1.
Orchestra
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The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus. A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called an orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played. The term chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer, the typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler. Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, the conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The first violin, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians, the typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the instruments in each group. Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles, a chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, the so-called standard complement of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven. The composers instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, the exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No,4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral palette in Symphonies 3,5,6, the third horn in the Eroica Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of choral brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, for several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethovens well-established model, with few exceptions. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various instruments are called for occasionally. These include the guitar, heckelphone, flugelhorn, cornet, harpsichord. Saxophones, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores.6 and 9 and William Waltons Belshazzars Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked tenor tuba, including Gustav Holsts The Planets, cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussys La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz
2.
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
3.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
5.
Royal Festival Hall
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The Royal Festival Hall is a 2, 500-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge and it is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are resident in the hall, the hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain for London County Council, and was officially opened on 3 May 1951. The complex includes several rooms, bars and restaurants. A large head and shoulders bust of Nelson Mandela stands on the walkway between the hall and Hungerford Bridge approach viaduct, originally made in glass-fibre it was repeatedly vandalised until re-cast in bronze. The closest tube stations are Waterloo and, across the river via the Jubilee Bridges, Embankment, the acoustical consultant was Hope Bagenal, working with members of the Building Research Station, Henry Humphreys, Peter Parkin and William Allen. Martin was 39 at the time, and very taken with the Nordic activities of Alvar Aalto, the figure who really drove the project forward was Herbert Morrison, the Labour Party politician. He it was who had insisted that Matthew had Martin as his deputy architect, a 1948 sketch by Martin shows the design of the concert hall as the egg in a box. But the strength of the design was the arrangement of interior space and they were concerned that whilst the scale of the project demanded a monumental building, it should not ape the triumphal classicism of many earlier public buildings. The wide open foyers, with bars and restaurants, were intended to be meeting places for all, because these public spaces were built around the auditorium, they also had the effect of insulating the Hall from the noise of the adjacent railway bridge. The hall they built used modernism’s favourite material, reinforced concrete, alongside more luxurious elements including beautiful woods, the exterior of the building was bright white, intended to contrast with the blackened city surrounding it. The cantilevered boxes are described as looking like drawers pulled out in a hurried burglary. The ceiling was wilfully sculptural, a conceit at the edge of building technology and, as it turns out. Robin Day, who designed the furniture for the auditorium, used a clearly articulated structure in his designs of bent plywood, the foundation stone was laid in 1949 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the site of the former Lion Brewery, built in 1837. The first general manager was T. E. Bean, who had managed the Hallé Orchestra. I was overwhelmed by a shock of breathless delight at the originality and beauty of the interior and it felt as if I had been instantly transported far into the future and that I was on another planet, said journalist Bernard Levin of his first impressions of the building. The 7,866 pipe organ was built during 1950–1954 by Harrison & Harrison in Durham, to the specification of the London County Councils consultant, Ralph Downes, however, the design of the organ in its housing made maintenance difficult, and by 2000 it had become unusable. It was consequently completely removed before restoration of the Hall itself began in 2005, and after restoration and updating by Harrison & Harrison, the remainder was reinstalled between 2012 and 2013, and voicing completed in 2014
6.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. Salonen, born in Helsinki, Finland, studied horn and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and his conducting classmates included Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Osmo Vänskä. Another classmate on the side was the composer Magnus Lindberg and together they formed the new-music appreciation group Korvat auki. Later, Salonen studied with the composers Franco Donatoni, Niccolò Castiglioni and Einojuhani Rautavaara and he was subsequently principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia from 1985 to 1994. Salonen was principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1995 and he co-founded the Baltic Sea Festival in 2003 with Michael Tydén and Valery Gergiev. This summer music festival presents new classical music and aims to bring the countries around the Baltic Sea together and it continues to be held annually in one of the countries in the region. Salonen made his U. S. conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1984 and his initial reaction was as follows, I had no idea what to expect. But the one thing that I didnt expect was when a player came to talk to me after the first concert and said. Something was going on, because I felt the same, I sensed with an absolute certainty that this orchestra, in whatever way, was going to be a very important part of my life. Continued friction between Fleischmann and Previn led to Previns resignation in April 1989, four months later, Salonen was named the orchestras tenth Music Director, officially taking the post in 1992 and holding it until 2009. Under Salonens leadership, the Philharmonic became a progressive and well-regarded orchestra. Alex Ross of The New Yorker said this, The Salonen era in L. A. may mark a point in the recent history of classical music in America. In 2007, Salonen and the announced the conclusion of his music directorship in 2009. Before Salonens last concert as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 19,2009, at its inception, it was endowed with $1.5 Million. During Salonens tenure as director, the orchestra gave 120 pieces their world or American debuts. By the time he stepped down, he had served as music director longer than anyone else in the orchestras history, in November 2006, the Philharmonia Orchestra announced the appointment of Salonen as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor at the beginning of the 2008/09 season. His initial contract was for 3 years, Salonen has conducted several commercial recordings with the Philharmonia, including music of Berlioz and Schönberg. In November 2010, the Philharmonia announced the extension of Salonens contract to 2014, in September 2013, the orchestra announced the further extension of Salonens contract through the 2016–2017 season
7.
Walter Legge
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Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as Great Recordings of the Century and he worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior music critic of The Manchester Guardian. He was assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, after the war, Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra and worked for EMI as a recording producer. In the 1960s he quarrelled with EMI and resigned and he attempted to disband the Philharmonia in 1964, but it continued as an independent body without him. After this he had no permanent job, and confined himself to giving masterclasses with, Legge was born in Shepherds Bush, London, where his father was a tailor. He was educated at the Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith and he excelled in Latin and French, but received no musical training. He left school at 16 and had no formal education. Encouraged by his father he developed a taste for music, and Richard Wagner in particular, in pursuit of which he himself to read music. Between 1933 and 1938 Legge also worked as a critic for The Manchester Guardian. Another famous pre-war recording supervised by Legge, which has been reissued on LP and CD, was Sir Thomas Beechams set of The Magic Flute, Beecham invited Legge to join him at Covent Garden as assistant artistic director. Given a free hand by Beecham he engaged Richard Tauber, Jussi Björling, Maria Reining, Hilde Konetzni, Julius Patzak, during World War II Legges poor eyesight prevented him from serving in the armed forces. In 1941 Legge married the singer Nancy Evans, they divorced in 1948, after the war Legge set to work to refresh EMIs catalogue and its roster of star performers. He set up his base in Vienna, then occupied by the Allies. These performers included Josef Krips, Irmgard Seefried, Ljuba Welitsch, Hans Hotter, Ludwig Weber, Herbert von Karajan, later he was among the first to spot the potential of Maria Callas, whose studio recordings he produced for EMI. The repertoire he chose to record was broad, though not extending much earlier than Handel and among modern composers concentrating on the approachable, from the 1940s to the 1960s he supervised a long series of recordings of the works of William Walton. For these, and for recordings, he founded a new orchestra, Beecham conducted its first concert but was unwilling to be the employee of his former assistant and soon founded the Royal Philharmonic in competition with the Philharmonia. Other eminent musicians whom Legge persuaded to conduct the Philharmonia were Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, in its heyday in the 1950s the Philharmonia was widely rated as the finest British orchestra. In 1964, concerned at what he saw as falling standards, Legge disbanded the orchestra, which at once re-formed as the New Philharmonia, without him but with Klemperer as chief conductor
8.
