This Week in Classical Music: August 18, 2025. Debussy and more. Our apologies to the composers with this week’s anniversaries, first and foremost to Claude Debussy, who was born August 22nd of 1862: all we can do is to point to many of our past entries dedicated to this great composer, for example, here, here, here, and here.Our haste is especially inappropriate (if unavoidable) as there are several more very interesting composers we’d like to commemorate properly.For example, Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important composers of the second half of the 20th century, was also born this week, onAugust 22nd of 1928.Antonio Salieri was born on this day 275 years ago.Going even further back, we have Jacopo Peri, who is considered the author of the first opera, Dafne, written in 1597.Peri was born on August 20th of 1561, either in Rome or in Florence.
Lili Boulanger, a composer and the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger, also a composer and a teacher, was born in Paris on August 21st of 1893.Lili was the first woman to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome. She was only 24 when she died of tuberculosis. Another French composer, Benjamin Godard, was born on this day, August 18th, in 1849.He was one of the few Jewish-French composers of the 19th century; we know of only two more: Alkan andHalévy (both Meyerbeer and Offenbach, also Jewish, were born in Germany, even though they spent a lot of time in France).
Ernst Krenek’s 125th anniversary is on August 23rd.We find his music interesting and underappreciated, so we’ll come back to it next week.That’s all for now.
Debussy, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: August 18, 2025. Debussy and more. Our apologies to the composers with this week’s anniversaries, first and foremost to Claude Debussy, who was born
August 22nd of 1862: all we can do is to point to many of our past entries dedicated to this great composer, for example, here, here, here, and here. Our haste is especially inappropriate (if unavoidable) as there are several more very interesting composers we’d like to commemorate properly. For example, Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important composers of the second half of the 20th century, was also born this week, on August 22nd of 1928. Antonio Salieri was born on this day 275 years ago. Going even further back, we have Jacopo Peri, who is considered the author of the first opera, Dafne, written in 1597. Peri was born on August 20th of 1561, either in Rome or in Florence.
Lili Boulanger, a composer and the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger, also a composer and a teacher, was born in Paris on August 21st of 1893. Lili was the first woman to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome. She was only 24 when she died of tuberculosis. Another French composer, Benjamin Godard, was born on this day, August 18th, in 1849. He was one of the few Jewish-French composers of the 19th century; we know of only two more: Alkan and Halévy (both Meyerbeer and Offenbach, also Jewish, were born in Germany, even though they spent a lot of time in France).
Ernst Krenek’s 125th anniversary is on August 23rd. We find his music interesting and underappreciated, so we’ll come back to it next week. That’s all for now.