Opera, with José Carreras in the lead, introduced it. Wolf-Ferrari was appointed professor of composition at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1939. After three decades away from the instrumental realm, Wolf-Ferrari returned to the genre with the Idillio-concertino for oboe, two horns, and strings Op. 15. By the mid-1940s his opus number had surpassed 30, largely on the strength of his renewed efforts in instrumental music. Yet, other than the Violin Concerto, most of these works were subsequently ignored, despite their generally attractive features. In 1946 he moved to Zürich once more, but returned to Venice for the last year of his life. Wolf-Ferrari has been described as a gentle man with a childlike manner, whose music was always conservative in style.

 

January 19

1676 John Weldon

1903 Boris Blacher

1936 Elliot Schwartz

1944 Pehr Henrik Nordgren

1945 Charles Amirkhanian

 

January 26

1708 William Hayes

1924 Warren Frank Benson

1935 Peter Ronnefeld

1943 Peter Kenton Winkler

 

February 2

1714 Gottfried August Homilius

1780 Ananias Davisson

1873 Leopold Fall

1875 Fritz Kreisler

1883 Candelario Huízar

1920 Heikki Suolahti

1927 Richard Vance Maxfield

 

Fritz Kreisler

Birth: February 2, 1887 in Vienna, Austria

Death: January 29, 1962 in NYC, New York

Kreisler was the son of a surgeon, a good amateur musician who gave Fritz his first violin lessons at the age of 4. After studies with Jacques Auber, he gained admission to the Musikverein Konservatorium at the age of 7, despite a policy that no one younger than 14 be accepted. He gave his first performance there when he was 9. After three years of study with Joseph Hellmesberger, he was awarded a gold medal, an unprecedented distinction for a 10-year old. Kreisler was sent to Paris for further studies with Delibes and Massart. At the age of 12, he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome gold medal competing against 40 other players, all of whom were at least 20 years of age. From the age of 12 he had no further violin instruction. In 1889-90 Kreisler toured the USA as assisting artist to Moriz Rosenthal, but with only moderate success. He returned to Vienna and in 1896 he applied to join the orchestra of the Vienna Hofoper but failed, allegedly because of poor sight-reading. Discouraged, he resolved to abandon music and to pursue a career in medicine. After several years, he rejected that course and began the study of painting. But soon this, too, became tiresome. He enlisted in the army, but resigned his commission after a year. He returned to the study of violin and spent 8 weeks in country solitude readying himself for his return to the concert stage. He had a notable success with the Vienna PO, actually the same ensemble that had previously denied him a job. A year later, in December 1899, his début with the Berlin Philharmonic under Nikisch marked the beginning of an international career. He reappeared in the USA during the 1900-01 season and made his London début at a Philharmonic concert in May 1902. In 1904 he was presented with the Philharmonic Society's gold medal. Elgar composed his Violin Concerto for Kreisler who gave its première in November 1910 at Queen's Hall, with Elgar conducting. While vacationing in Switzerland in 1914, Kreisler received the news that Austria was at war. Returning to his native country, he rejoined his former division, now stationed in Galicia. He was medically discharged after being wounded, and returned to the USA (his wife's native country) in November 1914. The United States' entry into the war, however, put him in the awkward position of being an ex-Austrian officer aiding what was now an enemy nation. Negative reaction obliged him to withdraw from concertizing and retreat to Maine to pass the remaining period of hostilities. He reappeared on the concert stage in New York in October 1919. He took up residence in Berlin for ten years beginning in 1924. With the Anschluss in 1938, he moved to France, but returned to the United States before the Nazi invasion and lived his remaining years in America, where he gave his final public concert in 1947. He continued to perform on broadcasts until 1950. After that, his interest in the violin waned. He sold his collection of instruments and kept only an 1860 Vuillaume. As a performer, Kreisler was unique. Without exertion, he achieved a seemingly effortless perfection. There was never any conscious technical display. The elegance of his bowing, the grace and charm of his phrasing, the vitality and boldness of his rhythm, and above all his tone of indescribable sweetness and expressiveness were marveled at. Though not very large, his tone had unequalled carrying power because his bow applied just enough pressure without suppressing the natural vibrations of the strings. Kreisler was also a gifted composer. Among his original works are a string quartet, an operetta, and numerous short pieces. In addition, he composed dozens of pieces in the 'olden style' which he ascribed to various 18th-century composers, such as Pugnani, Francoeur, Padre Martini, etc. When Kreisler admitted in 1935 that these pieces were a hoax, many critics were indignant, while the public continued to embrace the great musician.

