Man, it seems like every post lately has the word “happy” in the title.
Happy this, and happy that…

Now, just so you know, I’m not necessarily known as the “happy” guy…
I used to tell all my friends it was my life-long goal to grow up to become a crotchety old fart.
And then they would invariably reply “… what do you mean by… ‘become’?”

 

Well, I have a whole new set of friends now…
But I’m still not the first one you think of when you think of a good times Charlie.

That makes me kind of…
Well…

Happy!

 

But today is the day on which we remember the birth of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok.
He was an ardent anti-fascist, and refused to perform in Germany after the rise of the Nazi party.
Fleeing to America, he died in 1945.

A seminal composer of the 20th century, his six string quartets are the epitome of the form, said by many to rival and extend the plateau achieved by a certain composer named Beethoven…

No less…

For your enjoyment, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

 

 

Another composer whose string quartets are amongst the highest level achieved is Dimitri Shostakovich, who arrived in New York on this date in 1949, on his first visit to the USA, and as part of a “Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace.”

Yeah…
Not so much…

But he did perform a piano reduction of a movement of his 5th symphony at Madison Square Garden, to great acclaim.

 

 

It’s a rather momentous day in classical music history…

Sort of…

 

 

 

 

Image found here.