De Montfort Hall
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De Montfort Hall is a music and performance venue located in Leicester, England. It is situated adjacent to Victoria Park and is named after Simon de Montfort, the Hall was built by the Corporation of Leicester in the early 20th century, and was finished in 1913 costing £21,000. The architect was Shirley Harrison son of Stockdale Harrison, architect of Vaughan College, the pipe organ is a particularly fine example and comprises 6000 pipes, attracting many distinguished organists to play recitals. In the 2014 the pipe organ was estimated to be worth five million GBP. The hall features in Grey Owl in a real life reenactment of director Richard Attenborough, the hall is said by the orchestra to be one of the best spaces in which to play music in England. The Hall is also a venue for the Leicester Philharmonic Choir, the Leicester Symphony Orchestra. It is also one of the venues in Leicester to hold the Hindu festival of Navratri. Events take place outdoors, including The Big Session Festival and the Summer Sundae music festival, graduation ceremonies for the University of Leicester take place in the hall. De Montfort University have since moved their graduation ceremonies to the Curve Progressive rock group Genesis recorded the majority of their 1973 release Genesis Live at the Hall. Neo-progressive rock group Marillion recorded part of their first live album Real to Reel at De Montfort Hall, along with other live performances recorded or otherwise. In the 1990s Leicester City Council took De Montfort Hall off the gig circuit In 2011, list of concert halls Little Theatre Official website
9.
Leicester
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Leicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest, in the 2011 census the population of the City of Leicester unitary authority was 329,839 making it the most populous municipality in the East Midlands region. The associated urban area is also the 11th most populous in England, the name of Leicester is recorded in the 9th-century History of the Britons as Cair Lerion, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Ligora-ceastre. In the Domesday Book of 1086, it is recorded as Ledecestre, the second element of the name comes from the Latin castrum which is reflected in both Welsh cair and Anglo-Saxon ceastre. Based on the Welsh name, Geoffrey of Monmouth proposes a king Leir of Britain as a founder in his Historia Regum Britanniae. Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, with a going back at least two millennia. The native Iron Age settlement encountered by the Romans at the seems to have developed in the 2nd or 1st centuries BC. This area of the Soar was split into two channels, a stream to the east and a narrower channel on the west. The settlement seems to have controlled a ford across the larger channel, the later Roman name was a latinate form of the Brittonic word for ramparts, suggesting the site was an oppidum. The plural form of the name suggests it was composed of several villages. The Celtic tribe holding the area was recorded as the Coritanians. The Corieltauvians are believed to have ruled over roughly the area of the East Midlands and it is believed that the Romans arrived in the Leicester area around AD47, during their conquest of southern Britain. The Corieltauvian settlement lay near a bridge on the Fosse Way, in the 2nd century, it received a forum and bathhouse. In 2013, the discovery of a Roman cemetery found just outside the old city walls, the remains of the baths of Roman Leicester can be seen at the Jewry Wall, recovered artifacts are displayed at the adjacent museum. Knowledge of the following the Roman withdrawal from Britain is limited. Certainly there is continuation of occupation of the town, though on a much reduced scale in the 5th and 6th centuries. Its memory was preserved as the Cair Lerion of the History of the Britons, following the Saxon invasion of Britain, Leicester was occupied by the Middle Angles and subsequently administered by the kingdom of Mercia. It was elevated to a bishopric in either 679 or 680, this see survived until the 9th century and their settlement became one of the Five Burghs of the Danelaw, although this position was short-lived
10.
Marlowe Theatre
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The Marlowe Theatre is a major 1, 200-seat theatre in Canterbury, England. It was briefly closed in March 2009 for redevelopment, reopening in a new building on 4 October 2011. The theatre was named after the playwright Christopher Marlowe, who was born, in front of the present theatre is a 19th-century statue, The Muse of Poetry surrounded by small effigies of characters from Marlowes plays. The Marlowe Theatre previously occupied another site on St Margarets Street, the second building in The Friars was built in 1933 as the Friars Cinema, where on 11 May 1944 the film A Canterbury Tale received its world premiere. It reopened as the second Marlowe Theatre in July 1984,25 years later the converted cinema building had reached the end of its useful life, and the Marlowe closed for redevelopment on 22 March 2009. In March 2007 Keith Williams was announced as the architect for the project. The estimated cost was £25.6 million at 2008 prices, the old theatre building was demolished, and the new building containing two new auditoria. The project provided additional parking spaces for people with disabilities and a new, construction by main contractors ISG Jackson began in 2009 and the 3rd Marlowe Theatre building was formally opened to great celebration by HRH The Earl of Wessex on 4 October 2011. The programme of shows includes plays, major West End musicals, ballet, contemporary dance, opera, stand-up comedy, orchestral concerts, music gigs and childrens shows. Regular visiting companies include Glyndebourne Opera, National Theatre On Tour, Matthew Bourne, Propeller, Northern Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, the venue has also featured performances by music artistsJohn Surman. His LP Morning Glory was recorded there 12 March 1973, elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Ray Davies, Suzanne Vega, Kate Rusby, Richard Thompson and José González. In 2014 Artistic Director Mark Everett announced that the Marlowe Theatre would begin operating as a house with original productions thanks to a £23,000 grant from Arts Council England. Their focus will be on new writing, the Marlowe Theatres pantomime is produced with Evolution Pantomimes, who produce number of pantomimes across the country. The Marlowe Theatre runs a programme of weekly theatre workshops for young people, the Marlowe Youth Theatre now has a permanent home in The Marlowe Lab, in Pound Lane, Canterbury. In 2013, a major collaboration took place with the National Theatre on the Connections project
11.
Canterbury
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Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, a journey of pilgrims to Beckets shrine served as the frame for Geoffrey Chaucers 14th century classic The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury is a popular tourist destination, consistently one of the cities in the United Kingdom. The city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci, modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and the St Lawrence Ground, home of the Kent County Cricket Club. Canterbury remains, however, a city in terms of geographical size and population. In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint, occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh, which developed into its present name. The Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area. Canterbury was first recorded as the settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci. In the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement, the Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, and public baths. In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres. Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived, in 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelberht to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the centre for his see in Kent. Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, the towns new importance led to its revival, and trades developed in pottery, textiles, and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint, in 672, the Synod of Hertford gave the see of Canterbury authority over the entire English Church. In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids, in 978, Archbishop Dunstan refounded the abbey built by Augustine, and named it St Augustines Abbey. A second wave of Danish attacks began in 991, and in 1011 the cathedral was burnt, remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conquerors invasion in 1066. William immediately ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall, in the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone. After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe and this pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucers 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales
12.
Corn Exchange, Bedford
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Bedford Corn Exchange is located on St Pauls Square in the Castle area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The building was designed to be a venue and meeting space. The basement contained offices, cloakrooms, kitchen, hall keepers room, the build took two years and the total cost was £9,000. It replaced the Floral Hall building across St Pauls Square which had constructed in 1849. The BBC Symphony Orchestra used the Corn Exchange between September 1941 and July 1945 for public concerts which were broadcast to the nation, the BBC Music and Religious Departments moved to Bedford when it became too dangerous for them to be based in London or their wartime home, Bristol. Around 400 musicians, staff and engineers moved to the town during World War Two, in 1944, the BBC Proms came to Bedford. Since their birth they had performed in The Queens Hall in London which was destroyed by bombs on 10 May 1941. They moved to the Royal Albert Hall until that too became in danger, during this time the Corn Exchange was also used as an Armed Forces Canteen. In 1995, the Philharmonia Orchestra began a residency at the Corn Exchange and it is still one of the homes of the orchestra today. The Bedford Corn Exchange is a multi-purpose venue holding over 800 events per year and these include concerts, comedians, singers, council meetings and corporate events. Bedford Civic Theatre University of Bedfordshire Theatre Bedford Corn Exchange Philharmonia Orchestra Bedford Festival Fringe
13.
