I love piano

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART REQUIEM in D minor (K 626)

2011-03-08T14:24:00.003+07:00

Wednesday March 16, 2011
at
The Siam Society, 131 Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok,Thailand

Reception: 7:00 p.m., Concert: 7:30 p.m.

The Siam Society under Royal Patronage proudly presents W.A. Mozart’s Requiem, to be performed by the Mahidol University Baroque Choir and Orchestra under the baton of Henri Pompidor.

Universally recognized as one of the greatest choral masterpieces, the Requiem has long been shrouded in mystery. In July 1791, Mozart undertook the commission for an Austrian nobleman, little knowing that he was to write the requiem for himself: he died on December 5 of the same year, at the early age of 35. Inevitably, the secrecy surrounding the anonymous commission, the circumstances of Mozart's death, the unfinished state of the work, and its completion by his copyist, the composer Süssmayr, have precipitated two centuries of romantic speculation and scholarly controversy.

The completed work follows the traditional Latin liturgy and was first performed on January 2, 1793 at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow Constanza. Since then, it has gained tremendous recognition and has been performed at many prestigious occasions including the memorial services of Joseph Haydn, Frederic Chopin and John F. Kennedy.

In 2002, on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a worldwide “Rolling Requiem” project was launched in memory of the 3,000 victims, consisting of a continuous series of performances of the Requiem, circling the earth, crossing all time zones, each beginning at 8:47 a.m. local time, thus marking the time the first plane hit the World Trade Centre.

This masterpiece choral music will be performed at the Siam Society, 131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7.30 p.m. A second concert is scheduled March 18th at Assumption Cathedral Bangkok (near Oriental Hotel) at 7.30 p.m.

For details please call The Siam Society on 02-661-6470 or Mahidol University College of Music on 02-800-2525 ext 153-4.

For more information about this event as well as other activities and events, you may also visit
websites
: www.siam-society.org and www.music.mahidol.ac.th

http://pianosharing.blogspot.com/2009/06/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-biography.html

2011-02-21T20:13:00.004+07:00

III INTERNATIONAL JEAN-MARIE LONDEIX SAXOPHONE COMPETITION

- July 4-16, 2011 -
__________________________

The deadline of registration is extended to March 1st, 2011.

Informations more :http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/jmlisc/rules-en.php

Classic Fantasy

2011-02-21T20:04:00.001+07:00

Concerts: 25 March 2011 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
26 March 2011 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM
Conductor: Gudni A. Emilsson
Soloist: Sophia Jaffé, Violin
Program: Thai Traditional Music
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Violin Concerto in E-minor op.64
Sergei Prokofiev: “Symphonie Classique”
Peter I. Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture “Romeo and Juliet”

Two of Russia’s major composers are on display in Classic Fantasy. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonie Classique is paired with Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture “Romeo and Juliet”. Also appearing will be violin soloist Sophia Jaffé performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E-minor.

College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus

Address :	25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road Salaya, Phutthamonthon Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand
Telephone :	(662) 800-2525
Fax :	(662) 800-2530
Email :	mswww@mahidol.ac.th

Mahler´s Titan

2011-02-21T19:57:00.002+07:00

Concerts: 11 March 2011 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
12 March 2011 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM
Conductor Dariusz Mikulski
Soloist: Gunnars Upatnieks, Double Bass
Program: Thai Traditional Music
Giovanni Bottesini: Concerto No.1 in B minor
Gustav Mahler: Symhony No.1 in D major

Gustav Mahler makes his return to Salaya, as the TPO; together with guest conductor Darius Mikulski performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. The program also features guest double bass soloist Gunnars Upatnieks performing Bottesini’s Concerto No. 1.

College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus

Address :	25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road Salaya, Phutthamonthon Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand
Telephone :	(662) 800-2525
Fax :	(662) 800-2530
Email :	mswww@mahidol.ac.th

The 11th Osaka International Music Competition

2011-02-10T14:10:00.001+07:00

The 11th Osaka International Music Competition

Home:The 11th Osaka International Music Competition: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Online Campus Tour ,The College of Music, Mahidol University

2011-02-10T13:08:00.006+07:00

Online Campus Tour

The College of Music, Mahidol University

Thailand

Music Auditorium (MACM Hall)

2011-02-09T15:50:00.007+07:00

MACM (Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University.) is located in Building B, which is within the complex of the Bhumibol Sankeet Building and is consists of 3 main service areas:

* The Music Auditorium a 353 – seat concert hall with auxiliary areas equipped with supporting facilities. The hall is also used for recitals, master classes, meetings, and other events.
* Multipurpose Pavilion is a moated glass house. It is used as a special greeting hall for the college’s distinguished guests and also used for meetings, banquets, and temporary exhibitions.
* Gallery is a 238 sq. m. space, use for hosting modern and contemporary works of art, that express the close aesthetic connection between the world of sounds and the world of sight for the public audiences viewing pleasure.

Performance in the MACM Hall

The main purpose of the Hall is for musical performances, the interior is treated as an open stage, in which the musicians and the audience share the same space producing effective acoustic dimension. Due to the different reverberation times of each function, the hall is equipped with adjustable acoustics, a reverberation chamber & acoustic curtains to aid support and control the quality of each and every function.

"The music at Salaya is so beautiful, even angels come to listen"
Dr. Sugree Charoensook, Director of the College of Music

MACM Hall is the site to more than 100 concerts by students, professionals, and members of the faculty, annually. It is also home to the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra with Gudni A. Emilsson as its Chief Conductor. TPO’s guest performers includes Ludvian cellist Mischa Maisky, Italian soprano; Lucia Aliberti, the Hungarian Katona Guitar Duo, the German Tubingen Chamber Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Normal University from Taiwan, the Boston Brass and the Horseshoe Road from U.S.A., to name a few.

For more information about MACM Hall please visit MACM Website

A Swiss Music Night

2011-02-09T15:32:00.002+07:00

Join TPO for premiers of two works by Swiss composer Fabian Müller, including “Dialogues cellestes” – a Concerto for 2 Cellos and Orchestra. Cello soloists Antonio Meneses and Pi-Chin Chien join conductor Claude Villaret for this night of new music. The program concludes with Dvorak’s New World Symphony.
Concerts

* Fri, February 18, 2011 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
* Sat, February 19, 2011 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM

Conductor

Claude Villaret
Soloists

Antonio Meneses & Pi-Chin Chien, Cello
Program

* “เขมรพวง เถา” (Thai Traditional Music)
* Fabian Müller: “Eiger” (First performance in Asia)
* “Dialogues cellestes” Concerto for 2 Violoncellos and Orchestra “World Premiere”
* Antonín Dvorak: Symphony No.9 in E minor op.95 “From the New World”

more.. http://www.thailandphil.com/swiss-music-night/

Gustavo Romero Guest Piaono Recital

2011-01-26T15:54:00.001+07:00

January 26, 2011 7:00pm MACM

Internationally celebrated pianist Gustavo Romero will return the College of Music and play an all-Chopin program including 4 Ballades.

For more information, please call 02-800-2525 ext. 153-4.

http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/highlight.php?id=299

Thailand International Jazz Conference 2011 (TIJC2011)

2011-01-26T15:49:00.003+07:00

Date : January 28-30, 2011

Venue: MACM Hall, Main Stage, Oval Stage
Day Session: Workshop, Competition

Night Session: Concert

TIJC 2011 is the annual event that features the performances by various jazz artists from Thailand and all over the world, discussions, workshops and lessons by world class jazz musicians and a jazz solo competition. Please see information at www.music.mahidol.ac.th/tijc/

Congratulations to All Music Winners of the 14th Settrade Youth Music Competition 2010

2011-01-26T15:42:00.002+07:00

College of Music, Mahidol Uniersity and The Stock Exchange of Thailand hosted the “14th Settrade Youth Music Competition 2010” on January 23, 2011 at the Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University (Salaya Campus). The competition opened for primary students up to undergraduates who were not over 25 years old and play any kind of music, any kind of acoustic music instruments, or singing. The award was a total value of 600,000-baht scholarship and 1-year scholarship at College of Music, Mahidol University. The winners of each three first categories received The Gold Prize and a 20,000-baht scholarship: Primary category-Alto Saxophonist Chaichon Wongkham and Vocalist Nannapat Adtagrid, Secondary category-Kim player Vitoon Neamnak, and Higher Secondary category-Big Gong player Nativit Khongmekhun. The winners of Undergraduate category went to Soprano Sassaya Chavalit and big Gong player RatchanonYimrayab, who received The Gold Medal and a 30,000-baht scholarship. The competition was judged by Clin Prof. Emeritus Dr. Varavudh Sumawong, Khunying Patama Leesawadtrakul, Colonel Choochart Pitaksakorn, Mr. Naovarat Pongpaiboon, Mr. Pratak Faisupagarn, Dr. Winai Panturak, Prof. Dr. Woraphat Tothanakasem,
Mr. Niwat Kongpien, Mr. Takerng Somsup, Dr. Suchart Vongthong, Mr. Suwit Sasanapichit, Mr. Anant Lerpradit, Mr. Borwornpong Supasopon, Capt. Pasakorn Suwanaphan, and Major Prateep Suphanrojn.

Informations : http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php

A Chopin Competition Winner Collects Her Reward

2011-01-06T13:44:00.002+07:00

Alan Gilbert conducting the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday with the pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, the winner of the 16th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. read more ...

Bio..
ALAN GILBERT
Conductor
Music Director, New York Philharmonic
Conductor Laureate, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg. read more..

Cleopatra The Musical Power or Love ?

2010-12-30T12:39:00.002+07:00

Students of Music Business Department, College of Music, Mahidol Universirty proudly present “Cleopatra The Musical in Concert “ The story of one of the most well-known Egyptian queen who was the lover of the 2 greatest warrior : Juliet Caesar and Mark Anthony. All of the music in this musical are composed by students in Composition Department, one of those : Mr.Morakot Cherdchoo-ngarm, just received The Grand Prize Award from Young Thai Artist Award 2010. Pattarasuda Anumarnrajthon, a well – known opera and musical’s stage director will direct this show

Showtime: January 12-15, 2011 at 7.00 p.m. plus January 12 and 15, 2011 at 2.00 p.m.
Tickets price: THB 250/350/500/1000
Ticket Information: 083-2388917, 085-559-6524, 089-831-3984 or Mahidol University

New Year's concert 2011

2010-12-30T12:31:00.002+07:00

The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) under the patronage of the Royal Thai Government and a part of the College of Music, Mahidol University proudly presents the concert “New Year´s Concert 2011.” TPO’s Chief Conductor Gudni Emilsson and solo soprano Marie Fajtová help us to celebrate the arrival of 2011 with a night of overtures, arias, and waltzes from famous composers like Georges Bizet, Carl Maria von Weber, Giuseppe Verdi , Rossini, Johann Strauss II

Venue: Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University, Salaya Campus, Nakhon Pathom
Date & time: Jan 7 (Fri) at 8 p.m. and Jan 8 (Sat) 2011, at 4 p.m.
Ticket price: THB 500, 300, and 100 (for students)
Shuttle Service: The College of Music, Mahidol University provides a “Salaya Link” shuttle bus service from Wongwianyai BTS Station directly to Mahidol University. The bus stops at exit no. 4 of Wongwian Yai BTS Station. The ticket is only 25 baht. Please check the shuttle schedule at www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink
More info or reservation, please call 0 2800 2525-34 ext. 153-154

Mahidol University

King’s Birthday

2010-12-04T14:12:00.006+07:00

The TPO conducted by Capt Prateep Suphanrojn plays the King’s Melodies and Sibelius
3rd 7 PM, 4th 4 PM, Music Auditorium Mahidol University Salaya

The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) under the patronage of the Royal Thai Government and a part of the College of Music, Mahidol University proudly presents the concert “King’s Birthday”. Come celebrate the birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in a concert featuring many of the King’s well known musical compositions such as Candle Light Blues, Near Dawn, Love at Sundown, Kinari Suite, Pra Maha Mongkol, No Moon, Falling Rain, H.M. Blues, Rao-Soo, and the Royal Guard March. These pieces were performed in front of His Majesty the King and Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindhorn by the same musicians, soloists, and singers on September 29, 2010. Captain Prateep Suphanrojn leads the TPO in these popular and moving melodies that are sure to inspire concertgoers of all ages. Also on the program is Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 43 composed by Jean Sibelius.

Venue: Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University, Salaya Campus, Nakhon Pathom
Date & time: Dec 4, 2010 (Sat) at 4 p.m.
Ticket price: THB 500, 300, and 100 (for students)
huttle Service: The College of Music, Mahidol University provides a “Salaya Link” shuttle bus service from Wongwianyai BTS Station directly to Mahidol University. The bus stops at exit no. 4 of Wongwian Yai BTS Station. The ticket is only 25 baht. Please check the shuttle schedule at www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink
3-4, 11-12 & 17-18 December – Stage

Readmore....

Japanese pianist Mami Hagiwara wins first place in the Geneva International Music Competition

2010-11-29T13:35:00.005+07:00

Pianist Mami Hagiwara won the top prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in Switzerland on Thursday. This makes her the first Japanese citizen to win the contest’s piano division.

Hagiwara took the jury’s first prize, worth nearly 21 thousand US dollars, with her performance of Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Piano in G major.

With the Ravel concerto, the 23-year-old Hagiwara chose a demanding piece, where the piano is matched against swelling jazz references in the first movement and the military gallop of the last.

The Geneva competition, launched in 1939, is one of the most prestigious on the international circuit. Pianists Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini are among its laureates.

In this year’s piano section, by far the biggest number of the 41 entrants came from East Asian countries.

South Korea’s Hyo Joo Lee and Russia’s Maria Masycheva, shared the second prize.

First International Chopin Piano Competition Singapore

2010-09-28T15:30:00.002+07:00

Chopin Society (Singapore) & Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

present

First International Chopin Piano Competition Singapore

2010 marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. To commemorate Chopin’s bicentenary, the Chopin Society (Singapore) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts will be hosting Singapore’s inaugural International Chopin Piano Competition. more

Elgar 4 you.Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

2010-01-05T11:25:00.001+07:00

Mee-Hae RYO (Cellist)

Out of the disappointment he felt after the end of the First World War, Elgar penned the melody that would become the first theme from the concerto after he regained consciousness following an operation to remove an infected tonsil. The Concerto is followed by the Second Symphony by Borodin. Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer who was dedicated to produce a specifically Russian kind of art music.

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
Concerts:

* February 12th, 2010 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
* February 13th, 2010 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM

Conductor:

Claude Villaret
Soloist:

Meehae Ryo, Cello
Program:

* Thai Traditional Music
* Edvard Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, op.85
* Alexander Borodin: Symphony No.2 in B minor

Mee-Hae RYO (Cellist)

Mee-Hae Ryo is currently one of the most recognized cellists in the Republic of Korea.

Her first encounter with this instrument she had than she was only six years old. Her mother who was a passionate lover of cello music inspired her to take the first lessons.

After her middle and high school term she got admitted to the world famous JUILLIARD MUSIC SCHOOL and finished her studies with a PHD degree in music at the University of Michigan/USA.

As a cellist she won a number of national and international cello competitions like the highly decorated Korean Joong-Ang Ilbo Music Competition and the Young Artists Music Competition in Fort Collins/Colorado/USA etc. Besides giving concerts as a soloist she is also a member of “Schoenbrunn Quartet” which is a popular quartet in Korea.

As a most active concert cellist, she was invited to different orchestras such as Berliner Symphony Orchestra, Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaerntner Symphony Orchestra, Stradford orchestra of the swan in UK, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hradec Kralove Philharmony, Toronto Philharmonia, Madeira Classical Players in Portugal, Kazakhstan National Symphony Orchestra, Korea Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmony Orchestra, Prime Philharmonic Orchestra and Seoul Classical Players etc.

She played in many of femours concert halls, such as, Musikverein Golden Hall, Verdi Hall, Smetana Hall, Dvorak Hall, Liszt Hall. May 2010, she will play with New England Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

In January 2006 she had a CD-recording project with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the conducting of maestro Vladimir Valek. It was Schumann’s Cello Concerto to remember the composer’s 150th death. The CD was already published by SONY Classic. In February 2009 she recorded with Nuremberger Symphony Orchestra Saint saens and Elgar cello concerto.

She is regularly invited as a jury member of international music competition such as Beethoven International Cello Competition in Czech Republic, Como International Cello Competition in Italy, Prague Spring Music Competition and Astana International Chamber Competition in Kazakhstan.

College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus
Address :
25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road
Salaya, Phutthamonthon
Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand

Telephone :
(662) 800-2525

Fax :
(662) 800-2530

Email :
mswww@mahidol.ac.th
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink/

Chopin’s 200th Anniversary

2010-01-05T11:19:00.002+07:00

Jerzy Sterczyński, Piano

Swan Lake, created from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend, tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse.

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.

Concerts:

January 15th, 2010 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM

January 16th, 2010 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM
Conductor:

Capt. Prateep Suphanrojn
Soloist:

Jerzy Sterczyński, Piano
Program:

* Thai Traditional Music
* Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, op.21
* Peter I. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Suite, op.20

Jerzy Sterczyński, Piano

Born in 1957. Began to learn the piano when he was six. Finished Music High School in Bielsko-Biała, studied at the Katowice Academy of Music in Professor Andrzej Jasiński’s class and graduated with honours in 1981. He then continued his training in London with John Bingham.

He won the first prize at the Young Performers prize at the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk and the second prize at the International Music Competition in Saragossa (1983). He is a very active concert performer. He has played in Austria, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, France, Spain, South Korea, Kuwait, Germany, Portugal and Italy. He has taken part in the Chopin Festival in Duszniki and also in festivals in Lockenhaus and La Chaise-Dieu.

Recordings occupy a special place in his artistic work. Jerzy Sterczyński has recorded 13 compact discs with all Chopin’s nocturnes, waltzes and polonaises as well as his Sonata No. 2 and several small pieces. He has also recorded solo works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Reger and Szymanowski, and Chopin’s, Lessl’s and Dobrzyński’s concertos. His latest record, released in 2005, contains Józef Wieniawski’s solo and cello sonatas.

Jerzy Sterczyński has been a professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw since 1989. He was dean of the Department of Piano, Harpsicord and Organ in 2005-2008. He was re-elected for term 2008-2012.

College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus
Address :
25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road
Salaya, Phutthamonthon
Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand

Telephone :
(662) 800-2525

Fax :
(662) 800-2530

Email :
mswww@mahidol.ac.th
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink/

Classical Magic

2010-01-05T11:01:00.003+07:00

Peter Langgartner, Viola

A romantic and lyric piece, the Fourth Symphony of Brahms was completed in 1885: it is the last of Brahms’ symphonies. Also with us this evening is Peter Langgartner from Austria, presenting the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s concerto for viola and orchestra.

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
Concerts:

* January 8th, 2010 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
* January 9th, 2010 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM

Conductor:

Dariusz Mikulski
Soloist:

Peter Langgartner, Viola
Program:

* Thai Traditional Music
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture “The Magic Flute”, K.620
* Béla Bartók: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
* Johannes Brahms: Symphony no.4 in E minor, op.98

Peter Langgartner, Viola

The Austrian violist, Peter Langgartner, studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Jürgen Geise and Sandor Vegh, and after that received his diploma (1980, excellent distinction, Young Artists Award by Austrian State) in Bern with Max Rostal and at Musikhochschule Köln with Peter Schidlof and Amadeus Quartet, and also with and William Primrose.

After finishing his his studies, Peter Langgartner played from 1982 to 1984 as solo viola with the Venice Opera; from 1996 to 2000 solo viola in Camerata Academica Salzburg with Sandor Vegh and Roger Norrington; and from 1985 (or 1986) to 2001 in Pro Arte Quartet, Salzburg. At present he appears on all major stages in Europe. His solistic tours include: Paganini-Anniversary in Italy 1982, with Ruggiero Ricci, USA Tour in 2000 with Camerata Academica Salzburg, concerts in Austria, Italy, Spain, Germany with Vienna soloists. He has taken part in numerous chamber music making with different musicians as Thomas Zehetmair, Benjamin Schmid, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer, Olli Mustonen and so on at several festivals in Europe, Japan and USA. He is Artist in Residence at Allegro Vivo Festival, Austria.

Peter Langgartner has a special interest in modern music (first performance in Austria of Morton Feldman The Viola In My Life, with Ensemble Continuum and Joel Sax, New York, first performances of Georg Friedrich Haas and Gösta Neuwirth Viola works) and in “musica bastarda – new ways of performing music”: music cabarets (”The Very Only History of Clean Playing And Dirty Talking”), special projects (”Byron in 2005″ [year changes often], “Three Pianos And One Viola”, etc.)

His CD recordings has appeared on BMG, RCA Victor and Anbitus labels.

Since 1986 Peter Langgartner has been Professor for Viola and Chamber music at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

At. College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus
Address :
25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road
Salaya, Phutthamonthon
Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand

Telephone :
(662) 800-2525

Fax :
(662) 800-2530

Email :
mswww@mahidol.ac.th
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php
http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink/

Beethoven Piano Recitals by Gustavo Romero

2009-12-18T11:20:00.003+07:00

Gustavo Romero,Pianist

D & M Music Studio in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Bangkok and Robinson Piano proudly present Beethoven Piano Recitals by Gustavo Romero
On Saturday, December 19th , 2009 at 8 p.m and on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 8 p.m
At Goethe Institut Auditorium On South Sathorn Road Soi 1 (02-287-2822)
Bangkok,Thailand

Biography

Gustavo Romero, an internationally acclaimed pianist and Steinway Artist who won his first piano competition at age 10, acknowledged for his technical brilliance, he continues to thrill discerning audiences from Capetown to Carnegie Hall. Pianist Gustavo Romero has a stellar reputation for both the technical brilliance and interpretive depth of his playing, and for his commitment to in-depth exploration of individual composers, as demonstrated by series focusing on the works of Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Critics have praised his interpretive mastery of piano literature. Mr. Romero's numerous prizes over the years include the First Prize in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in 1989.

