Victor Herbert - 150th Anniversary

[jlaurson]

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=456

On this day 150 years ago, Victor Herbert was born in Dublin. A cellist, he studied at the Stuttgart conservatory and played in the opera orchestra. In 1886 he went to New York to join the Theodore Thomas Orchestra (which, later and in re-founded form, would become the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). From 1898 until 1904 Herbert was the conductor of the three-year old Pittsburgh Symphony, being instrumental in its rise to become one of the major orchestras of the country. Later he founded his own touring "Victor Herbert Orchestra" which mainly played light music (much of which came from Herbert's own pen) around the country. In 1914 he was one of the co-founders of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

He wrote over 40 operettas and two operas (Natoma, 1911 and Madeleine, 1914) but his most lasting composition is his 1894 Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, which Dvořák claimed to have inspired him to write his.

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[B_cereus]

i recently got Gautier Capucon's new CD of the Dvorak cello concerto coupled with the Herbert that inspired it.



it's such a rarely played or recorded piece that it's nice to see it available to listeners, most of whom probably never heard it before (well i certainly hadn't)