The Anvil, Basingstoke
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The Anvil is a concert hall and a performing arts centre in the town of Basingstoke in Hampshire, UK. Built on a site set aside for the third phase of Basingstokes shopping centre. The aim of the project was to raise the profile of the Borough, twenty years since its opening, it is still not exactly clear how effectively these aims have been fulfilled, but the Hall seems quite popular within the local area. The buildings name reflects its shape, particularly when seen from the western approach as it vaguely resembles the horn end of a traditional blacksmiths anvil. It has also likened to the bow of a ship. The hall plays host to a variety of touring productions, stand up comedians, live bands, opera, the auditorium has adjustable seating and some of the finest acoustics of any concert hall in Europe. The acoustic design was by Richard Cowell of Arup Acoustics, there is a small second auditorium, The Forge, which primarily plays host to acoustic and folk acts. Anvil Arts website for The Anvil and The Haymarket The Anvil - RHWL Architects page about the project Arup Acoustics
14.
Thomas Beecham
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Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was an influence on the musical life of Britain and. Born to an industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. Among the works he introduced to England were Richard Strausss Elektra, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier, together with his younger colleague Malcolm Sargent, Beecham founded the London Philharmonic, and he conducted its first performance at the Queens Hall in 1932. In the 1940s he worked for three years in the United States where he was director of the Seattle Symphony and conducted at the Metropolitan Opera. After his return to Britain, he founded the Royal Philharmonic in 1946, Beechams repertoire was eclectic, sometimes favouring lesser-known composers over famous ones. His specialities included composers whose works were neglected in Britain before he became their advocate, such as Delius, other composers with whose music he was frequently associated were Haydn, Schubert, Sibelius and the composer he revered above all others, Mozart. Beecham was born in St Helens, Lancashire, in a house adjoining the Beechams Pills laxative factory founded by his grandfather and his parents were Joseph Beecham, the elder son of Thomas, and Josephine, née Burnett. In 1885, with the family firm flourishing financially, Joseph Beecham moved his family to a house in Ewanville, Huyton. Their former home was demolished to make room for an extension to the pill factory and he did not find university life to his taste and successfully sought his fathers permission to leave Oxford in 1898. He studied as a pianist, but had difficulty because of his small hands and he studied composition privately with Frederic Austin in Liverpool, Charles Wood in London, and Moritz Moszkowski in Paris. As a conductor, he was self-taught, Beecham first conducted in public in St Helens in October 1899, with an ad hoc ensemble comprising local musicians and players from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hallé in Manchester. A month later, he stood in at short notice for the celebrated conductor Hans Richter at a concert by the Hallé to mark Joseph Beechams inauguration as mayor of St Helens, soon afterwards, Joseph Beecham secretly committed his wife to a mental hospital. Thomas and his elder sister Emily helped to secure their mothers release, Beecham was estranged from his father for ten years. Beechams professional début as a conductor was in 1902 at the Shakespeare Theatre, Clapham, with Balfes The Bohemian Girl and he was engaged as assistant conductor for a tour and was allotted four other operas, including Carmen and Pagliacci. A Beecham biographer calls the company grandly named but decidedly ramshackle, though Beechams Carmen was Zélie de Lussan, Beecham was also composing music in these early years, but he was not satisfied with his own efforts and instead concentrated on conducting. In 1906 Beecham was invited to conduct the New Symphony Orchestra, throughout his career, Beecham frequently chose to programme works to suit his own tastes rather than those of the paying public
15.
Royal Opera House
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The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is referred to as simply Covent Garden. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented, a year later, Handels first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, the main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high, the main auditorium is a Grade I listed building. The letters patent remained in the possession of the patentees heirs until the 19th century, in 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Dukes Company at Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggars Opera from John Gay. In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, at its opening on 7 December 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreves The Way of the World. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense, often presenting the plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, in 1734, Covent Garden presented its first ballet, Pygmalion. Marie Sallé discarded tradition and her corset and danced in diaphanous robes, george Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company, at Lincolns Inn Fields, in 1719, but his first season of opera, at Covent Garden, was not presented until 1734. His first opera was Il pastor fido followed by Ariodante, the première of Alcina, there was a royal performance of Messiah in 1743, which was a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances. From 1735 until his death in 1759 he gave regular seasons there and he bequeathed his organ to John Rich, and it was placed in a prominent position on the stage, but was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre on 20 September 1808. In 1792 the architect Henry Holland rebuilt the auditorium, within the shell of the building but deeper and wider than the old auditorium. Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, the Old Price Riots lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audiences demands. During this time, entertainments were varied, opera and ballet were presented, kemble engaged a variety of acts, including the child performer Master Betty, the great clown Joseph Grimaldi made his name at Covent Garden
16.
Covent Garden
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Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martins Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House. The area was settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. By 1200 part of it had been walled off by Westminster Abbey for use as arable land, referred to as the garden of the Abbey and Convent, and later the Covent Garden, it was seized by Henry VIII and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Pauls, the design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for new estates as London grew. By 1654 a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the side of the fashionable square. Gradually, both the market and the area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, an Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowlers neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The market grew and further buildings were added, the Floral Hall, Charter Market, by the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles south-west at Nine Elms. With the postcode WC2, Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, the area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907, the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London. What would become the Strand on the boundary of the future Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a late Roman grave and these revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, a document from 1200 AD mentions a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land and this is how it was recorded from then on. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took the land belonging to Westminster Abbey for himself and his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1552. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land until 1918
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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
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The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, based in London, was formed by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagements including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the concerts of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Since Beechams death the RPO has had seven chief conductors, including Rudolf Kempe, Antal Doráti, André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy, others closely associated with the orchestra have included Sir Charles Groves, Sir Charles Mackerras, Peter Maxwell Davies, Yehudi Menuhin and Leopold Stokowski. In 2004 the orchestra acquired its first permanent London base, at the new Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, the RPO also gives concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and venues around the UK and other countries. In 1932 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham had founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which, with the backing of supporters, he ran until 1940. Beecham left to conduct in Australia and then the US, the orchestra continued without him after reorganising itself as a self-governing body. On Beechams return to England in September 1944 the LPO welcomed him back, if he were to become chief conductor again it would be as a paid employee of the orchestra. Beecham responded, I emphatically refuse to be wagged by any orchestra, I am going to found one more great orchestra to round off my career. His new orchestra to rival the Philharmonia would, he told Legge, be launched in the most auspicious circumstances, in 1946 Beecham reached an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society, his new orchestra would replace the LPO at all the Societys concerts. He thus gained the right to name the new ensemble the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Beecham arranged with the Glyndebourne Festival that the RPO should be the resident orchestra at Glyndebourne seasons. He secured backing, including that of record companies in the US as well as Britain, the music critic Lyndon Jenkins writes, Naturally, it quickly became known that he was planning another orchestra, at which the cry Hell never get the players. Went up just as it had done in 1932, Beecham was unmoved, I always get the players, he retorted. Among other considerations, they are so good they refuse to play under anybody, Beecham appointed Victor Olof as his orchestral manager, and they started recruiting. At the top of their list were leading musicians with whom Beecham had worked before the war, four had been founder members of the LPO fifteen years previously, Reginald Kell, Gerald Jackson, James Bradshaw and Jack Silvester. From the current LPO they engaged the oboist Peter Newbury, Beecham persuaded the veteran bassoonist Archie Camden, who had been pursuing a solo career, to return to orchestral work. The cellos were led by Raymond Clark, enlisted from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the principal horn player was Dennis Brain, who already held the same post in Legges Philharmonia, but managed to play for both orchestras. Jenkins speculates that as Beecham knew all Britains orchestral leaders at first hand he decided not to try to lure any of them away, on 11 September 1946 the Royal Philharmonic assembled for its first rehearsal. Four days later it gave its first concert, at the Davis Theatre, Beecham telegraphed a colleague, Press virtually unanimous in praise of orchestra
18.
Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur
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Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, GCB GCSI, a. k. a. Jaya Chamarajendra Wadiyar, was the 25th and the last ruling Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1940 to 1950 and he was a noted philosopher, musicologist, political thinker, and philanthropist. He was also the founder-president of Vishva Hindu Parishad, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was the only son of Yuvaraja Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar and Yuvarani Kempu Cheluvaja Amanni. Wodiyar dynasty is the only Royal Family from Mysore and belong to Lunar Dynasty and he graduated from the Maharajas College, Mysore in 1938, earning five awards and gold medals. He was married the year, on 15 May 1938. He toured Europe during 1939, visiting many associations in London and became acquainted with many artists and he ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Mysore on 8 September 1940 after the demise of his uncle Maharaja Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar. Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar lost his father Yuvaraja Kanteerava Narasimharaja Wadiyar when he was 21, five months later, his reigning uncle, Maharaja Krishnarajendra Wadiyar IV expired, leaving his only nephew and successor what was dubbed one of the most prosperous states in Asia. Jayachamaraja Wadiyar followed democratic methods in his administration and was celebrated by his subjects alike his uncle, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was the first ruler to accede to merge his kingdom with the newly-formed Indian Union after the Indian Independence in 1947. Mysore Kingdom was the only major princely territory in India and he signed the Instrument of Accession with the Union of India on the eve of India attaining Independence in August 1947. The princely state of Mysore was merged with the Republic of India on 26 January 1950 and he held the position of Rajpramukh of the State of Mysore from 26 January 1950 to 1 November 1956. He died at the age of 55 on 23 September 1974 and he was a good horseman and a tennis player who helped Ramanathan Krishnan to participate at Wimbledon. He was also known for his marksmanship and was highly sought-after by his subjects whenever a rogue elephant or a maneating tiger attacked their immediate surroundings. There are many wildlife trophies attributed to him in the Palace collections and he was responsible for the famous cricketer/off-spin bowler, E. A. S. Prasannas visit to West Indies as his father was otherwise reluctant to send him. He was a connoisseur of both western and Carnatic music and an authority of Indian Philosophy. Medtners Third Piano Concerto is dedicated to the Maharaja of Mysore and he became a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music, London and honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, in 1945. He was the first president of the Philharmonia Concert Society, London in 1948, see below copy of the programme sheets of some of the earliest concerts held at Royal Albert Hall on 13 April,27 April –11 May 1949. Walter Legge, who was invited to Mysore by the Maharaja in this regard has stated, the Maharajah was a young man, not yet thirty. In one of his palaces he had a library containing every imaginable recordings of serious music, a large range of loud speakers
19.
Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for detail and sonority. He was at times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the music conservatory. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh, for example, his diet consisted almost completely of fish. When he became successful, he never ate anything that came from the sea and he joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work, in desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, for the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19, upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He continued to conduct, his first appearance in Italy being at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, on November 4,1886, in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalanis Edmea. This was the beginning of Toscaninis lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani, however, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdis Otello under the composers supervision. The composer was impressed when Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdis Te Deum. Verdi said that he had left it out for fear that certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking, gradually, Toscaninis reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his career in Italy, entrusted with the premieres of Puccinis La bohème. In 1896, Toscanini conducted his first symphonic concert and he exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work, conducting 43 concerts in Turin in 1898. By 1898, Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala, where he remained until 1908, returning as Music Director and he brought the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made his first recordings. Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and he toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance, he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth, and the New York Philharmonic was the first non-German orchestra to play there
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Richard Strauss
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Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
21.
Herbert von Karajan
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Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years and he is generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, and he was a dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the number of recordings he made. By one estimate he was the classical music recording artist of all time. The Karajans were of Greek or Aromanian ancestry and his great-great-grandfather, Georg Karajan, was born in Kozani, in the Ottoman province of Rumelia, leaving for Vienna in 1767, and eventually Chemnitz, Electorate of Saxony. By this line, Karajan was related to Austrian composer of Slovene descent Hugo Wolf, Karajan seems to have known some Slovene. Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary, as Heribert Ritter von Karajan and he was a child prodigy at the piano. From 1916 to 1926, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Franz Ledwenke, theory with Franz Zauer and he was encouraged to concentrate on conducting by Paumgartner, who detected his exceptional promise in that regard. In 1926 Karajan graduated from the conservatory and continued his studies at the Vienna Academy, studying piano with Josef Hofmann and conducting with Alexander Wunderer and Franz Schalk. In 1929, he conducted Salome at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg and his senior colleague in Ulm was Otto Schulmann. After Schulmann was forced to leave Germany in 1933, Karajan became first Kapellmeister, in 1933 Karajan made his conducting debut at the Salzburg Festival with the Walpurgisnacht Scene in Max Reinhardts production of Faust. It was also in 1933 that von Karajan became a member of the Nazi party, in Salzburg in 1934, Karajan led the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, and from 1934 to 1941, he was engaged to conduct operatic and symphony-orchestra concerts at the Theater Aachen. In 1938 Karajan made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin State Opera and he then enjoyed a major success at the State Opera with Tristan und Isolde. His performance was hailed by a Berlin critic as Das Wunder Karajan, receiving a contract with Deutsche Grammophon that same year, Karajan made the first of numerous recordings, conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in the overture to The Magic Flute. On 26 July 1938, he married operetta singer Elmy Holgerloef, on 22 October 1942, at the height of the Second World War, Karajan married Anna Maria Anita Sauest, born Gütermann. She was the daughter of a manufacturer of yarn for sewing machines. Having had a Jewish grandfather, she was considered a Vierteljüdin, by 1944, Karajan was, according to his own account, losing favour with the Nazi leadership, but he still conducted concerts in wartime Berlin on 18 February 1945. A short time later, in the stages of the war, he and Anita fled Germany for Milan
22.
