1.
Conducting
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Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
2.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
3.
Philharmonia Orchestra
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The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a music record producer for EMI. Since 1995, the orchestra has been based in the Royal Festival Hall, the Philharmonia also has residencies at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, the Corn Exchange, Bedford, and The Anvil, Basingstoke. Esa-Pekka Salonen has been the principal conductor and artistic advisor since 2008. Helen Sprott is the current managing director, The Philharmonia Orchestra performs more than 160 concerts a year and tours widely. The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, as Legge was a recording producer for EMI, it was believed that the orchestra was primarily formed for recording purposes, but that was not Legges intention. After the war, opera resumed at Covent Garden under a different management and his contacts in the musical world during the war enabled him to secure the services of a large number of talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces in 1945. At the Philharmonias first concert on 25 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert, but as he refused to be Legges employee and Legge refused to control of the orchestra. Herbert von Karajan was closely associated with the Philharmonia in its early years, at first, Legge was against appointing an official principal conductor, feeling that no one conductor should have more importance to the orchestra than Legge himself. But Karajan was principal conductor in all but name and he built the orchestra into one of the finest in the world and made numerous recordings, including all the Beethoven symphonies. In 1954, Karajan was elected director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Needing to find a new conductor for the orchestra, Legge turned to Otto Klemperer, klemperers name became closely linked with the orchestra during an Indian summer of celebrated recordings. In 1959, Klemperer was named director for life. On 10 March 1964, Legge announced that he was going to disband the Philharmonia Orchestra, at a recording session with Klemperer, a meeting was convened where those present unanimously agreed that they would not allow the orchestra to be disbanded. On 17 March 1964, the members of the orchestra elected their own governing body, the inaugural concert of the New Philharmonia under its own auspices took place on 27 October 1964. It was a performance of Beethovens Symphony No,9, conducted by Klemperer, who was now honorary president of the orchestra. From 1966 until 1972, the chairman of the orchestra was the principal flautist, the orchestra gave many more live performances after it became self-governing than it had under Legges management
4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
5.
Los Angeles Philharmonic
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The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Gustavo Dudamel is the current Music Director, and Esa-Pekka Salonen is Conductor Laureate, Deborah Borda is the current President and CEO. Music critics have described the orchestra as the most contemporary minded, forward thinking, talked about and innovative, venturesome, according to Salonen, We are interested in the future. We are not trying to re-create the glories of the past, like so many other symphony orchestras. “Especially since we moved into the new hall, ” continues Borda, “our intention has been to integrate 21st-century music into the everyday activity. ”The orchestra was founded and single-handedly financed in 1919 by William Andrews Clark, Jr. a copper baron, arts enthusiast. He originally asked Sergei Rachmaninoff to be the Philharmonics first music director, however, Rachmaninoff had only moved to New York. The orchestra played its first concert in the Trinity Auditorium in the same year, Clark himself would sometimes sit and play with the second violin section. After Rothwells death in 1927, subsequent Music Directors in the decade of the 1920s included Georg Schnéevoigt, otto Klemperer became Music Director in 1933, part of the large group of German emigrants fleeing Nazi Germany. He conducted many LA Phil premieres, and introduced Los Angeles audiences to important new works by Igor Stravinsky, the orchestra responded well to his leadership, but Klemperer had a difficult time adjusting to Southern California, a situation exacerbated by repeated manic-depressive episodes. Things were further complicated when founder William Andrews Clark died without leaving the orchestra an endowment, the Philharmonics concerts at the Hollywood Bowl also brought in much needed revenue. With that, the managed to make it through the worst of the Great Depression years still intact. He went into a state and was institutionalized. When he escaped, The New York Times ran a cover story declaring him missing, after he was found in New Jersey, a picture of him behind bars was printed in the New York Herald Tribune. He subsequently lost the post of Music Director, though he still would conduct the Philharmonic. He led some important concerts, such as the premiere performance of Stravinskys Symphony in Three Movements in 1946. Sir John Barbirolli was offered the position of Music Director after his contract with the New York Philharmonic expired in 1942 and he declined the offer and chose to return to England instead. The following year, Alfred Wallenstein was chosen by Mudd to lead the orchestra, the former principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, he had been the youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when it was founded in 1919
6.
New York Philharmonic
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It is one of the leading American orchestras popularly referred to as the Big Five. The Philharmonics home is David Geffen Hall, known as Avery Fisher Hall until September 2015, founded in 1842, the orchestra is one of the oldest musical institutions in the United States and the oldest of the Big Five orchestras. Its record-setting 14, 000th concert was given in December 2004, the New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 by the American conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, with the aid of the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace. The orchestra was called the Philharmonic Society of New York. It was the third Philharmonic on American soil since 1799, and had as its intended purpose, the first concert of the Philharmonic Society took place on December 7,1842 in the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway before an audience of 600. The concert opened with Beethovens Symphony No, the musicians operated as a cooperative society, deciding by a majority vote such issues as who would become a member, which music would be performed and who among them would conduct. At the end of the season, the players would divide any proceeds among themselves, after only a dozen public performances and barely four years old, the Philharmonic organized a concert to raise funds to build a new music hall. The centerpiece was the American premiere of Beethovens Symphony No,9, to take place at Castle Garden on the southern tip of Manhattan. About 400 instrumental and vocal performers gathered for this premiere, which was conducted by George Loder, the chorals were translated into what would be the first English performance anywhere in the world. However, with the expensive US$2.00 ticket price and a war rally uptown, the audience was kept away. Although judged by some as an odd work with all those singers kept at bay until the end, during the Philharmonics first seven seasons, seven musicians alternated the conducting duties. In addition to Hill, Timm and Étienne, these were William Alpers, George Loder, Louis Wiegers and this changed in 1849 when Theodore Eisfeld was installed as sole conductor for the season. Eisfeld, later along with Carl Bergmann, would be the conductor until 1865 and that year Eisfeld returned to Europe, and Bergmann continued to conduct the Society until his death in 1876. Leopold Damrosch, Franz Liszts former concertmaster at Weimar, served as conductor of the Philharmonic for the 1876/77 season, but failing to win support from the Philharmonics public, he left to create the rival Symphony Society of New York in 1878. Upon his death in 1885, his 23-year-old son Walter took over, Carnegie Hall would remain the orchestras home until 1962. The Philharmonic in 1877 was in financial condition, caused by the paltry income from five concerts in the 1876/77 season that brought in an average of only $168 per concert. At first the Philharmonics suggestion offended Thomas because he was unwilling to disband his own orchestra, because of the desperate financial circumstances, the Philharmonic offered Theodore Thomas the conductorship without conditions, and he began conducting the orchestra in the autumn of 1877. He left in 1891 to found the Chicago Symphony, taking thirteen Philharmonic musicians with him, another celebrated conductor, Anton Seidl, followed Thomas on the Philharmonic podium, serving until 1898
7.
