Category Archives: Anniversary

On this day – Henri Dutilleux

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by Ben Hogwood Picture courtesy Wise Music Classical

Today marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Henri Dutilleux, one of the finest composers of the second half of the 20th century.

Dutilleux wrote distinctive music notable for its colour, clarity and concision, with works for orchestra and piano in particular that have proved both compelling and durable.

You can listen to two of these stand out works below – beginning with Métaboles, an orchestral work completed in 1964 and notable for its original orchestration and intensity:

Meanwhile Timbres, espace, movement, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting La nuit étoilée (The Starry Night), was completed in 1978. The work is remarkably brought to life in this account:

Published post no.2,775 – Thursday 22 January 2026

On this day – Frank Bridge: 3 Idylls for String Quartet

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by Ben Hogwood Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The gentleman in the fuzzy image above, Frank Bridge, died on this day in 1941. The importance of Bridge to English music continues to be underestimated, as indeed does his originality as a composer.

Bridge exerted a keen influence on his pupil, the young Benjamin Britten, but pushed his own music to the edge of tonality without losing its appeal. Compositions that are testament to his ability include Oration, for cello and orchestra, the pictorial orchestral works The Sea, Enter Spring, Summer and There is a willow grows aslant a brook, four string quartets and two piano trios.

Yet the piece I wanted to highlight today comes from earlier in his career, a winsome trio of Idylls for string quartet completed in 1906. The second provided Britten with a theme for his Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge some three decades later. If you listen to all three you get a strong dose of English charm, wit and romantic yearning, along with a little mystery. You can listen to these wonderful pieces below, played by the Maggini Quartet:

Published post no.2,763 – Saturday 10 January 2026

On this day – the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ in 1892

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by Ben Hogwood. Image by Charles Reutlinger, used courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day in 1892, the first performance took place of Tchaikovsky’s popular seasonal ballet The Nutcracker Op.71, a musical and staged interpretation of Alexandre Dumas’s French version of the E.T.A. Hoffmann fairy-tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King.

The premiere was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, conducted by Riccardo Drigo, and found favour with the Czar, but not so much the public, who preferred the shorter Nutcracker Suite Tchaikovsky fashioned from the ballet.

Here is the full ballet, with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin:

Published post no.2,752 – Thursday 18 December 2025

On this day – the first performance of Nielsen’s Sixth Symphony ‘Sinfonia semplice’ in Copenhagen

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by Ben Hogwood. Image of Carl Nielsen in 1917 – unknown credit, used courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day 100 years ago – the first performance of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony no.6, the Sinfonia Semplice, took place in Copenhagen.

To mark the anniversary, Linn Records made a very intriguing release in September of a special version of the symphony. As the page for the album states, “conductor Ryan Wigglesworth joins Royal Academy of Music’s outstanding young musicians to revisit the composer’s later period. This recording showcases two works by Nielsen in two spellbinding arrangements by fellow-Dane Hans Abrahamsen. The No 6 ‘Sinfonia semplice’, written during a period of declining health, is viewed by some as a strongly ironic work. However, its lightness is also deeply sincere. With its crystalline weightlessness, Abrahamsen’s chamber arrangement reclaims both the quizzical spirit and sense of fragility in the original.

You can hear the album on Tidal by following the link below:

https://tidal.com/album/446995399/u

Published post no.2,745 – Thursday 11 December 2025

On this day – the birth of Olivier Messiaen

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by Ben Hogwood. Image by Studio Harcourt – RMN, used courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day in 1908, the composer Olivier Messiaen was born…which gives Arcana the perfect excuse to post a performance of his remarkable seasonal composition for organ, La Nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of the Lord or The Birth of the Saviour), completed in 1935.

To quote from my live encounter with the piece in 2019, “Nothing is ever done by halves with this particular French composer, and his response came in the form of a massive, nine-movement organ suite lasting just over an hour. For Messiaen, contemplation is achieved through massive added-note chords, complex rhythms and large structures. Each section in this 1935 work responds to images from the birth of Jesus, and it is one of the composer’s first works to use birdsong melodies and rhythms from India and Ancient Greece.”

You can enjoy the work in concert below, given by Richard McVeigh from York Minster – with the accompaniment of a score showing the organist’s markings:

Published post no.2,744 – Wednesday 10 December 2025