Otto Klemperer
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Otto Klemperer was a German-born conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the conductors of the 20th century. Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany, as a son of Nathan Klemperer, Klemperer studied music first at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and later at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin under James Kwast and Hans Pfitzner. He followed Kwast to three institutions and credited him with the basis of his musical development. In 1905 he met Gustav Mahler while conducting the brass at a performance of Mahlers Symphony No. He also made a reduction of the second symphony. The two men became friends, and Klemperer became conductor at the German Opera in Prague in 1907 on Mahlers recommendation, Mahler wrote a short testimonial, recommending Klemperer, on a small card which Klemperer kept for the rest of his life. Later, in 1910, Klemperer assisted Mahler in the premiere of his Symphony No, Klemperer went on to hold a number of positions, in Hamburg, in Barmen, the Strasbourg Opera, the Cologne Opera, and the Wiesbaden Opera House. From 1927 to 1931, he was conductor at the Kroll Opera in Berlin, on March 22,1920, his wife soprano Johanna Geisler gave birth to their son, the German-American actor Werner Klemperer. In 1933, once the Nazi Party had reached power, Klemperer, Klemperer had previously converted to Catholicism, but returned to Judaism at the end of his life. In the U. S. he was appointed Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and he was granted United States citizenship in 1937. He also visited other countries, including England and Australia, Klemperer hoped for a permanent position as lead conductor in New York or Philadelphia. The New York decision was particularly galling, as Klemperer had been engaged to conduct the first fourteen weeks of the New York Philharmonics 1935-6 season and you see, I am no youngster. I have a name and a good name, one could not use me in a most difficult season and then expell me. This non-reengagement will have bad results not only for me in New York. This non-reengagement is an absolutely unjustified wrong done to me by the Philharmonic Society, though he would occasionally conduct the Philharmonic after that, he lost the post of Music Director. Furthermore, his behavior during manic episodes made him an undesirable guest to US orchestras. After World War II, Klemperer returned to Europe to work at the Budapest Opera, in the early 1950s Klemperer experienced difficulties arising from his U. S. citizenship
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Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
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The Berlin Philharmonic, is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is consistently ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world. The BPO supports several music ensembles. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner, in 1887 Hans von Bülow, one of the most esteemed conductors in the world, programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64. In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II. After Furtwängler fled to Switzerland in 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor and this arrangement lasted only a few months, as Borchard was accidentally shot and killed by the American forces occupying Berlin. Sergiu Celibidache then took over as conductor for seven years. Furtwängler returned in 1952 and conducted the orchestra until his death in 1954 and his successor was Herbert von Karajan, who led the orchestra from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death. Under him, the made a vast number of recordings and toured widely. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, however, Karajans hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer, the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when the orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber. In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its principal conductor. He expanded the repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works. Abbado stepped down from the conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbados honour, in June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic. This required a change to state law, which was approved in 2001, Rattles contract with the orchestra was initially through 2012
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Indian summer
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Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The US National Weather Service defines this as conditions that are sunny and clear with above normal temperatures. It is usually described as occurring after a killing frost, late-19th century Boston lexicographer Albert Matthews made an exhaustive search of early American literature in an attempt to discover who coined the expression. The earliest reference he found dated from 1778, but from the context it was already in widespread use. William R. Deedler in a 1996 essay wrote that Matthews 1778 reference was a letter by Frenchman St. John de Crevecoeur, the adjective Indian refers to the false promise of warmer weather taken back. In literature and history, the term is used metaphorically. William Dean Howells 1886 novel Indian Summer uses the term to mean a time one may recover some of the happiness of youth. The main character, jilted as a man, leads a solitary life until he rediscovers romance in early middle age. In British English, the term is used in the way as in North America. In former times such a period was associated with the autumn feast days of St. Martin, similar weather conditions, with local variations also exist. In Bulgaria it is known as summer or poor mans summer. Its onset and duration are directly associated with the occurrence of El Niño, in Turkey it is called pastirma yazı, meaning pastrami summer, since the month of November was considered to be the best time to make pastrami. In 1970 The Doors recorded ″Indian Summer″, in 1975, Joe Dassin recorded Indian Summer in French, English and Spanish. LÉté indien went on to become Dassins biggest hit, selling almost 2 million copies worldwide, in 1977 Poco released the album, Indian Summer, which also contained the title track. In 1978 Joe Walsh recorded Indian Summer for the album But Seriously, u2 included Indian Summer Sky on their The Unforgettable Fire album. The Dream Academy recorded the song Indian Summer for the album Remembrance Days in 1987, go West released an album Indian Summer in the 90s Pedro the Lion released Indian Summer on their Control album in 2002. Tori Amos featured a song of the name in her 2004 EP Scarlets Hidden Treasures. In 2015, Jai Wolf released the single Indian Summer from Foreign Family Collective, blackberry winter Velvet season Indian Summer
25.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 piano concertos,1 violin concerto,32 piano sonatas,16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and he lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose, many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the town of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant in the Flemish region of what is now Belgium, who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Ludwig was employed as a singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761. The portrait he commissioned of himself towards the end of his life remained proudly displayed in his grandsons rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had one son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the musical establishment and gave keyboard. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767, she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. There is no record of the date of his birth, however. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Beethovens first music teacher was his father and he later had other local teachers, the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and Franz Rovantini. Beethovens musical talent was obvious at a young age, some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Courts Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition, Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid, and then as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named Kurfürst for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783, Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethovens talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young mans musical studies. Maximilian Fredericks successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Francis, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts
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Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
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The Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125, is Ludwig van Beethovens final complete symphony. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the works in classical music. It is almost universally considered by critics to be one of Beethovens greatest works, the symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony. The words are sung during the movement by four vocal soloists. They were taken from the Ode to Joy, a written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803. In the 2010s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world, the Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in 1817. The main composition work was done between autumn 1822 and the completion of the autograph in February 1824, the symphony emerged from other pieces by Beethoven that, while completed works in their own right, are also in some sense musical sketches for the future symphony. 80, basically a concerto movement, brings in a choir. As in the Ninth Symphony, the vocal forces sing a theme first played instrumentally, going further back, an earlier version of the Choral Fantasy theme is found in the song Gegenliebe, for piano and high voice, which dates from before 1795. According to Robert W. Gutman, Mozarts K.222 Offertory in D minor, Misericordias Domini, written in 1775, contains a melody that foreshadows Ode to Joy. When his friends and financiers heard this, they urged him to premiere the symphony in Vienna in the form of a signed by a number of prominent Viennese music patrons. This was the composers first on-stage appearance in 12 years, the hall was packed with an eager audience, while no complete list of premiere performers exists, many of Viennas most elite performers are known to have participated. The soprano and alto parts were sung by two young singers, Henriette Sontag and Caroline Unger. German soprano Henriette Sontag was eighteen years old when Beethoven personally recruited her to perform in the premiere of the Ninth, also personally recruited by Beethoven, 20-year-old contralto Caroline Unger, a native of Vienna, had gained critical praise in 1821 appearing in Rossinis Tancredi. After performing in Beethovens 1824 premiere, Unger then found fame in Italy, Italian composers Donizetti and Bellini were known to have written roles specifically for her voice. Although the performance was directed by Michael Umlauf, the theatres Kapellmeister. However, two earlier, Umlauf had watched as the composers attempt to conduct a dress rehearsal of his opera Fidelio ended in disaster. So this time, he instructed the singers and musicians to ignore the almost totally deaf Beethoven, at the beginning of every part, Beethoven, who sat by the stage, gave the tempos
27.
