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.  

1894 - Scottish inventor William Kennedy Laurie Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film - a strip of images on a wheel passed in front of an illuminated lens. 

1904 - Marconi International Marine Communication Company introduces a distress signal CQD, building on the general call code CQ. Two years later it is replaced by SOS.

1927 - The first commercial transatlantic telephone call is made from New York city to London, 90 years after Alexander Graham Bell patented his electro-dynamic transmitter/receiver telephone. 

1953 - President Harry Truman announces the U.S. has developed a hydrogen bomb that is a thousand times more powerful than the existing atomic bomb.

1980 - The People of India in a landslide election vote Indira Gandhi back into power less than 3 years after rejecting her. She ruled India previously for 11 years. 

1999 - U.S. President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial begins. the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice arise from his relationship with white House intern Monica Lewinsky. 



Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org



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