Finnish National Opera
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The Finnish National Opera is a Finnish opera company based in Helsinki. Its home base is the Opera House on Töölönlahti bay in Töölö, which opened in 1993, the Opera House features two auditoriums, the main auditorium with 1,350, seats and a smaller studio auditorium with 300-500 seats. Regular opera performances began in Finland in 1873 with the founding of the Finnish Opera by Kaarlo Bergbom. Prior to that, opera had been performed in Finland sporadically by touring companies, and on occasion by Finnish amateurs, however, the Finnish Opera company soon plunged into a financial crisis and folded in 1879. During its six years of operation, Bergbom’s opera company had given 450 performances of a total of 26 operas, the reincarnation of the Finnish opera institution took place about 30 years later. A group of social and cultural figures, led by the international star soprano Aino Ackté. From the very beginning, the decided to engage both foreign and Finnish artists. A few years later the Domestic Opera was renamed the Finnish Opera in 1914, in 1956, the Finnish Opera was, in turn, taken over by the Foundation of the Finnish National Opera, and acquired its present name. Between 1918 and 1993 the home of the opera was the Alexander Theater, the home was inaugurated with an opening performance of Verdi’s Aida. The Finnish National Opera has some 30 permanently engaged solo singers, the Ballet has 90 dancers from 17 countries. All together, the opera has a staff of 735, past music directors and chief conductors have included Armas Järnefelt, Okko Kamu, Muhai Tang, and Mikko Franck. With the 2013-2014 season, the Finnish mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi became artistic director of the company, the initial contracts for both Paasikivi and Güttler are for 3 years. Since 2008, Kenneth Greve has served as director of Finnish National Ballet. His current contract is through 2018, the Finnish National Opera stages four to six premieres a year, including a world premiere of at least one Finnish opera, such as Rasputin by Einojuhani Rautavaara. Some 20 different operas in 140 performances are found in the operas schedule yearly, the Ballet arranges some 110 performances annually. The Finnish National Opera has some 250,000 visitors a year
8.
Helsinki
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Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki has a population of 629,512, a population of 1,231,595. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia,400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities. The Helsinki metropolitan area includes the core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen. It is the worlds northernmost metro area of one million people. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic countries, Helsinki is Finlands major political, educational, financial, cultural, and research center as well as one of northern Europes major cities. Approximately 75% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region, the nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the city was the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest 2007. In 2011, the Monocle magazine ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011, in the Economist Intelligence Units August 2015 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in globally, Helsinki placed among the worlds top ten cities. Helsinki is used to refer to the city in most languages, the Swedish name Helsingfors is the original official name of the city. The Finnish name probably comes from Helsinga and similar names used for the river that is known as the Vantaa River. Helsingfors comes from the name of the parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, one suggestion for the origin of the name Helsinge is that it originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Others have proposed that the name derives from the Swedish word helsing, other Scandinavian cities located at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, for example Helsingør and Helsingborg. The name Helsinki has been used in Finnish official documents and in Finnish language newspapers since 1819, the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish, in Helsinki slang the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives to the city, helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki
9.
French horn
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The French horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B♭ is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras, a musician who plays any kind of horn is generally referred to as a horn player. Most horns have lever-operated rotary valves, but some, especially older horns, use piston valves, the backward-facing orientation of the bell relates to the perceived desirability to create a subdued sound, in concert situations, in contrast to the more piercing quality of the trumpet. A horn without valves is known as a horn, changing pitch along the natural harmonics of the instrument. Pitch may also be controlled by the position of the hand in the bell, the pitch of any note can easily be raised or lowered by adjusting the hand position in the bell. Three valves control the flow of air in the single horn, the more common double horn has a fourth valve, usually operated by the thumb, which routes the air to one set of tubing tuned to F or another tuned to B♭. Triple horns with five valves are made, tuned in F, B♭. Also common are descant doubles, which typically provide B♭ and alto F branches and this configuration provides a high-range horn while avoiding the additional complexity and weight of a triple. A crucial element in playing the horn deals with the mouthpiece, when playing higher notes, the majority of players exert a small degree of additional pressure on the lips using the mouthpiece. It is the goal of all serious brass musicians to develop their technique such that additional mouthpiece pressure is avoided altogether, or at the very least, the name French horn is found only in English, first coming into use in the late 17th century. At that time, French makers were preeminent in the manufacture of hunting horns, as a result, these instruments were often called, even in English, by their French names, trompe de chasse or cor de chasse. The International Horn Society has recommended since 1971 that the instrument be simply called the horn, there is also a more specific use of French horn to describe a particular horn type, differentiated from the German horn and Vienna horn. In this sense, French horn refers to an instrument with three Périnet valves. It retains the narrow bell-throat and mouthpipe crooks of the orchestral hand horn of the late 18th century, and most often has an ascending third valve. This is a whole-tone valve arranged so that with the valve in the up position the valve loop is engaged, the horn is the third-highest-sounding instrument in the brass family, below the trumpet and the cornet. Horns are mostly tuned in B♭ or F, or a combination of both, in some traditions, novice players use a single horn in F, while others prefer the B♭ horn. The F horn is used more commonly than the B♭ horn, sound is produced by vibrating the players lips into the mouthpiece of the instrument. Different partials in the series can be played by adjusting the air pressure and lip tension
10.
