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October 4

1803 premiere of Luigi Cherubini's opera-ballet Anacréon at the Paris Opéra; was a complete failure, ending its run after only seven performances; the story of a love affair of the Ancient Greek poet Anacreon was completely alien to the spirit of the time; one critic complained that in his protagonist Cherubini had represented "an old debauchée disguised as an opera hero."

1910 premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's pantomime The Snowman at the Vienna Court Opera, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky; Korngold was 13 at the time.

1936 first performance of Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 1 'The Bells of Zlonice' in Prague (the work had been composed in 1865).

1941 first performance of Manuel Ponce's Concierto del sur for guitar and orchestra in Montevideo, Uruguay; dedicated to his long-time friend and guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia.

1945 first performance of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic led by Artur Rodzinski; simultaneous performances took place the next day by the Boston Symphony & Cleveland Orchestra); the original chamber orchestra version of Copland's complete ballet score (choreographed by Martha Graham) had premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, on October 30, 1944.

1949 John Aler – American tenor (died December 10, 2022); known for his interpretations of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Handel.

1959 first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, with soloist Mstislav Rostropovich, who had committed it to memory in four days; perhaps the most popular 20th Century cello concerto.

1991 first performance of Lou Harrison’s Homage to Pacifica over KPFA radio in Berkeley, California; written for the opening of the Berkeley Headquarters of the Pacifica Foundation; scored for gamelan, chorus, bassoon, harp, percussion, female voice and psaltery.

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