January just flew by. With our schedule just a little more than a month away, it begs the question of what the future of this weekly playlist might be. Leave your feedback below and let us know if you would like this playlist to be the way it is now or possibly spread to all music genres? We would love to hear from you. Enjoy this weeks edition of Ravinia Festival: This Week in Classical Music, and listen to all your favorite works on the anniversaries of their initial premiers. Just click the Spotify logo, or the link above, and add our playlist to your library. We update our playlist every week so there will never be a 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!
January 30
- 1892: Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” No. 1 in G minor (Gregorian date: February. 11)
- 1893: Brahms: Fantasies for piano Nos. 1-3, from Op. 117 and Intermezzo No. 2, from Op. 117, in Vienna
January 31
- 1727: Handel: opera "Admeto" in London at the Haymarket Theater in London; This premiere was scheduled for earlier in the month, but was delayed awaiting the arrival in London of the Italian castrato Senesino, who was recovering from an illness
- 1987: David Maslanka: Wind Quintet No. 2 at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York, by the Manhattan Quintet
February 1
- 1916: Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 ("The Inextinguishable") with the orchestra of the Copenhagen Music Society, the composer conducting
- 1996: George Walker: "Lilacs" for voice and orchestra, by soprano Faye Robinson and the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting; This work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music
February 2
- 1890: Dvorák: Symphony No. 8, Op. 88, in Prague, with the composer conducting
- 1920: Stravinsky: ballet, "The Song of the Nightingale," at the Paris Opéra, with choreography by Massine
February 3
- 1868: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Moscow
- 1945: Stravinsky: "Scènes de ballet," in New York City by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by the composer; This work was commissioned by Broadway impresario Billy Rose for a 1944 revue titled "The Seven Lively Arts"
February 4
- 1884: Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 2, in Moscow
- 1945: Hovhaness: "Lousadzek" (Coming of Light) for piano and strings, in Boston, with the composer conducting from the piano
Other:
1837: Franz Liszt performs a chamber recital in Paris, featuring the then-unfamiliar Piano Trios of Beethoven; At the last minute, the performers decided to reverse the printed order of the program, performing on the first half of the concert a trio by Pixis, and a Beethoven trio on the second half. The audience (and critics) warmly applaud the Pixis, mistakenly thinking it was the Beethoven work, and react coolly to the Beethoven, assuming it was by Pixis; Among the critics, only Berlioz notices the program switch.
February 5
- 1907: Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 1 in d, Op. 7, in Vienna, by the Rosé Quartet
- 1970: Elliott Carter: "Concerto for Orchestra" by the New York Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez conducting