Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1922, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982, since has performed at Roy Thomson Hall; the TSO manages the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. The TSO's most recent music director was Peter Oundjian, from 2004 to 2018. Sir Andrew Davis is the TSO's interim artistic director. Gustavo Gimeno was announced as Oundjian's successor on September 17, 2018, with a tenure beginning in the 2020-21 season; the TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923 with 58 musicians. The first conductor was Luigi von Kunits, that season there were twenty concerts, as well as a performance at a spring festival. In the summer of 1924, the symphony performed at the Canadian National Exhibition. Shortly thereafter, the TSO began holding children's concerts; the orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. In 1929, the TSO made its radio debut with a one-hour broadcast on CBC Radio from the Arcadian Court of Simpson's department store.
After von Kunits' death in 1931, conductor and composer Ernest MacMillan served as music director for 25 years. The orchestra had made headlines for its hiring practices in 1951, when it declined to renew the contracts of musicians, thereafter known as the Symphony Six, denied entry to the United States on suspicion of communist activities, during the McCarthy Era. Andrew Davis was the TSO's music director from 1975 to 1988; the TSO subsequently granted Davis the title of conductor laureate. The orchestra had financial and audience size problems in the 1990s, in 1992 TSO musicians had accepted a 16% pay cut because of a threat of bankruptcy to the orchestra, with a promise from management to make up the loss in subsequent contract negotiations. By 1999, this pay restoration had not happened, which led to an 11-week musicians' strike that autumn. Relations between the musicians and management deteriorated, the music director at the time, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, offered to serve as mediator in the situation.
In addition, there was a lack of public sympathy to the orchestra musicians' situation. By 2001, the TSO had debt of $7 million, both executive director Ed Smith and music director Saraste had left the ensemble. Peter Oundjian was appointed as music director in January 2003 and became music director with the 2004–2005 season; the 2005 documentary film Five Days in September: The Rebirth of an Orchestra recorded the first days of the TSO's inaugural season with Oundjian as its new music director. His most recent TSO contract extension was through the 2017-2018 season, he concluded his TSO tenure at the close of the 2017-2018 season and was given the title "Conductor Emeritus."By the 2006–2007 season, the subscriber base had increased to about 25,000, the audience average capacity increased to 84%. In November 2008, the orchestra reported its third consecutive year of budget surpluses, with average audience attendance of 88%, although the orchestra still retains overall debt of $8.9 million. In April 2015, controversy ensued after the TSO cancelled the appearance of Valentina Lisitsa, citing Twitter postings by her in relation to the conflict in Ukraine which were seen as conducive to'public incitement of hatred' under the Criminal Code of Canada.
In January 2017, the TSO announced its participation in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Canada, with a cross-country celebration of Canadian music and musicians to involve 40 orchestras and as many as 60 new commissions called "Canada Mosaic" and funded by the Canadian government. In May 2017, the TSO announced the scheduled return of Davis to the orchestra as its interim artistic director, beginning with the 2018-2019 season, for a scheduled period of two seasons. In April 2018, the TSO announced the appointment of Matthew Loden as its next chief executive officer, effective July 2018. In February 2018, Gustavo Gimeno first guest-conducted the TSO. On the basis of this guest appearance, the TSO announced the appointment of Gimeno as its next music director, effective with the 2020-2021 season, with an initial contract of 5 years. March 2019, the TSO won the Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble for their album on the CHANDOS label: Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto, Oboe Concerto, Serenade to Music & Flos Campi.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra official website Roy Thomson Hall official website
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music, performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it does not include solo instrument performances; because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music was played by amateur musicians in their homes, today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, many musicians and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music as "four rational people conversing"; this conversational paradigm–which refers to the way one instrument introduces a melody or motif and other instruments subsequently "respond" with a similar motif–has been a thread woven through the history of chamber music composition from the end of the 18th century to the present.
The analogy to conversation recurs in analyses of chamber music compositions. From its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used as accompaniment for singers. String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were purely instrumental ensembles of stringed precursors of the violin family, called consorts; some analysts consider the origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa. These were compositions for one to five or more instruments; the sonata da camera was a suite of fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes. These forms developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque – two treble instruments and a bass instrument with a keyboard or other chording instrument filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the chordal instrument would play the basso continuo part.
