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March 18

1844 Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Russian composer (d.1908); member of the group of composers known as ‘The Five’ and a master of orchestration; believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music.

1882 Gian Francesco Malipiero – Italian composer, musicologist, editor and teacher (d.1973); first editor of the collected works of Monteverdi and Vivaldi; his musical language is characterized by an extreme formal freedom.

1902 first performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string sextet in Vienna by the Rosé Quartet and two extra players; considered his earliest important work; inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem of the same name, combined with the influence of the composer's strong feelings for Mathilde von Zemlinsky (the sister of his teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky), whom he would later marry.

1927 first performance of the original version of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski and the composer as soloist; on the same program was the premiere performance of Rachmaninoff's Three Russian Songs for chorus and orchestra (dedicated to Stokowski); a revised (and much shortened) version of the concerto premiered in Philadelphia on October 17, 1941, with Eugene Ormandy conducting and the composer again as soloist.

1943 Nobuko Imai – Japanese violist (81 years old); teaches in the Conservatory of Amsterdam and in Switzerland.

1950 James Conlon – American conductor (74 years old); current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera, and Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony in Torino, Italy, since 2016.