#Classicsaday #Classical1924 Week 4
By Ralph Graves
It’s become an annual tradition. For the first month of the new year, the Classics a Day team looks back a century. So the challenge for January 2024 is to post performances of classical works that were either composed, premiered, or first recorded in 1924.
It turns out 1924 was a landmark year for classical music. Here are my posts for the fourth week of #Classical1924.
01/22/24 Arnold Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op. 26
This work was one of the first Schoenberg composed in his 12-tone technique. It was completed in 1924 and premiered in September of that year.
01/23/24 Alban Berg: Three Fragments from “Wozzeck”
Berg completed “Wozzeck” in 1922. The complete opera premiered in 1925. But in 1924 these three excerpts were premiered. Their success helped establish Berg’s reputation as a major composer.
01/25/24 Alexander von Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony
Zemlinsky completed this work in 1923. It received its premiere performance in Prague in 1924 with Zemlinsky conducting.
01/26/24 Igor Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Stravinsky finished this work in Paris in 1924. He retained the performance rights, allowing no one but himself to perform the concerto. He said it was to protect the work from “incompetent or Romantic hands.”