Lorin Maazel
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Lorin Varencove Maazel was an American conductor, violinist and composer. S. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores, described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age. His father, Lincoln Maazel, was a singer, teacher of voice and piano, and an actor and his grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years. Both Lincoln and Marie gave interviews for the Oral History Collection at the University of Pittsburgh, Lincolns in 1994, Maazel was a child prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at age seven with Vladimir Bakaleinikov and making his debut at age eight. At the age of eleven, he guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio, at twelve he toured the United States of America to conduct major orchestras. He made his debut at the age of fifteen. He attended the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School at the University of Pittsburgh as a child, followed by Peabody High School, Maazel studied briefly with Pierre Monteux in 1945. In the early 1950s, Maazel toured as the conductor with the Gershwin Concert Orchestra, the orchestra consisted of 25 members and a noted array of soloists. The orchestra was organized in cooperation with Ira Gershwin, to give the public a comprehensive Gershwin program, the list of soloists included George Gershwins friend, Jesús Maria Sanromá, Carolyn Long and Theodor Uppman. In 1960, Maazel became the first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and he was chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1965 to 1971 and the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 1964 to 1975. In 1972, Maazel began his tenure as director at the Cleveland Orchestra. Maazels emotional, rich interpretation of music greatly differed from Szells characteristic crisp, a notable achievement during this time was the first complete recording of George Gershwins Porgy and Bess, using an all-African American cast. Maazel held the post until 1982 and he never returned to the Cleveland Orchestra after his departure, although a scheduled engagement in 2006 did not occur because of illness. In 1977, he became director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris. From 1982 to 1984, Maazel served at the Vienna State Opera as general manager, in 1980, he succeeded Willi Boskovsky as conductor at the Vienna New Years Concert and he led this televised annual event each year, until 1986. He returned to it four times, in 1994,1996,1999 and 2005, from 1984 to 1988, Maazel was the music consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and its music director from 1988 to 1996. From 1993 until 2002, he was conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. He claimed that his decision was because he was concerned for the orchestras well-being and this engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestras next music director, starting in 2002, succeeding Kurt Masur
28.
Riccardo Muti
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Riccardo Muti is an Italian conductor. He holds two music directorships, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, previously he held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Muti has been a recording artist and has received dozens of honors, titles, awards. He is particularly associated with the music of Giuseppe Verdi, Muti was born in Naples but he spent his early childhood in Molfetta, near Bari, in the long region of Apulia on Italys southern Adriatic coast. His father was a doctor in Molfetta and a singer, his mother. Muti graduated from Liceo classico Vittorio Emanuele II in Naples, then studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale, here Muti was awarded a diploma cum laude. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, Milan, where he studied with the composer Bruno Bettinelli and he has also studied composition with Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. Since 1971 he has been a frequent conductor of operas and concerts at the Salzburg Festival, from 1972 Muti regularly conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and in 1973 he was appointed its principal conductor, succeeding Otto Klemperer. In 1986 Muti became principal conductor of the Filarmonica della Scala, Milan, with which in 1988 he received the Viotti dOro, in 1991, after twelve years as music director, he announced his resignation from the Philadelphia Orchestra, effective at the end of the 1991–1992 season. In 1995 he was the president of the jury of the International Composing Competition 2 Agosto, Muti has been a regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1996 he conducted the latter during Vienna Festival Week and on tour to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Germany, Muti has also led the orchestras globally televised Vienna New Years Concert on several occasions, in 1993,1997,2000 and 2004. Muti is also scheduled for the 2018 concert, a special relationship connects Muti with the Salzburg Festival, where the conductor debuted in 1971 with Donizettis Don Pasquale. In 2011, Muti will conduct a new production of Verdis Macbeth, Muti also owns a residence close to Salzburg. From 2007 to 2011, Muti was the conductor at Salzburgs Whitsun Festival. He conducted productions of rare Italian operas from the 18th century, the Academy has as purpose to pass on to young musicians Riccardo Mutis experience and lessons and to make the audience understand in its full complexity the path to accomplish an opera production. In the USA, from 1980 to 1992, Muti was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, in 1979, he was appointed its music director and, in 1992, conductor laureate. Muti stated that his approach was to remain faithful to the intent of the composer and his sonic changes to the orchestra remain controversial. Some felt he turned it into an institution with a lean sound much favored by modern recording engineers
29.
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
30.
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
31.
Vladimir Ashkenazy
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Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He is originally from Russia and has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and he has lived in Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists, in addition, he has recorded a large storehouse of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him five Grammy awards plus Icelands Order of the Falcon, Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union, to the pianist and composer David Ashkenazi and to the actress Yevstolia Grigorievna, born Plotnova. His father was Jewish and his mother was the daughter of a family of Russian Orthodox peasants and he began playing piano at the age of six. He was accepted to the Central Music School at age eight studying with Anaida Sumbatyan, Ashkenazy attended the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Lev Oborin and Boris Zemliansky. He won second prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955 and he shared the first prize in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition with British pianist John Ogdon. As a student, like many in period, he was harassed by the KGB to become an informer. He did not really cooperate, despite pressures from the authorities, in 1961 he married the Iceland-born Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, who studied piano at the Moscow Conservatoire. To marry Ashkenazy, Þórunn was forced to give up her Icelandic citizenship, in his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev recollects that Ashkenazy had married an Englishwoman and on a visit to London refused to go back to the Soviet Union. Khrushchev mentions that Ashkenazy then went to the Soviet Embassy in London and asked what to do, Khrushchev claims to have been of the opinion that to require Ashkenazy to return to the USSR would have made him an Anti-Soviet. He further claims that this was a example of an artist being able to come and go in and out of the USSR freely. In 1963 Ashkenazy decided to leave the USSR permanently, establishing residence in London where his wifes parents lived, the couple moved to Iceland in 1968 where, in 1972, Ashkenazy became an Icelandic citizen. In 1970 he helped to found the Reykjavík Arts Festival, of which he remains Honorary President, in 1978 the couple and their four children moved to Lucerne, Switzerland. Their fifth child, Alexandra Inga, was born in 1979, as of 1989, Ashkenazy resides in Meggen. His eldest son Vladimir, who uses his nickname Vovka as a name, is a pianist, as well as a teacher at the Imola International Piano Academy. Ashkenazy has recorded a range of piano repertoire, both solo works and concerti. He has also performed and recorded chamber music, midway through his pianistic career, Ashkenazy branched into conducting
32.
Charles Mackerras
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Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras AC CH CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and he was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Mackerras was born in Schenectady, New York, to Australian parents, Alan Mackerras and his father was an electrical engineer and a Quaker. In 1928, when Charles was aged two, the returned to Sydney, Australia. They initially lived in the suburb of Vaucluse, and in 1933 they moved to the then suburb of Turramurra. Mackerras was the eldest of seven children and his siblings were Alastair, Neil, Joan, Elisabeth and twins Malcolm and Colin. They are descendants of the pioneer Australian musician Isaac Nathan, Mackerras studied violin at the age of seven and later the flute. He was setting poems to music at eight and wrote a piano concerto when he was 12, Mackerras initially attended his fathers alma mater, Sydney Grammar School, and also St Aloysius College in Sydney. While at Sydney Grammar, he showed a talent by composing operas and conducting student performances in his early teens. At all-male St Aloysius, he participated in the schools Gilbert and Sullivan productions, playing the roles of Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, Leila in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. Unconvinced that music was a profession, his parents removed the young Mackerras from temptation by sending him to board at The Kings School. The schools focus on sport and discipline led the young artist to run several times. At age 16, Mackerras studied oboe, piano and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music and he earned additional income from writing orchestral scores from recordings. From 1941 to 1942, Mackerras played the oboe for the J. C. Williamson Company during one of their Gilbert and Sullivan seasons, in 1943, Mackerras joined the ABC Sydney Orchestra, under Malcolm Sargent, as second oboist and at age 19, became principal oboist. On 6 February 1947, Mackerras sailed for England on the RMS Rangitiki intending to pursue conducting and he joined Sadlers Wells Theatre as an orchestral oboist and cor anglais player. He later won a British Council Scholarship, enabling him to study conducting with Václav Talich at the Prague Academy of Music, in August 1947, shortly before the couple set off for Prague, Mackerras married Judy Wilkins, a clarinettist at Sadlers Wells. They had two daughters, Fiona and Catherine, Fiona died of cancer in September 2006. He was also the uncle of the Australian conductor Alexander Briger, in his 1965 performance of The Marriage of Figaro, he added the ornamentation in a historically informed style
33.