In 1999, Mr. Romero's traversal of Chopin's complete solo piano works in six sold-out concerts at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla , California , celebrated both the Library's 100th Anniversary and the 150th Anniversary of Chopin's death. These performances received numerous critical accolades, including the Los Angeles Times, which stated, "Romero showed an easy musicality, solid technical resources, a joy in illuminating miniatures and an unfeigned authority in this music -- in short, strong rapport with the poetic and lyric elements in the composer's art." The series was also recorded for national broadcast on National Public Radio's Performance Today.

Mr. Romero has performed as piano soloist with other renowned orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Houston, Boston Pops, Austin, Pittsburgh, Honolulu, and New World Symphonies, English Chamber Orchestra, Radio France Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, New Japan Philharmonic,Shanghai Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic, and the Liege Philharmonic, with which he appeared in a concert internationally broadcast from the United Nations Headquarters. He has also appeared at major festivals, including New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and the Montreux Festival in Switzerland . In addition, Mr. Romero has appeared in over 20 countries, performing in Paris , Zurich , Milan , Berlin , Prague , and Johannesburg .

Among Mr. Romero's numerous prizes over the years was the 1983 Avery Fisher Young Artists Career Grant. In 2004, he received the Dallas Morning Herald’s award for the Best Solo or Chamber Performance in Dallas , performing with Chamber Music International. After five years as Assistant Professor at The University of Illinois/Champaign, Mr. Romero is now Associate Professor of Piano at the University of North Texas . He is a graduate of the Juilliard School , studying with Herbert Stessin. Gustavo Romero maintains residences in New York City and Dallas , Texas .

http://www.gustavoromero.com

His evening programme includes all works by Beethoven

BEETHOVEN SONATAS, December 19

Sonata in E minor, Opus 90 (1814)
I. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck
II. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorzutragen

Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 22 (1800)
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio con molto espressione
III. Menuetto
IV. Allegretto

INTERMISSION

Sonata in G Major, Opus 31, No. 1 (1802)
I. Allegro vivace
II. Adagio grazioso
III. Rondo (Allegretto)

Sonata in C minor, Opus 13 ("Path้tique") (179
I. Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio
II. Adagio cantabile
III. Rondo (Allegro)

BEETHOVEN SONATAS, December 22

Sonata in G Major, Opus 14, No. 2 (1799)
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Scherzo (Allegro assai)

Sonata in F Major, Opus 54 (1804)
I. In tempo d'un menuetto
II. Allegretto

Sonata in D Major, Opus 28 ("Pastoral") (1801)
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
IV. Rondo (Allegro ma non troppo)

INTERMISSION

Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 106 ("Hammerklavier") (1817-181
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo (Assai vivace)
III. Adagio sostenuto
IV. Largo - Allegro risoluto

Tickets priced at 500 and 250 baht for student at Robinson Piano Showroom Siam Discovery on the 5th floor TEL: 02-658-1080-1 or call khun Mongkol 081-682-8000

Infomation from,http://www.dmmusic.org/Dec1922.html

Flute Concerto

2009-12-17T14:17:00.006+07:00

Mon 21 December 2009
Perfomers:
Agrita Lakute, Flute
Juis Lakutis, Cello
Bakhtiyor Allaberganov, Piano

Program:
Geory F.Handel:
Sonata nr.3 in g minor for Flute and Figured Bass
Georg F.Handel:
Sonata nr.4 in a minor for Flute and Figured Bass
Johann S.Bach:
Sonata nr.4 in c major for Flute and Figured Bass
Sofia Gubaidulina:
Allegro Rustico for Flute and piano
Sergei Prokofjev:
Sonata for Flute and Piano
Sergio Rendine: Notturno for Flute and Strings
Otar Taktakishvili: Sonata for Flute and Piano

Location:
Music Auditorium (MACM Hall)Music Mahidol(College of Music, Mahidol University is located at 25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4, Salaya, Nakhonpathom Thailand 73170)
Contact:http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/macm/locate.html

Celebrate Beethoven and Brahms

2009-12-17T13:47:00.004+07:00

Gernot Winischhofer, Violin

Beethoven wrote the violin concerto in 1806 for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day: it was later revived and performed by violinist Joseph Joachim and conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. The joyfulness of Brahms’s Second Symphony, composed during a visit to the Austrian Alps, has been compared to the pastoral mood of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.

Concerts:

December 18th, 2009 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM
December 19th, 2009 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM

Conductor:

Claude Villaret

Soloist:

Gernot Winischhofer, Violin

Program:

Thai Traditional
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture “Cosi fan tutte”, K.588
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.2 in D major, op.73

Tickets are B500, B300 and B100 (Students)
For reservation please call 0 2800 2525-34 ext. 153-4

College of Music, Mahidol University Salaya Campus

Address :	25/25 Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road Salaya, Phutthamonthon Nakhonpathom, 73170 Thailand
Telephone :	(662) 800-2525
Fax :	(662) 800-2530
Email :	mswww@mahidol.ac.th

Gernot WINISCHHOFER, (Violin)

Was born in Vienna, where he studied at the “Musikhochschule Wien” with H.Binder and received his diploma with honours

A state scholarship took him to the Tschaikowsky-Conservatory in Moscow.

There he was student for 3 years and later senior assistent of Valery Klimov who represented the tradition of David Oistrach.

G.W. also studied with Sandor Vegh at Mozarteum Salzburg and attended masterclasses of Max Rostal, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Gidon Kremer, Andre Gertler and Alexander Arenkov.

He won several prices at national and international competitions. Since that time Gernot Winischhofer gives guest performaces at a lot of festivals as Budapest, Echternach, Prag, Ossiach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Estoril and other places.

Soloist-Partner of Igor Oistrach, Josef Suk, Pavel Gililov, Paul Badura Skoda, Joerg Demus, Tanja Grindenko,…

with Orchestras like Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg in the Big Festival Hall, Eremitage Symphony orchestra in St. Petersburg and Meran Festival, Athen-, Nürnberg-, Slovak-Philharmonic, Prag Radio and Symphonic Orchestras… Moscow Chamberorchestra, Lithovian, Prague, Vienna-Chamberorchestra, and many others.

with conductors as Sergiu Comissiona, Christian Thielemann, Enrique Batiz, Saulius Sondeckis, Israel Yinon,……

G.W. plays lot of chambermusic and founded:

“Trio di Vienna”, “Oistrachensemble“, with Igor&Valery Oistrach, “Vienna Pianoquintett“ with members of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tours through South, Middle- and Northamerica, Egypt, England, France, Finnland, Germany , Hungaria, Iran, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Tschechoslowakia and USSR, Hongkong, a.o. as soloist with Orchestras and with recitals and Chambermusikensembles in Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg-Großes Festspielhaus, Linz-Brucknerhaus, Bregenz festival hall, Athen-Megaron, Prag-Rudolfinum, NY-Carnegiehall, Bukarest-Atheneum, Moscow-Tschaikowsky hall, and many others.

Since 1987 he is the aristic director of the „East-West-Musicfestival“.

Since 1992 he is Professor at the Vienna state Conservatory. Recordings on radio, TV and CD. Jury of Violin competitions

More information.. www.music.mahidol.ac.th

Lang Lang opens Chopin Year at NCPA in Beijing

2009-12-16T14:08:00.001+07:00

BEIJING, Dec. 9 -- A year of global events are marking the 200th anniversary the birth of the great Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin. And no matter where you are, there is an opportunity to be involved. The series opens in Beijing with world famous young pianist Lang Lang playing at the National Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night.

As with most pianists in China, Lang Lang has had a special connection with Chopin since the beginning of his career. Back in 1995, the 13-year-old won the first prize in the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition following his performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No.2.

And this Thursday, Lang Lang will interpret Chopin's "Tristesse" during the award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. He will also play the soundtrack of "Project Chopin", the biggest 3-D European animation film which tells the story of Chopin.

Lang Lang said, "For me, my mission is to bring the closest feeling as possible to the original score as the one he wrote. But obviously, unfortunately, I can't talk to him at this moment to say, maestro, which way is the best way to play your music. I don't think Chopin would be happy if everyone played his music the same way. So my point is that we should really appreciate his music and at the same time connect with his heart. And I think that's the best we can do."

Performances of his music will be the leading feature of Chopin Year, 2010. Three highlights will be the weekly birthday celebrations featuring the best of today's pianists playing Chopin's works, the European Chopin Festival and the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition.

In Beijing, world famous pianists from seven countries will stage 14 concerts interpreting their favourite Chopin pieces at the National Center for the Performing Arts from this December to the end of next year.

(Source: China Daily)

The 13th Settarde Youth Musician Competition 2009

2009-12-11T11:38:00.002+07:00

The Semi Final of the 13th Settarde Youth Musician Competition 2009 (Thailand)

Semi Final Round

At Music Audoitorium College of Music Mahidol University

Elementary School Level 12 December 2009 at 9 am - 1 pm.

Secondary School Level 13 December 2009 at 9 am - 1 pm.

High School Level 19 December 2009 at 9 am - 1 pm

Higher Education 19 December 2009 at 9 am - 1 pm

For moreinformational please call 0 2800 2525 - 34 ext. 107-8, 160-161

more informational ...settrade

Woodwind Department Studio Ensemble Extravaganza!

2009-12-11T10:09:00.004+07:00

For the first time ever, the Woodwind Department presents a concert featuring all the woodwind studio ensembles playing in the same evening. Listeners will be treated to a variety of and fun and entertaining music that will be sure to please everyone.

Performers:
Christopher Schaub, Bassoon
Cassandra Fox-Percival, Clarinet
Shyen Lee, Saxophone
Agrita Lakute, Flute
Hiroshi Matsushima, Flute
Shigeki Sasaki, Oboe
Chee Meng Low, Saxophone and
Woodwind Students

On 11 December 2009 / 7:00 p.m.

At Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University

Ticket Price: 200/100 (Student)

For more information please call 0 28002525 - 34 ext. 153-4

Li Yundi Piano Concert

2009-12-08T16:11:00.004+07:00

Li Yundi

Time: 19th December, 19:30
Venue: HangZhou Grand Theatre | 杭州大剧院 | hánɡ zhōu dà jù yuàn
Address: 66 ZhiJiang Dong Road | 之江东路66号 | zhī jiānɡ dōnɡ lù liù shí liù hào
Tel: 86855118
Li has received top awards at various competitions. He won the Children’s Piano Competition in Beijing in 1994. In 1995, he was awarded first place at the Stravinsky International Youth Competition. In 1998, he won the 1998 Missouri Southern International Piano Competition (Junior Division). The next year, he took Third Prize at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition of Utrecht, as well as being a major winner in the China International Piano Competition. He also won first place at the Gina Bachauer Young Artists International Piano Competition.
In October 2000, at the urging of the Chinese Culture Ministry, Li participated in the 14th International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He was the first participant to be awarded First Prize in 15 years. At 18 years of age, he was the youngest winner—and the first Chinese—in the competition’s history. Li was given a Polonaise award by the Chopin Society for his performance at the competition.
Soon after, Li sought out pianist Arie Vardi as an instructor, and therefore left his parents’ home to live and study at a music school in Hannover, Germany (”Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater”).

Hangzhou Grand Theatre is located on the southern part of Qianjing New City, near the shore of the Qiantang River . The address is No.66 Zhijiang East Road . It is accessible by bus (No.991 from Wulin Square and No.992 from Wushan Square , starts at 5:50pm ------ 6:30pm and ends at half hour after the performance), by taxi, and by car. If you are driving, be sure to check our parking options, garage hours, and fees before arriving.
SPECIAL NOTICE: Please allow extra time when driving to Hangzhou Grand Theatre
Hangzhou Grand Theatre and surrounding neighborhood are currently undergoing construction. When driving to Hangzhou Grand Theatre, please allow for plenty of extra time for arriving. Hangzhou Grand Theatre offers many pre-performance activities to help you make the most of your visit.
Modes of Transportation
Bus | Taxi | Car
By Bus :
The bus No.991 and No.992 go to Hangzhou Grand Theatre at the day performance.
No.991 Starts from Wulin Square to Hangzhou Grand Theatre: 5:45pm ----- 6:30pm
No.992 Starts from Wushan Square to Hangzhou Grand Theatre: 5:45pm ----- 6:30pm
No.32: Wulin Square¡úCitizen Center (Hangzhou Grand Theatre) daily
For details on bus routes please call at 0571-86855090.
By Taxi
Taxi service to and from the Kennedy Center is convenient and readily available. A taxi dispatcher is available to signal cabs and assign patrons from 6:30 p.m. ( 3:30 p.m. on matinee days) until 30 minutes after the end of the last performance, and taxis queue in the Plaza each evening to serve patrons. Look for the uniformed dispatcher at the Hall of Nations entrance.
By Car
Please refer to the close-up map below to help plan your trip. Also be sure to check our parking options, garage hours, and fees before arriving.
The parking space is near the back entrance and free for parking at present.

The 59th Wideman Piano Competition

2009-12-02T15:59:00.002+07:00

The 2009 Wideman Piano Competition will take place this weekend in the Anderson Auditorium of the Hurley School of Music, located on Centenary College campus, 2911 Centenary Blvd., Shreveport. The event is sponsored by the Shreveport Symphony Guild and hosted by the Hurley School of Music.

Performances are free, however, contributions will be accepted at the door during the final round.

Forty-five contestants from across the United States and 17 countries will compete and be judged by nationally and internationally known pianists and conductors.

Preliminary rounds are from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 until 6:15 p.m. Friday.Competitions also run from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 until 6:15 p.m. Saturday.During this phase of the competition, each contestant will play for 15 minutes. The final round will be held from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. During this last round, each contestant will perform a complete concerto.

Competition awards include the gold medal, the $5,000 William Peyton Shehee and Virginia Kilpatrick Shehee Award; the silver medal, $2,500 F. Thomas Siskron III Family Award and Raymond Morris Award; the bronze medal, $1,500 Martha Jones Rice Award given by Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Carl Rice; honorable mention, $1,000, given by an anonymous donor; and special awards including the $500 Glenda Lee Harrison Award given by Stephen Harrison.

The gold medalist will perform with the Shreveport Symphony, the Northwest Florida Symphony and the South Arkansas Symphony, as well as perform several recitals, including the Bossier Jam'm Bread Chamber Series.

The 59th Wideman Piano Competition

The 59th Wideman Piano Competition: December 4-6, 2009, Shreveport, Louisiana

Apply at www.widemanpiano.com

Application deadline: October 26, 2009

Awards up to $5,000

For more information contact:
Dr. Lester Senter Wilson
Executive Director of the Corporation
t: 601-366-4843
f: 601-510-9103
email: widemanpiano@widemanpiano.com

Top piano soloists for Mozart Festival

2009-11-25T14:01:00.003+07:00

Top piano soloists for Mozart Festival
Artslink.co.za News (press release)

Amongst these was a silver medal in the International Piano Competition in Montevideo and fifth place in the UNISA/Transnet International Piano Competition

Florian Uhlig
Artistic Director of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival

The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival will give audiences the opportunity to celebrate Mozart's musical genius with acclaimed pianists.

Piano soloists Florian Uhlig, Matthias Fletzberger, Malcolm Nay, Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães will be joined on stage during the course of the festival, running from 23 January to 9 February, by the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, The Imperial College Symphony Orchestra and musicians from the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, together with excellent vocalists.

Florian Uhlig has been Artistic Director of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival since 2008. He was born in Düsseldorf and gave his first piano recital at the age of twelve. He studied in London with Peter Feuchtwanger and continued his studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he now lives when he's not in Berlin.

Uhlig's orchestra debut was at the Barbican in London in 1997. Since then, his demanding schedule has taken him to major concert stages in Berlin, Brussels, Caracas, Dresden, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Cape Town, Cologne, London, Luxemburg, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Salzburg, Seoul, Venice, Washington and Vienna. He has played with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

He has also made guest appearances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Invitations to festivals led him to appear at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Chamber Music Festival in Elmau Castle, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, the MDR Summer of Music, France Musique Paris, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Vienna Festival Weeks, and many more.

Uhlig is also a sought-after chamber musician and song pianist. He was the last musical partner of legendary baritone Hermann Prey, and has worked together with Mirijam Contzen, Alban Gerhardt, Franz Hawlata, Roberto Saccá and Ingolf Turban, the Consortium Classicum, the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin, as well as with actors Christoph Bantzer, Cornelia Froboess, Gudrun Landgrebe and Nina Hoger.

Uhlig will be on stage at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival on 24, 27 and 28 January, and on 4 and 7 February.

Matthias Fletzberger is a native Viennese, and began his career at the age of five as one of the youngest students of all times at the Viennese Music University. He completed his studies in Vienna with Hans Graf, and also studied under Bruno Seidlhofer, Leon Fleisher, Tatjana Nikolajewa, Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer and Jacques Rouvier.

The beginning of his career was marked by various accolades at international piano competitions, including Busoni, Rubinstein, Santander, Athens, and Bösendorfer. He played with major orchestras (Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Bordeaux, Orquestra National d'Espagna) and conductors (Ferdinand Leitner, Carl Melles, Jesus-Lopez Cobos). He was also renowned as a chamber-musician and vocal accompanist for artists like Isaac Stern, Maurice Gendron, Gérad Souzay or Gabriel Bacquier, before he turned his focus in 1986 to his second career as a conductor, strongly supported by Rolf Liebermann and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. With commitments in Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and St. Gallen he acquired an extensive repertoire as an opera conductor within a short time.

He was general manager of the Sofiensäle, Vienna's oldest and largest venue for cultural events, for several years. Here he was responsible for presenting a varied programme of opera, musical and theater presentations, alongside galas, parties and clubbing events. After a few years of artistic time-out, he now returns as pianist to classical music.

Fletzberger will be performing at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival on 3 February, together with Lidia Baich on violin.

Local legend Malcolm Nay is one of the most charismatic South African chamber musicians. He obtained a B. Mus. degree and Postgraduate Performer's Licentiate (cum laude) at the University of the Witwatersrand, with pianists Pauline Nossel and Isabel Stengel as his mentors and teachers.

In 1978 he went to study overseas with the P.J. Lemmer Scholarship, being awarded a place with the famous Hungarian pianist, Bela Siki. During his time in the USA he performed and recorded extensively, winning numerous prizes. Amongst these was a silver medal in the International Piano Competition in Montevideo and fifth place in the UNISA/Transnet International Piano Competition of 1984.

Since his return to South Africa, Nay has appeared as a soloist with most major local orchestras, and is a popular solo recitalist throughout the country. He is currently head of the practical teaching staff at Wits University, whilst also managing an active concert career.

Nay will share the stage of the Linder Auditorium at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival with the Imperial College Symphony Orchestra from the UK, on Saturday 30 January.

Husband and wife due Luis Magalhães and Nina Schumann met in January 1999 while studying at the University of North Texas, USA, with Vladimir Viardo. They formed the Magalhães-Schumann Piano Duo later that year, and have since performed to great acclaim across the USA, Portugal, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Mozambique.

Following her first appearance with orchestra at the age of 15, Schumann has become one of South Africa's leading pianists. She has won every major South African music competition and scholarship prize, and has also participated in several international competitions, including the Morocco International and UNISA/Transnet International Piano Competition, during which she reached the semi-final round and was awarded three special prizes, one of which was as the Most Promising South African Pianist.

Schumann has more than 140 concerto performances with orchestras in South Africa, Europe and the USA behind her name, 35 concertos in her repertoire, and is signed with Universal Music as a recording artist. She is currently appointed as Associate Professor and Head of Piano at the Department of Music, Stellenbosch University.

Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhães started playing piano at the age of five, receiving tuition from Eduardo Rocha, José Alexandre Reis, Pedro Burmester and Vladimir Viardo, as well as masterclasses from, amongst others, Helena Sá e Costa, Paul Badura-Skoda, Dimitri Bashkirov and Alicia de Larrocha.

Magalhães has won several prizes at national and international competitions, including first prize at the Maria Campina Competition, second prize at the Juventude Musical Portuguesa Competition, second prize (Chamber Music) at the Jovens Músicos Competition, honorary mention at the Helena Sá e Costa Competition, as well as second prize for the best performance of Russian music and best performance of Rachmaninoff at the 2002 Russian Music International Piano Competition, USA. In 2001 he was awarded the National Medal for Cultural Achievements by the Mayor of Famalicão, Portugal.

Magalhães, a concert pianist since the age of nine, has given numerous recital, concerto and chamber music performances in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. He is also a Universal Music recording artist and a lecturer in piano at the Department of Music, Stellenbosch University.

Schumann and Magalhães will be on stage together at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival for a duo piano recital that includes works from Brahms and Stravinsky on Sunday 31 January.

These piano soloist and other respected musicians form part of the diverse programme planned for the 2010 Johannesburg International Mozart Festival.

Tickets for the Linder Auditorium will be available through Computicket, and range between R135 and R165. There is a 10% discount for students, pensioners and block bookings of 10 or more. Tickets for the events at Northwards House are R160, which includes supper and wine on Sundays and a glass of wine on other days, and are available from Caroline on 011 447 9264. Tickets for events at the Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein are R120 or R100 for pensioners and students, and can also be bought from Caroline on 011 447 9264.

For more information please visit www.join-mozart-festival.org and join the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival group on Facebook for regular updates on Festival happenings and competitions.

Artslink.co.za Account:
Gilly Hemphill
The Famous Idea Trading Company
gilly@thefamousidea.co.za
021 886 4900
082 820 8584
Johannesburg International Mozart Festival
www.join-mozart-festival.org

15-Year-Old Becomes 1st Asian Winner of Hamamatsu Contest

2009-11-25T13:19:00.002+07:00

Cho Seung-jin, a 15-Year-old Korean student,
became the first Asian and youngest winner of the 2009 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan.
/ Courtesy of Kumho Asian Cultural Foundation

Four South Koreans swept top prizes at the 2009 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, Japan, with a 15-year-old student becoming the first Asian ― and the youngest ever ― winner of the prominent Japanese music event.

