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Henry Kimball Hadley (20 December 1871 – 6 September 1937) was an American composer and conductor, born in Somerville, Massachusetts.
He conducted the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1909 to 1911 and founded the San Francisco Symphony in 1911. Hadley was invited by Warner Bros. to conduct The New York Philharmonic for the soundtrack music for its 1926 film, Don Juan with John Barrymore; this was the first feature film with synchronized music and sound effects. He was also filmed with the New York Philharmonic conducting the overture to Wagner's opera Tannhauser. He wrote a complete original score for the 1927 Barrymore film When a Man Loves.
Hadley was also a guiding spirit of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and particularly in establishing the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood, Massachusetts in 1934. Serge Koussevitsky, the Boston Symphony's music director from 1924 to 1949, became the director of the festival in 1936. Hadley was also a talented composer, whose music is largely neglected today, and he promoted contemporary music in his concerts. Hadley died in New York City, New York. The majority of his personal papers and scores are housed in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
[edit] Major works
- Symphony No. 1, "Youth and Life," 1897
- "Herod" Overture, 1901
- Symphony No. 2, "The Four Seasons," 1902
- "Salome," tone poem for orchestra, 1905-06
- Symphony No. 3 in B minor, Op. 60, 1906-07
- "The Culprit Fay," Rhapsody for Orchestra, Op. 62, 1908
- "Lucifer," tone poem for orchestra, 1910
- Symphony No. 4, "North, East, South and West", 1911
- Azora: The Daughter of Montezuma, opera, 1914
- Bianca, one-act opera, 1917
- "Othello" Overture, 1919
- Cleopatra's Night, opera, 1920
- Resurgam, oratorio, 1922
- Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 140, 1935
[edit] References
- Schneider, David (1983). The San Francisco Symphony. Novato, CA: Presidio Press. ISBN 089141181X.
- Schoenberg, Harold C (1967). The Great Conductors. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671207350.
[edit] External links
