An Italian Jewish composer who fled fascism in Europe. A conductor who refused to apologize for his “robust leadership style,” and instead opted to resign from the Swedish Royal Opera. Both wound up in the United States.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco settled in Hollywood, where he continued to compose concert music for Andres Segovia and Jascha Heiftez and embarked on a side career of writing scores for films like “And Then There Were None” (1945) and “The Loves of Carmen” (1948).
Sixten Ehrling took over the reins of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from departing principal conductor Paul Paray. He also taught at the Juilliard School, where his pupils included Myung-Whun Chung, JoAnn Falletta, and Andrew Litton.
I hope you’ll join me this afternoon, as we celebrate the birthdays of Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ehrling, alongside that of American pianist Garrick Ohlsson.
At 5:00, I’ll be joined by Jerry Kalstein and Dora Schnur of Boheme Opera NJ, who will tell us a bit about the company’s upcoming production of “Lucia di Lammermoor.” “Lucia” will be performed at The College of New Jersey’s TCNJ-Kendall Hall on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. To bookend our conversation, we’ll enjoy a couple selections from Donizetti’s opera, including the famous Act II sextet.
Round out your workday and enliven your afternoon commute with great music from a variety of sources, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Act I “Lucia” finale: Chi mi fren-etic