In addition to the first prize Cho Seung-jin also won the award for Best Performance of the Japanese Work, for his interpretation of a commissioned work by Akira Nishimura, and took home 3.3 million yen (about 43 million won), the competition announced

``Cho's 'Daydream for piano' was softly interpreted withholding sense of strain. He exerted high technique in following Chopin's Etude 10-1 and Liszt's Etude d'execution transcendante No. 10," said an official report on the competition's Web site, about Cho's performances on the second round of the event. "In Schumann's `Fantasiestrueke,' he distinguished each piece with each different color, and beautifully showed cadence that appeared and then disappeared.''

Meanwhile Korea's Huh Jae-won, 23, won third place while Kim Hyun-jung, 18, ranked fifth and Ann Soo-jung, 22, finished sixth among the six finalists.

Top prizewinner Cho made his concert debut at age 11 through Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation's child prodigy program and won several domestic music competitions.

Last year he swept the 6th Moscow Internationla Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, where he won the top prize and additional prizes for the concerto section and outstanding performance. He was the youngest ever winner in the event's history. For this he was honored with a Budding Youth prize by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) in January for promoting Korea's image overseas.

A noted rising young talent here, he received acclaim for his performance in the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's charity concert in May. He will play Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with the orchestra, conducted by Maestro Chung Myung-whun, on Dec. 22 at Seoul Arts Center.

Launched in 1991, the Hamamatsu competition takes place every three years. Kim Tae-hyung, who is known here for taking part of a four-piano performance opposite Maestro Paik Kun-woo in May, won the third prize at the previous edition of the competition in 2006. In 2000, popular pianist Im Dong-hyek won the second prize.

This year the jury members included esteemed Israeli pianist/teacher Arie Vardi, whose students include Yundi Li, and Korean pianist/teacher Kim Dae-jin, who is known for teaching Kim Sun-wook and Son Yeol-eum.

hyowlee@koreatimes.co.kr

ALESSIO MONTI & FRIENDS 1

2009-11-24T15:46:00.005+07:00

Guitar Concert at20 and 27 Nov 7:30 PM

ALESSIO MONTI & FRIENDS 1
with
Alessio Monti, Guitar
and the
Kuala Lumpur Guitar Ensemble
With : Ernest Thomas, See Sew Hong,
One Peng yeng, Simon Cheong
music by :
J.Duarte, J.S.Bach, M.Giuliani, C.Hartog
Beatles, F.Klenjans, A Ruiz Pipo', A. York,
M.Praetorius.

Date : Friday, November 20, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Place : AUA Auditorium, Ratchadamnern Rd., Chiangmai.

Tickets 300 baht, Students 150 baht
For both concerts [see below] 400 baht,
Students 200 baht.
Tel: 086-916 1999
**********************
ALESSIO MONTI & FRIENDS 2
with

Alessio Monti, Guitar
and
Shan, Art, Mu, Um, kija.

music by :
F.Sor, J.S.Bach, A.York, M.Giuliani,
F.Schubert, A.Monti

Date : Friday, November27, 2009 at 7:30PM
Place: AUA Auditorium, Ratchadamnern Rd., Chiangmai.

Tickets 300 baht, Students 150 baht
For both concerts [see above] 400 baht,
Students 200 baht.
Tel: 086-916 1999

More imformation....
http://music.payap.ac.th/

2010 ATLANTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL

2009-11-23T12:37:00.001+07:00

2010 ATLANTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES CALL FOR ENTRIES ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM NOW AVAILABLE

New York, NY, 8 September 2009 — Today, the 2010 Atlantic Music Festival announces its call for entries for Fellowship Program applicants. Submission forms can be completed directly online at the official Atlantic Music Festival website.

http://www.atlanticmusicfestival.org/the-institute

AMF provides complete financial coverage for tuition and housing during the four weeks of residency. The Fellowship Program is is open to orchestral instrumentalists, guitarists, pianists, opera singers, one composer, one conductor, and one recording engineer between the ages of 18 and 34. Accepted applicants will be featured as resident artists at The 2010 Atlantic Music Festival.

Deadline to submit for the U.S. and International applicants for the 2010 Atlantic Music Festival is January 4, 2010.

The submission form and complete information regarding eligibility and entry rules for the 2010 Atlantic Music Festival are available on the Atlantic Music Festival website. Information is also available through the Atlantic Festival by email to community@atlanticmusicfestival.org, or by regular mail to Little Feather Works, 228 Park Ave S #31975, New York, NY 10003.

For more information, please visit us online at http://www.atlanticmusicfestival.org

Mahidol Women Choir and Male Choir,A debut concert

2009-11-23T12:22:00.003+07:00

Concerts:

Mon. Nov. 23, 2009 19:00 - 21:00
At the College of Music, Mahidol University (Salaya) Performers:

Mahidol University Women Choir
Mahidol University Male Choir
Colleen Jennings, Soprano
Bakhtiyor Allaberganov & Yoshimi Sato, Piano

Conductors: Henri Pompidor, Eugene Eustaquio & Randal A. Buikema

Program:
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: "Stabat Mater" by
Motets & "Messe Basse" by Gabriel Faure
Songs by Georges Bizet, Francis Poulenc, Jean Langlais, Brant Adams, Ben Allaway & Stephen Foster

more imformations.... http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php

Spanish Fantasy

2009-11-20T10:50:00.002+07:00

Concerts:
20 November 2009 / 7.00 p.m.
21 November 2009 / 4.00 p.m.

At the College of Music, Mahidol University (Salaya)

Conductor: Capt. Prateep Suphanrojn
Soloist: Ekachai Jearakul, Guitar

Program: Thai Traditional
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture “Don Giovanni”, K.527
Joaquín Rodrigo: Fantasía para un gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Nobleman)
Alexander Glazunov: Symphony No. 2 in F-sharp minor, op.16

The Spanish composer Rodrigo composed the concerto in 1954 at the request of guitarist Andrés Segovia, and it will be presented to you by our very own talented young musician, Ekachai Jearakul. The Concerto is based on six short dances for solo guitar by the 17th-century Spanish composer Gaspar Sanz.

Ticketsa are B500 B300 and B100 (Student)

Reservation please call 0 2800 2525-34 ext. 153-4

“Salaya Link” shuttle bus service from Wongwian Yai BTS Station to Mahidol University is available for anybody who would like to attend the concerts. The bus will stop at Exit No. 4 of Wongwian Yai BTS Station. The shuttle bus ticket costs only 25 bahts.

Please check the shuttle schedule from www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink

Wednesday Recital

2009-11-11T11:41:00.003+07:00

November 11, 2009
12 a.m. To 1 p.m.

At The Music Audirorium, College of Music, Mahidol University

Contemporary Thai Dance and Ballet show From Dance Department, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University
- Creative contemporary Thai dance about ancient Thai wisdom
- Neo classical ballet created from inspiration from the song “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra no.2 op.21 by Frederic Chopin

The College of Music, Mahidol University

Great Finale of TPO in 4th Season

2009-09-24T17:17:00.002+07:00

Great Finale of TPO in 4th Season

On September 25, 2009 at 7 pm and September 26, 2009 at 4 pm

At Music Auditorium College of Music Mahidol University

Conductor: Claude Villaret

Soloist: Wolfgang Glemser, Piano

Program:

Thai Traditional Music
Peter I.Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Piano No.1 in B flat minor, op.23
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, op.45

The 4th season closes with the Russian composer Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, an orchestral suite in three movements that represent the composer’s late style with its curious, shifting harmonies and focus on individual instrumental tone colors throughout. Join together with the TPO is the German pianist on one of the best known piano concerto by Tchaikovsky.

more imformation : http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/en/index.php

Short Training Course in Music Therapy

2009-09-24T16:56:00.003+07:00

Music Therapy Department

The College of Music Mahidol University will organize Short Courses in Music Therapy on September 25
– 26, 2009 and October 29 – 31, 2009 at the College of Music Mahidol University. The workshop will be
lead by Associate Professor Dr. Dena Register from University of Kansas, U.S.A.
This 3-day, intensive workshop is designed to train allied health professionals and educators on the
therapeutic uses of music as applied to the patients or clients that they work with in a healthcare or
educational setting. Therapeutic use of music is the use of live or recorded music by a trained
individual to enhance quality of life, quality of treatment and to achieve non-music goals. Presentations
will include written material, covered in a lecture format as well as video examples of music therapy that
illustrate the concepts we will cover. Additionally, attendees will participate in active music making and
group leading in order to practice some of the techniques discussed.

The College of Music, Mahidol University

25/25 Putthamonthon Sai 4 rd. Salaya, Putthamonthon, Nakornpathom 73170
Tel. 0 2800 2525-34 ext. 179  Fax. 0 2800 2530
E-mail: musicmahidolpr@gmail.com Website:www.music.mahidol.ac.th

Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2009-08-31T12:32:00.001+07:00

Chulalongkorn University is the oldest university in Thailand and has long been considered one of the country’s most prestigious universities. It now has eighteen faculties and a number of schools and institutes. Regarded as the best and most selective university of Thailand, it normally attracts top students around the country. It is named after King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), and was established by his son and successor King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) in 1917 by combining the Royal Pages School and the College of Medicine.more....Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Faculty of Music, Silpakorn University

2009-08-31T09:52:00.002+07:00

Silpakorn University is a government sponsored university located in Thailand. The university was founded in Bangkok in 1943 by Italian-born art professor Corrado Feroci, who took the Thai name Silpa Bhirasri when he became a Thai citizen. It is the leading Thai university in the fine arts and Archaeology, though it now includes many other faculties. It has about 7,000 students
The university has three campuses:
* Thapra Palace, Bangkok
* Sanam Chan Palace, Nakhon Pathom
* Phetchaburi IT Campus, Phetchaburi
Silpakorn University consists of 13 faculties, a graduate school and a college:
Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic arts Thapra Palace Campus
* Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic arts
* Faculty of Architecture
* Faculty of Archeology
* Faculty of Decorative Arts
* Faculty of Arts
* Faculty of Education established on June 18, 1970 by M.L. Pin Malakul
o English Major (B.Ed.)
o Thai Major (B.Ed.)
o Social Science Major (B.Ed.)
o Early Childhood Major (B.Ed.)
o Elementary Major (B.Ed.)
o Technology Major (B.Ed.)
o Life Long Education Major (B.Ed.)
o Psychology Major (B.A.)
o Sport Science Major (B.Sc.)
* Faculty of Science
* Faculty of Pharmacy
* Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology
* Faculty of Animal Science and Agricultural Technology
* Faculty of Music
* Graduate School
* Faculty of Management
* Faculty of Information and Communication Technology
* Silpakorn University International College

http://www.music.su.ac.th/

Drinking song by Verdi

2009-08-11T13:37:00.006+07:00

This tune if from an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)called La traviata.It is now one of the most popular operas ever written.

But the first performance in 1853 was not a success.This is partly because it used modern costumes like the one on the left.

This made the sad story too realistic.At the time,people thought that operas should be like fantasies,and not like real lift.
In some later performances,the singers had 17th-century costomes like the one shown here.This helped the opera became much more popular.

The Barber of Seville overture

2009-08-11T12:27:00.003+07:00

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was a very famous and successful composer.He wrote The barber of Seville in 1816 for a theatre in Rome.

It was performed less than a month after he started to write it.Many people think it is one of the best comic operas ever written.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Fidelio by Beethoven

2009-08-11T11:53:00.003+07:00

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote many kinds of music.But although he was interested in theatre music,Fidelio was his only opera.

At first,audiences disliked the opera.Beethoven rewrote it several times before it was a success.On the left you can see a scene from the opera.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Terzettino by Mozart

2009-08-11T09:21:00.005+07:00

This tune is from a light-hearted opera called Cosi fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).It was written in 1790.
Terzettino means "a little trio".It is a song for three people.

This is a page of music from the opera in mozart's handwriting.

Scene from a performance of "Cose fan tutte"

It took place in 1969 at a festival in Salzburg,the city where Mozart was born.

The words of the opera (the libretto ) were written by Lorenzo da Ponte.He also wrote the words for two of MoZart's other operas.--

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Music about feelings

2009-08-06T13:20:00.002+07:00

Many composers have written music that describes their feelings and emotions.The French composer Berlioz fell in love with the actress ,Harriet Smithson sfter seeing her in a play.He was unable to arrange to meet her,so to attract her attention he wrote the Symphonie fantastique ("Fantastic symphony") about his feelings for her.

The story behind the piece is a mixture of facts,emotions,dreams and nightmares.At the first performmance,the audience was given a printed copy of the story to read.The music expresses his often very dramatic.

Though Harriet Smithson was not at the concert ,she and Berlioz later met,and were eventually married.

Chopin playing Nocturnes

Chiopin composed many pieces called Nocturnes.They were written speacially to create a mood or describe a specific play or event.

Chopin used to play them for his friends in the evenings as a form of relaxation.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Seasonal music

2009-08-06T12:45:00.003+07:00

Sometime music is written to describe different times of the day or year.Vivaldi wrote a set of pieces called The Four Seasons.It describes the way the seasons change throughout the year.

He wrote lots of comments above the music to say what was happening,such as "the dog barks"
and "shivering with cold"

A scene from The Four Seasons

Haydn also gave descriptive titles to a lot of his music .He wrote three pieces to describe different parts of the day.These are called le matin ("Morning"),le midi ("Noon") and le soir ("Evening").There are no words written above the music,but you can hear the mood change in each piece.Le matin has a slow in troduction,as if the sun is rising.Then the music livens up as the day begins.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Music that tells a story

2009-08-06T12:04:00.004+07:00

Many composers have written music based on stories.For example,yhe Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov based one of his pieces on The Arabian Nights,a large collection of folk tales.The music is called Scheherazade,after the woman who first told the stories.

Scheherazade

Each movement has a title to tell the listeners which part of the story it represents.The first movement is called "The young prince and the young princess".

Scheherazade telling her stories

This type of music often uses specaial themes (melodies) for the main characters in the story.This helps listeners to recognize the people in the story when their themes are played.Sometimes it is also possible to tell the mood of the character.For example,if the theme is played very loudly,with drums in the background,it could mean that the character is angry. Another Russian composer, Tchaikovsky,wrote a piece about the war between Russia and France in 1812.He used parts of the Russian national anthem to describe the triumphant feeling of the Russian as they finally beat the French.The music even includes cannons to create the sounds and atmosphere of a war.The piece is called the 1812 Overture.

Tchaikovsky,wrote a piece about the war between Russia and France in 1812.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Landscapes and scenery

2009-08-06T10:58:00.004+07:00

Some music discripbes a place or landscape.Mendelssohn composed a piece of music called The Hebrides Overture (sometimes known as Fingal's Cave).

It was written in 1830 after he visited the Hebrides,a group of islands off the west coast of Scotland. He thought the scenery was so beautiful that he wrote a piece of music about it.

Many pieces were written to describe the composer lived.Between 1872 and 1879,the Czech composer Smetana wrote a set of six pieces which he called Ma Vlast ("My Country").Each one is about a different aspect of Czech countryside and culture.He called them "musical poems"because he thought they were so descriptive that the audience would feel as if they were reading poetry. Pieces like this are examples of a trend in music known as Nationalism .

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Descriptive music

2009-08-06T10:17:00.004+07:00

All the pieces in this section of the entry describe a scene or tell a story.But they are different from the theatre music.Because, they were not written to accompany plays,songs and dances.There are no spoken words or actions either.You have to imagine the story or picture yourself while you listen to the music.

A18th century audience

To help you todo this,some pieces have titles that tell you what the music is about.Others also have words written above the music to tell the plays what is happening.During the 19th century,when descriptive music was very popular,the audience was sometimes given a booklet to read which explained the story.This meant they could follow what was happening while they listened to the music.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Spirituals

2009-08-05T15:24:00.003+07:00

Spirituals are religious songs that developed in America during the 18th and 19th centuries.They are sung in churches in the same way as hymhs,but the style of music is often different from hymns.

Spirituals songs had become very populars as concert pices.

this is becuse they are more closely related to folk songs.By the end of the 19th century very popular as concert pieces.Because of this,spirituals used in church services began to change,and a new form of religious music developed.This new style became know as gospel music.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

The oratorio

2009-08-05T14:48:00.002+07:00

An 18th century performance of an oratorio

An oratorio is a piece of music that tells a story based on scenes from the Bible.It is sung by a choir and is usually accompanied by a small group of instruments or group of instruments or by an orchestra.

Oratorios were developed by a group of church leaders who were trying to encourage more people to go to church. They belived that people would find stories from the Bible much more interesting if they were presented in this way.Opera was very popular at around this time,so many composers started to develop a musical style similar to opera for writing oratorios.

Hymn singing in the 19th century

Sometimes they added hymns and chorales.But oratorios were not intened to be performed on stage,and the singers do not wear costumes or act out the parts.The main parts are sung by soloists and the rest by the choir.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

The chorale

2009-08-05T14:16:00.003+07:00

In Germany in the 16th cenury,some church leaders belived that people should take part in prayers,not just listen to the choir or these,

Martin Luther ,began writing tunes for everybody to sing.They had words that were writtenin everyday languages,not Latin.These tumes are called chorales,and they were usually accompanied by an organ.

Some chorale tunes are based on plainchant melodies,other on folk songs.The melodies were simpler than most masses of the time.This made them easier to sing and meant that everyone could join in.J.S.Bach was one of the most important composers of chorales.

Soon this type of church singing became popular all over in America.Today,tunes in this style are often called hymns.Some are based on earlier chorales,but there are many recent ones too.

16th century music

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

The mass

2009-08-04T12:48:00.004+07:00

A mass is a type of religious service (set of prayers) held in many Christian churches.Masses have speacial words,usually in Latin,that are spoken by the priest,In the 7th century,composers began to set the words of the mass to music.At first the tunes were chants.Later they became more complicated,and perts for instruments were added.

Medieval monks singing mass

for hundreds of years,the mass was the most popular form of church music.
There are masses for many different occasions,As well as ordinary ones for each day of the yeay,there are masses for special events like coronations,weddings and funerals.A funeral mass is called a requiem ("re-kwi-em").It gets its name from the latin words "Requiem in pace"which means "May they rest in peace".

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Church composers

2009-08-04T12:10:00.003+07:00

The 17th century

Until the 17th century, most composers were paid by churches to write music.In many large churches,the composers had to write new music for every week.Thids was performed in church by professional musicians, at first an organist and a choir, later to depend on churches for their money. But some still worked for churches, and others wrote church music for special occasions.In the 19th century,some composers wrote religious music that they intended to be played in concert halls,rather than in church.

The 17th century

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps

(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Religious music (Early)

2009-08-04T11:03:00.004+07:00

St. Mark's Cathedral,Venice

People have always used music for prayers to their dods and goddesses,in different regions all over the world.The earliest surviving written music was composed for use in churches.The pieces inthis section of the book were written for worship in different types of Christian churches.

Early church music

The first type of church music is know as plainsong or plainchant. It was first written down in the 6th century AD,but may have been used for many yearrs before that.Each prayer had its own chant,and there were different chants for various times of the year.The tunes were very slow and only used a few notes.

13th century music (lift) , 16th century music ( right)

Beside plainsong,the only other popular music was folk music.Folk songs were lively and tuneful,and so were enjoyable to sing.In the century,some composers began to think that they could make their church music more interesting if they mixed chants with folk tunes.Gradually church music more varied.

Early folk musicians

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps
(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Costumes and scenery ( Music for Theatre )

2009-07-29T13:23:00.002+07:00

Opera and Ballet often use spectacular costumes and scenery.Sometimes and scenery have to move during the performance.

Often complax machinery is needed to do this.This can make ballets and operas very expensive to stage.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps
(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Overtures ( Music for Theatre )

2009-07-29T13:21:00.002+07:00

The Overtures to Rossini's opera,composer

An overture is a piece of music that is played before an opera or ballet begins.It is the first music that the audience hears,so it is often lively and exciting to attract people's attention.

Overtures are also of orchestral concerts.The overture to Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville is often used this way.When this idia first became popular,many composers,such as Mendelssohn,began writing overtures specially for concerts.

The overture to Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville is often used this way.

Ballet ( Music for Theatre )

2009-07-29T13:17:00.001+07:00

Ballet

Ballet tells a story using music and dance.There are no spoken words,so the music is very descriptive and the dancers use their movements to tell the story.The first ballets were performaed in private.Wealthy noblemen arranged evenings of entertainment in their homes,in which performers sang,danced and recited poetry.

Ballet Theater
A scene in “The Nutcracker”

The most popular ballets in this style Tchaikovsky.

The dances grandually became the most important past,and the performers instead of singing or reciting words.The first ballet to be shown in a public theatre was staged in 1581 in France.
At first,dancers chose any music to perform to.It was not necessrily dance music.Since the eartist times,music has been a very important part of theatricalperformances.Musicis often added to plays to make them more interting.Sometimes musicians accompany singing and dancing on stage,but music can also be used to emphasize the mood of the play,rather like film or televistion music.

Acting,singing and dancing have always been closely linked.In ancient Greek and Roman times,some actors used to mime the story (act without speaking)while music was played.Later,composers began to write music to go with plays and religous stories.Gradually,two special kinds of theatre music developed.One,Opera,is based on singing.The other,ballet,is based on dancing.

Tchaikovsky,composers

Later,composers such as lully began to write music specially for the ballet.Someone slse worked out the dance steps.The person who arramges the dances is called the choreographer.
Ballet stories are very imaginative.Some are based on fairy tales, like the ballets of Delibes and Tchaikovsky.Two of the most popular ballets in this style are Tchaikovsky'sThe Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty.Other ballets are based on plays or books.and can be sad or romantic.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps
(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Opera (Music for Theatre )

2009-07-29T13:13:00.003+07:00

Opera tells a story through songs.The music is played by an orchestra,while the actors sing on stage.The frist opera was performed in the early 17th century.

La Scala opera house in Milan

Opera soon became very poppular in Europe,and many opera houses(special theatres for opera) were built.

