1971
East Pakistan breaks from West Pakistan and declares itself independent as Bangladesh • The Vietnam War continues • The UN finally admits Communist China as a member state; Taiwan leaves the UN • Northern Ireland: internment of IRA members; violent protests with fatalities follow • Coup d’etat in Uganda: General Idi Amin ousts President Milton Obote and seizes power • Apollo 15 (US) lands on the Moon and two astronauts drive a lunar vehicle on the Moon’s surface • Intel invent the microprocessor • John Lennon (Eng) song Imagine • David Hockney (Eng) paints Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy • Frederick Forsyth (Eng): The Day of the Jackal
1972
Northern Ireland: Bloody Sunday; British fire on protestors killing 14, wounding 13 • US president Richard Nixon (reelected this year) visits the USSR and China • The USA and USSR agree a treaty to halt nuclear arms race • Pakistan withdraws from the British Commonwealth and SEATO • The Vietnam War continues: North Vietnamese forces advance into South Vietnam; US aircraft bomb Hanoi and Haiphong • Arab terrorists kidnap and kill 11 members of the Israeli team at the Olympic Games in Munich (Ger) • First digital-display watch marketed • Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture: Conversation with Magic Stones • Film: The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
1973
The Watergate Scandal: seven men accused of burgling and trying to bug Democratic Party headquarters in Watergate building, Washington D.C.; and of trying to ‘bug’ it; rumours of White house involvement • Military coup d’etat in Chile • Yom Kippur War: Egyptian and Syrian troops invade Israel; ceasefire imposed after three weeks of fighting • Arab countries double the price of their oil, causing an energy crisis in Western countries • Relays of American astronauts dock their vehicles with the Skylab space station • USSR launches four probes to Mars • Drought in Ethiopia leaves more than 50,000 dead • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russ): The Gulag Archipelago • Richard Adams (Eng): Watership Down
1974
The Watergate scandal escalates; President Richard Nixon resigns; he is succeeded by Vice-President Gerald R. Ford • Army officers in Ethiopia depose Emperor Haille Selassie • Inflation hits all parts of the world • Arab states lift embargo on oil supplies to the USA • Alexander Calder (US): Flamingo sculpture unveiled in Chicago’s Federal Plaza
1975
The Vietnam War ends as South Vietnamese resistance collapses; a Communist provisional revolutionary government is established • Mozambique and Angola become independent • Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies; the monarchy is restored with Prince Juan Carlos as king • CN Tower in Toronto (Can) is completed
John Lennon (right) performing in 1964 at the height of Beatlemania
John Winston Ono Lennon[a] MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, and peace activist who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. He and fellow member Paul McCartney formed a much-celebrated songwriting partnership. Along with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the group would ascend to worldwide fame during the 1960s.
1971
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Jesus Christ Superstar.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started as a rock opera concept album before its Broadway debut in 1971. The musical is mostly sung-through, with little spoken dialogue. The story is loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the last week of Jesus's life, beginning with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ending with the crucifixion. It depicts political and interpersonal struggles between Judas Iscariot and Jesus that are not present in the Bible.
Jesus Christ Superstar Company
Jesus of Nazareth…………Dane Donahue
Judas Iscariot…………W. Dorian Harewood
Mary Magdalene…………Ann Brady
Pontius Pilate…………Daryl Wagner
King Herod / Peter…………Timothy Sens
Simon Zealotes…………Nikki Tyler
Caiaphas…………Andy Robinson
Annas…………Erich Barnes, Jr.
Women in “Peter’s Denial”…………Joyce Gordon, Shary Smith, Nikki Tyler
Track Listing
Act 1:
Overture / Heaven On Their Minds
What’s The Buzz / Strange Thing, Mystifying / Everything’s Alright
This Jesus Must Die
Hosanna
Simon Zealotes / Poor Jerusalem
Pilate’s Dream
The Temple
Everything’s Alright / I Don’t Know How To Love Him
Damned For All Time / Blood Money
Act 2:
The Last Supper
Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)
The Arrest / Peter’s Denial
Pilate And Christ
King Herod’s Song
Judas’ Death
Trial Before Pilate / Superstar
Crucifixion
Take My Mother Home
12 August
Heitor Villa-Lobos – Yerma, Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Premiere cast 12 August 1971.
