Another week and another update to Ravinia Festival: This Week in Classical Music, our celebration of milestone premiers of classical works. Click the Spotify logo or the link above to add our playlist to your library. This playlist will be updated every week (pending no computer issues!) with new works so there's no need to resubscribe! Below is a day-by-day listing of the track selections for this weeks edition of the playlist. We hope you enjoy!
December 5
- 1830: Berlioz: "Symphonie fantastique" in Paris
- 1947: Barber: "Medea" Ballet Suite, Op. 23, by Philadelphia Orchestra
December 6
- 1842: Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb, Op. 44, at a private concert in the Leipzig home of Carl and Heinrich Voigt; Schumann’s wife, Clara, was to perform, but took ill, and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in for the informal performance, reading the work at sight; Mendelssohn’s critic of the work’s original second movement led Schumann to write a livelier replacement
- 1937: Boris Blacher: "Concertante Musik," in Berlin
December 7
- 1861: Brahms: "Handel Variations," Op. 24, in Hamburg, originally featuring pianist Clara Schumann
- 1924: Carl Ruggles: "Men and Mountains," in New York City
December 8
- 1813: Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, in Vienna, the composer conducting; Also on the program was the orchestral version of "Wellington's Victory" (originally conceived for performance by a mechanical orchestra invented by Maelzel called the "panharmonicon"
- 1931: Gershwin: musical show, "Of Thee I Sing," in Boston, at the Majestic Theater and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1932
December 9
- 1842: Glinka: opera “Russlan and Ludmilla,” at the Main Theater in St. Petersburg
- 1939: Cage: "First Construction (in Metal)," for six percussionists, in Seattle
December 10
- 1854: Berlioz: oratorio "L'Enfance du Christ," in Paris
- 1936: David Diamond: "Psalm" for orchestra, in Rochester, N.Y.
December 11
- 1908: Delius: "In a Summer Garden," by the London Philharmonic
- 1950: Hindemith: Clarinet Concerto, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, originally with Benny Goodman the soloist