First Nights: Five Musical Premieres

First Nights encourages music lovers to listen to five key masterworks of the Western classical tradition with fresh ears, as if they were attending the premiers themselves. In clear, lively, and engaging prose, Kelly sets the scene for each of these "first nights," discussing the city, the concert hall, the audience, the composer, the musicians, the instruments, the performance, and the popular and critical response. Extracts from contemporary letters, press reports, account books, and other sources accompany the text in sidebars, along with well-chosen illustrations. These and other documents are quoted in full in separate documentary sections, together with guides to further listening and reading. This book is first and foremost a general-interest book, for people who enjoy going to concerts and listening to recordings, although they may have no formal musical training.

In his discussions of the premieres of five of the most significant musical works of the past four centuries, Kelly considers the composer, the cultural milieu, the production, and the reviews of each. The five are Monteverdi's Orfeo, a chamber opera mating poetry and music; Handel's Messiah, the first theatrically presented oratorio based on Scripture; the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, culmination of his career and the first symphony to end in choral song; Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, romantic music following an autobiographical program; and Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps, which introduced "primitive" idioms in dance and music to staid Parisian audiences. Each created a stir at its premiere, for instead of today's ritual of listening without comment, premieres of yesteryear drew applause, jeers, and demands to encore favorite parts during performance. Kelly describes why each masterpiece was composed, who sponsored it, who first heard it, and how its composer anticipated the future while being influenced by his own current culture. Aided by a wealth of pictures and documents, Kelly limns these five epoch-making debuts in engrossing detail. Alan Hirsch
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This is a unique and extremely attractive account of the premieres of five musical masterpieces spanning from 1607 to 1913: Monteverdi's opera Orfeo, Handel's oratorio Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, and Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du printemps. The focus of each essay is the actual premiere, but Kelly, who teaches a course called "First Nights" at Harvard, first places each event in its broader historical and cultural setting and then proceeds to fill in the scene with numerous interesting details and asides. One of North America's most prominent musicologists, Kelly paints a vivid and fascinating picture of each premiere by combining information taken from a number of sources, including letters, archival documents, and observations of the music itself. This should appeal to all music lovers. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.