The performers were often much more famous than the composers.People would go to an opera to hear singers they liked.
Title page of Verdi's La traviata
There are lots of different types of opera.The styles have changed grandually over the years.In Handel's operas,all the words are sung,and the stories are serious.They are often based on history or mythology.Several of Mozart's operas,including The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte,are based on comical stories and contain spoken pasts.In the 19th century,composers like Verdi and Puccini wrote operas with sad,romantic stories. These are often about the lives of ordinary people ,not historical or legendary ones.The story used in the opera is called the libretto.This is the Italian word for 'little book'When opera first began,the people in the audience had this in front of them so that they could read the words while the opera was being performed.later,the audience sat in the dark,and only it too dark to read,but it was easier to see what was happening on the stage.

Imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps
(ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

The 19th century(Music for Dancing)

2009-07-29T10:33:00.004+07:00

The 19th century dancers waltzing

The most popular dance in the 19th century was the waltz.It is in three-four time,and is quite fast,Some people belived the waltz was unhealthy because the dancing couples whirled around the room so quickly.

Johann Strauss ll

One of the most famous composers of waltzes was Johann Strauss ll,the son of another composer called Johann Strauss.

Another very popular dance in the 19th century was the polonaise.This originally came from poland in the 16th century.The polonaise was slow and dignified,and was often danced at weddings and other special occasions.

In the 19th century,many composers began to feel very proud the costoms and traditions of thier countries.They began writing music that was based on folk tunes and dances.This is Known as nationalism.Famous nationalist pieces are Grieg's Norwegian dances and Dvorak's Slavonic dances.

-Imfromation from:/More Easy Piano Classics , Caroline Phipps , ISBN 0 - 7460 - 1698 - 0

The minuet (Music for Dancing)

2009-07-29T10:15:00.007+07:00

Dancing a minuet

The minuet was another dance which was often included in the suit.Minuets are slow and graceful,in three-four or three-eight time.The dancing couples bow to each other and point their toes as they dance.

In the 18th century,the minuet was one of the most popular dances.Even when it was one of the most popular dances.Even when it was no longer fashionable in ballrooms,composers continued to write minuets to include in their operas,ballets and symphonies.

Mozart wrote lots of minuets.Some were for dancing,but others were part of larger pices of music like operas and ballets.

Imfromation from:/More Easy Piano Classics , Caroline Phipps , ISBN 0 - 7460 - 1698 - 0

The gavotte and musette(Music for Dancing)

2009-07-28T17:15:00.004+07:00

The gavotte became popular around the end of the Baroque period.It was often included in suites.
Another dance,called the musette,developed from the gavotte.It is similar in style,but the bass line contains a repeated note known as a drone.This sometimes makes the music sound a bit like a bagpipe.At around this time in France,a small bagpipe called a musette was very popular.

Johann_Sebastian_Bach

One of the most famous musettes was written by Johann Sebastian Bach,in his Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

Imfromation from:/More Easy Piano Classics , Caroline Phipps , ISBN 0 - 7460 - 1698 - 0

The suite (Music for Dancing)

2009-07-28T17:07:00.004+07:00

18th century dancers

By the Baroque period (about 1600 to 1750) the basse danse had developed into a musical from called the suite.This is a set of dances played one after the other.
There was no limit to the number of dances,but normally there were four or five.The most popular dances were the allemande,the courante,the sarabande and the gigue.Any extra ones were inserted between the sarabande and the gigue.
In the allemande the dancers linked arms.It was a good dance to begin with because it was not too fast.

The courante used quick running steps.Sometimes it was hard for the dancers to keep up with the music.

After this,the slow,gentle sarabande gave the dancers a rest.The suite usually ended with a fast,lively gigue.

Imfromation from:/More Easy Piano Classics , Caroline Phipps , ISBN 0 - 7460 - 1698 - 0

Early dances (Music for Dancing)

2009-07-28T16:59:00.005+07:00

In ancient times,dances were used as a way of praying.People danced and sang to ask their gods to make crops grow.But this died out in most parts of Europe when Christainity became the most common religion.We know from books and pictures that dancing was still popular, but very little dance music from before about 1350 has been found.This is probably because the only music written down in this period was church music.But gradually people began to write folk and dance music down too.

During the 15th and 16th centuries,the basse danse was very popular.This was in fact a series of dances in several different styles.However the music was never very fast because the clothes people wore were so bulky that they were not able to move quickly.

Imfromation from:/More Easy Piano Classics , Caroline Phipps , ISBN 0 - 7460 - 1698 - 0

Music for Dancing (Music for Dancing)

2009-07-28T15:36:00.006+07:00

Dancing has always been a popular entertainment At frist,most popular danced privately in their homes,or feasts and parties.But,in the 18th and 19th centuries,as more people wanted to dance,large public halls called ballrooms were opened.An orchestra or small band played.Each one changed little by little over many years,but some of them are still danced today.

Music for dancing is different from music for ballet.Ballet music was written for professional dancers and theatrical performances,but most of the music in this section of the book was written for ordinary people to dance to. Early dances,The suite, The gavotte and musette,The minuet,The 19th century,

A musette

Theatre music ( Music for Theatre )

2009-07-26T13:56:00.028+07:00

Inside an opera house

Theatre music

Since the eartist times,music has been a very important part of theatricalperformances.Musicis often added to plays to make them more interting.Sometimes musicians accompany singing and dancing on stage,but music can also be used to emphasize the mood of the play,rather like film or televistion music.

Acting,singing and dancing have always been closely linked.In ancient Greek and Roman times,some actors used to mime the story (act without speaking)while music was played.Later,composers began to write music to go with plays and religous stories.Gradually,two special kinds of theatre music developed.One,Opera,is based on singing.The other,ballet,is based on dancing.

La Scala opera house in Milan

Terzettino-by-Mozart

The barber of Sevelle overture by Rossini

Ficelio by Beethovan

Drinking song by Verdi
imformation :Book name,Learn to Play more easy piano classics by caroline phipps (ISBN 0-7460-1698-0)

Mahidol University list of the World Conservatories

2009-07-24T20:41:00.006+07:00

The College of Music, Mahidol University is on the list of the World Music Conservatories
The College of Music ,Mahidol University was selected on the list of the World Conservatories Music by Rhinegold Directories, UK, publishers of “Rhinegold World Conservatories: an International Guide to Music Study 2009”.

In Asia , only 9 conservatories were selected; Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China), Sichuan Conservatory of Music (Chengdu, China), Shanghai Conservatory of Music (Shanghai, China), Hong Kong Academy of Performance Arts (Hong Kong, China), Tokyo College of Music (Tokyo, Japan), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore), Keimyung University College of Music and Performing Arts (Daegu, South Korea), Korea National University of Arts (Seoul, South Korea) and Mahidol University’s , College of Music (Thailand).

The College of Music, Mahidol University has 1,111 students, including 272 pre-college students, 669 undergraduate students, 131 master students, and 39 doctoral students, with 105 full time faculty; 53 are Thai and 52 are international from 16 Countries. All of the faculty members are accomplished performers, composers and scholars who are committed to teaching.

2009 NTDTV Chinese International Piano Competition

2009-07-11T10:52:00.003+07:00

2009 NTDTV Chinese International Piano Competition
The Chinese International Piano Competition is one of a series of world music events sponsored by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV). Its purpose is to provide Chinese people from around the world with a platform to exchange cultures and arts from East and West.
Location

Preliminaries in Taiwan
Performing Arts Center, National Taiwan University of Arts
59, Sec. 1, Ta-kuan Rd., Panchiao, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Competitions in USA shall take place in New York.
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
899 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A.

Date

Preliminaries in Taiwan will be held in September 5th - 6th, 2009.
Competitions in the USA will be held in October 9th - 11th, 2009.
October 8th (Thu.): Contestant Registration, orientation & rehearsal;
October 9th (Fri.): Preliminaries;
October 10th (Sat.): Semifinals;
October 11th (Sun.): Finals (including Future Star Performance & Award Ceremony).

Awards

One Gold Award (US$10,000)
One Silver Award (US$3,000)
One Bronze Award (US$1,000)
A number of outstanding performance award winners.

Panel of Judges

The Panel of Judges for the Chinese International Piano Competition will be composed of professional veteran pianists and they will be responsible for judging the contestants' performances. The decisions of the Panel for all rounds shall be final.
Procedures and Competition Repertoire

1. The Competition is divided into three rounds: Preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals.
1) Preliminary pieces: Contestants may choose to play the 1st movement of any of Mozart Piano Sonatas (K545 excluded). No repeat is needed.
2) Semi-final pieces: Felix Mendelssohn Variations Sérieuses in D minor, Op. 54.
3) Final pieces: Total two required (one from each composer listed below).

1. Contestants may choose to play the 1st movement of any of Beethoven Piano Sonatas. No repeat is needed.
* Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2
* Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31, No. 3
* Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53
* Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57
2. Johann Sebastian Bach / Ferruccio Busoni (transcriptions): Chaconne, from Partita for solo violin No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004, transcribed for piano.
2. Contestants are required to play from memory.
3. The Panel has the right to suspend the playing.

more imfomation http://piano.ntdtv.com/en/

Piano Competition Japan

2009-07-04T19:33:00.003+07:00

The 2nd Takamatsu International Piano Competition.

2010(3.17-3.28)

Takamatsu, Japan

Age: 0-40
Deadline: 9/15/2009
960, Kasuga-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa, 761-0194 JAPAN
Tel: 81-87-841-3937
Fax: 81-87-841-3937
Email: info@tipc.jp

In cooperation with Takamatsu City Culture and Art Foundation.

The 10th 2009 Osaka International Music Competition
Honorary Artistic Director and Chairman of Jury: Leon SPIERER
Special Counselor: Michael FRISCHENSCHLAGER
Competition Organization Chairperson: Yoshihiko SANO

Objectives of the Osaka International Music Competition:
We aim to find and send out a number of young artists around the world in the spirit of this
competition; that being to allow musicians to compete in an international setting. The OSAKA
International Music Competition distinguishes Osaka as an epicenter of arts and culture and
endeavors to promote the peace and prosperity of the Kansai region in the 21st century.

The Hamamatsu International Piano Competition was started in 1991 in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of Hamamatsu City, and it has been held every three years since. The purpose of this Competition is to encourage the development of music and culture, to promote international cultural exchanges and to contribute to the nurturing of musicians by providing promising young pianists from all over the world with an opportunity to display the fruits of their daily study.

The 7th Ahorn Piano Competition Yokohama, Japan (11/4/2007-2/23/2008) Age: No Age Limit Deadline: 10/22/2007 Tel: 0120-1920-95 1-4-2-203 Minami-Rinkan Yamato, Kanagawa 242-0006 Japan Email: info@ahornpianocompetition.info

The 2nd Yokohama International Piano Competition Yokohama, Japan (6/6/2008-6/7/2008) Age: No Age Limit Deadline: 4/25/2008 Asuka Building, 2-5-3, Kitasaiwai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-0004 Tel: +81-45-314-1014 Fax: +81-45-311-7150 Email: y-piacon@yamaha-yokohama.co.jp

International Piano Competitions, Piano Competition, Music Competition
The 7th Ahorn Piano Competition Yokohama, Japan (11/4/2007-2/23/2008) Age: No Age Limit .... The 8th Rosenstock International Piano Competition Tokyo,

The 51st All Tohoku Piano Competition
Sendai, Japan (7/1/2007)
Age:
Deadline:
3-1-1 Kokubun Aoba, Sendai, Japan 980-0803
Tel: 022-227-2715
Email: piacon@tbc-sendai.co.jp

International Music Competition Seoul, South Korea

2009-07-04T19:17:00.003+07:00

The Secretariat of Seoul International Music Competition

The 4th Seoul International Music Competition Seoul, South Korea (4/15/2008-4/27/2008) Age: 16-30 Deadline: 11/14/2007 The Dong-A Iibo 7th Fl. 139 Sejongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-715, South Korea Tel: 82-2-2020-0736 Fax: 82-2-2020-1639 Email: seoulcompetition@donga.com

International Piano Competition Taiwan

2009-07-04T19:06:00.003+07:00

The 2nd Theodor Leschetizky Intrenational Piano Competition Taipei, Taiwan (5/22/2004-6/2/2004) Age: 15-32 Deadline: 4/30/2004 Renaisance Music Society Tel: +886-2-28091733 Fax: +886-2-28091837 Email: rms@gcn.net.tw

Taipei Taiwan R.O.C.

-Municipal Cultural Center Kuang-Fu Hall (Preliminary Rounds & Semifinals)

-National Concert Hall (Finals)

Piano concertos accompanied by Taipei Symphony Orchestra.

Taiwan International Piano Competition
Taipei, Taiwan (9/28/2006-10/8/2006)
Age: 15-30
Deadline: 3/31/2006
National Endowment for Culture and Arts
5F, No. 276 Chien Kuo South Road, Sec.2, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Tel: 886-2-23690559 ext 11-12
Fax: 886-2-23690471
Email: neca002@cca.gov.tw

HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

2009-07-04T18:48:00.004+07:00

The 2nd HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL
PIANO COMPETITION
to take place at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
between the 4th and the 21st October 2008.
16/A, Kennedy Heights, 10-18 Kennedy Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2868 0837
Fax: (852) 2810 0465
Email: afreris@pacific.net.hk

Steinway & Sons International Youth Piano Competition
Hong Kong, China
Age: 10-26
Deadline:
Tom Lee Music Foundation
3/F, 6 Cameron Lane, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852)2731-4148
Fax: (852)2721-9598
Email: minah.chan@tomleemusicfoundation.org

2 005The 13th Hong Kong (Asia) Piano Open Competition

Cast Dr. Fanny Waterman, CBE, FRCM (Jury Chairman)
Date 1-31/1/ 2005 (Preliminary); 14-17/2/2005 (Final); 18/2/2005 (Award Ceremony)
Time Hong Kong City Hall (Award Cermony) Contestants will be notified (Prelim & Final

HSBC Classics Piano Competition Malaysia

2009-07-04T18:40:00.004+07:00

HSBC Classics Piano Competition Malaysia (7/7/2008-7/12/2008) Age: 0-25 Deadline: 4/4/2008 Email: yuemay@klpac.com

The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre
Sentul Park
Jalan Strachan
51100 Kuala Lumpur

China International Piano Competition

2009-07-04T18:04:00.008+07:00

The 4th China International Piano Competition will be held from October 15th to 25th, 2007 in Xiamen, China. It is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China, undertaken by the Xiamen Municipal Government of China and is conducted by the Competition Organizing Committee.

The 4th China Shanghai International Piano Competition Shanghai, China China Shanghai International Piano Competition
Piano Competition Organizing Committee Office,
Room 303 No.3 Lane 120 Taian Road Shanghai, 200052
P.R. China
Tel/Fax:0086-21-62820989
www.csipc.org
Email:alex@csipc.org

The 1st China Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition Shenzhen, China
(10/18/2006-10/28/2006)-triennial Age: 16-30 Dealine: 6/20/2006

Thailand International Piano Competition

2009-07-04T17:27:00.006+07:00

Thailand International Piano Competition

Mahidol University 25/25 Phuttamonthon sai 4 Salaya Phuttamonthon Nakhon Pathom 73170 Thailand Tel: (66)2-800-2525 Fax: (66)2-800-2530

15th World Saxophone Congress

2009-07-03T12:20:00.017+07:00

Welcome to World Saxophone Congress XV

Concert

July 7 - 12, 2009

Music Auditorium, College of Music, Mahidol University
Bangkok,Thailand

A festival for the saxophone enthusiast held every three years, the TPO will join together with outstanding saxophone soloists from the world to present the music of the saxophone. The 15th World Saxophone Congress will be hosted by the College of Music, Mahidol University, with the collaboration of the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dr. Sugree Charoensook, Host
15th World Saxophone Congress
Director – Mahidol University College of Music

Concert o Soloists

Jazz Soloists

The College of Music, Mahidol University

Salaya Campus: Please cross the river over t he Pinklao Bridge, drive straight on along the Baromrachachonne Rd. until you get to Taligchan-Nakhonchaisri Rd., make a u-turn and drive 2 km. Back until you get to the entrance of the Mahidol University to your left.

Welcome toThailand and Welcome to ...College of Music, Mahidol University

Directions

Salaya is about 25 km west of Bangkok en route to Nakhon Pathom and Kanchanaburi. The nearest tourist attractions are Buddhamonthon Park, Rose Garden and Don Wai floating market.

From the NORTH of Bangkok:
Cross over the Chao Phaya River by Krungthon Bridge and follow Sirinthorn Road to the partially elevated Highway 338 to Buddhamonthon/Nakhon Chaisi. Get off at the Salaya exit, the campus is on the left.

From the WEST of Bangkok:
Cross over the Chao Phaya River via Pinklao Bridge and take the partially elevated Highway 338 to Buddhamonthon/Nakhon Chaisi. Get off at the Salaya exit, the campus is on the left.

From the SOUTH of Bangkok:
Cross over the Chao Phaya River by Thaksin Bridge and follow Chayaphruk Highway until you get to the junction with the newly opened Ratchaphisek Road. From there, follow directions to Boromrachonnani Highway 338. Get onto Boromrachonnani to Buddhamonthon/Nakhon Chaisi. Get off at the Salaya exit, the campus is on the left.

Public Transportation

If you are using public transportation, here are our suggestions:

From VICTORY MONUMENT:
Take bus number 515 (aircon, 25 baht) or bus 125 (7 baht) to Salaya

From SILOM ROAD:
Take bus number 547 (aircon, 20 baht) or 164 (7 baht) to Salaya

From PINKLAO ROAD:
Take bus number 124 (7 baht) to Salaya.

From KLONGSAN:
Take bus number 84Kor (aircon, 25 baht / non-aircon, 7 baht) to Salaya

* A TAXI ride from anywhere near the city center is approximately 200-250 Baht. Please travel safely and take one of the newer cabs. Don't forget to ask the driver to set the meter!

How to get to Mahidol University, Salaya Campus .........
Contact Number......
Contact Information....

More imformation.........Tel. 02 800 2525 ext. 154, 155
World Saxophone Congress
The College of Music, Mahidol University

Evgeny Kissin Biography

2009-06-23T18:09:00.003+07:00

Evgeny Kissin

Born: October 10, 1971 - Moscow, Russia

Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. At six years old, he entered a special school for gifted children, the Moscow Gnessin School of Music, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who has remained his only teacher. At the age of ten, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 466 and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at the age of twelve, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko. This concert was recorded live by Melodia, and a two-LP album was released the following year. During the next two years, several Kissin performances in Moscow were recorded live and five more LPs were released by Melodia.

Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987 he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a New Year’s concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Audio and video recordings of the New Year’s concert were made by Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1990 Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in London and that same year made his North American debut, performing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week he opened Carnegie Hall’s Centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, which was recorded live by BMG Classics.

Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (which was his first performance in Japan ). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy . He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America ’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic , and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert. In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia ’s highest musical honors. In June 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London . He was recently awarded the 2005 Herbert von Karajan Music Prize.

Kissin’s recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, including the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands and the Diapason d’Or and the Grande Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France, as well as awards from music magazines throughout the world. In 2002 and 2006 Kissin was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year.

In February 2006 Kissin has won the Grammy award. He received it in the category of the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for his recording of piano works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky.

His first studio recording, in 1988 for RCA Red Seal, was of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Valery Gergiev and London Symphony Orchestra, and six Etudes-Tableaux, Op.39.

Among other works recorded for RCA Red Seal are two Chopin recital programmes, one with the four Ballades, Barcarolle, Berceuse, and Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54, and another with the 24 Preludes Op. 28, Sonata No. 2 and Polonaise in A- flat; Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Paganini, and Francks’s Prelude, Choral and Fugue; Schumann’s Fantasy, Op. 17 and five Etudes d’execution transcendante by Liszt; Schumann’s Kreisleriana and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne; Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, Glinka-Balakirev The Lark and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition; Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor and Carnaval; and an all-Brahms disc including Sonata No. 3 in F Minor and five Hungarian dances. His newest recording has been released in September 2005 includes works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky’s Movements from Pétrouchka. A recent duo recital with James Levine of works by Schubert was recorded live at Carnegie Hall May 1, 2005 (RCA Red Seal).

Other recital albums include Schubert Sonata No. 21 in B flat major and Schubert-Liszt Four Songs (BMG/RCA Victor Red Seal), Schubert Wanderer Fantasie, Brahms Seven Pieces, Op. 116, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 (Deutsche Grammophon) and Haydn Sonata No. 30 in A major, Sonata No. 52 in E flat major, and Schubert Sonata in A minor D784 (Sony).
Among concerto recordings are the Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Giulini (Sony Classical); Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Levine (Sony Classical); Prokofiev Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon) and Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the Boston Symphony and Ozawa (RCA Red Seal); Mozart Concertos Nos. 12 and 20 and Rondo in D major KV. 382, Haydn Concerto in D major, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the Moscow Virtuosi and Spivakov (RCA Red Seal); Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon).

Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.

Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of the world’s new generation of young pianists. He is in demand the world over, and has appeared with many great conductors, including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dohnanyi, Giulini, Levine, Maazel, Muti, Ozawa, Svetlanov and Temirkanov, as well as all the world’s major orchestras. He makes regular recital tours to the United States, Japan and throughout Europe.