Musical composition
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People who create new compositions are called composers in classical music. In popular music and traditional music, the creators of new songs are usually called songwriters, with songs, Composition is the act or practice of creating a song or other piece of music. In popular music and traditional music, songwriting may involve the creation of an outline of the song, called the lead sheet. In classical music, orchestration is typically done by the composer, in some cases, a pop or traditional songwriter may not use written notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play, sing and/or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written or printed scores play in classical music. Although a musical composition often uses musical notation and has a single author, a piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, since the 20th century, with computer programs that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. A more commonly known example of chance-based music is the sound of wind chimes jingling in a breeze, although in the 2000s, composition is considered to consist of the manipulation of each aspect of music, according to Jean-Benjamin de Laborde, Composition consists in two things only. The first is the ordering and disposing of several sounds. in such a manner that their succession pleases the ear and this is what the Ancients called melody. The second is the rendering audible of two or more simultaneous sounds in such a manner that their combination is pleasant and this is what we call harmony, and it alone merits the name of composition. In classical music, a piece of music exists in the form of a composition in musical notation or as a live acoustic event. Since the invention of recording, a classical piece or popular song may also exist as a recording. If music is composed before being performed, music can be performed from memory, by reading written musical notation, compositions comprise a huge variety of musical elements, which vary widely from between genres and cultures. Popular music genres after about 1960 make extensive use of electric and electronic instruments, such as electric guitar, electric and electronic instruments are used in contemporary classical music compositions and concerts, albeit to a lesser degree than in popular music. Music from the Baroque music era, for example, used only acoustic and mechanical such as strings, brass, woodwinds, timpani and keyboard instruments such as harpsichord. A 2000s-era pop band may use electric guitar played with electronic effects through a guitar amplifier, different musical styles permit singers or performers to use various amounts of musical improvisation during the performance of a composed song or piece. In free jazz, the performers may play without any sheet music, improvisation is the act of composing musical elements spontaneously during the performance, as opposed to having a composer write down the music beforehand. Improvisation was an important skill during the Baroque music era, instrumentalists and singers were expected to be able to improvise ornaments, during the classical period, solo instrumentalists were expected to be able to improvise virtuostic cadenzas during a concerto. During the Romantic music era, composers began writing out ornaments and cadenzas, in contemporary classical music, some composers began writing pieces which indicate that the performer should improvise during certain sections
11.
Sibelius Academy
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The Sibelius Academy is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities with roughly 1,700 enrolled students, the Sibelius Academy is one of the organizers of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition held every five years in Helsinki. In 2013, the merged with two formerly independent universities, Theatre Academy Helsinki and Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, to form the University of the Arts Helsinki. The primary degree at the Sibelius Academy is the Master of Music degree, the school also offers postgraduate degrees with artistic and research options. The postgraduate degrees are the Licentiate of Arts in Music Lic. A. and the doctoral degree of Doctor of Arts in Music D. A
12.
Jorma Panula
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Jorma Panula is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many notable Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Panula studied church music and conducting at the Sibelius Academy. His teachers included Leo Funtek, Dean Dixon, Albert Wolff, apart from conducting, he has composed a wide variety of music. His operas Jaakko Ilkka and the River Opera established a new genre called performance opera, which fused music, visual art, Panulas other compositions include musicals, church music, a violin concerto, jazz capriccio and numerous pieces of vocal music. He has also conducted his own opera Jaakko Ilkka at the Finnish National Opera, Panula has served as Professor of Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1973 to 1994 and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. As a pedagogue, Panula has been a teacher and mentor to many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Osmo Vänskä. He has since taught conducting courses all over the world, such as in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Moscow, New York, Tanglewood, Aspen, Ottawa and he has limited his podium appearances greatly during the past ten years. Panula was listed as one of the 60 most powerful people in music featured in the November 2000 issue of BBC Music Magazine, Panula was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize in 1997. He stated that women … Of course they are trying, some of them are making faces, sweating and fussing, but it is not getting any better – only worse. It’s not a problem – if they choose the right pieces, if they take more feminine music. This is a purely biological question. ”Other conductors, such as his former student Salonen, responded critically to Panulas remarks
13.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
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Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Saraste was trained as a violinist and he later studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula in the same class as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä. Before becoming a conductor, Saraste was co-principal second violinist and later an associate to Leif Segerstam, in 1983, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Saraste co-founded the Avanti. Chamber Orchestra, which specialises in performances of contemporary music, in 2000, Saraste also founded the Ekenäs Summer Concerts-Festival with the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, and he is currently the artistic advisor to both Festival and Orchestra. Saraste has directed the Finnish Chamber orchestra on several tours, including tours in the United States, in 1987, Saraste became the chief conductor of the RSO, and held the position until 2001. In 1987, he became the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Saraste now holds the title of Conductor Laureate of the RSO and he has twice recorded the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius with the RSO. Saraste became Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1994, the later years of his tenure were marked by strife over the orchestras financial difficulties, several musicians strikes, and his unsuccessful efforts to improve the acoustics at Roy Thomson Hall. During the 1999 labour dispute, Saraste had offered to serve as mediator in the situation, Saraste stepped down from his Toronto post in 2001, and has since returned to Toronto for several guest appearances. From 2002 to 2005, Saraste served as the principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, in August 2006, he became Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic, with an initial contract of 5 years. In June 2009, his Oslo contract was extended through the 2012-2013 season and he is scheduled to conclude his Oslo tenure after the 2012-2013 season. In December 2006, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Saraste as its artistic advisor from 2008 through 2011, in November 2008, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne announced the appointment of Saraste as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2010-2011 season. Saraste was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2000 and he has received a Doctor honoris causa from York University, and he is a Sibelius Medalist. Other honours also include the Sibelius Prize, awarded in Norway, jukka-Pekka Saraste – Official Website Columbia Artists Management agency biography of Saraste WDR German-language biography of Saraste
14.
Magnus Lindberg
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Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonics composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and is the London Philharmonic Orchestras composer-in-residence from the beginning of the 2014/15 season, Lindberg was born in Helsinki, where he studied at the Sibelius Academy under Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen, beginning with piano. He attended summer courses in Siena and Darmstadt, after graduating in 1981, he travelled widely in Europe, attending private studies with Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey in Paris, and observing Japanese drumming and punk rock in Berlin. Lindbergs juvenilia include the orchestral work Donor, composed at age 16. Quintetto dell’Estate is generally held to be Lindbergs first opus and his first piece performed by a professional orchestra was Sculpture II in 1982, the second part of a trilogy whose first and third sections were long unwritten. His first great success came with Action-Situation-Signification, the first work in which he explored musique concrète and this piece was written for and premiered by the new-music ensemble Toimii, which Lindberg founded during the summer of 1980. Lindberg is a trained pianist and has performed several of his works as part of Toimii, Kraft, another piece written for Toimii, is Lindbergs largest work to date, with harmonies of over 70 notes and a meter-high score. It uses traditional instrumentation as well as percussion on scrap metal, after finishing it Lindberg found it hard to compose, and with the exception of 1986s Ur, which he called Kraft in chamber form, he entered a creative hiatus that was to last for over two years. During this time he was not only rethinking his style but also recovering from a disease contracted during travel in Indonesia. Kraft made use of a structure where the progression of the piece is based on a repeated chain of chords. It was this idea that served as the basis for Lindbergs next style and he returned with an orchestral trilogy consisting of Kinetics, Marea, and Joy. Since Joy, Lindberg has shown a gradual refining of his style, orchestrations and this showed itself first in the work for chamber ensemble, Corrente, and Duo Concertante. In these works, Lindberg showed influences ranging from Pierre Boulez and Tristan Murail to Igor Stravinsky and his symphonic work Aura reflects a newer, more eclectic style. Since then, Lindberg has built upon these developments, further refining his style and this development has culminated in one of his most popular scores to date, his Clarinet Concerto, which has a folk-like melody and rich orchestration. M. Peis Louvre Pyramid complements the Tuileries Palace in Paris, Lindberg became the new composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic for the 2009-2010 season at the invitation of the incoming music director Alan Gilbert. The September 2009 opening night gala of the Philharmonic, which was Gilberts debut as director, featured a well-received new work by Lindberg. Lindbergs fourth and final commission as composer-in-residence was the Piano Concerto No,2, which was premiered on May 3,2012. 1 Campana In Aria for horn and orchestra Cello Concerto No.1 Clarinet Concerto Violin Concerto No.1 Piano Concerto No.2 Cello Concerto No.2 Violin Concerto No. de Tartuffe, after Sibelius, Studies in Finnish Music, Chapter 9, pp 231–262
15.
