Samuel Barber / Falsettoland

On this day in classical music: Samuel Barber’s “Third Essay for Orchestra” received its premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 1978. Barber had composed two earlier essays, the first in 1937 and the second in 1942. Arturo Toscanini premiered Barber’s “First Essay for Orchestra” on a concert that also included the premiere of his “Adagio for Strings.” Bruno Walter commissioned the “Second Essay” — the most popular of the trilogy — and conducted its premiere. Zubin Mehta conducted the premiere of the “Third Essay for Orchestra.” Listen to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra perform Barber’s “Third Essay for Orchestra.” Andrew Schenck conducts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laLpmRJ8mKg 

On this day in the musical theatre: After a brief run at Playwrights Horizons, William Finn’s “Falsettoland” opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1990. It was the last of three one-act musicals that followed the story of Marvin, his wife Trina, his psychiatrist Mendel, his son Jason and his gay lover Whizzer. As Jason prepares for his bar mitzvah, Marvin learns that Whizzer is suffering from AIDS. Finn’s “March of the Falsettos” and “Falsettoland” were subsequently combined to create “Falsettos” in 1992. Watch the original cast perform a medley of tunes from “Falsettoland.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpzbuoLcDbk

 

Musical musings: Barber wrote his Third Essay rather quickly in Italy during the summer of 1978. Audrey Sheldon gave him $60,000 for the commissioned work, which was dedicated to her and performed by the New York Philharmonic on 14 September 1978 for the debut of Zubin Mehta as music director of the orchestra. But the young benefactress was never to hear the work her generosity sponsored, for her life ended tragically in suicide before the premiere of (the) Third Essay. Interviewed before the concert by Phillip Ramey, Barber reluctantly described (the) Third Essay as “absolutely abstract music, which is essentially dramatic in character. As far as the overall shape is concerned, it was inspired by a literary form.” He acknowledged that, as with his other “Essays,” he sought in this piece “above all, to create a unity.” The Third Essay for orchestra is about rhythm and lyricism and their relationship to each other. It begins with an electrifying twenty-seven bars of percussion only. – From Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music by Barbara B. Heyman

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