April 5 - Herbert von Karajan (The Musical Birthday Series, 8th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for April 5th may be found here: Louis Spohr (2019), Agnetha Fältskog (2020), Herbert von Karajan, Sébastien Érard (2022), Albert Roussel (2023), Louis Spohr; John Wilson (2024), and Agnetha Fältskog; Louis Spohr (2025)

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Herbert von Karajan (5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over and Done

Part of the reason for his dominance on the musical scene was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he sold 200 million records. – adapted from Wikipedia

Karajan's denazification tribunal, held in Vienna on 15 March 1946, cleared him of illegal activity during the Nazi period. – Wikipedia

Though inglorious shadows were cast

By van Karajan's sinister past,

However iniquitous,

He soon was ubiquitous,

And the past, so it seems, was the past.

 

 

 

 

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January 11 - Eve Queler (The Musical Birthday Series; 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 11th are here: Christian Sinding; Maurice Duruflé (2020), Reinhold Glière (2021),  Maurice Duruflé (2022), Christian Sinding; Reinhold Glière (2023), Laurens Hammond (2024), and Christian Sinding (2025)

 

Eve Queler (b. 11 January 1931) is an American conductor and the founder and emerita Artistic Director of the Opera Orchestra of New York. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of the Depths

Ms. Queler is renowned for researching and unearthing seldom-heard masterpieces and featuring legendary opera stars including Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, and Dolora Zajick. – jewishhome.org/honorees/eve-queler/

Queler made her career in byways

Off the operatic highways,

Allowing fans to re-engage

With dramas of another age

That might be too obscure to stage.

She somehow wrangled major voices,

(Who did, of course, have other choices),

To learn and sing the leading roles,

And thus achieved her worthy goals.

Of giving avid vocal geeks

A chance to hear the lesser peaks

Of lyric drama's lost antiques.

 

 

 

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December 20 - Henry Hadley (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for December 20th are here: Henry Hadley (2019), František Xaver Pokorný (2020), Paul Francis Webster (2021), Joseph Schubert (2022), and František Xaver Pokorný (2024)

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Henry Hadley (20 December 1871 – 6 September 1937) was a composer and conductor.  Though once one of the most performed and widely published American composers, and though he was the founding conductor of both the San Francisco Symphony and the Tanglewood Festival, he is largely forgotten. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Gotta Know the Territory

Hadley composed his symphonic poem Salome in 1905, not realizing that Strauss, whom he greatly admired, was working on an opera on the same subject.  - Wikipedia 

The Zeitgeist of your time and tribe

Creates a shared communal vibe,

So when you start to write a score,

Consult with all your friends before

You waste your paper, sweat, and ink

On any subject that you think

Is trendy, modern, in the air,

In case your colleagues beat you there.

Make sure the path towards which you veer

Is unimpeded, free, and clear,

Or you might meet, to your dismay,

The fate of Hadley's Salomé.

 

 

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April 22 - Joshua Rifkin (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for April 22rd may be found here: Alfred Burt (2019), Ethel Smyth (2021), Joshua Rifkin, and Glen Campbell (2021), Giuseppe Torelli (2022), Alfred Burt (2023), and Paul II Anton Esterházy de Galánth; Yehudi Menuhin; Kathleen Ferrier (2024)

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Joshua Rifkin (b. 22 April 1944) is an American musicologist, conductor, and keyboard player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One and Only

"Musicologists don't often come to blows. But it happened at the 1981 meeting of the American Musicological Society, when Joshua Rifkin announced that Bach's 'chorus' was really a quartet."  -- Eric van Tassel, New York Times, April 26, 199

Joshua Rifkin caused a row

By claiming that Herr Bach, somehow,

Performed without a Sunday choir,

Which set the learned world on fire.

Cantatas with one voice per part

Seems rather skimpy for his art.

But think before you rashly judge it,

Perhaps the Thomaskirche budget

Mirrored other congregations

And faced financial limitations,

So hiring choruses for the Lord

Was more than Leipzig could afford.

 

 

 

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April 4 - Hans Richter (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for April 4th may be found here: Elmer Bernstein (2019), Stephen Storace (2020), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (2021), Pierre Monteux; Eugène Bozza (2022), Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (2023), and Arthur Murray (2024)

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Hans Richter (4 April 1843 – 5 December 1916) was an Austro-Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going for the Cycle

In 1876, he was chosen to conduct the first complete performance of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. -- Wikipedia

Hans Richter's endurance and toughness

   Were put to the test when he led

The Ring, with its never-enoughness,

   And after the cycle he said,

"We rehearsed it with no off-the-cuffness,

   Well aware of the rigours ahead,

And avoided all musical roughness,

   As the hours implacably spread."

Then he turned with a slight touch of gruffness

   And announced he was going to bed.

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.]