 

February 9

1770 Ferdinando Carulli

1885 Alban Berg

1909 Harald Genzmer

1929 James M. Drew

1950 Jay Reise

 

Alban Berg

Birth: February 9, 1885 in Vienna, Austria

Death: December 24, 1935 in Vienna, Austria

Berg was one of the key figures of 20th century musical composition. As one of the triumvirate of the Second Viennese School, Berg produced a relatively small body of work that is nonetheless distinguished by a strongly Romantic aesthetic and a distinctive dramatic sense. Berg's father was an export salesman, his mother the daughter of the Austrian Imperial jeweler. Literature and music were omnipresent in Alban's young life. His musical training consisted mainly of piano lessons from his aunt. By his teenage years, however, he had composed dozens of songs without the benefit of formal compositional studies. Berg was a dreamy youth and an indifferent student. In 1903, he endured the end of a passionate love affair, failed his school final exams, and became despondent over the death of his idol, composer Hugo Wolf, all of which led to a suicide attempt. However, he survived to repeat his final year of school and went to work as an apprentice accountant. In 1904 Berg's brother, Charley, took Alban's compositions to Arnold Schoenberg, who accepted Berg as a student. His formal studies with Schoenberg came to an end in 1910, yet for the rest of his life he revered his teacher as a musical father. His 'graduation exercise' was the tightly developed and challenging String Quartet. This work shows how completely he had attained artistic maturity under Schoenberg, but equally astonishing are his Altenberglieder, a set of five songs for soprano and orchestra. Never having written for the orchestra before, and not himself a performer of any great aptitude, he produced a score rich in complex, subtle, and evocative textures that are completely original. Berg began studying with Schoenberg at an auspicious time. Not only did he find a sympathetic companion in Anton Webern, he was also able to witness Schoenberg's development towards atonality. In 1907 Berg met the singer Helene Nahowski, overcame her parents' objections over his ill health and lack of prospects, and married her in 1911. Berg was drafted into the Austrian army in 1915, served for eleven months, and was discharged for poor health. The army experience led him to revisit Georg Büchner's fragmentary drama Wozzeckabout a horribly brutalized private. In 1917, Berg began an operatic adaptation of the play, which occupied him for the next 5 years. When the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed in the wake of World War I, Berg found work as business manager of Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances, an organization which allowed Vienna's musical avant-garde to enjoy professionally prepared performances before friendly, critic-free audiences. After a number of interruptions, Berg completed Wozzeck in 1922. Though initially savaged by critics, the opera eventually gained momentum, enjoying performances throughout Europe and recognition as a masterpiece. Berg's next major work, the Chamber Concerto was among his first to demonstrate the influence of Schoenberg's 12-tone method. In 1925-1926, Berg wrote the Lyric Suite for string quartet, parts of which systematically employ 12-tone principles. The last of Berg's works are among his most important. The Violin Concerto is dedicated "to the Memory of an Angel," a reference to Manon Gropius, the deceased teenage daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius. At the time of his death from blood poisoning, Berg was in the middle of work on Lulu, about the classic operatic subjects-love, death, and sexual power-, which he had begun in 1929. The opera's unfinished third act was completed by Friedrich Cerha in 1976, after 12 years of work.

