New year, new month, new theme. The Classics a Day team decided to look back 100 years. For the month of January, the challenge is to post classical works associated with 1923. They can be pieces composed in that year, premiered in that year, or received their first recording in that year. 

1923 was a pivotal year in classical music. As I soon discovered when I began my research. Here are my posts for the third week of #Classical1923.

01/16/23 Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 6

Sibelius began work on this symphony in 1914. He composed it concurrently with his fifth and seventh symphonies. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, premiered the work on 19 February 1923.

01/17/23 Leó Weiner: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 15

This concerto premiered in 1923. Weiner spent most of his career as a professor of composition at the Budapest Academy of Music. His students include Georg Solti, Janos Starker, and Anatol Dorati.

01/18/23 Edgard Varèse: Hyperprism

This premiered at an International Composers’ Guild concert in 1923. It was not well-received. “It remained for Varese to cause peaceful lovers of music to scream out their agony…”

1/19/23 Heitor Villa-Lobos: Nonet (“Impressão rápida de todo o Brasil”)

Villa-Lobos started writing the Nonet in January 1923 and finished it 9 months later. It’s one of the earliest works where Villa-Lobos uses Brazilian folk music.

01/20/23 Gabriel Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

Fauré wrote the trio at the urging of his publisher. He started it in 1920, and it was completed in February 1923. It was premiered in May 1923 and published later that same year.

Tags: #ClassicsaDay, Classical music, Edgard Varèse, Gabriel Fauré, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jean Sibelius, Leó Weiner, Twitter