Franco Donatoni
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Franco Donatoni was an Italian composer. Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, later he studied at the Milan Conservatory and, from 1948, at the Bologna Conservatory. At least three generations of composers studied with Donatoni, see, List of music students by teacher, C to F#Franco Donatoni. Donatoni died in Milan in 2000, wishing to work in his book of his monumental Arte della Fuga”, for large orchestra. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, shedding Some Light on Donatonis Lumen. Perspectives of New Music 54, no, biography by David Wright Obituary in the Musical Times Recording of Arpège, for ensemble. A reminiscence of Donatoni by Jeffrey Levine Excerpts from sound archives of Donatonis works
16.
Einojuhani Rautavaara
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Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer of classical music. He is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius, Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include 8 symphonies,9 operas and 12 concerti, as well as numerous vocal, having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as Neo-romantic and mystical. His major works include Cantus Arcticus and Symphony No.7 Angel of Light, Rautavaara was born in Helsinki in 1928. His father Eino was a singer and cantor, and his mother Elsa was a doctor. Both of his parents died before he reached his 16th birthday, Rautavaara studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Aarre Merikanto from 1948 to 1952. There he was taught by Vincent Persichetti, and he took lessons from Roger Sessions. He graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 1957 and he married Heidi Maria Suovanen, an actor, in 1959. They had two sons and a daughter and they separated in 1982 and divorced in 1984, after he fell in love with Sinikka Koivisto, who was 29 years his junior. In 1984 he married Sinikka, who survived him, after an aortic dissection in January 2004, Rautavaara spent almost half a year in intensive care before recovering and continuing his work. He died on 27 July 2016 in Helsinki from complications of hip surgery, Rautavaara was a prolific composer and wrote in a variety of forms and styles. A recurring label given to his opus is mysticism, for his fascination with metaphysical, along with Erik Bergman, Rautavaara was one of pioneers of serial composing in Finland in the early 1950s, although in the end he completed only several serial works. Rautavaara himself referred to the Third as the Bruckners symphony, in the mid-1960s, Rautavaara fell into a creative crisis with serialism, noticing that the composition method was immensely laborious and its distance from the outcome too large. He found a resolution towards the end of the decade, when he began to explore different styles as he had earlier done in the Third Symphony, the Bach-influenced Cello Concerto No.1 and Debussy-influenced Anadyomene opened his creative deadlock. More eclectic works started to emerge, whose style loans and compositional techniques over time became characteristic of his style, the 1970s were Rautavaaras most productive period. In a short time he composed a body of music. The softly-sounding new style was noticed by choirs, who commissioned a number of songs from the composer. His major choral works Vigilia and True and False Unicorn were made during 1971, Cantus Arcticus followed immediately after, in the beginning of 1972, and in the summer he composed an extensive score for male choir, A Book of Life
17.
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
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The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra based in Helsinki, and the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company. The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre, primary funding comes from television licence fees from the Finnish population. The ensemble was founded in 1927 as the Radio Orchestra with ten musicians, though never holding the title of chief conductor, Linko remained affiliated with the orchestra until 1952. Toivo Haapanen became the orchestras first chief conductor in 1929 and held the post until his death in 1950, the orchestra performed mainly studio concerts for the first portion of its history. Until World War II, the orchestra gave only 20 public concerts, after World War II, with the new Director General Hella Wuolijoki in place, the orchestra roster expanded to 50 musicians. In September 1947, the orchestra initiated a series of Tuesday Concerts at Helsinki Town Hall, the roster grew to 67 musicians by 1953. The orchestras second conductor, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, served from 1950 until his death in 1961. The third chief conductor, Paavo Berglund, had been a violinist in the orchestra 10 years prior to his 1961 accession to the chief conductorship, the ensemble had grown to 90 members in the 1970s, into a full symphony orchestra. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, chief conductor from 1987 to 2001, is now the honorary conductor. Sakari Oramo was chief conductor from 2003 to 2012, having earlier been concertmaster of the orchestra, in December 2010, the orchestra announced the appointment of Hannu Lintu as its eighth chief conductor, as of the 2013-2014 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. Lintu held the title of principal guest conductor during the 2012-2013 season, in April 2016, the FRSO announced the extension of Lintus contract as chief conductor through 2021. The orchestras discography includes, besides the music of Jean Sibelius, music by other Finnish composers such as Paavo Heininen, Joonas Kokkonen, Magnus Lindberg and Aarre Merikanto. They have also recorded repertoire by composers, such as symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Carl Nielsen
18.
Michael Tilson Thomas
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Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of The New World Symphony is an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach. Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles, California, to Ted and Roberta Thomas, a Broadway stage manager and he is the grandson of noted Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who performed in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan. He was a child and a prodigy. Tilson Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California, as a student of Friedelind Wagner, Tilson Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. Tilson Thomas is openly gay and lives in San Francisco with his partner of thirty years and they married on November 2,2014. Tilson Thomas has conducted a variety of music and is a particular champion of modern American works. He is also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler, he has recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and these recordings have been released on the high-resolution audio format Super Audio CD on the San Francisco Symphonys own recording label. Tilson Thomas is also known as an interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives. A sampling of Tilson Thomass own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank, Shówa/Shoáh, Poems of Emily Dickinson, Tilson Thomas has also been devoted to music education. Tilson Thomas also founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987, most recently, Tilson Thomas has led two incarnations of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which brings young musicians from around the world together for a week of music making and learning. Presently, Tilson Thomas is connecting tangibly with his past and he is president of the Tomashefsky Project, a $2 million undertaking formed last June that will record and preserve his grandparents theatrical achievements. There are 2,000 to 3,000 documents out there on Boris and Bessie and Yiddish theater says Linda Steinberg, in the New York Public Library alone there are 700 - and nobodys looked at them. Other major collections are in the library of Congress and the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, Tilson Thomas was named Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, replacing an unwell William Steinberg mid-concert. He stayed with the Boston ensemble as an assistant conductor until 1974 and made recordings with the orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979 and he made recordings for Columbia Records in Buffalo. Between 1971 and 1977, he conducted the series of Young Peoples Concerts with the New York Philharmonic
19.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
20.
