MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: CLASSICALmanac.com
"Brigg Fair" is an English folk song. It is best known in a choral arrangement by Percy Grainger and a subsequent set of orchestral variations by Frederick Delius. In 1907, Delius heard the setting and was impressed by both the tune and the arrangement. With Grainger's permission, Delius used the song as the basis of an orchestral work. The first public performance was in Liverpool, on 18 January 1908, under Granville Bantock. There was an earlier private performance in 1907 shortly after completion in Basle under the direction of Hermann Suter. The work was dedicated to Grainger, who claimed to have suggested the form, which he described as in the manner of a passacaglia. 
Ulysses Simpson Kay, Jr. was an African American composer, conductor and professor who was born on January 7, 1917 in Tucson, Arizona. Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University has generously made his research entry on Kay available to AfriClassical.com He tells us young Ulysses was surrounded by music at home and began learning the piano at six, with the encouragement of an uncle who was a famous musician, King Oliver. The youth started learning the violin as well, at age 10, but at age 12 he dropped the piano and violin in favor of the alto saxophone. Ulysses formed a jazz quintet in which he played saxophone, and for which he composed and arranged music. 
1907 Birth of Dutch conductor and composer Willem van OTTERLOO in Winterswijk. d-Melbourne, Australia 1978. Director of Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. 
"Hark! The herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!'" The author of that immortal Christmas carol is himself commemorated today on the 300th anniversary of his birth. Charles Wesley, Anglican and co-founder with brother John of the Methodist movement, was born Dec. 18, 1707, in England. He is regarded as one of the greatest hymn writers of all time, according to the Charles Wesley Society, an ecumenical group formed to study Wesley's poetry and prose through music, theology, history and literature. 
Veronica Borisovna Dudarova was born on December 5, 1916, in Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan)...Dudarova is an outstanding symphony conductor of our time. She is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the only woman in the world to have headed large philharmonic orchestras for over half a century. 
1907 Birth of Hungarian composer Gyorgy RANKI in Budapest. d-Budapest, 1992. Popular works include Don Quixote y Dulcinea. 
Wilhelm Stenhammar died eighty years ago today, on November 20, 1927. At the beginning of the twentieth century Swedish born Stenhammar was the pre-eminent Scandinavian composer and pianist. He played his own First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Opera Orchestra conducted by Richard Strauss and with the Hallé conducted by Hans Richter, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch performed his concert overture Excelsior! 
1807 First Performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, in Vienna. 