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Tag: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Adolphus Hailstork An American Composer

I’ve been a fan of Adolphus Hailstork since the 1980s. That’s when I first heard “Done Made My Vow,” as part of a concert broadcast over the radio.

“Done Made My Vow” (1985) is often described as a gospel oratorio, inspired in part by speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. So uplifting is the marriage of words and music, I hoped for years that it would be recorded. Then one day I stumbled across a copy in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gift shop.

Hailstork has been part of the fabric of American music since at least the 1970s. Born in Rochester, New York, in 1941, he earned his BA from Howard University, his MA from the Manhattan School of Music – where his teachers included Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond – and his doctorate from Michigan State, where his studied with H. Owen Reed. Then he was off, like so many of his great American forebears, to study at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger.

For many years, Hailstork was composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he taught. He is perhaps best known for his choral music, though it was the wistful slow movement of his Symphony No. 1, composed for a summer music festival in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, that next caught my ear.

I was elated to finally hear “Done Made My Vow” live with the New York Philharmonic last season, with the composer in attendance. A week later, I actually got to meet him at the premiere of his Symphony No. 4 at Alice Tully Hall. As succinctly as I could, I tried to express how much I admired his music and for how long. He listened graciously and as he signed a few of my CD booklets admitted that it’s good to be appreciated. It seems his music has always been performed, but in recent years, with arts organizations increasing their efforts to be more inclusive in their programming, Hailstork, now 82, is finally receiving some much-deserved high-profile recognition.

The text for “Done Made My Vow” was tweaked for the New York Philharmonic performance, but to my knowledge that version has yet to be recorded. Enjoy the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra recording at the link. The music is hale, but the sentiments are King.

A Hailstork miscellany:

Symphony No. 1 (1988): Mov’t II, Lento ma non troppo

“Sonata da Chiesa” (1992), inspired by the composer’s love of cathedrals (especially the one he sang in as a boy in Albany, New York)

“Motherless Child” (2002)

“Celebration!” (1974)

“Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed: In Memoriam Martin Luther King, Jr.” (1979)

January 15, 2024
Ernest Schelling A Jersey Boy’s Dark Legacy

You might say that Ernest Schelling was a Jersey boy made good. He also happened to be responsible, in part, for the death of Enrique Granados.

Schelling, a celebrated pianist who for a period of three years became the exclusive pupil of Ignacy Paderewski, was born in Belvidere on this date in 1876. A child prodigy, he made his debut at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music at the age of 4. At 7, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory. Among the other notable musicians he worked with were Hans Huber, Moritz Moszkowski, and Theodor Leschetizky. Leschetizky was the pupil of Carl Czerny, who of course studied with Beethoven.

As a conductor, Schelling became music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which he led from 1935 to 1937. Well before Bernstein, he conducted the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts, beginning in 1924. They were such a success, he took them on tour, with stops in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, London and Rotterdam.

Schelling gave the U.S. premiere of Granados’ piano cycle “Goyescas.” In fact it was he who encouraged the composer to craft the music into an opera. Granados liked the idea, and “Goyescas” was given its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1916. It created such a sensation that Woodrow Wilson invited the composer to the White House, an offer Granados could hardly refuse. He postponed the date of his journey home, and was killed a few weeks later, after his ship, the S.S. Sussex, was torpedoed by a German submarine.

Thanks a lot, Ernest Schelling – and by the way, happy birthday.

Schelling plays Liszt’s Sonata in B minor:

Willem Mengelberg conducts Schelling’s “A Victory Ball:”

A selection from Schelling’s “Suite Fantastique:”

PHOTO: Ernest Schelling (right) with friend. His ship didn’t sink.

July 26, 2018
Adolphus Hailstork’s Music Inspired by MLK

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

So said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this, the anniversary of King’s birth, we’ll turn our attention to American composer of African descent Adolphus Hailstork. Hailstork, a late pupil of Nadia Boulanger, is currently professor of music and composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University at Norfolk, Virginia.

We’ll present an hour of his music tonight on “The Lost Chord,” including his oratorio, “Done Made My Vow.” The work, for speaker, vocal soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra, was composed in 1985, inspired in part by King’s speeches.

I’ve been an admirer of Hailstork’s music since the 1980s – I very much enjoy his Symphony No. 1, composed in 1988, with its gorgeous slow movement – but he has been a force in American music since at least the 1970s.

His overture “Celebration” was included in Columbia Records’ landmark “Black Composers Series.” The conductor of that performance, Paul Freeman, would later champion Hailstork’s music in recordings on the Albany label.

Tune in tonight to also enjoy his “Variations for Trumpet” with Rodney Mack.

I hope you’ll join me for “All Hail Hailstork,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

The recording of “Done Made My Vow” is available only through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gift shop, at http://www.bsomusic.org/online-store/bso-recordings/adolphus-hailstork-i-will-lift-up-mine-eyes.aspx

January 15, 2017

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