During the 2007-08 season, Mr. Kissin will embark on several major recording projects for EMI Classics. He will record all five Beethoven concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, Prokofiev's 2nd and 3rd concertos with Vladimir Ashkenazy and The Philharmonia Orchestra, both the Brahms piano concertos with James Levine and the Boston Symphony and Mozart piano concerti Nos 20 and 27 with the Kremerata Balitica without conductor.
Read more ......informatio kissin.dk/fanclub

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Biography

2009-06-23T17:18:00.004+07:00

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

Born: January 5, 1920 - Brescia, Italy
Died: June 12, 1995 - Lugano, Switzerland

The celebrated Italian pianist and pedagogue, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, began music lessons at the age of 3, initially with the violin, but quickly switched to the piano. At the age of four he began studying at the Istituto Musicale Venturi under the direction of Paolo Chimeri. At 10 he entered the Milan Conservatory, where he studied piano and composition under Giovanni Anfossi as well as violin with Renzo Francesconi. He obtained his soloist's diploma at the age of 13 (or 14). At the insistence of his father he studied medicine for a brief period of time. In 1938, at age 18, he began his international career by entering the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, where he placed seventh. (A brief account of this competition, at which Gilels took first prize, is given by Arthur Rubinstein, who was one of the judges. According to Rubinstein, Michelangeli gave "an unsatisfactory performance, but already showed his impeccable technique.") A year later, in 1939, he earned first prize in the prestigious Geneva International Competition, whose jury was headed by Ignaz Paderewski. Michelangeli's importance as a towering figure among 20th-century pianists was stamped by pianist Alfred Cortot, a presiding judge, who said: "Here is a new Liszt".

From 1941 to 1943 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli served in the Italian Air Forces, and then joined the anti-Fascist partisan movement. Although taken as a prisoner by the German occupation forces, he soon managed to escape and awaited the complete liberation of Italy to resume his career. With World War II over in 1945, he played in his homeland. In 1946 he made his first tour of Europe. He played in England in 1946, and was invited to the USA for the first time in 1948. In 1949, he was requested to take part in the festivities commemorating the 100th anniversary of Chopin's death in Warsaw. In subsequent years, he appeared in selected major music centres of the world while acquiring a legendary reputation as a virtuoso. Unfortunately, he also developed a reputation for cancelling engagements at the last minute. When he did perform, however, his concerts were invariably sold out and accorded ovations by public and critics alike. In 1960 he performed Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in Vatican City for the Pope. After a health-related pause in his career, he returned to the concert podium in 1964, when he travelled to Russia. n 1965 he became one of the first Western artists to concertize extensively in Asia. He then concretised in the USA, Israel and, once again, in Germany. He founded the International Piano Festival in Brescia and Bergamo in 1964, and remained its artistic director for about three years.

In addition, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli also dedicated himself with great enthusiasm to his teaching activities. Already in 1939 he was made a professor at the Bologna Conservatory. His reputation quickly spread throughout the musical world led to his appointment later, to the Conservatories of Venice and Bolzano as well. From 1964 to 1969 he was director of his own piano academy in Brescia. In later years, he devoted most of his time to teaching. In addition, he gave master-classes in Arezzo, Sienna, Turin and Lugano. Among his pupils were Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini. A generous man, he funded each and every one of his students out of his own income, maintaining that music is an inalienable right for those who have the gift.

In 1968 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli went into voluntary "exile" from Italy, angered at the government for impounding his pianos after a company in which he was a partner went bankrupt. Although Italy remained his official residence, he resided in Switzerland for the rest of his life. After setting in a town close to Lugano, he became increasingly absorbed with his search for the greatest possible depth of interpretation, the result of which can be seen in several grandiose concert performances - as concerts with orchestra and in solo recitals - which the maestro gave throughout Europe (in particular, the Vatican concerts of 1977 and 1987, as well as the Bregenz and London concert series). After overcoming an illness which broke out during a concert in Bordeaux in 1988, he returned to his international concert career with renewed energy in 1989. Its dazzling climaxes were reached in two Mozart CD's and in the exceptional Bremen concerts of 1989 and 1990, the Munich concerts conducted by Sergiu Celibidache, the extensive Japan tour of 1992 and, finally, in the Hamburg concerto of May 7, 1993, which was Michelangeli's last public appearance. After an extended illness he died in Lugano.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli has been regarded as among the most commanding and individual piano virtuosos of the 20th century, among names such as Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. He is often considered the most important Italian pianist after Ferruccio Busoni. He was known for his note-perfect performances. The music critic Harold Schonberg wrote of him: "His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired...The puzzling part about Michelangeli is that in many pieces of the romantic repertoire he seems unsure of himself emotionally, and his otherwise direct playing is then laden with expressive devices that disturb the musical flow." The teacher and commentator David Dubal adds that he was best in the earlier works of Beethoven and seemed insecure in Chopin, but that he was "demonic" in such works as the Bach-Busoni Chaconne and the Brahms Paganini Variations.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's repertoire was strikingly small for a concert pianist of such stature. While his technical mastery made him one of the great keyboard exponents of the Romantic repertoire, his sympathies ranged widely, from early music to the 20th century. Owing to his obsessive perfectionism relatively few recordings were officially released during Michelangeli's lifetime, but these are augmented by numerous bootleg recordings of live performances. Discography highlights include the (authorised) live performances in London of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, Chopin's Sonata No. 2 and Robert Schumann's Carnival, Op. 9 and Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26. The Gaspard as well as his playing of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G set standards for those works and his reading of Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 4 is comparable to that of S. Rachmaninov himself. His Debussy series for DG is something of a benchmark, if it is sometimes accused of being a little unatmospheric ("swimming in cool water," in Dubal's words). Several DVD's of live performances, and of a master-class, are also available.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was something of a hypochondriac. Apart from his musical activities, he claimed to have been a qualified doctor, pilot, racing car driver. He also is said to have traced his ancestry back to St. Francis of Assisi. Michelangeli never wholly embraced life as a concert artist. He felt that to pour such adulation on a performer was a disgrace, and that it distracted the performer from the very essence of his duty. A deeply private man, he had a tendency to distort the truth during interviews, making it difficult for musicologists and historians to build an accurate portrait of his life; he will likely remain a fascinating, little-understood man.

Read more imformation:arturobenedettimichelangeli, bach-cantatas

Emil Gilels Biography

2009-06-23T16:53:00.003+07:00

Emil Gilels

Born: October 19, 1916 - Odessa, Russia
Died: October 14, 1985 - Moscow, Russia

was a Ukrainian classical pianist of the Soviet era.

Gilels was born in Odessa in 1916 to a musical family; both his parents were musicians. He began studying the piano at 6, making his first public debut at the age of 13 in 1929. In 1930 Gilels entered the Odessa Conservatory where he was coached by Berta Reingbald, whom Gilels credited as his first formative influence.

In 1933 Gilels won the newly-founded All Soviet Union Piano Competition at age 17. After graduating from the Odessa Conservatory in 1935, he moved to Moscow, where he studied under the famous piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus until 1937. A year later, at age 22, he won the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, beating such competitors as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Moura Lympany.

Gilels was the first Soviet artist to be allowed to travel extensively in the West. After the war, he toured Europe starting from 1947 as a concert pianist, and made his American debut in 1955 playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Philadelphia. He taught as a professor for the Moscow Conservatory after 1952. In his late days he remained in his native Russia and rarely ventured abroad.

He was the winner of the prestigious Stalin Prize in 1946, the Order of Lenin in 1961 and 1966 and the Lenin Prize in 1962.

Gilels was the dedicatee of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8 and also gave its first performance on December 30, 1944, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Gilels was universally admired for his superb technical control and burnished tone. His interpretations of the central German-Austria classics formed the core of his repertoire, in particular Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, but he was equally illuminative in Scarlatti, Bach as well as twentieth-century music like Debussy, Bartók and Prokofiev.

He was in the midst of completing a complete survey of Beethoven's piano sonatas for the German record company Deutsche Grammophon when he died in 1985 in Moscow.

Source:http:spiritus-temporis
Read more information:emilgilels

Sviatoslav Richter Biography

2009-06-23T16:38:00.002+07:00

Sviatoslav Richter

Born: March 20, 1915 - Zhitomir, Russia (in the territory of modern Ukraine)
Died: August 1, 1997 - Moscow, Russia

Sviatoslav Richter was born in Zhitomir but grew up in Odessa. Unusually, he was largely self-taught although his organist father provided him with a basic education in music. Even at an early age, Richter was an excellent sight-reader, and regularly practiced with local opera and ballet companies. He developed a lifelong passion for opera, vocal and chamber music that found its full expression in the festival he established in Grange de Meslay, France. He started to work at the Odessa Conservatory where he accompanied the opera rehearsals. He gave his first recital in 1934 at the engineer club of Odessa but did not formally study piano until three years later, when he enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, which waived the entrance exam for the young prodigy after it was clear he would not pass. He studied with Heinrich Neuhaus who also taught Emil Gilels, and who claimed Richter to be "the genius pupil, for whom he had been waiting all his life". In 1940, while still a student, he gave the world premiere of the Sonata No. 6 by Sergei Prokofiev, a composer with whose works he was ever after associated. He also became known for skipping compulsory political lessons at the conservatory and being expelled twice during his first year. Richter remained a political outsider in the U.S.S.R. and never joined the Party.

Sviatoslav Richter met the soprano Nina Dorliak in 1945 when he accompanied her in a program that included songs by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev. "This was the first meeting in an association that would last the rest of their lives. Richter and Dorliak were never officially married, but they were constant companions. She was the practical counterbalance to his impulsive nature. She would wind his watch for him, remind him of appointments, and manage his professional commitments" (Geffen 1999). In 1949 he won the Stalin Prize, which led to extensive concert tours in Russia, Eastern Europe and China.

The West first became aware of Sviatoslav Richter through recordings made in the 1950's. He was not allowed to tour the United States until 1960, but when he did, he created a sensation, playing a series of sold-out concerts in Carnegie Hall. Touring, however, was not Richter's forté. He preferred not to plan concerts years in advance, and in later years took to playing on very short notice in small, often darkened halls, sometimes with only a small lamp lighting his piano. He died in Moscow while studying for a concert series he was to give.

Sviatoslav Richter's repertoire spanned the major works of the piano repertoire, although with many omissions (e.g., Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), Beethoven's Waldstein sonata and Fourth and Fifth piano concertos, Schubert's A-major sonata D. 959). Among his noted recordings are works by Franz Schubert, Beethoven, Bach (whose Well-Tempered Clavier part II he is said to have learned by heart in one month), Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Scriabin and many others. He was said to be the finest interpreter of the piano works of Robert Schumann. He gave the premiere of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7 (which he learned in just four days before staging a performance of the work), and Prokofiev dedicated his Sonata No. 9 to him. Apart from playing solo he also enjoyed playing chamber music with partners such as David Oistrakh, Benjamin Britten, and Mstislav Rostropovich. He had unusually large hands, capable of taking a twelfth.

Source:bach-cantatas

HOROWITZ, VLADIMIR BIOGRAPHY

2009-06-23T16:29:00.003+07:00

HOROWITZ, VLADIMIR

Born: October 1, 1903 - Kiev, Ukraine
Died: November 5, 1989 - New York, NY, USA

Although he grew up in Kiev, and claimed that was the city of his birth, it is possible that Horowitz’s birthplace was actually Berdichev, situated southwest of Kiev. Horowitz was born into a well-to-do, cultured family and he received his first piano lessons from his mother. At the age of nine he entered the Kiev Conservatory where he studied with Vladimir Puchalsky, then with Sergei Tarnowsky; both had been pupils of Theodor Leschetizky. From 1919 Horowitz studied with Felix Blumenfeld, a pupil of Anton Rubinstein. Although never a performing child prodigy, Horowitz was always the centre of attention as a child and adolescent due to his extraordinary talent at the keyboard, and this environment moulded his personality as an adult.

Horowitz made his debut in Kiev in 1920, the year that he graduated from the Kiev Conservatory. His family had lost everything in the Revolution, so young Vladimir had to earn a living. Although an unknown, after a few performances news of Horowitz spread and his concerts were well attended. During this period he also performed with violinist Nathan Milstein; they played to packed houses in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) in 1923 and during the following concert season Horowitz gave twenty recitals of ten programmes.

Horowitz left the Soviet Union in 1925 to make his debut in Berlin (and to avoid military service). He had great success after three performances in Berlin in January 1926, and a performance in Hamburg secured his reputation in Germany. In February he conquered Paris and received great acclaim throughout Europe with the exception of London. Horowitz’s New York debut is notorious for the disagreement in tempi taken by pianist and conductor Thomas Beecham in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor Op. 23. Horowitz was there to dazzle his audience, Beecham was not there to concur with his soloist. Horowitz was in demand everywhere, yet at his New York recital debut in November 1928 one critic wrote, ‘His appearances here have given rise to some misgivings regarding the true significance of his deeper musical gifts, and last night the doubters had further justification for their fears.’

Since his European debut Horowitz had continued a gruelling series of appearances. He gave three concerts at Queen’s Hall in London in February and March of 1936. One reviewer noted, ‘…in general his playing fascinates to the point of mesmerism by the sheer beauty of its sound – meaning, pattern, description, all are embodied in the studied subtleties of pianoforte tone.’ However, at the third concert he played Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat Op. 73 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Barbirolli. Of the Beethoven, The Times critic wrote, ‘What we were given was a glittering superficiality that from the very first page ignored Beethoven’s espressivo, and took no account of the architecture of the work.’ This type of criticism from opposite poles was to dog Horowitz throughout his career. He could whip an audience into a frenzy while the critics complained of a lack of musicianship.

In 1933 Horowitz had married the daughter of conductor Arturo Toscanini (the lifestyle of whose family was far from harmonious and calm) and by 1936 he was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Not long after the London concerts described he retreated from public appearance for two years in an attempt to recover his physical and mental health in Switzerland. During the 1940s Horowitz lived in the United States and performed a great deal. In 1953 he celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his American debut, but the following month a performance of the Piano Sonata in B flat D. 960 by Schubert received bad notices. Again, overworked and exhausted, the highly-strung Horowitz retired from the concert stage, this time for twelve years. His come-back concert at Carnegie Hall in May 1965 was a huge success as was the recording of it, issued by CBS. His playing sounded less brittle and had acquired a new maturity; but once more, less than four years later he disappeared from public performance again, and during the 1970s only performed after 1974.

In 1978 Horowitz celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his American debut with a performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30 at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. He had not appeared with an orchestra for twenty-five years, and his playing was again brittle, overwrought and frenetic. The concert was televised and recorded for release on LP. In 1982 Horowitz appeared in London after an absence of more than thirty years. He gave a recital (on his own piano which he took with him) in aid of the Royal Opera House Development Appeal and raised £80,000. The concert was broadcast on television throughout Europe, Japan, the United States, Central and South America. Concerts in Japan the following year were disastrous. Horowitz, who was on drugs prescribed by his psychiatrist since 1975, played badly, with memory lapses and many wrong notes. It was a tragedy that he ever performed in this debilitated state. Another retirement from the stage abruptly followed.

Horowitz’s return to the stage in 1985, when he played in Paris and Milan, was a resounding success. Gone was the incoherent, distorted playing of previous years, and in its place came a calm and serene pianist who, at over eighty years of age, could still amaze and dazzle his audience. The following year he returned to his homeland, giving concerts in Moscow and Leningrad; he had not set foot in Russia for more than sixty years. Following on from Russia, Horowitz played in Germany, London and Tokyo where he restored his reputation. He continued to give concerts until 1987 and died peacefully at his home in 1989.

Source:http:naxos.com

Claudio Arrau Biography

2009-06-23T16:16:00.001+07:00

Claudio Arrau

Born: February 6, 1903 - Chillán, Chile
Died: June 9, 1991 - Mürzzuschlag, Austria

Arrau was born in Chillán, Chile, on February 6, 1903. He received piano instruction from his mother at an early age, making his debut performance in Santiago at the age of five playing Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin. At the age of 10 the Chilean government sent him to Berlin, where he enrolled in Stern's Conservatory of Music. His teacher there was Martin Krause. While studying he entered competitions, and won the Ibach Prize and the Gustav Holländer Medal. He also began giving recitals in Germany and Scandinavia, earning excited comment over the excellence of his technique, and the maturity of his interpretations. In 1918 he made a major European tour, giving concertos accompanied by illustrious conductors such as Nikisch, Furtwängler, and Mengelberg. He returned to South America in 1921, and made a triumphal tour beginning in Santiago de Chile. He made his first North American tour in 1924, appearing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He joined the faculty of the Stern Conservatory in 1924. He won the Grand Prix Internationale des Pianistes in Geneva in 1927, and toured in the Soviet Union in 1929, and again in 1930.

He continued a notable concertizing career throughout the 1930s, including a famous series in 1935 and 1936 in Berlin, in which he played the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach followed by the complete keyboard works of Mozart. He then announced that he would no longer play Bach, asserting that his music was not conceived for the modern grand piano. In 1938 he played all of the Beethoven piano sonatas and five piano concertos in a series of recitals in Mexico City, and repeated the feat during the next two years in Buenos Aires and Santiago. When World War II broke out he ended his association with the Stern Conservatory and returned to Chile, founding a piano school there. But the next year, after a tour of the United States where he received the highest critical acclaim, he and his family moved permanently to New York. He devoted himself to concertizing, teaching, and recording. His complete Beethoven cycles became legendary; in 1952 he performed such a series, in which each recital was broadcast live by the BBC.

After World War II his concert tours included Australia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, India, South Africa, Israel, and Japan. In the 1960s he made definitive recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas; he also supervised the editing and publication of an Urtext edition of the same sonatas. In the 1970s, Chile, which had enjoyed a record as one of South America's most democratic nations, fell to the military government of Pinochet. In protest, Arrau gave up his Chilean citizenship in 1978, and became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he continued to be a revered figure in Chile; in 1983 he was awarded the Chilean National Arts Prize. He returned at the age of 81 to tour Chile in 1984, his first performances there in 17 years. He died in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, on June 9, 1991.

A patrician artist whose matinee-idol appearance was as elegant as his playing, Claudio Arrau achieved a major reputation for his performances of Brahms and Liszt. Indeed, few Romantic-period composers, from Beethoven onward, were beyond his grasp. In addition to that repertory, his Debussy was regarded by many connoisseurs as exemplary. Arrau believed that his abiding interest in psychoanalysis aided him in probing the intent of those whose works he performed. Certainly, Arrau's performances were marked by a balance between heart and intellect.

Source :allmusic.com

Walter (Wilhelm) Gieseking Biography

2009-06-23T16:05:00.002+07:00

Walter Gieseking

Born: November 5, 1895 - Lyons, France
Died: October 26, 1956 - London, England

The celebrated French-German pianist, Walter (Wilhelm) Gieseking, was largely self-taught as a pianist. He was born in France, and travelled with his family (his father was a distinguished doctor and entomologist) in France and Italy until he enrolled at the Hannover Conservatory, where he came under the tutelage of Karl Leimer, graduating in 1916.

In 1912 (or 1915) Walter Gieseking made his debut in Hannover. He was drafted into the German army in 1916, but escaped combat by performing in his regimental band. After the War, he undertook the life of a working musician, accompanying singers and instrumentalists, playing in chamber music ensembles, and working as an opera coach. He could hardly avoid the heady artistic atmosphere of post-war Germany, and he became an advocate of new music, playing works by Arnold Schoenberg, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, K. Szymanowski, and H. Pfitzner, whose Piano Concerto he premiered under Fritz Busch in 1923. From 1921 he made tours of Europe. In 1923 he made his British debut in London, his American debut at Aeolian Hall in New York in February 1926, and his debut in Paris in 1928. His debuts were highly acclaimed, with audiences and critics responding enthusiastically to Gieseking's subtle shadings and contrapuntal clarity. After that he appeared regularly in the USA and Europe with orchestras and in solo recitals.

During the hostilities of World War II, Walter Gieseking, like many other artists, remained in Germany, and also performed sometimes in Nazi-occupied France. After the War he became the centre of political controversy when he arrived in the USA in 1949 for a concert tour; he was accused of cultural collaboration with the Nazi regime, and public protests forced the cancellation of his scheduled performances at Carnegie Hall in New York. However, he was later cleared by an Allied court in Germany and was able to resume his career in America, with the success it had formerly enjoyed. He appeared again at a Carnegie Hall recital in April 1953, and until his death continued to give numerous performances in both hemispheres.

To this activity Walter Gieseking added a heavy schedule of recording, committing to disc the complete solo piano music of Mozart and the Beethoven concertos, as well as complete sets of Debussy's and Ravel's piano works. At the time of his death in London, Gieseking was engaged on a project to record all the Beethoven piano sonatas. He recorded Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 15 for HMV, had completed the first three movements and, the following day, was due to record the fourth. Sadly, he died during the night. HMV released the unfinished recording. His recordings of Debussy and Ravel are regarded as benchmarks for every subsequent performer. His recordings of Debussy's Préludes, done in 1953 and 1955, have been re-released by EMI Classics in their "Great Recordings of the Century" collection. He was also a fine Bach interpreter and left an impressive legacy of Bach recordings (many of them from live German broadcasts).

Walter Gieseking was one of the most extraordinary pianists of his time. He is said to have been a natural and intuitive pianist. According to legend, he never practised except in his own mind. He apparently would study the score, imagine playing it, and then perform it flawlessly. His habit of spending hours in total silence as he pored over scores is said to have frustrated his wife greatly. A superb musician capable of profound interpretations of both Classical and modem scores, his dual German-French background enabled him to project with the utmost authencity the masterpieces of both cultures. He particularly excelled in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. It was with the repertoire of French masters that he became most famous. The impressionistic piano writing of C. Debussy and M. Ravel required the most sensitive touch and attention to colour and nuance, and Gieseking's finger acuity, imaginative pedalling, and above all, preternaturally alert ear made him an ideal interpreter of this music. Nevertheless, his own repertoire ranged widely across eras and national boundaries. He was also an excellent performer of more modern works by the likes of S. Prokofiev, F. Busoni, P. Hindemith, A. Schoenberg, and the lesser-known Italian Goffredo Petrassi. He composed some chamber music and made piano transcriptions of songs by Richard Strauss. His autobiography, So Wurde ich Pianist, was published posth. in Wiesbaden (1963).

