Richard Strauss: 150th anniversary

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss, who was born on June 11, 1864. Strauss, who enjoyed early success as both conductor and composer, was influenced in the second capacity by the work of Wagner. He developed the tone poem to an unrivalled level of expressiveness and, after 1900, achieved great success with a series of impressive operas, at first on a grand scale but later tending to a more Classical restraint. We mark his anniversary with a selection of recordings which, for the most part, were made either during his lifetime or shortly after his death in 1949.

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American Composer Elliott Carter dies at 103

Elliott Carter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer who fused European and American modernist traditions in seminal but formidable works, and who lived to hear ovations for music that was once thought to be anything but listener-friendly, died Nov. 5 at his home in New York City. He was 103. More Washington Post |

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music. His compositions, which have been performed all over the world, include orchestral and chamber music as well as solo instrumental and vocal works. He was extremely productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 14 more after he turned 100 in 2008. His last work, 12 Short Epigrams for piano, was completed on August 13, 2012. More Wikipedia

Composer Hans Werner Henze dies, age 86

Hans Werner Henze, a prolific German composer who came of age in the Nazi era and grew estranged from his country while gaining renown for richly imaginative operas and orchestral works, died on Saturday, 27 October 2012, in Dresden, Germany, where he was due to attend the premiere that evening of a ballet set to one of his scores. He was 86. NYTimes | Wikipedia Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".His music is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition.

Debussy at 150

Claude-Achille Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. In France, he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. A crucial figure in the transition to the modern era in Western music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.
His music is noted for its sensory component and for not often forming around one key or pitch. Often Debussy's work reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant. More@wikipedia

Fan tribute, in French:

BEETHOVEN under paid?

LUBECK, Germany, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A handwritten letter by Ludwig van Beethoven reveals the German composer was displeased about his "low salary." The letter, written in July 1823 and addressed to Franz Stockhausen, concerned Beethoven's search for wealthy people to sponsor his latest composition, "Missa solemnis," Beethoven wrote he needed more money, in part, because of his worsening deafness.

"My low salary and my illness demand efforts to make a better fortune," he wrote at the age of 53, four years before his death.

The letter, which has been valued at $188,500, was found recently among items bequeathed to Germany's Brahms Institute of the Lubeck School of Music by Stockhausen's great-granddaughter, Renate Wirth. Wirth died last year.

"The bequest is of extraordinary historic value; this was a huge piece of luck for us," institute Director Wolfgang Sandberger said.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2012/01/11/Beethoven-complained-of-low-salary/UPI-46051326321492/#ixzz1jEYFhTRU

Vienna marks centenary of composer Mahler's death

The prestigious Vienna State Opera will this week mark -- along with the rest of the world of classical music -- the 100th anniversary of the death of composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860-1911).

The Austrian capital's legendary Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Italian maestro Daniele Gatti, will perform Mahler's last completed symphony, the Ninth.

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Gustav Mahler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian-Bohemian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer, he acted as a bridge ...

Biography - Music - List of compositions - Notes and references

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Copland works on CD

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Bach: Brandenberg Concertos

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Shostakovich Dance Album

Moscow-Cheryomushki
Suite from the operetta, op.105

The Bolt
Suite from the ballet, op.27a

The Gadfly
Excerpts from the fim music, op.97

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BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 "CHORAL"

Beethoven, Ludwig van
Opus 125, Symphony no. 9


Leontyne Price, soprano ; Maureen Forrester, contralto 

David Poleri, tenor ; Giorgio Tozzi, baritone
New England Conservatory Chorus


Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Munch, conductor

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Recorded Symphony Hall, Boston, MA 
20 December 1958

Erland von Koch, Swedish composer dies...98 years.

Erland von Koch received his diploma as an organist and cantor from the Music Conservatory in Stockholm in 1935. He spent the following years studying composition, conducting, and piano in Germany and France. After a couple of years at the Swedish Radio, he worked as a teacher of music theory at the conservatory in Stockholm from 1953-1975. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1957, and was named a Professor in 1968. Among his awards were the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's medal for contributions to music in 2000. He was a versatile composer and wrote five symphonies, 12 Scandinavian dances, the Impusli and Oxberg trilogies, 12 concerti for solo instruments, numerous solo works, string quartets, the children's opera Pelle Svanslos, five ballets, songs, psalms, and film music.(among other things, he wrote the music for one of Ingmar Bergman's early films). "I strive for a simple, clear melodic style, preferably associated with folk music, and with a clear-cut rhythmic profile. I want my harmony to be uncomplicated," he said about his own composing. Erland von Koch passed away at the end of January, three months before his 99th birthday.

