Composers' Early Successes

Most of the music on this program was written by teenagers: Mendelssohn was seventeen years old when he composed his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rachmaninov completed his First Piano Concerto and Strauss his First Horn Concerto at age eighteen, and nineteen-year-old Shostakovich submitted his First Symphony as a graduation exercise from the Petrograd Conservatory. The overtures to Verdi’s Nabucco and Wagner’s Rienzi—early triumphs for both composers—complete the program.

Wagner Overture to Rienzi
Daniel Barenboim conductor
1999 (Teldec)

Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 11
Daniel Barenboim conductor
Dale Clevenger horn
1998 (Teldec)

Stravinsky Fireworks, Op. 4
Pierre Boulez conductor
1992 (Deutsche Grammophon) 

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 1
Fritz Reiner conductor
Byron Janis piano
1957 (RCA)

Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Jean Martinon conductor
1967 (RCA)

Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10
Leonard Bernstein conductor
1988 (Deutsche Grammophon)

Production
Brian Wise producer
Charlie Post audio engineer
Lisa Simeone host

25-29

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