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Yerma - Atto I
Yerma, opera lirica in tre atti su libretto dell'Autore, tratto da un lavoro teatrale di Federico García Lorca - Orquestra Sinfônica, Coro e Coro Infantil do Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro diretti da Mario Tavares - Rio de Janeiro 1983
Yerma: Aurea Gomes, soprano
Juan: Benito Maresca, tenore
Maria: Ruth Staerke, soprano
Victor: Carmo Barbosa, baritono
1ª velha: Diva Peranti, soprano
2ª velha: Angela Barros, mezzosoprano
3ª velha: Conceição Gonçalves, mezzosoprano
4ª velha: Antonieta Panfili, soprano
5ª velha: Silea Stopatto, mezzosoprano
6ª velha: Raquel Calazans, mezzosoprano
1ª moça: Lahia Rachid, soprano
2ª moça: Iara Abreu, mezzosoprano
1ª cunhada: Ivanesca Duarte, soprano
2ª cunhada: Geisa Vidal, mezzosoprano
1ª mulher: Celia Coutinho, soprano
2ª mulher: Angela Barros, mezzosoprano
Fêmea: Creusa Kost, mezzosoprano
1º homem: Zacharia Marques, tenore
2º homem: Ataíde Beck, baritono
Macho: Renato Roné, baritono
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Yerma - Atto II
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Yerma - Atto III
6 April
Igor Stravinsky dies in New York, aged 88. A funeral ceremony is held there three days later, after which his body is flown to Venice. He is interred on the island of San Michele, close to the grave of Diaghilev.
16 May
The BBC broadcasts the first performance of Benjamin Britten’s television-opera Owen Wingrave.
Benjamin Britten - "Owen Wingrave"
The " Peace Aria" from Act II of "Owen Wingrave" by Benjamin Britten with Luxon as Wingrave and Janet Baker as Kate; with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer. 1971.
8 September
Leonard Bernstein integrates stylised rock, blues, folk and brass band music into his non-liturgical Mass, first performed for the inauguration of the Kennedy Center in Washington. Examining a crisis of faith in the 20th century, the music-theatre piece receives some harsh criticism, with conservatives denouncing the libretto as profane and critics unconvinced by Bernstein’s melding of styles.
MASS by Leonard Bernstein
Alan Titus, CELEBRANT
THE NORMAN SCRIBNER CHOIR
THE BERKSHIRE BOY CHOIR
Maurice Peress, Musical Director
Orchestra Conducted by LEONARD BERNSTEIN
10 December
The intricate, glistening polyphony of György Ligeti’s orchestral piece Melodien is heard for the first time, in Nuremberg.
György Ligeti - Melodien (1/2)
Schönberg Ensemble
Reinbert de Leeuw
György Ligeti - Melodien (2/2)
1972
Lloyd Webber - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Lloyd Webber & Rice) –
Productions:1972 Edinburgh International Festival
1973 West End
1974 UK full-length production
1982 Broadway
Lloyd Webber - Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Really Useful Films, 1999
Close Every Door 0:27:30
Act One
[2:19] Prologue
[4:12] Any Dream Will Do
[6:32] Jacob and Sons/Joseph's Coat
[12:20] Joseph's Dreams
[15:08] Poor, Poor Joseph
[17:34] One More Angel in Heaven
[22:58] Potiphar
[28:08] Close Every Door
[32:03] Go, Go, Go Joseph
Act Two
[38:10] Pharaoh Story
[41:11] Poor, Poor Pharaoh
[43:20] Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows)
[46:53] Pharaoh's Dreams Explained
[48:15] Stone the Crows
[50:45] Those Canaan Days
[56:44] The Brothers Come to Egypt/Grovel, Grovel
[1:01:01] Who's the Thief?
[1:03:08] Benjamin Calypso
[1:06:10] Joseph All the Time
[1:07:20] Jacob in Egypt
[1:07:56] Finale: Any Dream Will Do/Give Me My Colored Coat
[1:12:05] Joseph Megamix
8 January
Dmitri Shostakovich considers past and present in his Symphony No. 15, successfully introduced in Moscow. His final symphony quotes Rossini's William Tell overture, as well as material from Wagner's Ring cycle and Tristan und Isolde.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Kirill Kondrashin
I. Allegretto 00:00
II. Adagio. Largo. Adagio. Largo 07:03
III. Allegretto 21:02
IV. Adagio. Allegretto. Adagio. Allegretto 25:18
22 June
Beethoven and the blues stimulate Michael Tippett in his two-part Third Symphony, premiered in London under Colin Davies with the soprano Heather Harper and the London Symphony Orchestra. The works design and emotional journey look to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony—Tippett repeatedly quotes the thunderous passage that announces the Ninths finale, as if to reinforce the point.