Valery Gergiev
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Valery Abisalovich Gergiev, PAR is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Gergiev, born in Moscow, is the son of Tamara Timofeevna Lagkueva and Abisal Zaurbekovich Gergiev. He and his siblings were raised in Vladikavkaz in their native North Ossetia in the Caucasus and he had his first piano lessons in secondary school before going on to study at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1972 to 1977. His principal conducting teacher was Ilya Musin, one of the greatest conductor-makers in Russian musical history and his sister, Larissa Gergieva, is a pianist and director of the Mariinskys singers academy. In 1978, he became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, in 1991, for the first time, Gergiev conducted a western European opera company with the Bavarian State Opera in a performance of Modest Mussorgskys Boris Godunov in Munich. In the same year, he made his American début, performing War, since then, he has conducted both operatic and orchestral repertoire across the world. He also participates in music festivals, including the White Nights in St. Petersburg. He became chief conductor and artistic director of the Mariinsky in 1988, from 1995 to 2008, Gergiev was principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997, he became principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, in 2002, he was featured in one scene in the film Russian Ark, directed by Alexander Sokurov and filmed at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2003, he initiated and conducted at the Mariinsky Theatre the first complete cycle of Wagners The Ring of the Nibelung to be staged in Russia for over 90 years, the productions design and concept reflects many aspects of Ossetian culture. In 1988, Gergiev guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra for the first time, in his next appearance with the LSO in 2004, he conducted the seven symphonies of Sergei Prokofiev. This engagement led to his appointment in 2005 as the Orchestras fifteenth principal conductor, Gergievs initial contract with the LSO was for 3 years. His first official concert as principal conductor of the LSO was on 23 January 2007, this was scheduled for 13 January. Since 2015, Gergiev is chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, on 5 May 2016, Gergiev competed at the Roman Theatre of Palmyra at a concert event called Praying for Palmyra – Music revives ancient ruins. It was devoted to the victims who died while liberating Palmyra from ISIS, after the 2004 Beslan school massacre, Gergiev appealed on television for calm and against revenge. He conducted concerts to commemorate the victims of the massacre, during the 2008 South Ossetia war, Gergiev accused the Georgian government of massacring ethnic Ossetians, triggering the conflict with Russia. He came to Tskhinvali and conducted a concert near the building of the South Ossetian Parliament as tribute to the victims of the war. Gergiev has been, according to Alex Ross in The New Yorker, last year, in a television ad for Putins third Presidential campaign, he said, One needs to be able to hold oneself presidentially, so that people reckon with the country
21.
Salzburg Festival
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The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, one highlight is the annual performance of the play Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Since 1967, an annual Salzburg Easter Festival has also been held, Music festivals had been held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 held by the International Mozarteum Foundation, but were discontinued in 1910. Although a festival was planned for 1914, it was cancelled at the outbreak of World War I, the Salzburg Festival was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1920 with Reinhardts performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, starring Alexander Moissi. The practice has become a tradition, and the play is now performed at Cathedral Square, since 1921 it has been accompanied by several performances of chamber music. The first operatic production came in 1922, with Mozarts Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Strauss, the singers were mainly drawn from the Wiener Staatsoper, including Richard Tauber in the part of Don Ottavio. At that time the festival had developed a large-scale program including live broadcasts by the Austrian RAVAG radio network. During the years from 1934 to 1937 famed conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, in 1936, the festival featured a performance by the Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later dramatized as the musical and film The Sound of Music. In 1937, Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the Festival, the Festivals popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and Georg Solti had to emigrate, nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the 20 July plot. At the end of World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the Allied victory in Europe. The post-war festival slowly regained its prominence as an opera festival, especially for works by Mozart. In 1960 the Great Festival Hall opera house opened its doors, upon Karajans death in 1989, the festival was drastically modernized and expanded by director Gerard Mortier, who was succeeded by Peter Ruzicka in 2001. In 2006, the festival was led by intendant Jürgen Flimm and that year, Salzburg celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozarts birth by staging all 22 of his operatic works, to great acclaim. All 22 were filmed and released on DVD in November 2006, the 2006 festival also saw the opening of the Haus für Mozart. Alexander Pereira succeeded Flimm, who departed in 2011 to become director of the Berlin State Opera, Pereiras objective for the festival was to present only new productions. The 2015 festival marked the first one for which Bechtolf was responsible for the artistic programming, budget cuts led to a retreat from Pereiras new productions only objective. The remaining four opera productions—Norma, Il trovatore, Iphigénie en Tauride, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival was established at the behest of Herbert von Karajan in 1973 as a brief concert series with the name Pfingstkonzerte
22.
Olivier Messiaen
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Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is complex, harmonically and melodically it often uses modes of limited transposition. Messiaen also drew on his Roman Catholic faith for his pieces and he travelled widely and wrote works inspired by diverse influences such as Japanese music, the landscape of Bryce Canyon in Utah and the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He said he perceived colours when he heard certain musical chords, combinations of these colours, for a short period Messiaen experimented with the parametrisation associated with total serialism, in which field he is often cited as an innovator. His style absorbed many global musical influences such as Indonesian gamelan, Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and was taught by Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, among others. He was appointed organist at the de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931. He taught at the Schola Cantorum de Paris during the 1930s, the piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards. He was appointed professor of harmony soon after his release in 1941 and his many distinguished pupils included Quincy Jones, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Yvonne Loriod, who became his second wife. He found birdsong fascinating, notating bird songs worldwide and incorporating birdsong transcriptions into his music and his innovative use of colour, his conception of the relationship between time and music, and his use of birdsong are among the features that make Messiaens music distinctive. Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen was born December 10,1908 in Avignon, France and he was the elder of two sons of Cécile Sauvage, a poet, and Pierre Messiaen, a teacher of English who translated the plays of William Shakespeare into French. Messiaens mother published a sequence of poems, Lâme en bourgeon, the last chapter of Tandis que la terre tourne, Messiaen later said this sequence of poems influenced him deeply and he cited it as prophetic of his future artistic career. At the outbreak of World War I, Pierre Messiaen enlisted, there Messiaen became fascinated with drama, reciting Shakespeare to his brother with the help of a home-made toy theatre with translucent backdrops made from old cellophane wrappers. At this time he adopted the Roman Catholic faith. Later, Messiaen felt most at home in the Alps of the Dauphiné and he took piano lessons having already taught himself to play. His interest included the recent music of French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, around this time he began to compose. In 1918 his father returned from the war and the moved to Nantes. The following year Pierre Messiaen gained a teaching post in Paris, Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1919, aged 11. At the Conservatoire, Messiaen made excellent academic progress, in 1924, aged 15, he was awarded second prize in harmony, having been taught in that subject by professor Jean Gallon
23.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
24.