CBS Records International
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CBS Records International, simply CBS in logo, was the international arm of the Columbia Records unit of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. that was formed in 1961 and launched in 1962. Previously Columbia Records had been using other companies to distribute Columbia recordings outside North America, such as Philips Records. In 1960, CBS acquired its Australian distributor since 1956, the Australian Record Company, American Columbia material continued to be issued on the CBS Coronet Records label in Australia. The CBS label was launched in Australia in 1963, also in 1960, CBS began negotiations with its European distributor Philips Records with the goal of the establishment of a CBS Records label in Europe. Philips acquisition of Mercury Records paved the way for the formation of the CBS label in 1961 with Philips distributing the first batch of CBS recordings in Europe in 1962. The use of the CBS name was necessary because EMI owned another record label called Columbia, in 1964, CBS acquired Oriole Records which gave CBS Records its own distribution in the UK beginning in 1965. Initially, only American Columbia product was distributed alongside Orioles own roster on the renamed CBS label. EMI, which had distributed American Columbia recordings on its Columbia label until the Philips deal in 1951, continued to distribute CBSs other American labels such as Epic, the distribution deal with EMI expired in 1968 at which point CBS began distributing all their labels directly. In Germany, the CBS label distributed Motown from 1963 to 1965, CBS sold the record company in 1988 to Sony Corporation of America for $US2 billion. In 1991, the CBS Records company was renamed Sony Music Entertainment, the CBS Records label was renamed Columbia Records after Sony acquired the Columbia name and trade marks from EMI. Harvey Schein, 1962-1971 Walter Yetnikoff, 1971–1975 Allen A. Davis, c.1980 Bob Summer, 1986–
34.
Deutsche Grammophon
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Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label that was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its merger with the MCA family of labels in 1999 and it is the oldest surviving established record company. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft was founded in 1898 by German-born United States citizen Emile Berliner as the German branch of his Berliner Gramophone Company, Berliner sent his nephew Joseph Sanders from America to set up operations. Based in the city of Hanover, the company had links with the U. S, victor Talking Machine Company and the British Gramophone Company, but those links were severed at the onset of World War I. Early labels bore the legend Grammophon and the painting His Masters Voice featuring the dog Nipper, in 1941, Deutsche Grammophon was purchased by the Siemens & Halske electronics company. In 1949, Deutsche Grammophon sold the German rights of the His Masters Voice trademark to the Electrola unit of EMI, the dog and gramophone were replaced by the crown of tulips, designed by Siemens advertising consultant Hans Domizlaff. In 1962 Siemens formed a joint venture with Netherlands-based Philips to create the DGG/PPI Record Group, by this time, DGG had built a solid reputation for high-quality recording in the classical field as well as a very notable roster of contracted singers, musicians, and conductors. The fine quality both of recording and of pressings helped DGG especially succeed and attract Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra to DGG/Polydor, in 1987 Siemens sold off its interest in PolyGram, and Philips became the majority shareholder. In 1998, the Seagram Company Ltd. of Canada purchased Deutsche Grammophon, since then, Deutsche Grammophon was merged into Universal Music Group, a division of Vivendi. Deutsche Grammophon has a back catalogue of notable recordings. The company is reissuing a portion of it in its Originals series and it also released the majority of the compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen until the composer bought the rights to the recordings and re-released them on his own label. Other German composers associated with the label included Paul Hindemith and Hans Werner Henze, in 2011, Tori Amos signed to the label. The conductor most associated with the label is Herbert von Karajan, other conductors under contract included Ferenc Fricsay, Carlos Kleiber, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelik, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, and Christian Thielemann. Recent signings include Gustavo Dudamel and Myung-whun Chung
35.
Naxos Records
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Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, the company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong. Naxos is the largest independent classical label in the world and one of the two largest-selling classical labels and it is also one of the largest distributors of independent classical record labels in the world. Since 2009 the company has distributed blu-ray discs, streaming web radio, the company originally was known for its budget pricing of discs, with simpler artwork and design than most other labels. In the 1980s, Naxos primarily recorded central and eastern European symphony orchestras, often with lesser-known conductors to minimize recording costs, in more recent years, Naxos has taken advantage of the expiring copyrights of other companies studio recordings by selling disks remastered from gramophone records. Legal restrictions prevented some of these recordings being sold in the United States, Naxos has also recorded the music of contemporary composers, including Leonardo Balada, Bechara El-Khoury, Laurent Petitgirard and Alla Pavlova. The label has also branched out into jazz, world music, Naxos Spoken Word Library contains non-music products, such as audiobooks and radio dramas. The company produces Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio and Blu-ray discs, in 2003 it began a paid subscription service for listening on the Internet that offers its complete catalogue and the Naxos Music Library. In 2015 it launched a download and streaming service, ClassicsOnline HD•LL. Like many independent labels, Naxos Records created its own network as an alternative to pre-existing networks. Naxos was so successful that other independent labels began to seek distribution through its network as well, Naxos Global Logistics, based in Poing, near Munich, was founded in 2008 to expand the services offered to its distributed labels, including manufacturing, marketing, and licensing. In 2005 Naxos won the “Label of the Year Award” at Classic FM/Gramophone awards
36.
Burleske
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The Burleske in D minor is a composition for piano and orchestra written by Richard Strauss in 1885-86, when he was 21. The works original title was Scherzo in D minor, and it was written for Hans von Bülow, however, von Bülow considered it a complicated piece of nonsense and refused to learn it. He said the part was Lisztian and unplayable, particularly for a pianist with a small handspan. Strauss rehearsed the work with the Meiningen Orchestra, conducting and playing the part himself. He wrote to von Bülow, iven an outstanding pianist, after the first run-through, I was totally discouraged. In 1889, Strauss became acquainted with Eugen dAlbert, who liked the work, although he suggested some cuts, the word Burleske translates as farce or mockery. Von Bülow was still not impressed, in a letter to Johannes Brahms in January 1891, he wrote, Strausss Burleske decidedly has some genius in it, but in other respects it is horrifying. Despite this, he conducted the work that month in Berlin, Strauss was offered a handsome sum by a publisher for the rights to the work, but he was still not convinced of its merits, so he declined. He was no doubt influenced in his own opinion of the work by von Bülows opinion of it, however, in 1894, Strauss agreed to publication of the Burleske, although it took him a long time to regard it with great favour. Strauss never allocated a number to the work, but the opus number 11 has often come to be associated with it. It appears as number 85 in the catalogue by Erich Herrmann Mueller von Asow, the first performance of the Burleske in the United States was by Heinrich Gebhard with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under Wilhelm Gericke, in April 1903. The first performance in Australia was by Vera Bradford in 1937, Schnéevoigt considered the piano part manageable only by a male pianist, and demanded Vera Bradford be replaced, but she stood her ground and gave a celebrated performance. The piece starts with a theme introduced on timpani and answered by the orchestra, the piano then enters in a state of high excitement. A second, more lyrical Brahmsian theme emerges, followed by waltz-like measures not unlike the waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier, the work ends quietly, again on the timpani. It takes about 20 minutes to perform, the piece is scored for piano solo and an orchestra of piccolo,2 flutes,2 oboes,2 clarinets in B-flat,2 bassoons,4 horns,2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. There is a recording of Strauss himself conducting the Philharmonia at the Royal Albert Hall London,19 October 1947, in 2001, the music was used for the ballet Burleske, choreographed for the New York City Ballet by Peter Martins. Liner notes from the Rudolf Serkin/Eugene Ormandy recording, Burleske, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
37.