Michael Tippett: Symphony No. 3 (1972)
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Richard Hickox
Part I / Primera Parte (0:00)
Part II / Segunda Parte (28:23)
12 July
Peter Maxwell Davies's opera Taverner (1968) debuts under Edward Downes at Covent Garden, London.
Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner, opera lirica in due atti su libretto dell'Autore op. 45. -I-
London Voices e New London Children's Choir diretti da Ronald Corp e Peter Ford --- BBC Symphony Orchestra, Fretwork e His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts diretti da Oliver Knussen ---
Atto I
Scene 1: A Courtroom
Transition
Scene 2: The Chapel
Transition
Scene 3: The Throne Room
Scene 4: The same
John Taverner: Martyn Hill, tenore
Jester: David Wilson-Johnson, basso
King, Captain, Archangel Michael: Stephen Richardson, basso
Rose Parrowe e Virgin Mary: Fiona Kimm, mezzosoprano
Priest, God: Michael Chance, controtenore
White Abbot: Quentin Hayes, baritono
Richard Taverner: Peter Sidhom, basso
Cardinal, Archbishop: Stuart Kale, tenore
1st Monk, Archangel Gabriel: John Graham Hall, tenore
2nd Monk, Antichrist: Peter Hall, tenore
Boy: Tom Jackman, voce bianca
Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner -II-
Atto II
Scene 1: The Courtroom
Transition
Scene 2: The Throne Room
Transition
Scene 3: The Chapel
Transition
Scene 4: The Market-place in Boston, Lincolnshire
27 January
Scott Joplin - Treemonisma.
Treemonisha (1911) is an opera by African-American composer Scott Joplin, who is most noted for his ragtime piano works. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera". The music of Treemonisha includes an overture and prelude, along with various recitatives, choruses, small ensemble pieces, a ballet, and a few arias.
Treemonisha - Scott Joplin - Houston Grand Opera
9 April
Morton Feldman's tender Rothko Chapel for soprano, alto, mixed choir, percussion and viola, is first performed in Houston, Texas. This deeply reflective work commemorates the composer s friend, the artist Mark Rothko, who committed suicide two years earlier.
Morton Feldman, Rothko Chapel
- Les Cris de Paris - Ensemble Intercontemporain
John Stulz, alto
Géraldine Dutronc, célesta
Samuel Favre, percussions
Adèle Carlier, soprano solo
Les Cris de Paris
Gregor A. Mayrhofer, direction
Enregistré en direct le 24.02.2017 à la Cité de la musique
20 August
Karlheinz Stockhausen and three fellow musicians create Goldstaub (Gold Dust), following a four-day preparation period of fasting in silence and solitary confinement. Drawn from the composers 15 ‘intuitive’ text compositions collectively entitled Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days, 1968), the work is an improvisation on single sounds for performers of heightened awareness. It is recorded for posterity at Stockhausen's home in Kurten.
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Goldstaub (1/4)
Karlheinz Stockhausen, voice, conch trumpet, large cowbell, keisu, 14 rin, key and jar of water, kandy-drum, ring of bells
Peter Eötvös, electronics
Herbert Henck, vocals, sitar, saucepan partly filled, 2 little bells, ship's Bell
Michael Vetter, voice, recorder
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Goldstaub (2/4)
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Goldstaub (3/4)
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Goldstaub (4/4)
1 June
Harrison Birtwistle takes inspiration from the 16th-century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel in his funereal orchestral piece The Triumph of Time, introduced in London. It is one of the composers most acclaimed and accessible concert works.
Harrison Birtwistle - Triumph of Time (1/2)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez
Harrison Birtwistle - Triumph of Time (2/2)
12 October
Witold Lutostawski’s Preludes and Fugue for 13 solo strings is first heard in Graz, Austria.
Witold Lutoslawski - Preludes and Fugue for 13 Solo Strings
Warsaw National Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra - Recorded at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1973
1973
Dmitri Shostakovich - 6 poems by Marina Tsvetayeva (Op. 143)
Shostakovich - 6 poems by Marina Tsvetayeva (Op. 143)
I. Moi stikhi 00:00
II. Otkuda takaja nezhnost? 03:26
III. Dialog Gamleta s sovest'ju 06:39
IV. Po 'et i Car' 09:44
V. Net, byl baraban 11:08
VI. Anne Akhmatovoj 13:37
Jadwiga Rappe -alto
Maja Nosowska -piano
19 July
Commissioned by Perkins Engines Ltd. of Peterborough, Krzysztof Penderecki’s textural Symphony No. 1 premieres under the composer’s direction at Peterborough Cathedral, Northamptonshire. Of this piece he later states, "I made an attempt to summarise the twenty years of my music experience, of avant-garde, radical pursuits’.
