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May 9

1707 death of Dietrich Buxtehude – Danish-German organist and composer (age c. 70); one of the most important figures in Germany during the mid-baroque; his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach.

1740 Giovanni Paisiello – Italian (Neapolitan) composer (d.1816); his Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) was famous until Rossini's setting of the same libretto completely eclipsed Paisiello's.

1814 Adolf von Henselt – German pianist and composer (d.1889); it's unclear why he ceased all composition by the age of 30, but it is known that chronic stage fright, bordering on paranoia, ended his concert appearances by the age of 33.

1868 first performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in Linz, with the composer conducting; Bruckner gave it the nickname ‘das kecke Beserl’, roughly translated as ‘saucy maid’.

1893 professional premiere of Rachmaninoff's first opera Aleko in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater; written as a graduation work at the Moscow Conservatory where it had been performed a year earlier.

1950 Michel Beroff – French Jewish pianist and conductor of Bulgarian origin (74 years old).

1955 Anne Sophie von Otter – Swedish mezzo-soprano (69 years old); won an Edison Award for an album she recorded with Elvis Costello in 2001.