Mercury Records
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Mercury Records is an American-based record label owned by Universal Music Group. In the United States, it operates through Island Records, in the UK, Mercury Record Corporation was formed in the American city of Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams, Ray Greenberg and Arthur Talmadge. They were a force in jazz and blues, classical music, rock and roll. Early in the history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri. With the use of presses and providing 24-hour turnaround, they went into direct competition with major recording labels such as Columbia, Decca, Capitol. By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated the pop market with such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Tony Fontane. Rather than rely on radio airplay, Mercury initially relied on jukeboxes to promote their music, some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as its logo. In 1947 Jack Rael, a musician and publicist/manager, persuaded Mercury to let Patti Page record a song that had planned to be done by Vic Damone. The budget was too small for them to hire a second singer to provide the parts to Page. The company released a number of recordings under the Mercury label as well as its subsidiaries. In addition, they leased and purchased material by independent labels, under their own label, Mercury released a variety of recording styles from classical music to psychedelic rock. However, its subsidiaries focused on their own specialized categories of music, Mercurys jazz division had two distinct and important fathers. John Hammond brought his expertise and connections when Mercury bought Keynote Records in the late 1940s, and Mercury was the issuing company and distributor for Norman Granzs pre-Norgran/Verve recordings. Although both Hammond and Granz had departed Mercury by the mid-1950s, they established the company in the jazz world, by the early 1960s, Mercury was releasing jazz under the flagship label and was an early leader in the new stereo sound releases. Highlights of the early and mid-1960s included albums by Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Charles Mingus, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach, in the early 1950s, Norman Granz started his own record company, Norgran, which later became Verve. In an ironic twist, both Mercury and Verve are now owned by Universal Music Group and Mercurys jazz library falls under the Verve division. Since the early 1990s, Verve has reissued many Mercury jazz titles on CD, often taking care to use original master tapes, in 1962, Mercury began marketing a line of phonographs made by Philips bearing the Mercury brand name. In July 1967, Mercury Records became the first U. S. record company to release cassette music tapes, in 1969, Mercury changed its corporate name to Mercury Record Productions Inc. while its parent Conelco became North American Philips Corp after Philips brought control of the company
38.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes
39.
Yehudi Menuhin
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Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM KBE was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City to a family of Belorussian Jews. Through his father Moshe, a rabbinical student and anti-Zionist. In late 1919 Moshe and his wife Marutha became American citizens, yehudis sisters were concert pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah, and pianist, painter and poet Yaltah. Menuhins first violin instruction was at age four by Sigmund Anker, his parents had wanted Louis Persinger to teach him, Menuhin displayed exceptional talent at an early age. His first public appearance, when only seven, was as solo violinist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1923, Persinger then agreed to teach him, and accompanied him on the piano for his first few solo recordings in 1928–29. When the Menuhins went to Paris, Persinger suggested Yehudi go to his old teacher, Belgian virtuoso and he did have one lesson with Ysaÿe, but disliked his teaching method and his advanced age. Instead, he went to the Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu, under whose tutelage he made recordings with several piano accompanists and he was also a student of Adolf Busch. In 1929 he played in Berlin, under Bruno Walters baton, according to Henry A. Murray, Menuhin wrote, Actually, I was gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to retire in this way, I was also thinking that my life was tied up with the instrument and would I do it justice. His first concerto recording was made in 1931, Bruchs G minor, under Sir Landon Ronald in London, between 1934 and 1936, he made the first integral recording of Johann Sebastian Bachs sonatas and partitas for solo violin, although his Sonata No. 2, in A minor, was not released until all six were transferred to CD and he and Louis Kentner gave the first performance of William Waltons Violin Sonata, in Zürich on 30 September 1949. He continued performing, and conducting, to an advanced age, Menuhin credited German philosopher Constantin Brunner with providing him with a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life. Menuhin made Lysy his only student, and the two toured extensively throughout the concert halls of Europe. The young protégé later established the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Menuhin made several recordings with the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who had been criticized for conducting in Germany during the Nazi era. Menuhin defended Furtwängler, noting that the conductor had helped a number of Jewish musicians to flee Nazi Germany, in 1957, he founded the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Gstaad, Switzerland. In 1962, he established the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke dAbernon and he also established the music program at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, sometime around then. In 1965 he received a knighthood from the British monarchy
40.
Brahms
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. Brahms composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works and he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished, Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahmss works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs, Brahmss father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was sometimes spelt Brahmst or Brams, and derives from Bram. Against the familys will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he work as a jobbing musician. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress 17 years older than he was, in the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a player in the Hamburg Stadttheater and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, his sister Elisabeth had been born in 1831, Fritz also became a pianist, overshadowed by his brother he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training, Johannes also learnt to play the violin, from 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms could be such a good player, at the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethovens quintet for piano and winds Op.16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz, by 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor
41.
Elgar
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello and he also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the Kings Musick in 1924, although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically and he nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. His later full-length religious choral works were received but have not entered the regular repertory. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity, Elgars music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death and it began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of recordings of his works. Edward Elgar was born in the village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester. His father, William Henry Elgar, was raised in Dover and had apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music. In 1848 he married Ann Greening, daughter of a farm worker, Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edwards birth, William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St. Georges Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin, all the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. Elgars mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development and he inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H, Billy Reed wrote that Elgars early surroundings had an influence that permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality
42.
Bruckner
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Josef Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character. Bruckners compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden on 4 September 1824. The ancestors of Bruckners family were farmers and craftsmen, their history can be traced to as far back as the 16th century and they lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which led to their being called Pruckhner an der Pruckhen. Bruckners grandfather was appointed schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, this position was inherited by Bruckners father, Anton Bruckner senior and it was a poorly paid but well-respected position in the rural environment. Music was a part of the curriculum, and Bruckners father was his first music teacher. Bruckner learned to play the organ early as a child and he entered school when he was six, proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children, after Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckners father sent him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast, here, Bruckner completed his school education and learned to play the organ excellently. Around 1835 Bruckner wrote his first composition, a Pange lingua – one of the compositions which he revised at the end of his life, when his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work. Bruckners father died in 1837, when Bruckner was 13 years old, the teachers position and house were given to a successor, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery in Sankt Florian to become a choirboy. In addition to practice, his education included violin and organ lessons. Bruckner was in awe of the great organ, which was built during the late baroque era and rebuilt in 1837. Later, the organ was to be called the Bruckner Organ, despite his musical abilities, Bruckners mother sent her son to a teaching seminar in Linz in 1841. After completing the seminar with an excellent grade, Bruckner was sent as an assistant to a school in Windhaag. The living standards and pay were horrible, and Bruckner was constantly humiliated by his superior, despite the difficult situation, Bruckner never complained or rebelled, a belief of inferiority was to remain one of Bruckners main personal characteristics during his whole life
43.
Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