The Proms
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In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100. The season is a significant event in British culture, in classical music, Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as the worlds largest and most democratic musical festival. Prom is short for promenade concert, a term originally referred to outdoor concerts in Londons pleasure gardens. In fact this tradition has been revived in parks and stately homes around the UK at promenade concerts such as the Battle Proms. In the context of the BBC Proms, promming refers to the use of the areas inside the hall for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single-concert standing tickets for either the arena or gallery can be only on the day of the concert. Proms concert-goers, particularly those who stand, are referred to as prommers or promenaders. Prommers can buy full-season tickets instead for guaranteed entry to every concert in the season, some prommers are particularly keen in their attendance. The annual series of Proms continuing today had their roots in that movement and they were inaugurated on 10 August 1895 in the Queens Hall in Langham Place by the impresario Robert Newman, who was fully experienced in running similar concerts at His Majestys Theatre. Newman wished to generate an audience for concert hall music by offering low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere. He stated his aim to Henry Wood in 1894 as follows, I am going to run nightly concerts, popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music. Dr George Cathcart, an otolaryngologist, gave financial backing to Newman for the series on condition that Henry Wood be employed as the sole conductor, Wood, aged 26, seized this opportunity and built the Queens Hall Orchestra as the ensemble specially devoted to performing the promenade concerts. This coincided with the adoption of lower pitch by other leading orchestras. Although the concerts gained a following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902. Wood received a knighthood in 1911, in 1914 anti-German feeling led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts. Although Newman remained involved in planning, it was Woods name which became most closely associated with the Proms. As conductor from the first concert in 1895, Sir Henry was largely responsible for building the repertoire heard as the series continued from year to year. While including many popular and less demanding works, in the first season there were substantial nights devoted to Beethoven or Schubert, distinguished singers including Sims Reeves and Signor Foli appeared
25.
Cologne
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Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop
26.
Igor Stravinsky
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Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, Stravinskys compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. His Russian phase which continued with such as Renard, The Soldiers Tale. The works from this tended to make use of traditional musical forms, drawing on earlier styles. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures, Stravinsky was born on 17 June 1882 in Oranienbaum, a suburb of Saint Petersburg, the Russian imperial capital, and was brought up in Saint Petersburg. It is believed that Stravinsky’s ancestry is traceable back to the 17th and 18th centuries, to the bearers of the Soulima, ivan Sulima, was a famous Ukrainian hetman 1628–1635. Stravinskys family branch most likely came from Stravinskas, polonized Lithuanian land owners and it is still unclear to when exactly the Soulima part of the surname was dropped. Stravinsky recalled his schooldays as being lonely, later saying that I never came across anyone who had any attraction for me. Stravinsky began piano lessons as a boy, studying music theory. In 1890, he saw a performance of Tchaikovskys ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre, despite his enthusiasm for music, his parents expected him to study law. Stravinsky enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg in 1901, Stravinskys father died of cancer that year, by which time his son had already begun spending more time on his musical studies than on law. Thereafter, he concentrated on studying music, in 1905, he began to take twice-weekly private lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he came to regard as a second father. These lessons continued until Rimsky-Korsakovs death in 1908, in 1905 Stravinsky was betrothed to his cousin Katherine Gavrylivna Nosenko, whom he had known since early childhood. Diaghilev was sufficiently impressed by Fireworks to commission Stravinsky to carry out some orchestrations and then to compose a ballet score. The early period of Igor Stravinsky’s work would be incomplete without a research of his life while in Ukraine. From approximately 1890 till 1914 the composer was frequently visiting Ustyluh, town in Volyn Oblast and he spent most of his summers there and that’s where he met his cousin, Katherine Nosenko who he married in 1906. In 1907 Stravinsky designed and built his own house in Ustyluh where his own family stayed often during summer times until 1914 and his new Ukrainian home he called “My heavenly place”. In this house Igor Stravinsky worked on his seventeen early compositions, among which were orchestral fantasy Fireworks, ballets Firebird, Petrushka, currently, after its renovation this house is the only composers house-museum opened to the public
27.
