Events in Music History in 1943

Ellington's Carnegie Debut

Jan 23 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time

Sinatra's Debut

Feb 6 Singer Frank Sinatra debuts on radio's "Your Hit Parade"

Tagus River Plane Crash

Feb 22 Plane crash in the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal kills 23 with 15 survivors including singer Jane Froman

  • Mar 31 Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "Oklahoma!" opens at the St. James Theatre, NYC; runs for 2,212 performances
  • Apr 28 1st performance of Marc Blitzstein's "Freedom Morning"

Present Laughter

Apr 29 Noël Coward's comic play "Present Laughter" premieres in London

  • Apr 30 Noël Coward's play "This Happy Breed" premieres in London; written in 1939, production was delayed by WWII

The Eve of St Mark

Jun 26 Maxwell Anderson's stage drama "The Eve of St Mark" closes at the Cort Theatre, NYC, after 307 performances

Stormy Weather

Jul 21 Musical film "Stormy Weather", directed by Andrew L. Stone, starring Bill Robinson, Lena Horne and Fats Waller (singing "Ain't Misbehavin'") premieres in the US

Music Premiere

Aug 11 Richard Strauss' Second Horn Concerto, premieres at the Salzburg Festival with Gottfried von Freiberg as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm

  • Oct 7 Weill, Perelman and Nash' musical "One Touch of Venus" premieres in NYC

Music History

Oct 19 Theater Guild presentation of Shakespeare's "Othello", starring Paul Robeson, opens at the Shubert Theater, NYC; runs for 296 performances

Music Premiere

Nov 3 Dmitri Shostakovich's 8th Symphony premieres in Moscow

  • Nov 6 "Catulli Carmina (Songs of Catullus)", the second work of Carl Orff's Trionfi cantata trilogy premieres at the Leipzig Opera

Girl Crazy

Nov 26 MGM releases last of 9 Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movies - "Girl Crazy", a film adaptation of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's stage musical

Requiem

Dec 3 Howard Hanson conducts premiere of his 4th Symphony ("Requiem") with the Boston Symphony; wins Pulitzer Prize for Music, 1944

  • Dec 20 "Internationale" is no longer used as USSR National Anthem
  • Dec 23 Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel & Gretel" becomes 1st complete opera to be telecast (WGRB, Schenectady, New York)