Source:http:bach-cantatas

Arthur Rubinstein biography

2009-06-23T15:43:00.003+07:00

Arthur Rubinstein (1886–1982)

ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN was born in 1887 and died in 1982, six years after making his last recordings for RCA and giving his farewell concert at London's Wigmore Hall. He played in public for eight decades, marking perhaps the longest career of any performing musician. Throughout the second half of that career, he was, after Vladimir Horowitz, the most famous pianist in the world. And in old age he added considerably to his fame by appearing on TV and publishing two chatty volumes of reminiscence, My Young Years (1972) and My Many Years (1980); the first, in an unprecedented honor for a classical musician, was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Rubinstein was more than just a crowd-pleasing virtuoso with a knack for self-promotion. He was admired by some of the most thoughtful listeners of his time. In 1949, the distinguished composer and critic Virgil Thomson reviewed a Rubinstein recital in extravagant terms:

Others may be regularly more flashy, though few can dazzle so dependably; and none can match him for power and refinement. He plays very loudly and very beautifully, very softly and thoroughly clean, straightforwardly, elegantly and with a care for both he amenities of musical discourse and the clear transmission of musical thought. He is a master pianist and a master musician. There has not been his like since Ferruccio Busoni 1866-1924. But today, Arthur Rubinstein is, if not completely forgotten, certainly not well remembered, save by those old enough to have heard him in concert. Although many of his records remain available fourteen years after his death, they have failed to seize the attention of a new generation of music-lovers captivated by the legendary pianists of the prewar (and pre-Horowitz) era: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Josef Hofmann, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Artur Schnabel, Edwin Fischer, Percy Grainger, Alfred Cortot. Next to these, Rubinstein is strictly an also-ran.

What caused so beloved an artist to vanish so quickly from the collective consciousness of the musical world? In trying to answer this question we are immeasurably aided by Harvey Sachs's Rubinstein: A Life,(1) a biography written with the full cooperation of the Rubinstein family as well as of Annabelle Whitestone (now Lady Weidenfeld), with whom Rubinstein was romantically involved during the last twelve years of his life. Sachs is an ex-conductor turned music historian whose previous books include the standard biography of Arturo Toscanini and an important study of music in Fascist Italy. In Rubinstein: A Life, he has successfully untangled the errors of fact, sins of omission, and self-contradictions with which the pianist's memoirs are riddled; though he writes as an admirer, he also deals honestly with his subject's faults, both moral and artistic. The result is one of the finest musical biographies to be published in recent memory, a book that is at once readable and responsible.

Much of its readability, of course, is due to the fact that Arthur Rubinstein led a life that was unusually eventful, even by the standards of a world-famous musician. The eldest son of a cloth manufacturer from the large Jewish community of Lodz, Poland, Rubinstein began playing the piano before the age of three. At four, he performed for Joseph Joachim, the great 19th-century German violinist, who subsequently took charge of his artistic development; at ten, he went to Berlin to study piano. He made his professional debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of thirteen; four years later, he moved to Paris and launched his career in earnest.

He was an exceptionally gifted musician, and this was not really a question of technique. Rubinstein, who called practising scales "cleaning the teeth of the piano", used to simplify some of the harder pieces. His gift was an astonishing and by all accounts inborn musicianship.

This natural facility got him out of many scrapes. At a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto under the baton of his future father-in-law, Emil Mlynarski, Rubinstein was slapdash and confused. Afterwards he confessed that he had not seen the score of the concerto, but thought he knew it well enough. An unimpressed Mlynarski thrust a copy at Rubinstein, who devoted an afternoon's practice to the work. That evening he gave a brilliant performance. "If only Arthur wanted to work really hard," the conductor later complained, "he would be the best pianist in the world."

That was in 1915. After his marriage in 1932, Rubinstein began to work harder, though he later warned a student: "Never practise more than three or four hours a day." And this effort added discipline to what was always the most memorable aspect of Rubinstein's playing, his ability to interpret a piece. Even at his last concert, when Rubinstein was aged 89 and too blind to be able to see the keyboard, he was still capable of delivering Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in what a London critic called "a performance, for all its passing and forgettable inaccuracies, of satanic energy and force".

Casual readers of My Young Years and My Many Years may be forgiven for thinking that Rubinstein's life from his arrival in Paris in 1904 to his marriage in 1932 was one long party, with concerts interspersed. But in fact Rubinstein's young years were also a time of serious artistic endeavor. He performed throughout Europe and the Americas, winning particular success in Spain and South America; he was closely associated with several prominent composers whose piano music he introduced, including Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Karol Szymanowski. And at the end of the 20's he began to make records for HMV and, later, RCA, eventually recording virtually all of his working repertoire.

As Sachs tells it, however, Rubinstein himself was deeply ambivalent about the course of his youthful career, torn between his taste for high living and his commitment to music. A natural pianist with a big (though not transcendental) technique, he practiced as little as possible, learning new pieces quickly and without sufficient attention to textual detail, relying on his personal charm to conceal the lack of finish in his playing. As a result, he failed to break into the front ranks of the piano virtuosos of the early 20th century, and prior to the mid-30's his career, though impressive by ordinary standards, was nothing like what had been predicted for him by his earliest critics.

Sachs suggests, to my mind convincingly, that Rubinstein's failure fully to realize his early potential was related to his unsettled feelings about German musical culture. On the one hand, his artistic personality showed unmistakable signs of its German training, including a sound, unshowy technique, a passion for the music of Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms, and an interest in chamber music unusual among virtuoso pianists of his generation.(2) On the other hand, Rubinstein did not play in Germany after 1914, and throughout his life he expressed contempt for such echt-German pianists as Schnabel and Fischer. It seems probable that Rubinstein's inability to break into the first tier left him with something of an inferiority complex when it came to German music and musicians, and that this was one of the reasons he chose not to play for German audiences between the wars.

By his own account, Rubinstein's attitude toward his playing changed after his marriage: "I didn't want my kids to grow up thinking of their father as either a second-string pianist or a has-been." Embarrassed by the technical sloppiness of his earliest recordings, he began in the summer of 1934 to restudy his entire repertoire. "I buckled down to work--six hours, eight hours, nine hours a day," he recalled in 1958. "And a strange thing happened.... I'd begun to discover new meanings, new qualities, new possibilities in music that I'd been playing regularly for more than 30 years."

The effects of this period of study were immediately apparent. The complete sets of Chopin mazurkas, nocturnes, and polonaises that established Rubinstein's reputation as a Chopin specialist were all recorded after the summer of 1934, and they are technically far more exact than his earlier recordings. When he began playing regularly in the United States in 1937, he finally won recognition as one of the world's outstanding piano virtuosos. Rubinstein spent World War II in this country; by the time the war was over, his popularity with American audiences was solidly established, and he retained it for the rest of his life.

World War II marked another line of demarcation in Rubinstein's life. Most of his family died in the Holocaust, and his Paris home was looted during the German occupation. Although from adolescence onward he had been devoid of religious belief, and indifferent toward Judaism, now he not only continued to refuse to play in Germany but chose not to work with artists who, like the conductor Herbert von Karajan, had had Nazi ties. In 1949, Rubinstein and other prominent musicians (including Horowitz and Heifetz) announced that they would not appear with the Chicago Symphony if it engaged the conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler, who had remained in Germany during the war. "I refuse," he wrote in a letter to the orchestra's board of directors, to be associated with anyone who sympathized with Hitler, Goering, or Goebbels. Had Furtwaengler been a good democrat, he would have turned his back on Germany.... It is said that Furtwaengler rescued some people from the Nazis' clutches. This has not been confirmed. At present, he is seeking dollars and prestige in America, and he deserves neither.(3)

While the Holocaust failed to turn Rubinstein into an observant Jew, it clearly played a significant part in his fervent support of the state of Israel-and, later, of Menachem Begin and the Likud party. Most musicians, Jewish and otherwise, tend in any given political circumstance to hew to the leftmost position available, and so this latter affiliation astonished and dismayed many of Rubinstein's colleagues. But the pianist, undeterred, robustly stuck to his guns to the very end of his life, once going so far as to attack Yehudi Menuhin in public for (as Sachs puts it) "the violinist's soft stand vis-a-vis UNESCO's censure of Israel." (Rubinstein characterized Menuhin's attitude toward Israel as "un-Jewish.")

The pianist Emanuel Ax, one of Rubinstein's greatest admirers, was profoundly disappointed by reading My Many Years. "Until then," he told Sachs, ('I had idolized Rubinstein—I had wanted to have a life like his. The book changed all that." Many readers of Rubinstein: A Life may react similarly.

But there is another, more important Rubinstein "biography" to be considered, and that is the one that lies in his records.

Most of Rubinstein's prewar recordings for HMV are now available on CD, and the very first one, a version of the Chopin Barcarolle made in 1928, is in certain ways the most revealing musical statement he ever made.(4) Though there is no mistaking the underlying soundness of Rubinstein's technique, this slapdash performance contains not only accidental wrong notes but blatant misreadings of the musical text—startling in a piece Rubinstein referred to on more than one occasion as his favorite work by Chopin.

Just as startling is the absence of a distinctive musical personality. While his performance here is not as "straight" as those he would record after the war--some of the tempos are extremely wayward-it is nonetheless lacking in character. So, indeed, are most of Rubinstein's other prewar recordings, few of which sound the intensely personal note characteristic of golden-age piano virtuosos.

What was true of the young Rubinstein is doubly true of the older, more cautious artist who rerecorded most of his repertoire for RCA after the war. Some of these later discs, especially of his favorite concertos, are musically quite satisfying.(5) But, though beautifully played, even the best ones are rarely individual, at least not in the way that a recording by Rachmaninoff or Horowitz is individual.

It is true that Rubinstein was not typical of his generation of pianists. Aside from the fact that his training was exclusively German, his musical tastes, as Sachs points out, were "thoroughly modern." He disliked the idiosyncratic, even eccentric styles of pianists like Horowitz, Cortot, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and Leopold Godowsky (though he did admire Rachmaninoff). His own preference, especially in the music of Chopin, was for a simpler, less inflected style of playing, which he believed truer to Chopin's spirit than the prevailing approach of the day.

Sachs, who admires this style, describes it in terms intended to suggest its continuity with the German school:

Rubinstein's playing was Romantic, but it did not have the self-absorbed and self-indulgent characteristics that this adjective has also come to represent. In this sense, although in few others, he was closer to his German-school contemporaries Schnabel, Fischer, and Wilhelm Kempff than to such Eastern European contemporaries (albeit somewhat older contemporaries) as Rachmaninoff and Hofmann, let alone to Horowitz, who was seventeen years younger than Rubinstein but stylistically closer to the old-timers.... His playing had strong individual character, but his goal was not to do "something different' at any cost. But by comparison with Rachmaninoff and Hofmann—not to mention Schnabel and Fischer, both of whom were in their own ways decidedly eccentric artists-Rubinstein's straightforward approach is likely to strike present-day listeners as largely devoid of the "strong individual character' Sachs detects. And this is a great paradox in a pianist who, by his own admission, got by on charm throughout the first half of his career, and who consistently came across in concert as a pianist of flamboyance and panache.

Whether or not Rubinstein's recordings tell a truer tale than contemporary accounts of his playing cannot be settled by those (like me) who did not see him perform live.(6) In his case as in others, however, records are now all we have, and in the end, they must be taken at face value-even though the "evidence" they present not infrequently contradicts the impressions a living artist makes on a living audience. For better or for worse, the only kind of artistic personality that can be captured for posterity by the microphone is the kind whose merits are embodied in the act of musical performance alone: in the recording studio, an artist's stage presence is meaningless. Rubinstein's personality, apparently a function of his physical presence, is simply not a factor in his recordings, which document the playing of a talented pianist of no great individuality. As the saying goes, you had to be there.

Nor is the case of Rubinstein unique. For the most part, the performers of the past who are remembered today are (in the broadest sense of the word) the musical eccentrics, the Rachmaninoffs and Horowitzes and Leopold Stokowskis. It is the "centrics" who have been forgotten. Who now, for example, listens to the recordings of the eminently "centric" soprano Renata Tebaldi, other than those opera buffs who saw her on stage? In the 50's and early 60's, Tebaldi and Maria Callas were the fiercest of rivals. But now that Callas is dead and Tebaldi retired, there is no longer any contest: Callas is a legend, Tebaldi a footnote.

This suggests the possibility that our current canons of good musical taste, forged in the refiner's fire of modernity, may well be unequal to the special demands of the age of mechanical reproduction. When a pianist today plays the Chopin Barcarolle, he is "competing" not only with his contemporaries but with the dozens of other pianists, including Rubinstein, who have recorded the same work since the turn of the 20th century. Such comparisons may be invidious, but they are also inevitable, and they may well account for the growing public interest in those prewar artists for whom romanticism was not a word vaguely suggestive of vulgarity, but a way of life.

The implications for the future of classical music in live performance are as yet unclear, but one thing can already be said with confidence: musicians who, like Arthur Rubinstein, rely on extramusical factors to impress the listening public are doomed to posthumous obscurity. That this may yet lead to a revival of musical individuality—even full-blown romanticism—is merely another reminder that in the postmodern era, all cultural bets are off.

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Artur Schnabel Biography

2009-06-23T15:10:00.003+07:00

Artur Schnabel

Born: April 17, 1882 - Lipnik, Poland
Died: August 15, 1951 - Axenstein, Switzerland

The celerbrated Austrian-born American pianist and pedagogue, Artur Schnabel, studied piano from the age of seven in Vienna under Theodor Leschetizky who said to him "You will never be a pianist. You are a musician." Schnabel took these words to heart, and rather than playing the showy virtuoso pieces by composers like Franz Liszt which were popular in the late 19th century, he chose to concentrate on Germanic classics by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Later, Schnabel also studied composition under Eusebius Mandyczewski who was a friend of Johannes Brahms.

In 1900, Artur Schnabel moved to Berlin where he began his career as a professional pianist. He gained some fame thanks to orchestral concerts he gave under the conductor Artur Nikisch as well as playing in chamber music and accompanying his future wife, the contralto Therese Behr, in lieder. It seems that Behr had some influence over Schnabel's repertoire, encouraging him to explore the sonatas of Schubert and the works of Brahms. Following World War I, he toured widely, visiting the USA, Russia and England. From 1925 he taught at the Berlin State Academy where his master-classes brought him great renown.

Artur Schnabel was known for championing the then-neglected sonatas of Schubert and, even more so, Beethoven. At that time, Beethoven's piano music was little played and largely unappreciated by the public. While on a tour of Spain, he wrote to his wife saying that during a performance of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations he had begun to feel sorry for the audience. "I am the only person here who is enjoying this, and I get the money; they pay and have to suffer," he wrote. Schnabel did much to popularize Beethoven's music, giving the first complete cycle of his piano sonatas (that is, he played every piano sonata by Beethoven in a series of concerts) and also making the first recording of them all, completing the set in 1935. This set of recordings has never been out of print, and is considered by many to be the touchstone of Beethoven sonata interpretations, though occasional shortcomings in finger technique mar his performances of fast movements (Sergei Rachmaninov is supposed to have referred to him as "the great adagio pianist"). He also recorded all the Beethoven piano concertos. Despite his playing repertoire almost never leaving the works of Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Brahms, almost all of his compositions (none of which are in the active repertoire) are atonal.

Artur Schnabel played with a number of famous musicians in chamber works, including the violinists Carl Flesch and Joseph Szigeti, the violist Paul Hindemith, and the cellists Pablo Casals and Pierre Fournier. Among his piano pupils were Leon Fleisher, Alan Bush, Nancy Weir, Eunice Norton and radio personality Karl Haas.

Artur Schnabel, a Jew, left Berlin in 1933 after the Nazi Party took control. He lived in England for a time while giving masterclasses at Tremezzo on Lake Como in Italy, before moving to America in 1939. In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the USA. There he took a teaching post at the University of Michigan, returning to Europe at the end of World War II. He continued to give concerts on both sides of the Atlantic until the end of his life; his list of compositions eventually included symphonies, a piano concerto and five string quartets amongst various smaller works. And he continued to make records, though he was never very fond of the whole studio process.

Source bach-cantatas

Alfred Cortot Biography

2009-06-23T15:00:00.002+07:00

Alfred Cortot (Piano, Conductor, Arranger)

Born: September 26, 1877 - Nyon, Switzerland
Died: June 15, 1962 - Lausanne, France

The famous French pianist, conductor and teacher, Pianist Alfred (Denis) Cortot, was born in Switzerland of a French father and a Swiss mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Decambes, Rouquou, Diémer and others, winning first prize in piano in 1896.

In 1896 Alfred Cortot made his debut the same year in Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. Soon he became widely acclaimed as a performer of Beethoven concertos, appearing as a soloist in two prominent Parisian concert series. In 1898 he went to Bayreuth to study Wagner's music and was hired as a choral coach and then as an assistant conductor. Cortot brought Wagner to Paris, leading the first Paris performance of Götterdämmerung (May 1902), and a remarkable performance of Tristan und Isolde the next month. Also in 1902 he established his own concert series, the Association des Concerts A. Cortot. Although it lasted only two years, it did a lot towards breaking down the conservative French resistance to Wagner, particularly with a concert performance of Parsifal, and even the first French performances of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Johannes Brahms' Requiem. He also served contemporary French music by premiering works of Roussel, Magnard, and others.

In 1904 Alfred Cortot became the conductor of the Concerts Populaires at Lille, and the following year he joined with cellist Pablo Casals and violinist Jacques Thibaud to form one of the greatest of permanently established piano trios, one which became a model of its type, touring frequently. This drew him back to the piano, which he had never given up despite his fame as a conductor. In 1907 he joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatory, teaching piano, but remained very active as a piano soloist and chamber music player. He gave up that position in 1917, feeling that his busy concert schedule had made it impossible to devote sufficient uninterrupted periods to teaching. In 1919 he founded the École Normale de Musique, assembling a faculty of famous musicians. As the director, he taught a summer course in interpretation, which became famous. Among his outstanding pupils were Clara Haskil, Solomon, Gina Bachauer, and Dinu Lipatti.

Alfred Cortot continued a career performing piano around the world, including lecture recitals, and also guest conducted many orchestras. He also continued to premiere new French piano music. Cortot was a skillful and scholarly editor of great piano music, famous for his editions of most of Chopin's piano music. Cortot's teacher was a student of Chopin, and the grace of his Chopin performances, especially, remains breathtaking and should be recommended to all students of the piano; he also had a remarkable way with the music of Robert Schumann. Although Cortot was technically a highly wayward pianist, he succeeded in infusing his readings of the Romantic repertoire with a rare insight and poetic patina.

In 1943 Alfred Cortot founded the Chamber Music Society of the Paris Conservatory Concerts. However, his admiration for German culture served him ill when Germany occupied France between from 1940 to 1944, and he appeared to cooperate with them willingly. This led to his being shunned after World War II both in France and elsewhere. By the time he returned to the concert stage, some years later, it was clear that his memory was failing. His main legacy remains in the records he made in the 1920's and 1930's. In addition, he was an avid collector and amassed, among other items, a large quantity of autograph scores and printed music. After his death, this collection was divided among several important libraries and universities; it remains an interesting view into the mind of a musician who was both a living link to Romantic Paris and a key figure of the 20th century.

Source bach-cantatas

Josef Hoffmann Biography

2009-06-23T14:47:00.003+07:00

Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), Austrian architect and decorator, was a pioneer of European modernism and founder of the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshop).

Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann was born in Pirnitz (Brtnice), then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on December 15, 1870. He studied architecture at the trade school in Brünn. Following his graduation in 1891 he went to Würzburg for a year of practical experience and then entered the special architectural school of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he studied until 1895, first under Carl von Hasenauer and then under Otto Wagner. Upon graduation he won the Rome Prize. Otto Wagner then employed him as a draftsman in his office for several years.

During his studies and early professional years Hoffmann assimilated the historicist architectural traditions of Vienna, as exemplified in the work of Hasenauer and Wagner (among others); Wagner's functionalistic theories; the stylistic experimentations of the European Art Nouveau; and the teachings of the English arts and crafts movement. Hoffmann's earliest independent works, such as the rooms of the second, third, and fourth exhibitions at the Vienna Secession that he designed in 1899 and the remodelling of the store Am Hof 3 in Vienna the same year, showed clearly the influence of Art Nouveau and of the English arts and crafts.

In 1899 Hoffmann became professor at the Kunstgewer-beschule (School of Applied Arts) in Vienna. His works of the following year, such as the rooms of the Kunstgewer-beschule at the Paris Exhibition, already showed a drastic change in his style from the flowing curvatures of the earlier works to a rectilinear simplicity of form and the tendency of superimposing rectangular elements and motifs; both of these would become Hoffmann's stylistic hallmarks. For this change Hoffmann was particularly indebted to the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish master of Art Nouveau, who was highly regarded in Vienna.

Hoffmann's first important architectural commission was for a group of villas in the Hohe Warte near Vienna. These were designed in careful relation to each other so as to form a total composition. Moreover, their interior arrangement was expressed on the exterior and great emphasis was placed on color and texture. Yet one notices in them an increased simplicity of form; this became even more prominent in the works that Hoffmann exhibited at the 1902 Kunstausstellung in Düsseldorf.

Together with Kolo Moser, Hoffmann founded in 1903 the Wiener Werkstätte for the production of furniture and objects of the applied arts. In the same year he received the commission for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, which was built in 1903 and 1904. This was a work of astonishing modernity and could be easily antedated by 25 years. It had plain white walls and ample, regularly placed windows almost devoid of surrounding frames. There were no cornices, and the roofs were completely flat. Hoffmann's opus magnum, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, was designed in 1905 and built between 1905 and 1911. It was a large and luxurious mansion, asymmetrically composed and dominated by the stair-tower. The external walls were covered by a thin veneer of marble plaques contained within a decorative edging of gilded metal that defined the wall planes. Both the exterior and the lavishly appointed interior were characterized by a charm and playfulness that were Austrian in character; clearly Hoffmann's, however, was the pervasive effect of a relentless geometry of form inside and out. Both the Purkersdorf Sanatorium and the Palais Stoclet were entirely furnished by the Wiener Werkstätte.