Pierre Boulez
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Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez CBE was a French composer, conductor, writer and organiser of institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of the classical music world. Born in Montbrison in the Loire district of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen and he began his professional career in the late 1940s as Music Director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. As a young composer in the 1950s he quickly became a figure in avant-garde music, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism. From the 1970s onwards he pioneered the transformation of instrumental music in real time. In parallel with his activities as a composer Boulez became one of the most prominent conductors of his generation and he made frequent guest appearances with many of the worlds other great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. His recorded legacy is extensive and he received 26 Grammy Awards, Pierre Boulez died at his home in Baden-Baden on 5 January 2016, aged 90. Pierre Boulez was born on 26 March 1925, in Montbrison and he was the third of four children, an older sister, Jeanne and younger brother, Roger were preceded by a first child, also called Pierre, who died in infancy. By the age of fifteen he was sceptical about religion, what struck me most was that it was so mechanical, as a child he took piano lessons, played chamber music with local amateurs and sang in the school choir. After completing the first part of his baccalaureate a year early he spent the year of 1940–41 at the Pensionnat St. Louis. The following year he took courses in advanced mathematics at the University of Lyon which his father hoped would prepare him for a career in engineering and he was in Lyon when the Vichy government fell and the Germans took over. It was not a time, and nothing to eat. It was in Lyon that he first heard an orchestra, saw his first operas and met the well-known soprano Ninon Vallin, impressed by his ability, she persuaded Léon to allow his son to apply to the Conservatoire in Lyon, but the selection board rejected him. Boulez was determined to pursue a career in music, the following year, with his sisters support in the face of opposition from his father, he studied the piano and harmony privately with Lionel de Pachmann. Our parents were strong, but finally we were stronger than they, in fact, when he moved to Paris in the autumn of 1943, Léon accompanied him, helped him to find a room and subsidised him until he could earn a living. In late 1943 he entered the preparatory class of Georges Dandelot at the Paris Conservatoire. There he was introduced to Andrée Vaurabourg, wife of the composer Arthur Honegger and he greatly enjoyed working with her and she remembered him as an exceptional student, using his exercises as models in advanced counterpoint until the end of her teaching career. He also studied the piano privately in the hope of entering Jean Doyens class, but he was unsuccessful
28.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
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The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown of Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It opened on October 24,2003, the hall is a compromise between an arena seating configuration, like the Berliner Philharmonie by Hans Sharon, and a classical shoebox design like the Vienna Musikverein or the Boston Symphony Hall. Lillian Disney made a gift of $50 million in 1987 to build a performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles. The Frank Gehry-designed building opened on October 24,2003, the project was launched in 1987, when Lillian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, donated $50 million. Frank Gehry delivered completed designs in 1991, construction of the underground parking garage began in 1992 and was completed in 1996. The garage cost had been $110 million, and was paid for by Los Angeles County, construction of the concert hall itself stalled from 1994 to 1996 due to lack of fundraising. Additional funds were required since the construction cost of the final project far exceeded the original budget, plans were revised, and in a cost-saving move the originally designed stone exterior was replaced with a less costly stainless steel skin. The needed fundraising restarted in earnest in 1996, headed by Eli Broad, groundbreaking for the hall was held in December 1999. Delay in the project completion caused many problems for the county of LA. The County expected to repay the debts by revenue coming from the Disney Hall parking users. Upon completion in 2003, the project cost an estimated $274 million, the remainder of the total cost was paid by private donations, of which the Disney familys contribution was estimated to $84.5 million with another $25 million from The Walt Disney Company. By comparison, the three existing halls of the Music Center cost $35 million in the 1960s. As construction finished in the spring of 2003, the Philharmonic postponed its opening until the fall and used the summer to let the orchestra. Performers and critics agreed that it was worth this extra time taken by the time the hall opened to the public. During the summer rehearsals a few hundred VIPs were invited to sit in including donors, board members, … This time, the hall miraculously came to life. Earlier, the sound, wonderful as it was, had felt confined to the stage. Now a new sonic dimension had been added, and every inch of air in Disney vibrated merrily. Toyota says that he had never experienced such a difference between a first and second rehearsal in any of the halls he designed in his native Japan
29.
Alex Ross (music critic)
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Alex Ross is an American music critic. He has been on the staff of The New Yorker magazine since 1996 and he wrote the books The Rest Is Noise, Listening to the Twentieth Century and Listen to This. Ross is a 1986 graduate of St. Albans School in Washington, D. C. having previously attended the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. He is a 1990 graduate of Harvard University, where he studied under composer Peter Lieberson and was a DJ on the classical and underground rock departments of the radio station. He earned a Harvard A. B. in English summa cum laude for a thesis on James Joyce, from 1992 to 1996 Ross was a music critic at The New York Times. He also wrote for The New Republic, Slate, the London Review of Books, Lingua Franca, Fanfare and he first contributed to The New Yorker in 1993 and became a staff writer in 1996. His first book, The Rest Is Noise, Listening to the Twentieth Century, the book was also shortlisted for the 2008 Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction. His second book, Listen to This, was released in the U. S. in September 2010 by Farrar, Straus and he has received a MacArthur Fellowship, three ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for music writing, and a Holtzbrinck fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. In 2012 he received the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music at the pèlerinages Art Festival in Weimar, in 2016, he was awarded the Champion of New Music award by the American Composers Forum. Alex Ross married director Jonathan Lisecki in Canada in 2006, articles, a blog, and a book
30.
The New Yorker
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The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It is published by Condé Nast, started as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is now published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the life of New York City. The New Yorker debuted on February 21,1925 and it was founded by Harold Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a New York Times reporter. Ross wanted to create a humor magazine that would be different from perceivably corny humor publications such as Judge. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann to establish the F-R Publishing Company, the magazines first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951, during the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross famously declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine, It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque, although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a pre-eminent forum for serious fiction literature and journalism. Shortly after the end of World War II, John Herseys essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue, D. Salinger, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, Stephen King, and E. B. White. Publication of Shirley Jacksons The Lottery drew more mail than any story in the magazines history. In its early decades, the magazine published two or even three short stories a week, but in recent years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue. Kurt Vonnegut said that The New Yorker has been an instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. Vonneguts 1974 interview with Joe David Bellamy and John Casey contained a discussion of The New Yorkers influence, No other art requires the audience to be a performer. You have to count on the readers being a good performer and those writers you mentioned and myself are teaching an audience how to play this kind of music in their heads. Its a learning process, and The New Yorker has been a good institution of the sort needed. They have an audience, and they come out every week, and people finally catch on to Barthelme, for instance. The non-fiction feature articles cover an array of topics. Recent subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, the magazine is notable for its editorial traditions
31.
Gustavo Dudamel
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Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez is a Venezuelan conductor and violinist. He is the director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar. Dudamel was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the son of a trombonist and he studied music from an early age, becoming involved with El Sistema, the famous Venezuelan musical education program, and took up the violin at age ten. He soon began to study composition and he attended the Jacinto Lara Conservatory, where José Luis Jiménez was among his violin teachers. He then went on to work with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin-American Violin Academy, Dudamel began to study conducting in 1995, first with Rodolfo Saglimbeni, then later with José Antonio Abreu. In 1999, he was appointed director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the national youth orchestra of Venezuela. He attended Charles Dutoits master class in Buenos Aires in 2002, Dudamel has won a number of conducting competitions, including the Gustav Mahler Conducting Prize in Germany in 2004. His reputation began to spread, attracting the attention of such as Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado. In April 2006 Dudamel was appointed as conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony for season 2007-2008. Dudamel made his debut at La Scala, Milan, with Don Giovanni in November 2006, on September 10,2007, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time at the Lucerne Festival. In 2013 Dudamel conducted the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra during the funeral of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Dudamel continues to retain his position with the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra. In April 2014 Dudamel returned to conduct with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, as its Honorary Conductor, for concerts in the home city and on tour in France, Switzerland. In the 2016 Super Bowl, Dudamel and Youth Orchestra Los Angeles accompanied Coldplay and sang along with Chris Martin, Beyoncé, on 1 January 2017, Dudamel conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in their traditional New Years Day Concert. At the age of 35, he was the youngest guest conductor for this event, in April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAPs next music director as of the 2009–2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen. His initial contract in Los Angeles was for five years, beginning in September 2009 and his first official rehearsal with the orchestra followed on September 30. 1 with his new orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 8, in February 2011, the orchestra announced the extension of Dudamels contract through the end of the 2018–2019 season, including the orchestras 100th anniversary. In March 2015, the orchestra announced an extension of his Los Angeles Philharmonic contract through the 2021–2022 season. Dudamel is featured in the documentary film Tocar y Luchar, which covers El Sistema, Dudamel and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar received the WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award in New York City in November 2007
32.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
33.