Krzysztof Penderecki - Symphony 1.
Performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Katowice), conducted by Antoni Wit.
23 January
Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 3 (1971) is introduced in New York. The work gains the composer his second Pulitzer Prize.
Elliott Carter - String quartet No.3
Juilliard String Quartet
Dedicated to the Juilliard String Quartet
16 June
Restrained yet intense, Benjamin Britten’s semi-serialist Death in Venice opens at Aldeburgh with Peter Pears as the troubled writer Aschenbach. The composer’s final opera, to a libretto by Myfanwy Piper based on Thomas Mann’s novel, comes just two years after Luchino Visconti’s cinematic adaptation, famously featuring the music of Mahler. Britten is largely inactive at this time, having recently undergone surgery to replace a failing heart valve.
Benjamin Britten - Death in Venice
Sir Peter Pears-Gustav
John Shirley-Quirk--Traveller, Fop, Gondolier, Hotel Manager, Barber, Dionysus
James Bowman--Apollo
Kenneth Bowen--Hotel Porter
Steuart Bedford--Conductor
English Chamber Orchestra
20 August
Karajan conducts the first performance of the opera De Tempomm Fine Comoedia, Carl Orff’s last major work.
Orff - “De Temporum Fine Comoedia”
È stato presentata in anteprima al Festival di Salisburgo il 20 agosto 1973, da Herbert von Karajan, che ha diretto la Colonia Radio Symphony Orchestra ed Anna Tomowa-Sintow nel ruolo di Sibylls e Christa Ludwig come Stimmen.
15 October
György Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds for 12-part female chorus and orchestra makes its spellbinding minimalist entrance in Graz, Austria. The inspiration of the piece derives from an essay by philosopher Karl Raimund Popper ('Clouds and Clocks’, 1966), which addresses issues of determinism and free will.
Clocks & Clouds - The Ligeti Project
Siegfried Palm (violoncelle)
Frank Peter Zimmerman (violon)
Katalina Karolyi (mezzo)
Cappella Amsterdam
Amadinda Percussion Ensemble - Asko Ensemble
Schoenberg Ensemble - Dirigés par Reinbert de Leeuw
12 November
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fourteenth String Quartet premieres in Leningrad.
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 14, Op. 142
1974
Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, are allowed to leave the Soviet Union. They eventually settle in the United States.
Mstislav Rostropovich with wife Galina Vishnevskaya in 1965
Dmitri Shostakovich - Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, op 145
Shostakovich - Suite on Poems by Michelangelo - Poems op.145a
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Truth - Morning - Love - Separation - Wrath - Dante - Exile - Creativity - Night - Death - Immortality
Iannis Xenakis - Erikhton
Hiroaki Ooï, piano
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Arturo Tamayo, conductor
Iannis Xenakis creates the wild and arresting compositions Erikhthon (for piano and orchestra) and Noomena (for orchestra) using arborescent graphic notation.
1 June
Philip Glass, with his Philip Glass Ensemble, presents his minimalist marathon Music in Twelve Parts at New York’s Town Hall. The total performing time for the work is in excess of four hours, so they break in the middle for supper.
Iannis Xenakis - Erikhton
Hiroaki Ooï, piano
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Arturo Tamayo, conductor
22 June
French composer Darius Milhaud dies in Geneva, aged 81.
20 October
Hans Werner Henze’s ambitious Tristan, scored for piano, orchestra and tape, pays homage to Wagner in London. Conductor Colin Davis tries to coordinate with the tape without using a stopwatch, resulting in all round confusion.
Henze: Tristan - Preludes for piano, tape and orchestra
I. Prolog (Prologue) [0:00]
II. Lamento (Lament) [5:10]
III. Prelude and Variations (Präludium und Variationen) [11:12]
IV. Tristan's Folly (Tristans Wahnsinn) [20:21]
V. Adagio - Burla (Valse) - Burla II (alla turca) - Ricercare I - Burla III (Marcia) -
Ricercare II [26:06]
VI. Epilog (Epilogue) [31:44]
Homero Francesch, piano
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester,
Hans Werner Henze, 1975
15 November
Dmitri Shostakovich’s sombre and introspective Fifteenth String Quartet is introduced by the Taneyev Quartet in Leningrad.
Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 15 in E flat minor, Op. 144
Emerson String Quartet, 1994 (Live at Harris Concert Hall, Aspen, Colorado, USA)
00:00 - I. Elegy: Adagio
12:42 - II. Serenade: Adagio
18:28 - III. Intermezzo: Adagio
20:07 - IV. Nocturne: Adagio
24:38 - V. Funeral March: Adagio molto
29:14 - VI. Epilogue: Adagio
20 November
Olivier Messiaen’s Des canyons aux etoiles, for piano, percussion and small orchestra, is premieres in New York.
Olivier Messiaen - Des canyons aux étoiles.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung
Piano Soloist: Roger Muraro
Horn Soloist: Jean-Jacques Justafré
Part 1:
0:00:01 I - Le désert
0:03:57 II - Les Orioles
0:10:13 III - Ce qui est écrit sur les étoiles
0:16:33 IV - Le Cossyphe d'Heuglin (piano solo)
0:21:23 V - Cedar Breaks et le Don de Crainte
Part 2:
0:29:12 VI - Appel insterstellaire (horn solo)
0:34:39 VII - Bryce Canyon et les rochers rouge-orange
Part 3:
0:47:59 VIII - Les ressuscités et le chant de l'étoile Aldébaran
0:56:22 IX - Le Moqueur polyglotte (piano solo)
1:07:33 X - La Grive des bois
1:12:29 XI - Omao, Leiothrix, Elepaio, Shama
1:21:26 XII - Zion Park et la Cité céleste
1975
Chicago is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Jazz Age Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
The original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre
All That Jazz - Chicago - (2002)
Chicago - I Can't Do It Alone - (2002)
Chicago - Hot Honey Rag - (2002)
27 March
Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen’s Music, dies in London, aged 83.
9 August
Dmitri Shostakovich dies from lung cancer in Moscow, aged 68. Thousands pay their respects five days later, filing past the composer’s body as it rests in state at the Moscow Conservatory
16 December
Viktor Ullmann - Der Kaiser von Atlantis.
Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis), composed by Viktor Ullmann at Terezm concentration camp in 1944, receives its posthumous premiere in Amsterdam. Both Ullmann and his librettist, Petr Kien, were executed at Auschwitz shortly after completing the opera.
Theresienstadt concentration camp
On 8 September 1942 he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Up to his deportation his list of works had reached 41 opus numbers and contained an additional three piano sonatas, song cycles on texts by various poets, operas, and the piano concerto Op. 25, which he finished in December 1939, nine months after the entry of German troops into Prague. Most of these works are missing. The manuscripts presumably disappeared during the occupation. Thirteen printed items, which Ullmann published privately and entrusted to a friend for safekeeping, have survived.
The particular nature of the camp at Theresienstadt enabled Ullmann to remain active musically: he was a piano accompanist, organized concerts ("Collegium musicum", "Studio for New Music"), wrote critiques of musical events, and composed, as part of a cultural circle including Karel Ančerl, Rafael Schachter, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, and other prominent musicians imprisoned there. He wrote: "By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon. Our endeavor with respect to arts was commensurate with our will to live."
On 16 October 1944 he was deported to the camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where on 18 October 1944 he was killed in the gas chambers.
Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898, in Teschen – 18 October 1944, in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau) was a Silesia-born Austrian composer, conductor and pianist.
Der Kaiser von Atlantis - Viktor Ullmann
Ópera de Cámara del Teatro Colón, 2006
Dirección musical Guillermo Brizzio
Kaiser Overall: Luciano Garay
Der Tod: Hernán Iturralde
Der Lautsprecher: Gui Gallardo
Harlekin: Enrique Folger
Bubikopf: Laura Rizzo
Der Trommler: Alejandra Malvino
Ein Soldat: Gabriel Renaud
Der Kaiser von Atlantis - Viktor Ullmann.
Composed in Theresienstadt nazi ghetto (1943-44) by a a jew composer, after some performance, the SS forbid the spectacle. Ullmann died (gazed) in Auschwitz several months later. Short opera but very emotional (influence : Weill, Strauss... and Ullmann evidently; rich composer).
Michael Kraus : Kaiser
Der Lautsprecher : Franz Mazura
Ein soldat : Martin Petzold
Bubikopf : Christiane Oelze
Der Tod : Walter Berry
Harlekin : Herbert Lippert
Der trommler : Iris Vermillion
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig by Lothar Zagrosek