Hoffmann did not develop his style further after the Palais Stoclet. Instead, he resorted to the Neoclassicism that became predominant all over Europe and in England after 1905. A notable work of the time was the Ast House in the Hohe Warte near Vienna, built in 1909-1911. This was also quite large and luxurious, although more massive and tectonic than the Palais Stoclet. The classicizing tendency in Hoffmann's work became more explicit in two later works, the Skyra-Primavesi House in the Hietzing suburb of Vienna and the Austrian Pavilion at the Cologne exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund of 1914. In both Hoffmann articulated the exterior with broad, fluted pilasters; yet these elements of classical inspiration were used in a mannerist way that had little to do with their original structural and formal properties. For example, in the Austrian Pavilion the massive pilasters appeared to be supporting a cornice that was nothing more than a thin molding. Hoffmann's last great villa, the Knips House in Vienna of 1924-1925, was a compact block that emulated deliberately the Biedermeier architecture of its surroundings. Hoffmann became city architect of Vienna in 1920. The low-cost housing blocks that he designed in the mid-1920s in Vienna, such as the Klosehof and the Winarskyhof, retained in their simplicity and cleanliness of composition a good deal of the purist quality of his sanatorium at Purkersdorf. Hoffmann died in Vienna on May 7, 1956.

Sources
Encyclopedia of World Biography

Franz Liszt Biography

2009-06-23T13:20:00.003+07:00

Franz (sometimes Ferenc) Liszt, (October 22, 1811 - July 31, 1886), was a virtuoso pianist and composer, born in Raiding, Hungary.

Liszt studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his life, toured throughout Europe giving concerts. Liszt was well respected as the height of virtuosity and had been admired by composers and performers alike throughout Europe, especially for his exuberant piano transcriptions of both operas and famous symphonies of the time, reducing the cost of hearing such music. Born in Hungary, Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age, easily sight reading multiple staves at once. Eventually, his mother was able to convince the local aristocrats to send him to Vienna at the age of 3. Due to this, Liszt never learned his native language of Hungarian, which he deeply regretted later in his letters and diaries. In Paris, Liszt attended a concert by the virtuoso violinist, Paganini and became motivated to become the greatest pianist of his day. He often took to seclusion in his room, and was heard practising for over 10 hours a day. In this period he wrote 12 etudes to capture the depth of his incredible talent, the most famous of which is "La Campanella", a study in octaves. He was said to have fraternized with such noted composers as Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Richard Wagner, whom his daughter later married. From 1835 to 1839 Franz Liszt lived with Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, ex-wife of the Comte d'Agoult. She is better known by her pen name, "Daniel Stern". They had two daughters and one son. In 1847 Liszt met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and he lived with her until his death. The Princess was an author, whose one work was published in 16 volumes, each having over 1600 pages. Her longwinded writing style had some effect on Liszt himself. His biography of Chopin and his chronology and analysis of Gypsy music (which later inspired Béla Bartôk) both were written in the Princess' loquacious style. In 1848, he went to Weimar, Germany, where he directed the opera and concerts, composed and taught. Noted works Liebestraume No. 3 ("Dreams of Love") in Ab Major (piano solo) Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (piano solo) Un sospiro ("A sigh"), one of the Concert Etudes (piano solo) La Campanella (piano solo, the third of the Grandes Etudes de Paganini) Feux Follets (piano solo, the fifth of the Transcendental Etudes, also known as "Will O' The Wisp", and "Mazeppa") His symphonies, the Dante Symphony and Faust Symphony Piano Sonata in B minor Twelve Symphonic Poems Two Piano Concertos Nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies

sources
pianoparadise

Sergei Rachmaninov

2009-06-23T12:55:00.004+07:00

Sergei Rachmaninov, also Sergey Rachmaninov or Sergei Rachmaninoff, (April 1, 1873 - March 28, 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor.

Born in Semyonovo, near Novgorod into a wealthy family with a strong military background, Rachmaninoff had his first piano lessons with his mother at the family estate at Oneg. After a decline in their fortunes, the family moved to Saint Petersburg where Rachmaninoff studied at the conservatory, before going on to Moscow, where he studied piano with Nikolay Zverev and Alexander Siloti (a student of Franz Liszt and Rachmaninoff's cousin). He also studied harmony with Anton Arensky and counterpoint with Sergei Taneyev. While still a student he wrote this one act opera Aleko, and the set of piano pieces, Op. 3, which contains the Prelude in C sharp minor, probably Rachmaninoff's most popular piece for solo piano.

Rachmaninoff's first symphony was premiered in 1897, but was a complete flop with the critics. Some have suggested that this was as much due to the conducting of Alexander Glazunov, who may have been drunk, as it was to Rachmaninoff. The bad reception led to a nervous breakdown and complete loss of self-confidence for Rachmaninoff. He wrote very little music until he began a course of therapy with Nikolai Dahl. The result of these sessions was the Piano Concerto No. 2, which Rachmaninoff dedicated to Dahl. The piece was very well received at its premiere, for which Rachmaninoff played the solo part himself, and remains one of his most popular compositions, gaining some fame from its use in the film Brief Encounter.

The second piano concerto secured Rachmaninoff's reputation as a composer, but he was also a very well known and respected pianist. He is said to have had one of the widest hand spans of any pianist, able to cover a twelfth with his left hand. In other words, he could play a C with his left little finger, and play the G an octave and a half above it with his thumb. He made a number of recordings of his own music.

Rachmaninoff, from 1921 Victor advertisementRachmaninoff made his first recordings for Edison Records on their "Diamond Disc" records, as at the time the Edison company had the best audio fidelity in recording the piano. Rachmaninoff did not consider himself a great pianist, and thought his own performances variable in quality. He therefore asked that only his recorded performances that he personally approved be commercially issued. The Edison Company, possibly through simple carelessness, issued multiple alternative takes of Rachmaninoff's recordings (as was common in the disc record industry at the time for reasons of ease of mass production of records from multiple masters). Rachmaninoff was angered, left Edison, and thereafter recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company (and later its successor, RCA Victor), which was pleased to abide by Rachmaninoff's restrictions and proudly advertised him as one of the great artists who recorded for the Victor Company. Rachmaninoff also made numerous recordings on piano rolls, and was reported to have regarded these as the most accurate reflection of his playing. Initially disbelieving that a roll of punched paper could provide an accurate record, he was invited to listen to a master roll of his first recording in 1919 for the Ampico company. He is then quoted as saying "Gentleman - I, Sergei Rachmaninoff, have just heard myself play!". He continued to record for Ampico until around 1929.

It was as a pianist that Rachmaninoff made a tour of the United States in 1909, an event for which he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3. This tour made him very popular in America, and he emigrated there following the Russian Revolution of 1917. His output then started to slow down to some degree, because he was required to spend much of his time performing in order to support himself. Nevertheless, his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of the best known of all Rachmaninoff's works, was written in the United States in 1934.

Rachmaninoff went on to write his Symphony No. 3 (1935-36) and the Symphonic Dances (1940), his last completed work. He died in 1943 in Beverly Hills, California, having completed four piano concertos, three symphonies, two piano sonatas, the choral symphony The Bells (based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe), a setting of the vespers and many songs, amongst other works. Most of his pieces are in a quite traditional romantic style, rather akin to Tchaikovsky, although a few of his later works, such as the fourth piano concerto and the Variations on a theme of Corelli are in a more emotionally detached style, which has made them rather less popular with audiences.

On his death in 1943, Rachmaninoff was interred in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

Sergei Rachmaninov Resources
pianoparadise

Frederic Chopin Biography

2009-06-21T15:45:00.005+07:00

Frederic Chopin Biography (1810-1849)

One of the most profoundly original composers in history, Frederic Chopin was not at all a traditional "Romantic" musician; in fact, most of his music defines a separate category all its own. Born in Zelazowa Wola, a small city near Warsaw, Poland on February 22, 1810, Chopin first studied the piano at the Warsaw School of Music, and was quite proficient on that instrument by his early teens. He played his first public concert at age 7, and was a published composer at 15. By the late 1820s, Chopin had won a great reputation as a piano virtuoso and composer of piano pieces. He toured Europe, giving concert performances for ecstatic audiences and critics. In 1831 he arrived in Paris for such a concert; so immediate was his love for this city that he promptly decided to make it his new home. He was never to return to Warsaw.

In Paris, Chopin was in constant demand as a performer and teacher. He was a favorite at Parisian salons, and was befriended by many artistic luminaries of the day, including Hugo, Balzac, Liszt, Berlioz, Schumann, Dumas and Delacroix. The intense poeticism in his music made him a Romantic icon to many of his contemporaries, and he was embraced by the society elite.

In 1837, Chopin met the novelist Mme. Aurore Dudevant, who used the pseudonym George Sand. The two began a mercurial and ultimately tragic relationship which would prove the most influential and devastating development in Chopin's life. By 1847, their relationship at fallen apart. Heartbroken over the loss of his beloved, Chopin continued to compose, but was soon stricken by illness. Sapped by tuberculosis, he grew too sick to work, and suddenly died on October 17, 1849, at the age of only 39.

Chopin's music, no matter what the setting, is instantly recognizable. His unique sense of lyricism and unparalleled melodic genius produced some of the most purely beautiful music ever written - music which would influence many composers who followed, from Brahms to Debussy. His works tend to fall into one of three categories - small "technical" pieces (or ้tudes) for piano, published between 1833 and 1837; larger, more developed works for the piano (nocturnes, preludes, impromptus, mazurkas, polonaises); and the even larger, freely-conceived works (ballades, fanatasies, scherzos). He also wrote several sonatas, piano concertos, and a smattering of music for other instruments. He was a revolutionary light in Romantic music, the ultimate craftsman of whimsical melody and heart-rending harmony. In the structure and form of his compositions, he is quite alone; his sense of balance and architecture in music was not particularly related to the Classical or budding Romantic tradition, but seemed to spring from some unknown well-source. The overwhelming power and influence of his musical legacy is forever assured.
Sources:http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Choir/3705/biography.html

Frederic Chopin is the best piano composer of all time, even to this date. His music has inspired pianists all over the world. The music of Frederic Chopin is not only original, but has the most emotional impact for piano music. He took advantage of the piano in every way possible, trying not to be too ridiculous, as some composers are today, but trying not to be too conservative. Frederic Chopin was creative in a way that still makes his music far superior than all piano composers of this time. Proof that the music of Frederic Chopin is highly valued is that the average person probably would have heard of one or two of his piano compositions, even if they never listen to piano music.

Frederic Chopin composed all of his music experimenting at the piano for countless hours. He was concerned with the musicality and poetic nature of every single one of his piano pieces, rather than how virtuosic it would sound. This is why the piano music of Frederic Chopin is the best right now. No other piano composer seems to have gotten it right. Chopin improvised many of his complicated piano music works, especially the Fantasie Impromptu. The reason Frederic Chopin improvised is because he was fond of "free form" and all of his music is of that type. He did not want to be restricted. The Fantasie Impromptu was his most free form piece, which is why he gave it the name, Impromptu. Even though Frederic Chopin was fond of improvision, his music was carefully planned, logically written for the pianist, and was the most poetic piano music in history. Perhaps the reason he liked free form is because he wanted to explore the piano musically, in ways that all piano composers today still cannot even comprehend. No one comes close, musically, to the piano music of Frederic Chopin, and that is a fact. He never had any competition, and still has no competition.

If Fredric Chopin had concentrated on symphonies, he would write better symphonies than Beethoven. But he did not concentrate on symphony writing, which is the reason why Frederic Chopin wrote poor for anything else but the piano. The only reason Frederic Chopin concentrated on the piano was probably because he could not write music in his head. He was extremely creative but needed an aid, and the aid being the piano. Another reason why he concentrated on the piano was probably because he realized that the piano has many more possibilities than an orchestra. Frederic Chopin was a true hero to the piano, and gave the piano justice. Before his time, the piano only created boring piano music tunes. After Frederic Chopin, it was realized that the piano had capabilities of playing music that can be more musical than an orchestra.
Sources :http://www.recordhall.com/fredric-chopin.html

Ludwig van Beethoven Biography

2009-06-21T14:49:00.005+07:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
(born Bonn, baptized 17 December 1770; died Vienna, 26 March 1827)

Beethoven was born in Bonn in the archbishopric of Cologne in northwest Germany, to Johann van Beethoven (1740-92), a court musician and alcoholic, and Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven (1744-87). The family was Flemish in origin (hence "van", not "von") and can be traced back to Mechelen, now in Belgium. They named their son after his grandfather.

Beethoven's musical talent manifested itself early, and his father attempted, unsuccessfully, to exploit the boy as a child prodigy. Beethoven became the young protegé of Christian Gottlob Neefe who taught him composition and found him work in the musical establishment of the Bonn court. The reigning prince, Elector Maximilian Franz (1756-1801), appreciated Beethoven's talent and subsidized his musical studies.

At age 17, Beethoven traveled to Vienna hoping to study with Mozart, whom he did meet and evidently impressed. But after just two weeks in Vienna, Beethoven learned that his mother was severely ill, and he was forced to return home, where she died shortly thereafter. Beethoven thus became responsible for the care of his two younger brothers, and he spent the next five years in Bonn.

Establishing his career in Vienna
With the Elector's help, Beethoven moved again to Vienna at the age of 22, where he studied under Joseph Haydn. He soon earned a reputation as a piano virtuoso and improviser, and began publishing his own compositions shortly after. By 1800, he was considered one of the most important of a generation of young composers who followed after Haydn and Mozart.

In his early career as a composer, Beethoven concentrated first on works for piano solo, then string quartets, symphonies, and other genres. This was a pattern he was to repeat in the "late" period of his career (see below). Thus, 12 of Beethoven's famous series of 32 piano sonatas date from before 1802, and could be considered early-period works; of these, the most celebrated today is probably the "Pathétique", Op. 13. The first six quartets were published as a set (Op. 18) in 1800, and the First and Second Symphonies premiered in 1800 and 1802.

All musical authorities agree that Beethoven's early work was closely modeled on that of Haydn and Mozart. However, Beethoven's own musical personality is still very much evident even at this stage. This is seen, for instance, in his frequent use of the musical dynamic sforzando, found even in the "Elector" sonatas for piano that Beethoven wrote as a child. Some of the longer piano sonatas of the 1790's are written in a rather discursive style quite unlike their models, making use of the so-called "three-key exposition".

Loss of hearing
Around 1801, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a "roar" in his ears that made it hard for him to appreciate music and he would avoid conversation. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis, lead poisoning, typhus, or possibly even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. Over time, his hearing loss became acute: there is a well-attested story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience, hearing nothing. In 1802, he became depressed, and considered committing suicide. He left Vienna for a time for small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, where he wrote the "Heiligenstadt Testament", in which he resolved to continue living through his art. He continued composing even as his hearing deteriorated. After a failed attempt in 1811 to perform his own "Emperor" Concerto, he never performed in public again.

As a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has been preserved: he kept conversation books discussing music and other issues, and giving an insight into his thought. Even today, the conversation books form the basis for investigation into how he felt his music should be performed, and his relationship to art - which he took very seriously.

The Middle Period
Around 1802 he declared "I am but lately little satisfied with my works, I shall take a new way." The first major work of this new way was the "Eroica" Symphony in E flat. While other composers had written symphonies with implied programs, or stories, this symphony was also longer and larger in scope than any other written. It made huge demands on the players, because at that time there were few orchestras devoted to concert music that were independent of royal or aristocratic patrons, and hence playing standards at concerts were often haphazard. But it was a success.

The Eroica was one of the first works of Beethoven's so-called "middle period", a time when Beethoven composed highly ambitious works, often heroic in tone, that extended the scope of the classical musical language Beethoven had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The middle period work includes Symphonies 3-8, the string quartets 7-11, the Waldstein and Appassionata piano sonatas, the opera Fidelio, and many other compositions. During this time Beethoven earned his living partly from the sale and performance of his work, and partly from subsidies granted by various wealthy nobles who recognized his talent.

The work of the middle period established Beethoven's reputation as a great and daring composer. In a review from 1810, he was enshrined by E. T. A. Hoffman as one of the three great "Romantic" composers; Hoffman called Beethoven's Fifth Symphony "one of the most important works of the age".

The middle period ended with a flourish around 1814, with the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and the third--and at last, successful--version of Fidelio. It was around this time that Beethoven's popularity with the contemporary public reached its apogee, and he was almost universally regarded as the greatest of living composers.

Late Beethoven
However, there soon followed a deep crisis in Beethoven's personal life, possibly in his artistic life as well. His output dropped, and one critic even wrote that "the composing of great works seems behind him". The few works that date from this period are often of an experimental character. They include the song cycle "An die ferne Geliebte" and the piano sonata Opus 90, works which inspired later generations of Romantic composers. This period also produced the extraordinarily expressive, almost incoherent, song "An die Hoffnung" (Opus 94).

Then Beethoven began a renewed study of older music, including works by J. S. Bach and Handel, then being published in the first attempts at complete editions. He composed "The Consecration of the House" overture, which was the first work to attempt to incorporate his new influences. But it is when he returned to the keyboard to compose his first new piano sonatas in almost a decade, that a new style, now called his "late period", emerged.

The works of the late period are commonly held to include the last five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late quartets (see below), and two works for very large forces: the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony ("Choral"), perhaps Beethoven's best known work. The Ninth Symphony is the first to use a chorus, and its dimensions were, again, larger than any previous work.

Beethoven then turned to writing string quartets - the war between Austria and France had devastated his finances - for 100 gold ducats each. This series of quartets - the "late quartets" - would go far beyond what either musicians or audiences were ready for at that time. One musician commented that "we know there is something there, but we do not know what it is." Composer Louis Spohr called them "indecipherable, uncorrected horrors," though that opinion has changed considerably from the time of their first bewildered reception. They would continue to inspire musicians - from Richard Wagner to Béla Bartók - for their unique forms and ideas.

Beethoven's health had been bad for most of his life, worsening even as he composed these last works; in his last months he became seriously ill. He died on March 26th, 1827, after several operations to relieve abdominal swelling, and a subsequent infection. Unlike in the case of Mozart, who was buried in a pauper's grave, 20,000 Viennese citizens lined the streets at Beethoven's funeral.

Musical style and innovations
Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. Above all, his works distinguish themselves from those of any prior composer through his creation of large, extended architectonic structures characterized by the extensive development of musical material, themes, and motifs, usually by means of "modulation", that is, a change in the feeling of the home key, through a variety of keys or harmonic regions. Although Haydn's later works often showed a greater fluidity between distant keys, Beethoven's innovation was the ability to rapidly establish a solidity in juxtaposing different keys and unexpected notes to join them. This expanded harmonic realm creates a sense of a vast musical and experiential space through which the music moves, and the development of musical material creates a sense of unfolding drama in this space. In this way Beethoven's music parallels the simultaneous development of the novel in literature, a literary form focused on the life drama and development of one or more individuals through complex life circumstances, and of contemporaneous German idealism's philosophical notion of self, mind, or spirit that unfolds through a complex process of contradictions and tensions between the subjective and objective until a resolution or synthesis occurs in which all of these contradictions and developmental phases have been resolved or encompassed in a higher unity.

Beethoven continued to expand the "development" section of works, extending a trend in the works of Haydn and Mozart, who had dramatically expanded both the length and substance of instrumental music. As Beethoven's major immediate predecessors and influences, he looked to their harmonic and formal models for his own works. However, both Mozart and Haydn placed the great weight of a musical movement in the statement of ideas called the exposition, for Beethoven the development section of a sonata form became the heart of the work. Beethoven was able to do this by making the development section not merely longer, but also more structured. The very long development section of the Eroica Symphony, for example, is divided into four roughly equal sections, making it, in effect, a sonata form within a sonata form. The first movement alone of this symphony is as long as an entire typical Italian-style Mozart symphony from the 1770s. His focus on the development would, like others of his innovations, set a trend that later composers would follow.

Although Beethoven wrote many beautiful and lyrical melodies, another radical innovation of his music, compared especially to that of Mozart and Haydn, is his extensive use of forceful, marked, and even stark rhythmic patterns throughout his compositions and, in particular, in his themes and motifs, some of which are primarily rhythmic rather than melodic. Some of his most famous themes, such as those of the first movements of the Third, Fifth, and Ninth symphonies, are primarily non-melodic rhythmic figures consisting of notes of a single chord, and the themes of the last movements of the Third and Seventh symphonies could more accurately be described as rhythms rather than as melodies. This use of rhythm was particularly well suited to the primacy of development in Beethoven's music, since a single rhythmic pattern can more easily than a melody be taken through a succession of different, even remote, keys and harmonic regions while retaining and conveying an underlying unity. This allowed him to combine different features of his themes in a wide variety of ways, extending the techniques of Haydn in development (see Sonata Form).

He also continued another trend - towards larger orchestras - that went on until the first decade of the 20th century, and moved the center of the sound downwards in the orchestra, to the violas and the lower register of the violins and cellos, giving his music a heavier and darker feel than Haydn or Mozart. Gustav Mahler modified the orchestration of some of Beethoven's music -- most notably the 3d and 9th symphonies -- with the idea of more accurately expressing Beethoven's intent in an orchestra that had grown so much larger than the one Beethoven used: for example, doubling woodwind parts to compensate for the fact that a modern orchestra has so many more strings than Beethoven's orchestra did. Needless to say, these efforts remain controversial.

In his Fifth Symphony Beethoven introduced a striking motif, drawn from a late Haydn symphony, in the very opening bar, which he echoed in various forms in all four movements of the symphony. This is the first important occurrence of cyclical form.

He was also fond of making usual what had previously been unusual: in the Fifth Symphony, instead of using a stately minuet, as had been the norm for the "dance" movement of a four-movement work, he created a dark march, which he used as the third movement and ran into the fourth without interruption. While one can point to previous works which had one or more of these individual features, his music, combined with the use of operatic scoring that he learned from Mehul and Cherubini, created a work which was altogether novel in effect - too novel, in fact, for some critics of the time. On the other hand, his contemporary Spohr found the finale "too baroque", though he praised the second movement as being in "good Romantic style".

His Ninth Symphony included a chorus and solo voices in the 4th movement for the first time, and made extensive use of fugues, which were generally considered to be a different form of music, and again unusual in symphonies.