 

February 16

1709 Charles Avison

1774 Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode

1847 Philipp Scharwenka

1854 Oscar Fetras

1878 Selim Palmgren

1907 Alec Wilder (Alexander Lafayette Chew)

1910 Miguel Bernal Jimenez

1938 John Corigliano

 

February 23

1649 John Blow

1685 George Frideric Handel

1730 Christian Joseph (Cristiano Giuseppe) Lidarti

1887 Oskar Fredrik Lindberg

1920 Hall Overton

 

George Frideric Handel

Birth: February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany

Death: April 14, 1759 in London, England

Handel was the son of a barber/surgeon who opposed music as his son's career, though he permitted lessons from Friedrich Zachow, composer and organist of Liebfrauenkirche, Halle. Handel studied law at Halle University, turning to full-time music when his father died. He went to Hamburg in 1703 where he joined the opera house under the composer Reinhard Keiser, playing second violin in the orchestra. His first opera Almira was produced there in 1705, and was followed by 3 others. In 1706 Handel went to Italy in a prince's retinue, meeting Corelli, the Scarlattis, and other leading figures, and rapidly attaining mastery of the Italian style in opera, chamber music and vocal music. He was acclaimed a genius, the rival of his Italian contemporaries. His opera Rodrigo was performed in Florence in 1707 and Agrippina in Venice in 1709. The following year he was appointed court conductor in Hanover and was also invited to write an opera (Rinaldo) for London. Handel quickly realized the possibilities for his own success and, after resolving his domestic affairs, settled there permanently. For the next 35 years Handel was immersed in the operatic activity of London where Italian "opera seria" was all the rage. In 1712 he received a pension of £200 a year for life from Queen Anne. This was increased to £600 by King George I, his former ruler in Hanover, for whom he composed the famous Water Music. From 1717-1720 Handel was resident composer to the Earl of Carnarvon (later the Duke of Chandos). The 11 Chandos Anthems were the chief fruit of this appointment. In 1719 Handel, in association with Bononcini and Ariosti, was a music director of the so-called Royal Academy of Music. Handel went to Italy to hear operas by composers such as Porpora and Pergolesi and to engage the leading Italian singers. In the 8 years until the academy closed he composed 14 operas, among them Ottone, Serse, Radamisto, Rodelinda, Admeto, and Tolomeo. In 1727, for the coronation of George II, Handel wrote 4 anthems, including Zadok the Priest, which has been sung at every British coronation since then. Back in London in partnership with Heidegger at the King's Theatre, Handel wrote Lotario, Partenope, and Orlando. In 1734 he moved to the new CG Theatre, for which he wrote two of his greatest operas, Ariodante and Alcina. But he recognized that the popularity of Italian opera was declining and began, somewhat unwillingly, to develop the genre of dramatic oratorios, which is perhaps his most original contribution to music. Esther and Acis and Galatea are typical examples. He conducted several oratorios in London, playing his own organ concertos as entr'actes. Nevertheless he continued to write operas and between 1737-1740 composed Berenice, Serse, Imeneo, and Deidamia. In 1737 Handel's health failed under the strain of his work and he had a stroke. Following his recovery, he wrote a series of oratorios, including Messiah. By this work his name is known throughout the world, yet it is something of an oddity in Handel's work since he was not a religious composer in the accepted sense. But its power, lyricism, sincerity, and profundity make it one of the supreme music creations as well as an outstanding example of devotional art. It was followed by Samson and Solomon. Among the most popular of all the oratorios was Judas Maccabeus, composed in 32 days in 1746. Handel presented the oratorio 6 times during its first season and about 40 times before his death, conducting it 30 times himself. The success of these works made Handel the idol of the England, and that popularity dominated English music for nearly 150 years after his death. Superb as Handel's instrumental compositions are, such as the concerti grossi, sonatas, and suites, it is in the operas and oratorios that the nobility, expressiveness, invention, and captivation of his art are found at their highest degree of development. For the last 7 years of his life Handel was blind, but he continued to conduct oratorio performances and to revise his scores with assistance from his devoted friend John Christopher Smith.

 

[Biographies derived from Oxford Music Online and allmusic.com.]