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Victor Herbert

February 1 was the 150th birthday anniversary of Victor Herbert, the great Irish-American composer of such operettas as “Babes in Toyland,” “Naughty Marietta,” “Sweethearts” and “The Red Mill.” Herbert was also the driving force behind the establishment of ASCAP and served as Vice President of the organization from 1914 until his death in 1924. Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was a cellist, conductor and composer best known for his light operas. He was prominent among the tin pan alley composers. He published some of his dance music compositions under the pseudonym Noble MacClure.

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Mendelssohn Birth Bicentennial

3 FEB 1809 Birth of German composer Felix MENDELSSOHN (Bartholdy) in Hamburg. Wrote Symphonies and from A Midsummer Night's Dream the popular 'Wedding March'. Also Elijah, Fingal’s Cave. d-Leipzig, 4 NOV 1847.
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and generally known as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist and conductor of the early Romantic period. The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, he was born to a notable Jewish family which later converted to Christianity. His work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano and chamber music. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality is now being recognized and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

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Composer Lucas Foss dies

Lukas Foss was born as Lukas Fuchs assumed on August 15, 1922 in Berlin, Germany, and died February 1, 2009 in New York City. He was an American composer, conductor, pianist, and professor. He studied with Julius Goldstein. He moved to Paris in 1933 where he studied piano with Lazare Lévy, composition with Noël Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes, and flute with Louis Moyse. In 1937 he moved to America and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with Sergei Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at the Berkshire Music Center, and, as a special student, composition with Paul Hindemith at Yale University from 1939 to 1940

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Composer Leon Kirchner turns 90

Leon Kirchner turned 90 on Saturday, and he spent the evening at the Miller Theater, hearing a handful of his chamber works in a Composer Portraits concert. It would be an exaggeration to say that Mr. Kirchner has been overlooked: his works get high-profile performances, but they are less frequent than their beauty and expressivity warrant.

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George Perle, Composer and Theorist, Dies at 93

For many years Mr. Perle was most widely known as a theorist and author. He published his first articles on 12-tone music in 1941 and became the most eloquent spokesman for the style. His 1962 book, “Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern,” became a classic text that was published in many translations. He set forth his own method in “Twelve-Tone Tonality” in 1977. But his most revolutionary writing was on Berg. Considered an authority on the composer by the early ’60s, Mr. Perle was granted access to Berg’s unpublished manuscript for the opera “Lulu” in 1963. When he ascertained that the third act, long thought to be an unfinished sketch, was actually about three-fifths complete and cast an entirely new light on the opera, he protested publicly that Berg’s publisher was repressing an important part of the work. His efforts led to the completion of the third act and the presentation of the complete opera in 1979.

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Birth centennial of American composer Elie SIEGMEISTER

15 JANUARY 1909 Birth of American composer Elie SIEGMEISTER in NYC. d-Manhasset, NY 10 MAR 1991. His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary. Jazz, blues and folk melodies and rhythms are frequent themes in his many song cycles, his nine operas, his eight symphonies, and his many choral, chamber, and solo works. His 37 orchestral works have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the world.

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26 DECEMBER 1808 Birth of Belgian composer Albert GRISART, aka Grisar, in Antwerp. d-Paris, 15 JUN 1869.

Olivier Messiaen (French pronunciation: [mɛsjɑ̃]; December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and numbered Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré among his teachers. He was appointed organist at the church of La Trinité in Paris in 1931, a post he held until his death. On the fall of France in 1940 Messiaen was made a prisoner of war, and while incarcerated he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time") for the four available instruments, piano, violin, cello, and clarinet. The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners to an audience of inmates and prison guards. Messiaen was appointed professor of harmony soon after his release in 1941, and professor of composition in 1966 at the Paris Conservatoire, positions he held until his retirement in 1978. His many distinguished pupils included Pierre Boulez, Yvonne Loriod (who later became Messiaen's second wife), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and George Benjamin.