Moon Tunes

By UMS

Moon over Burton Tower

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing (July 20, 1969), launch into the UMS Rewind archives with 10 moon-inspired works performed over the course of our 140+ year history.

Listen to our ‘Moon Tunes’ playlist on your preferred music service, and discover their respective programs below:

1894

Pianist Vladimir de Pachmann performs Beethoven’s famed Moonlight Sonata, the work’s first of many times appearing on a UMS presentation. The sonata has been on numerous recital programs by legendary pianists, including Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alfred Brendel, and Ursula Oppens.
View all programs

1950

Finnish composer and conductor Ossi Elokas leads the Polytech Chorus of Finland in his own work, titled “Kuutamolla” (Moonlight).
View program

1959

Italian lyric soprano Renata Tebaldi sings “O luna che fa’lume” (Oh moon that makes light) by Vincenzo Davico in her Hill Auditorium recital.
View program

1976

Tebaldi also performed Bellini’s “Vaga luna che inargenti” arietta in her 1959 recital, which was featured again on programs by Luciano Pavarotti in 1976 and by Cecilia Bartoli in 1995.
View all programs

1979

The Nekrasov Russian Folk Orchestra performs Variations on the theme of the Russian Folk Song “Shining Moon” — a work that was presented again 10 years later in 1989 with the Osipov Balalaika Orchestra of Moscow.
View all programs

1993

American baritone Thomas Hampson sings “Look Down Fair Moon” by Charles Naginski.
View full program

1999

Percussionist Evelyn Glennie and The King’s Singers present Return of the Moon by composer Peter Klatzow.
View program

Jazz legend Bill Frisell and his New Quartet perform an arrangement of Henry Mancini’s beloved “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
View Program

Schoenberg’s famously dark melodrama Pierrot lunaire is performed for the first time in UMS’s history, with soprano Lucy Shelton. The work has only been presented once again, 10 years later in 2009.
View programs