Richard Strauss / The Baker’s Wife

On this day in classical music: Richard Strauss’ tone-poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” was given its world premiere in Frankfurt in 1897 with the composer conducting. Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical treatise of the same name, “Also Sprach Zarathustra” has remained a popular work in the orchestral repertoire since its premiere. The initial fanfare — which Strauss referred to as “Sunrise” in a set of program notes — became enormously popular thanks to its inclusion in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The evocative piece starts with a sustained low C on the double basses, contrabassoon and organ. That leads into the famous brass fanfare that introduces the “dawn” motif (from “Zarathustra’s Prologue”). Listen to Gustavo Dudamel and the Berlin Philharmonic perform the opening fanfare from “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szdziw4tI9o

On this day in the musical theatre: The British production of Stephen Schwartz’s musical “The Baker’s Wife” opened in London in 1989. It’s based on the French film “La Femme du Boulanger” by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono. After hearing the song “Meadowlark” countless times in auditions, director Trevor Nunn persuaded the authors to mount a London production. Starring Alun Armstrong and Sharon Lee-Hill, “The Baker’s Wife” closed after just 56 performances. A U.S. production of “The Baker’s Wife” toured for six months in 1976 with plans to open on Broadway. It played the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The U.S. cast featured Topol as the baker Aimable and Carole Demas as his wife Genevieve. During the last two weeks of the Kennedy Center run, Topol and Demas were replaced by Paul Sorvino and Patti LuPone. The production never reached Broadway. Despite its two failed productions, “The Baker’s Wife” contains one of Schwartz’s most delightful scores and has become something of a cult musical among theater devotees. Listen to LuPone perform “Gifts of Love” from “The Baker’s Wife.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-IkHHDnwyw 

Musical musings: For the research phase of “The Baker’s Wife,” Schwartz immersed himself in a month-long French music piano-playing regime until the composers’ styles became second nature. “I played Debussy and Ravel on the piano, just so my fingers would automatically go toward those chord structures, and I would have those sounds in my head,” Schwartz recalls. “But when I started to write, I didn’t pay attention to it, and what happened is what I’d hoped. I went instinctively to certain chords I wouldn’t have gone to before I’d done that. It’s like an actor’s preparation, building up sense memory.” 

The French Impressionists’ expressiveness, with their frequent use of dissonant, unresolved chords, flowed into Schwartz’s sensibilities like a musical river. It would eventually overflow into his original opening song, “Welcome to Concorde,” some of the chords for “Gifts of Love,” and the mellifluous piano accompaniment to “Meadowlark.” – Carol de Giere in Defying Gravity, The Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked

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