Parsifal
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Parsifal is an opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival, Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was Wagners last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, the Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel, at Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there be no applause after the first act of the opera. Wagner first read von Eschenbachs poem Parzival while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845, after encountering Arthur Schopenhauers writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in oriental philosophies, especially Buddhism. Out of this interest came Die Sieger a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of Buddha, the themes which were later explored in Parsifal of self-renouncing, reincarnation, compassion, and even exclusive social groups were first introduced in Die Sieger. The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April, full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolframs Parzival. The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendoncks cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich. If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in Mein Leben was accurately dated, it could settle the issue once and for all, Wagner did not resume work on Parsifal for eight years, during which time he completed Tristan und Isolde and began Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven, during this time most of Wagners creative energy was devoted to the Ring cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on Parsifal. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, in September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these was made in pencil on three staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments, the second complete draft was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration. The Gesamtentwurf of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879, the full score was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a copy of the entire opera, with all the voices. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878, the rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882
34.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
35.
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
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The Bayreuth Festspielhaus or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival, for which it was specifically conceived, Wagner adapted the design of the Festspielhaus from an unrealised project by Gottfried Semper for an opera house in Munich, without the architects permission, and supervised its construction. Ludwig II of Bavaria provided the funding for the construction. The foundation stone was laid on 22 May 1872, Wagners 59th birthday, the building was first opened for the premiere of the complete four-opera cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen, from 13 to 17 August 1876. Only the entry façade exhibits the typical late-19th-century ornamentation, while the remainder of the exterior is modest, the interior is mainly wood and has a reverberation time of 1.55 seconds. The Festspielhaus is a building, in fact, it is the largest free standing timber structure ever erected. This is also known as continental seating, many contemporary movie theaters have adopted this style of seating, which gives every seat an equal and uninterrupted view of the stage. The capacity of the Festspielhaus is 1,925 and has a volume of 10,000 cubic metres, the Festspielhaus features a double proscenium, which gives the audience the illusion that the stage is further away than it actually is. The double proscenium and the orchestra pit create – in Wagners term – a mystic gulf between the audience and the stage. This gives a character to performances, and provides a physical reinforcement of the mythic content of most of Wagners operas. The architecture of Festpielhaus accomplished many of Wagners goals and ideals for the performances of his operas including an improvement on the sound, feel, and overall look of the production. The Festpielhaus was originally planned to open in 1873, but by that time Wagner had barely raised enough money to put up the walls of his theatre and he began to raise money by traveling and putting on concerts in various cities and countries throughout Europe. There are, however, some documents concerning the donation and aid to Wagner for that matter by the Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire, even after Ludwig began funding the project, Wagner had to continue putting on concerts to keep the building project financially afloat. The tours were very taxing on Wagners health and would eventually be a key element to his death later on in 1883, a significant feature of the Festspielhaus is its unusual orchestra pit. It is recessed under the stage and covered by a hood and this feature was a central preoccupation for Wagner, since it made the audience concentrate on the drama onstage, rather than the distracting motion of the conductor and musicians. The design also corrected the balance of volume between singers and orchestra, creating ideal acoustics for Wagners operas, which are the operas performed at the Festspielhaus. However, this arrangement has made it the most challenging to conduct in. Not only is the crowded pit enveloped in darkness, but the acoustic reverberation makes it difficult to synchronise the orchestra with the singers, conductors must therefore retrain themselves to ignore cues from singers
36.
Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
37.
From the House of the Dead
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From the House of the Dead is an opera by Leoš Janáček, in three acts. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the novel by Dostoyevsky and it was the composers last opera, premiered on 12 April 1930 in Brno, two years after his death. There is only one character, and the setting, a Siberian prison. There is no narrative to the work as a whole, but individual characters narrate episodes in their lives, from the House of the Dead was virtually finished when Janáček died. Two of his students, believing the orchestration was incomplete, filled out large portions of the score, in addition to the work of Bretislav Bakala, Ota Zitek made changes to the text and sequence of events in the opera. Decades later, a closer to the composers intentions superseded that version. Some productions, however, still use the earlier versions ending to lessen the bleakness of the story, the opera requires a vast orchestra, including chains as a percussion instrument to evoke the sound of the prisoners. A Siberian prison camp on a winter morning The prisoners get up and he is Alexandr Petrovitch Goryantchikov, a political prisoner. The prison governor interrogates him and orders him to be flogged, the prisoners have found a wounded eagle and tease the bird until the guards order them to their work. The prisoners lament their fate, one of them, Skuratov, another, Luka Kuzmitch, tells how he incited a rebellion and killed an officer in his first prison camp. Just as he describes his own flogging, Goryantchikov is dragged in, six months later, at the Irtysh river Goryantchikov has befriended the young tartar Alyeya, asks him about his family and offers to teach him to read and write. The prisoners finish work as a holiday begins and a priest blesses the food, Skuratov tells his story, He loved a German girl, Luisa, but when she was to be married to an old relative, Skuratov shot the groom. For the holiday, the stage a play about Don Juan and Kedril and the pantomime about a beautiful. After the play, a prisoner tries to provoke Goryantchikov, as the nobleman has the means to drink tea even in prison, the prison hospital Goryantchikov looks after Alyeya, who is happy that he now knows how to read and write. Luka lies dying of tuberculosis and insults Tchekunov for his servile mannerism towards Goryantchikov, shapkin tells the story of his arrest as a vagrant and how an officer pulled his ear. During the night, Shishkov tells his story, interrupted by the impatient questions of Tcherevin, a rich merchant had a daughter, Akulka, whom a friend of Shishkovs, one Filka Morozov, claimed to have dishonoured. She was married to Shishkov who found out that she was a virgin, when he discovered that she still loved Filka, Shishkov killed her. Just then, Luka dies and Shishkov recognises him as Filka, a drunk prison governor apologises to Goryantchikov for the whipping and tells him that he has been pardoned and is free
pronunciation (help·info): [ˈesɑˌpekːɑ ˈsɑlonen]; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Composer-In-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, Artistic Director and cofounder of the Baltic Sea Festival, and Artist in Association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet.
