1723 Carl Friedrich Abel – German composer (d.1787); renowned player of the viola da gamba and composed music for that instrument; one of his works became famous due to a misattribution: in the 19th century, a manuscript symphony in the hand of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was catalogued as his Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat K 18, and was published in the first complete edition of Mozart's works, but it was actually a symphony by Abel (Op 6 No. 7), copied by Mozart for study purposes while he was visiting London in 1764.
1808 first performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’ and the Choral Fantasy; Greg Mitchell wrote in the Huffington Post: “The Greatest Concert Ever! Fellow geezers: Forget the Beatles at Shea Stadium, Dylan in Manchester, the Stones at Altamont, Springsteen at the Bottom…On December 22, 1808, Beethoven himself rented a hall in Vienna and promoted the concert to end all concerts: the debut, over four hours, of three of the greatest works in the history of music: his Fifth Symphony, the Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony, and the astounding Piano Concerto No. 4, plus selections from his amazing Mass in C Major, and in closing, the wonderful Choral Fantasia (forerunner to his Ninth Symphony). A bonus: improvisations by the maestro.”
1853 Teresa Carreño – Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor (d.1917); the Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas is named after her, as is a crater on Venus; what a life! – in 1863 (age 10) she performed for Abraham Lincoln at the White House; in 1876, made her debut as an opera singer in Europe; Franz Liszt offered her lessons, but she declined; performed at the promenade concerts of Henry Wood, who wrote: "It is difficult to express adequately what all musicians felt about this great woman who looked like a queen among pianists - and played like a goddess. The instant she walked onto the platform her steady dignity held her audience who watched with riveted attention while she arranged the long train she habitually wore. Her masculine vigor of tone and touch and her marvelous precision on executing octave passages carried everyone completely away."
1858 Giacomo Puccini – Italian composer (d.1924); often called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi"; adopted and became one of the leading exponents of the verismo style; biographer Julian Budden: “No composer communicates more directly with an audience than Puccini. Indeed, for many years he has remained a victim of his own popularity…Be it remembered, however, that Verdi's melodies were once dismissed as barrel-organ fodder. The truth is that music that appeals immediately to a public becomes subject to bad imitation, which can cast a murky shadow over the original. So long as counterfeit Puccinian melody dominated the world of sentimental operetta, many found it difficult to come to terms with the genuine article. Now that the current coin of light music has changed, the composer admired by Schoenberg, Ravel, and Stravinsky can be seen to emerge in his full stature.”
1874 Franz Schmidt – Austrian composer, cellist and pianist (d.1939); accusations of Nazi sympathies (probably false) have put his posthumous reputation under a cloud; his magnum opus is an oratorio, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (The Book with Seven Seals) set to a text from Revelation, premiered Vienna in 1938,
1883 Edgard Varèse – French-born American composer (d.1965); coined the term ‘organized sound’ in reference to his own musical aesthetic; one of his biggest fans was the American guitarist and composer Frank Zappa whose final project was The Rage and the Fury, a recording of the works of Varèse.
1885 Deems Taylor – American composer, music critic and promoter of classical music (d.1966); appeared in Disney's Fantasia.