He wrote one opera, Fidelio. It has been said that he wrote beautiful vocal music without regard for the limitations of human singers, treating the voice as if it were a symphonic instrument - even though his conversation books note his desire to make his music singable and include references that indicate that he had remembered his father's singing lessons.

Beethoven's development and works are typically divided into three periods: an early period in which his works show especially the influence of Mozart and Haydn; a middle, mature period in which he developed his distinctive individual style, sometimes characterized as "heroic"; and a late period, in which he wrote works of a highly evolved, individuated, sometimes fragmented and unorthodox style sometimes characterized as "transcendent" and "sublime", where he tried to combine the baroque ideas of Handel and Bach with his icons Mozart and Haydn. In his late years he called Handel "my grand master".

In contrast to Mozart, he labored heavily over his work, leaving intermediate drafts that provide considerable insight into his creative process. Early drafts of his Ninth Symphony used rough vertical marks on the score in place of actual notes, to indicate the structure he had in mind for the melody. Studies of his sketch books show the working out of dozens of variations on a particular theme, changing themes to fit with an overall structure that evolved over time, and extensive sketching of counter-melodies.

Personal beliefs and their musical influence
Beethoven was much taken by the ideals of the Enlightenment. He initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica, to Napoleon in the belief that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution, but later crossed out the dedication as Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, replacing it with "to the memory of a great man". The fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony is a setting of Schiller's ode An die Freude ("To Joy"), an optimistic hymn championing the brotherhood of humanity.

Beethoven's intense faith in God as experienced through art is an important theme in his conversation books, his belief that art is a force unto itself, and that "God is closer to me than others of my art", infuse his search for redemption through and in music.

Symphonies
Beethoven completed nine numbered symphonies, each of which is discussed in its own article:

Symphony No. 1 in C major, Opus 21 (1800)
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 36 (1803)
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Eroica," Opus 55 (1805)
Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Opus 60 (1807)
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67 (1808)
Symphony No. 6 in F major "Pastoral," Opus 68 (1808)
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92 (1813)
Symphony No. 8 in F major, Opus 93 (1814)
Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral," Opus 125 (1824)
Beethoven also made sketches for a tenth symphony (Barry Cooper later made a performing version of its first movement, though it is mainly conjecture). He also composed the so-called "Battle Symphony" (Opus 91, (1813).

The opus numbers of Beethoven's Symphonies form the Trice Sequence, Sloane's A001491 (http://www.research.att.com/cgi-bin/access.cgi/as/njas/sequences/eisA.cgi?Anum=A001491), which for a long time puzzled mathematician Clifford Pickover, who believed the sequence had a mathematical formula to it.

Beethoven as fictional character
Beethoven's larger-than-life persona has led many authors and filmmakers to incorporate him into works of fictionalized biography, among them Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Barbara Nichol and Scott Cameron and the popular 1994 film Immortal Beloved.

Beethoven was the title character in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's concept album, Beethoven's Last Night. In it, he makes a deal with the Devil to ease the suffering of a child sitting outside his door.

sources from
biographybase

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart biography

2009-06-21T14:11:00.006+07:00

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(born Salzburg, 27 January 1756; died Vienna, 5 December 1791). Son of Leopold Mozart.

He showed musical gifts at a very early age, composing when he was five and when he was six playing before the Bavarian elector and the Austrian empress. Leopold felt that it was proper, and might also be profitable, to exhibit his children's God-given genius (Maria Anna, 'Nannerl', 1751-1829, was a gifted keyboard player): so in mid-1763 the family set out on a tour that took them to Paris and London, visiting numerous courts en route. Mozart astonished his audiences with his precocious skills; he played to the French and English royal families, had his first music published and wrote his earliest symphonies. The family arrived home late in 1766; nine months later they were off again, to Vienna, where hopes of having an opera by Mozart performed were frustrated by intrigues.

They spent 1769 in Salzburg; 1770-73 saw three visits to Italy, where Mozart wrote two operas (Mitridate, Lucio Silla) and a serenata for performance in Milan, and acquainted himself with Italian styles. Summer 1773 saw a further visit to Vienna, probably in the hope of securing a post; there Mozart wrote a set of string quartets and, on his return, wrote a group of symphonies including his two earliest, nos.25 in g Minor and 29 in A, in the regular repertory. Apart from a joumey to Munich for the premiere of his opera La finta giardiniera early in 1775, the period from 1774 to mid-1777 was spent in Salzburg, where Mozart worked as Konzertmeister at the Prince- Archbishop's court; his works of these years include masses, symphonies, all his violin concertos, six piano sonatas, several serenades and divertimentos and his first great piano concerto, K271.

In 1777 the Mozarts, seeing limited opportunity in Salzburg for a composer so hugely gifted, resolved to seek a post elsewhere for Wolfgang. He was sent, with his mother, to Munich and to Mannheim, but was offered no position (though he stayed over four months at Mannheim, composing for piano and flute and falling in love with Aloysia Weber). His father then dispatched him to Paris: there he had minor successes, notably with his Paris Symphony, no.31, deftly designed for the local taste. But prospects there were poor and Leopold ordered him home, where a superior post had been arranged at the court. He returned slowly and alone; his mother had died in Paris. The years 1779-80 were spent in Salzburg, playing in the cathedral and at court, composing sacred works, symphonies, concertos, serenades and dramatic music. But opera remained at the centre of his ambitions, and an opportunity came with a commission for a serious opera for Munich. He went there to compose it late in 1780; his correspondence with Leopold (through whom he communicated with the librettist, in Salzburg) is richly informative about his approach to musical drama. The work, Idomeneo, was a success. In it Mozart depicted serious, heroic emotion with a richness unparalleled elsewhere in his works, with vivid orchestral writing and an abundance of profoundly expressive orchestral recitative.

Mozart was then summoned from Munich to Vienna, where the Salzburg court was in residence on the accession of a new emperor. Fresh from his success, he found himself placed between the valets and the cooks; his resentment towards his employer, exacerbated by the Prince-Archbishop's refusal to let him perform at events the emperor was attending, soon led to conflict, and in May 1781 he resigned, or was kicked out of, his job. He wanted a post at the Imperial court in Vienna, but was content to do freelance work in a city that apparently offered golden opportunities. He made his living over the ensuing years by teaching, by publishing his music, by playing at patrons' houses or in public, by composing to commission (particularly operas); in 1787 he obtained a minor court post as Kammermusicus, which gave him a reasonable salary and required nothing beyond the writing of dance music for court balls. He always earned, by musicians' standards, a good income, and had a carriage and servants; through lavish spending and poor management he suffered times of financial difficulty and had to borrow. In 1782 he married Constanze Weber, Aloysia's younger sister.

In his early years in Vienna, Mozart built up his reputation by publishing (sonatas for piano, some with violin), by playing the piano and, in 1782, by having an opera performed: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a German Singspiel which went far beyond the usual limits of the tradition with its long, elaborately written songs (hence Emperor Joseph II's famous observation, 'Too many notes, my dear Mozart'). The work was successful and was taken into the repertories of many provincial companies (for which Mozart was not however paid). In these years, too, he wrote six string quartets which he dedicated to the master of the form, Haydn: they are marked not only by their variety of expression but by their complex textures, conceived as four-part discourse, with the musical ideas linked to this freshly integrated treatment of the medium. Haydn told Mozart's father that Mozart was 'the greatest composer known to me in person or by name; he has taste and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition'.

In 1782 Mozart embarked on the composition of piano concertos, so that he could appear both as composer and soloist. He wrote 15 before the end of 1786, with early 1784 as the peak of activity. They represent one of his greatest achievements, with their formal mastery, their subtle relationships between piano and orchestra (the wind instruments especially) and their combination of brilliance, lyricism and symphonic growth. In 1786 he wrote the first of his three comic operas with Lorenzo da Ponte as librettist, Le nozze di Figaro: here and in Don Giovanni (given in Prague, 1787) Mozart treats the interplay of social and sexual tensions with keen insight into human character that - as again in the more artificial sexual comedy of Cosi fan tutte (1790) - transcends the comic framework, just as Die Zauberflöte (1791) transcends, with its elements of ritual and allegory about human harmony and enlightenment, the world of the Viennese popular theatre from which it springs.

Mozart lived in Vienna for the rest of his life. He undertook a number of joumeys: to Salzburg in 1783, to introduce his wife to his family; to Prague three times, for concerts and operas; to Berlin in 1789, where he had hopes of a post; to Frankfurt in 1790, to play at coronation celebrations. The last Prague journey was for the premiere of La clemenza di Tito (1791), a traditional serious opera written for coronation celebrations, but composed with a finesse and economy characteristic of Mozart's late music. Instrumental works of these years include some piano sonatas, three string quartets written for the King of Prussia, some string quintets, which include one of his most deeply felt works (K516 in g Minor) and one of his most nobly spacious (K515 in C), and his last four symphonies - one (no.38 in D) composed for Prague in 1786, the others written in 1788 and forming, with the lyricism of no.39 in E-flat, the tragic suggestiveness of no.40 in g Minor and the grandeur of no.41 in C, a climax to his orchestral music. His final works include the Clarinet Concerto and some pieces for masonic lodges (he had been a freemason since 1784; masonic teachings no doubt affected his thinking, and his compositions, in his last years). At his death from a feverish illness whose precise nature has given rise to much speculation (he was not poisoned), he left unfinished the Requiem, his first large-scale work for the church since the c Minor Mass of 1783, also unfinished; a completion by his pupil Süssmayr was long accepted as the standard one but there have been recent attempts to improve on it. Mozart was buried in a Vienna suburb, with little ceremony and in an unmarked grave, in accordance with prevailing custom.

Mozart's birthplace at 9 Getreidegasse, Salzburg, Austria

Sources from :http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mozart.html

New Popular ! The best classical pianists of today

2009-06-21T13:08:00.003+07:00

Lang Lang
Chinese pianist who gained international renown for his outstanding technique and expressive playing.

Yundi Li was born in Chongqing, People’s Republic of China in 1982. His musical career began with the accordion at the age of four and in 1987 he won first prize at the Chongqing Children’s Accordion Competition. At the age of seven he took up the piano and began studies with Dan Zhao Yi, one of China’s most renowned piano teachers; he already had ambitions of becoming a professional pianist. Since winning the International Chopin Competition he has been enthusiastically acclaimed at music venues all over the world for his phenomenal technique and astounding, masterful performances. In his native China he is an inspiration for millions of young people who have dubbed him the “Prince of the Piano”.

The great classical pianists in the world alive of today

2009-06-21T12:56:00.010+07:00

The pianist in the world, with many talents wonderfully. But here is my favorite and comment.

Martha Argerich (born June 5, 1941) is a concert pianist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her aversion to the press and publicity has resulted in her remaining out of the limelight for most of her career.Read more....

Vietnamese pianist (Dang Thai Son) was propelled to the forefront of the musical world in October 1980, when he was awarded first prize and the illustrious Gold Medal at the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. This achievement also gave him the distinction as first Asian pianist to win a top international competition

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (born October 10, 1971) is a well-known Russian pianist. Kissin was born in Moscow to a Jewish family. At age 11 months, he reportedly was able to hum along to a Bach tune his sister was playing on the piano. At age 6 he commenced his own piano studies at the esteemed Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children.Read more...

Van Cliburn (b. Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr., July 12, 1934), is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958, when at age 23, he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.

The greatest classical pianists

2009-06-20T17:32:00.024+07:00

Who do you think are the top ten pianists in the world?
No ..oooo. There are so many great the best pianist for me, may be different from others. I have never thought of who is the best, however I do have those I admirer and enjoy listening too... In the end, i respect them all because they are wonderfully gifted artists who work endlessly as musicians. Many of those who made it to this list began their musical training at a very young age which allowed them to perfect their talent early on.

This my list of the most amazing pianists of the 20th century.

Wolfgang Mozart ( 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791 )
One of the most famous child prodigies, Mozart was playing piano at age three and by five, he had begun to compose songs which were written down by his devoted father. He went on to give concerts from a very young age.Read more...

Ludwig van Beethoven (16 December 1770 – 26 March 1827).
This young German composer and pianist was famous for his talent on the piano and the fact that he continued to both play and compose after losing his hearing at the age of 26.Read more....

Fredric Chopin ( March 1810 – 17 October 1849 )
Chopin is often one of the first composers that young piano students play. He was also a child prodigy, often compared to Mozart. Steeped in the world of music from a young age, he was already playing and trying to compose at the age of six.
Read more....

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886 )
A virtuoso pianist, this Hungarian began his career at a fairly young age, though little information is available during this period of his life. It is known that not only was he an excellent pianist, he could also play several other instruments, including the cello.Read more......

Sergei Rachmaninoff (Apr 1, 1873 - Mar 28, 1943)
Known for having the largest hands of all the most famous pianists, Rachmaninoff was able to span up to 14 notes at a time and he made use of this ability in his compositions, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 8 Preludes, and others.Read more..

Josef Hofmann (Jan 20, 1876 - Feb 16, 1957)
This young prodigy began performing piano concerts at the tender age of six and at 12, he was the first recorded musician, working with Thomas Edison to create the first musical recordings.Read more....

Alfred Cortot
(Nov 26, 1877 - June 15, 1962)
Well known for his amazing recordings and variations of the likes of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, and many other famous composers. He also added his own variations and twists to the most common of compositions, turning them into something unique and special.Read more....

Artur Schnabel (Apr 17, 1882 - Oct 16, 1951)
Austrian pianist and teacher whose performances and recordings made him a legend in his own time and a model of scholarly musicianship to all later pianists.
A legend among pianists of the twentieth century, Artur Schnabel is best known for his interpretations and editions of Beethoven's piano works, for championing the performance of Mozart's piano sonatas, and the then unknown piano works of Schubert. His compositions were, in Ernst Krenek's words, "of remarkable and unusual significance." Artur Schnabel is buried in Schwyz, Switzerland together with his wife, son Karl Ulrich, daughter-in-law Helen and grandson Read more........

Artur Rubinstein (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982)
He was a Polish pianist who is widely considered as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th Century. He received international acclaim for his performances of Chopin and Brahms and his championing of Spanish music.

Read more....

Walter Wilhelm Gieseking.(November 5, 1895- October 26, 1956 )
Gieseking was unique in that he supposedly never practiced on a piano. Instead, he would sit for hours in complete silence, playing the songs in his mind. Mostly self-taught, the pianist would then perform the piece flawlessly.Read more...

Claudio Arrau (Feb 6, 1903 - June 9, 1991) Claudio Arrau, one of the commanding piano titans of our time, enjoyed a career which spanned both ends of the twentieth century. He played his first recital in his native Chile in 1908, while his last concerts there took place in his ninth decade, in 1984. Arrau was one of the most prolifically recorded pianists of all time, with the lion’s share of his discography dating from after World War Two, when his international reputation solidified. He made relatively few recordings before then, but that group of early Arrau recordings nevertheless constitutes an important legacy in the annals of recorded pianism, gathered complete here for the first time.Read more....

Vladimir Horowitz (Oct 1, 1903 - Nov 5, 1989)
Perhaps one of the best known pianists of the 20th century, Horowitz studied under Felix Blumenfeld and Sergei Tarnowsky. He is well known for his ability to play strong pieces creatively rather than simply banging away on the keys.READ MORE...

Sviatoslav Richter (Mar 20, 1915 - Aug 1, 1997)
He was a Soviet pianist. Sviatoslav Richter was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. He was well known for his vast repertoire, effortless technique and poetic phrasing.Read more..

Emil Gilels
(Oct 19, 1916 - Oct 14, 1985)
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (Russian: Эми́ль Григо́рьевич Ги́лельс, Emi'li Grego'rievič Gi'lelis;–) was a Soviet pianist. He was born Samuil Hilels in Odessa to a musical Jewish family; both his parents were musicians. He began studying the piano at 6 under Yakov Tkach, a stern disciplinarian who emphasized scales and studies. Gilels later credited this strict training as establishing the foundation for his technique. Gilels made public debut at the age of 12 in June 1929 with a well-received program of Beethoven, Scarlatti, Chopin and Schumann. In 1930 he entered the Odessa Conservatory where he was coached by Berta Reingbald, whom Gilels credited as a formative influence.Read more...

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
(Jan 5, 1920 - June 12, 1995)
A more recent pianist, Michelangeli honed his talent to perfection, producing recordings that were nearly perfect even when unedited. He was notorious for randomly canceling concerts and for his intense focus on the tiny details of the music, often forgetting the big picture.Read more.......

Martha Argerich

2009-06-13T15:56:00.007+07:00

Martha Argerich is a pianist that I love that one.
Although she is now 68 years old, But she also shows in concert,Although, she will force of less.But she played the piano sound melodic and poetic flavor of her music, it does not fall into.
She played piano, massively powerful, but also obscure the clear light within smooth shading
She played, one of the most difficult piano music in the world.That is,Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No1,and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3

Martha Argerich plays Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Charles Dutoit and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Genève - Oct 24, 1973)

Martha Argerich plays Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Riccardo Chailly and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Berlin - Dec 5, 1982)

Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires in 1941. At 3, she played the piano for the first time. Two years later, she began taking piano lessons with Vicenzo Scaramuzza. At 8, she made her concert debut in Buenos Aires, performing works by Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. She performed in Buenos Aires' Astral and Colón theatres. In 1955, she moved with her family of diplomats to Vienna in order to allow her to study piano with outstanding teachers. She received tuition from Friedrich Gulda, her principal mentor; her teachers also include Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Nikita Magaloff and Stefan Askenase.

In 1957, at 16, Martha Argerich won both the Geneva International Music and the Bolzano Competitions. She embarked on an intensive program of concerts. At 21, she suffered from depression for two years. She moved to New York and "didn't do anything". But, in 1965, she came back to win the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the Polish Radio Prize for her performances of Chopin Waltzes and Mazurkas. Argerich credits Stefan Askenase and his wife with helping to lift her out of her depression and back into music. From 1969 to 1973, Argerich was married to conductor Charles Dutoit, with whom she remains good friends.

Martha Argerich rose to fame with her interpretations of the virtuoso piano literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. But her repertoire ranges from Bach to Bartók. She is probably the only pianist capable of setting her own conditions in the music market, recording only what she wants and with different labels.

In the early 1980s, Argerich turned to chamber music which stresses the interaction between musicians. She often performs with Nelson Freire, Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich, Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky. Her appearances in the concerto repertory became rare and her solo recitals even rarer.

She also gives young artists a helping hand. In September 1999, the first International Martha Argerich Piano Competition took place in Buenos Aires, with her as the jury's president. In November 1999, the second Martha Argerich Music Festival took place in Japan, with concerts and masterclasses being given by Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky and Nelson Freire among others.

Martha Argerich's temper does not only show in her music, but also in her private live. Married only once, with conductor Charles Dutoit, she has three daughters, Lida, Annie and Stéphanie, from three different men.
Information http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo14/argerich.htm

Martha Argerich - Concert News http://www.andrys.com/argconcs.html

Martha Argerich blog http://www.myspace.com/martaargerich

I love piano

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART REQUIEM in D minor (K 626)

Wednesday March 16, 2011 at The Siam Society, 131 Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok,Thailand

Reception: 7:00 p.m., Concert: 7:30 p.m.

- July 4-16, 2011 - __________________________

The deadline of registration is extended to March 1st, 2011.

Classic Fantasy

Mahler´s Titan

The 11th Osaka International Music Competition

Online Campus Tour ,The College of Music, Mahidol University

The College of Music, Mahidol University

Music Auditorium (MACM Hall)

A Swiss Music Night

Gustavo Romero Guest Piaono Recital

Thailand International Jazz Conference 2011 (TIJC2011)

Congratulations to All Music Winners of the 14th Settrade Youth Music Competition 2010

A Chopin Competition Winner Collects Her Reward

Cleopatra The Musical Power or Love ?

New Year's concert 2011

King’s Birthday

Japanese pianist Mami Hagiwara wins first place in the Geneva International Music Competition

First International Chopin Piano Competition Singapore

Chopin Society (Singapore) & Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

First International Chopin Piano Competition Singapore

Elgar 4 you.Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

Chopin’s 200th Anniversary

Classical Magic

Beethoven Piano Recitals by Gustavo Romero

Flute Concerto

Celebrate Beethoven and Brahms

Concerts:

Conductor:

Soloist:

Program:

Gernot WINISCHHOFER, (Violin)

Lang Lang opens Chopin Year at NCPA in Beijing

The 13th Settarde Youth Musician Competition 2009

Woodwind Department Studio Ensemble Extravaganza!

Li Yundi Piano Concert

The 59th Wideman Piano Competition

The 59th Wideman Piano Competition

Top piano soloists for Mozart Festival

15-Year-Old Becomes 1st Asian Winner of Hamamatsu Contest

ALESSIO MONTI & FRIENDS 1

Guitar Concert at20 and 27 Nov 7:30 PM

2010 ATLANTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL

2010 ATLANTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES CALL FOR ENTRIES ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM NOW AVAILABLE

Mahidol Women Choir and Male Choir,A debut concert

Spanish Fantasy

Wednesday Recital

Great Finale of TPO in 4th Season

Short Training Course in Music Therapy

Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Faculty of Music, Silpakorn University

Drinking song by Verdi

The Barber of Seville overture

Fidelio by Beethoven

Terzettino by Mozart

Music about feelings

Seasonal music

Music that tells a story

Landscapes and scenery

Descriptive music

Spirituals

The oratorio

The chorale

The mass

Church composers

Religious music (Early)

Costumes and scenery ( Music for Theatre )

Overtures ( Music for Theatre )

Ballet ( Music for Theatre )

Opera (Music for Theatre )

The 19th century(Music for Dancing)

The minuet (Music for Dancing)

The gavotte and musette(Music for Dancing)

The suite (Music for Dancing)

Early dances (Music for Dancing)

Music for Dancing (Music for Dancing)

Theatre music ( Music for Theatre )

Wednesday March 16, 2011
at
The Siam Society, 131 Asoke, Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok,Thailand

- July 4-16, 2011 -
__________________________