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April 8

1692 Giuseppe Tartini – Italian composer, violinist and theorist (d.1770); his most famous work is the ‘Devil's Trill’ Sonata, a solo violin sonata with a number of technically demanding double stop trills, difficult even by modern standards.

1708 premiere of Handel’s oratorio La Resurrezione (The Resurrection) at the Bonelli Palace in Rome, with Arcangelo Corelli leading the orchestra.

1876 premiere of Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda (The Happy Woman, meant ironically) at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; its ballet music is the best known excerpt from the score: The Dance of the Hours.

1894 first performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, in Graz; the composer was too sick to attend and so missed what turned out to be the only chance he would have to hear this work performed by an orchestra.

1927 first performance of Arcana by Edgard Varèse; the Philadelphia Orchestra was led by Leopold Stokowski.

1949 first performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 ‘The Age of Anxiety’ by the Boston Symphony conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, with composer as piano soloist.