January 7 Dateline

Birthdays

1895 - Clara Haskil,  Romanian Classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire. She was particularly noted for her performances and recordings of Mozart. She was also noted as an interpreter of Beethoven, Schumann, and Scarlatti. (Listen to her play Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, possibly considered the composer's most popular work for piano and orchestra. See video below embedded, accessed January 7, 2018.)

1899 - Francis Poulenc, French composer and pianist. His most famous work (Poulenc's "Melancholie" interpreted by pianist Pascal Rogé. Uplo, ballet music "Les Biches", was commissioned by impresario Diaghilev. The music is captivating and a lyrical ccharm. YouTube, uploaded by IceCamomile Tea. Accessed January 7, 2012. Poulenc Sextet for Piano & Winds. Ensemble ACJW performs the Allegro vivace movement from Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds at Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall on February 15, 2015.) Accessed January 7, 2017.)

1922 - Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal, French flute virtuoso, He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century." After his death in May 2000, there was no shortage of public accolades to reflect the fact that he was a source of national pride. The Jean-Pierre Rampal Flute Competition, begun in his honour in 1980 and open to flautists of all nationalities born after 8 November 1971, is held tri-annually as part of the Concours internationaux de la Ville de Paris. In June 2005, the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal was founded in France to perpetuate the study and appreciation of Rampal's contribution to the art of flute-playing. Among other projects, the association has collaborated in the re-release on the Premier Horizons label of a number of early Rampal performances on CD. (Jean-Pierre Rampal plays Mozart:  III. "Rondo" (Tempo di Menuetto) from Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K.313. YouTube, uploaded by vaimusic, and Rampal plays Mozart Flute Concerto No 1 in G - with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Hopkins. YouTube, uploaded by oligarck. Simply beautiful. A favourite virtuoso flautist of all-time! Accessed January 7, 2014.)

1925 - Gerald Malcolm Durrell, British naturalist, author and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. His memoirs of his family's years living in Greece were adapted into two television series (My Family and Other Animals, and The Durrells) and one television film (My Family and Other Animals). He wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being My Family and Other Animals. He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell.

1937 - Sylvia Caduff, Swiss conductor,  the first woman to win the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition (1966), served as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. She was general director of the Orchestra of the City of Solingen, Germany, the first European woman to hold such a position. (Source: encyclopedia.com). Here: Caduff conducting Mozart's Symphony No. 39. YouTube, uploaded by Female Conductors. Accessed September 2, 2018.)

1964 - Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola), American actor and filmmaker. Cage has been nominated for numerous major cinematic awards, and won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas. He found a wider audience when he started starring in mainstream films. He earned his second Academy Award nomination for his performance as Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Adaptation. He also directed the film Sonny, for which he was nominated for Grand Special Prize at Deauville Film Festival. Cage owns the production company Saturn Films. In October 1997, Cage was ranked No. 40 in Empire magazine's The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list, while the next year, he was placed No. 37 in Premiere's 100 most powerful people in Hollywood.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, January 7 - On This Day


Feature: Clara Haskil, Pianist

 
Clara Haskil plays Mozart. Accessed from The Listener's Club, 2 May 2018.)

 

Historical Events

1610 - Galileo Galilei observes the four largest moons orbiting planet Jupiter for the first time. They are known as the Galilean moons.

1857 - Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A is first performed in Weimar, Germany, with Hans von Bronsart, soloist, and the composer conducting.  

January 6 Dateline

January 6 is Epiphany

Epiphany is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Epiphany, or the 12th day of Christmas, falls on January 6 and marks the official end to the festive season for many Christians. ... The six Sundays which follow Epiphany are known as the time of manifestation. (We Three Kings of Orient Are. Uploaded by jared82ca. Accessed January 6, 2020.) The song is sung by Jennifer Avalon, accompanied by the lyrics (in English). Both the lyrics and the music were written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. circa 1857, then an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church, who was instrumental in organizing an elaborate holiday pageant (which featured this song) for the students of the General Theological Seminary in New York City while serving as the seminary's music director. The song tells the story of the Magi (found in the Bible's Book of Matthew Chapter 2) traveling to visit to the Christ Child, guided only by the Star of Bethlehem. Also, here's King's College Choir of Cambridge with the traditional "We Three Kings of Orient Are" hymn.  YouTube, uploaded by drwestbury. Accessed January 6, 2012.

   The Three Kings.  Image Credit: Dayton UMC

 

Birthdays

1567 - Richard Burbage,  English stage actor, theatre owner and painter, considered one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre in his time. He was a friend to William Shakespeare.

1838 - Max Bruch, German Romantic composer, teacher, and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertory. (Sharing a personal favourite, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 26, played by Akiko Suwanai, conducted by Eliahu Inbal, with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Turin, 1998. Uploaded by Roberto Mastrosimone. January 6, 2013.)  

1872 - Aleksander Scriabin,  Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin was influenced early in his life by the works of Frédéric Chopin, and composed works that are characterised by a highly tonal idiom. Below I've featured his Prometheus or Poem of Fire.  

1878 - Carl August Sandburg, Swedish-American writer, poet, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as "a major figure in contemporary literature", especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel. He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life", and at his death in 1967, then President Lyndon B. Johnson observed that "Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America."

1883 - Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected this title. He is best known as the author of The Prophet, which was first published in the United States in 1923 and is one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages. His other two notable works are The Madman and Broken Wings. (Kahlil Gibran. Poetry Foundation Org. Accessed January 6, 2018.)

1913 - Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young), American actress. She started as a child actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film The Farmer's Daughter, and received her second Academy Award nomination for her role in Come to the Stable. Young moved to the relatively new medium of television, where she had a dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show, from 1953 to 1961. The series earned three Emmy Awards, and was re-run successfully on daytime TV and later in syndication. In the 1980s, Young returned to the small screen and won a Golden Globe for her role in Christmas Eve in 1986.

 
1920 - John Maynard Smith, FRS, British tiologist (theoretical and mathematical) and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the well-known biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution with George R. Price, and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory. 

 
1931 - Capucine (born Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre), French Fashion Model and Actress, known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat?. She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990. Capucine met Audrey Hepburn while modeling for Givenchy in Paris. They remained close friends for the rest of Capucine's life.

1955 - Rowan Sebastian Atkinson, CBE, English comedian, actor and screenwriter, best known for sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean. Atkinson first came to prominence in the BBC sketch comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News, receiving the 1981 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance, and via his participation in The Secret Policeman's Ball. His other work includes the James Bond film Never Say Never Again, playing a bumbling vicar in Four Weddings and a Funeral. He featured in the BBC sitcom The Thin Blue Line. His work in theatre includes the 2009 West End revival of the musical Oliver!. Atkinson was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy in 2007, and among the top 50 comedians ever, in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians. He received an Olivier Award for his 1981 West End theatre performance in Rowan Atkinson in Revue. He has had cinematic success with his performances in the Mr. Bean film adaptations Bean and Mr. Bean's Holiday, and also in the Johnny English film series. He appeared as the titular character in Maigret. Atkinson was appointed a CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, January 6 - On This Day

 

Featuring the music of two birthday celebrant composers:

Max Bruch:  Miles Hoffmann plays Bruch's Romanze, Op.85, for viola and orchestra.



 

Aleksander Scriabin: Prometheus or the Poem of Fire, op. 60 for piano, chorus, large orchestra and "luce", a sort of color organ supposed to create the synaesthetical effects wished by the composer.

Historical Events

January 6 is Epiphany (Observed by Christians)

1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph.

1907 - Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, doctor, scientist, philosopher, humanitarian and feminist, opens her first school an daycare center for working-class children in Rome.