During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not defined. Works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles; the Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, can be played on a keyboard instrument or by a string quartet or a string orchestra. The instrumentation of trio sonatas was often flexibly specified. Sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemann's'Tafelmusik', for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, ending with a full orchestral section. Baroque chamber music was contrapuntal; because each instrument was playing the same melodies, all the instruments were equal. In the trio sonata, there is no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance; the harmonic role played by the keyboard or other chording instrument was subsidiary, the keyboard part was not written out. In the second half of the 18th century, tastes began to change: many composers preferred a new, lighter Galant style, with "thinner texture... and defined melody and bass" to the complexities of counterpoint.
Now a new custom arose. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends and their lovers. Patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players; these works were called serenades, divertimenti, or cassations. The young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these. Joseph Haydn is credited with creating the modern form of chamber music as we know it. In 83 string quartets, 45 piano trios, numerous string trios and wind ensembles, Haydn established the conversational style of composition and the overall form, to dominate the world of chamber music for the next two centuries. An example of the conversational mode of composition is Haydn's string quartet Op. 20, No. 4 in D major. In the first movement, after a statement of the main theme by all the instruments, the first violin breaks into a triplet figure, supported by the second violin and cello; the cello answers with its own triplet figure the viola, while the other instruments play a secondary theme against this movement.
Unlike counterpoint, where each part plays the same melodic role as the others, here each instrument contributes its own character, its own comment on the music as it develops. Haydn settled on an overall form for his chamber music compositions, which would become the standard, with slight varia
Vienna Philharmonic
The Vienna Philharmonic, founded in 1842, is an orchestra considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Austria, its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating his or her capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board; until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ad hoc orchestras, consisting of professional and amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Künstlerverein – an orchestra of professional musicians from the Vienna Court Opera; the Vienna Philharmonic itself arose nine years in 1842, hatched by a group who met at the inn'Zum Amor', including the poet Nikolaus Lenau, newspaper editor August Schmidt, critic Alfred Becker, violinist Karlz Holz, Count Laurecin, composer Otto Nicolai, the principal conductor of a standing orchestra at a Viennese theater.
Mosco Carner wrote in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that "Nicolai was the least enthusiastic about the idea, had to be persuaded by the others. The orchestra was independent, consisted of members of the Hofoper orchestra, made all of its decisions by a democratic vote of its members. Nicolai and the orchestra gave only 11 concerts in the ensuing five years, when Nicolai left Vienna in 1847, the orchestra nearly folded. Between 1854 and 1857, Karl Eckert – the first permanent conductor of the Vienna Court Opera – led the Vienna Philharmonic in a few concerts. In 1857, Eckert was made Director of the Hofoper – the first musician to have been given the post. Since that time, writes Vienna Philharmonic violinist and president Clemens Hellsberg, "the'Philharmonic Concerts' have been staged without interruption." In 1860, the orchestra elected Otto Dessoff to be the permanent conductor. According to Max Kalbeck, the Vienna-based music critic, newspaper editor, biographer, the fame and excellence of the Vienna Philharmonic resulted from Dessoff's "energy and sense of purpose."
Clemens Hellsberg gives specifics, writing that during the Dessoff years, the Vienna Philharmonic's "repertoire was enlarged, important organizational principles were introduced and the orchestra moved to its third new home, the newly built Goldener Saal in the Musikverein building in Vienna, which has proved to be the ideal venue, with its acoustical characteristics influencing the orchestra's style and sound." After fifteen years, in 1875, Dessoff was "pushed out of his position in Vienna through intrigue", he left Vienna to become conductor of the Badische Staatskapelle in Karlsruhe, Germany. In Karlsruhe the next year, he fulfilled the request of his friend Johannes Brahms to conduct the first performance of his Symphony no. 1. In 1875, the orchestra chose Hans Richter to take Dessoff's place as subscription conductor, he remained until 1898, except for the season 1882/1883, when he was in dispute with the orchestral committee. Richter led the VPO in the world premieres of Brahms's Second Symphony, Tragic Overture, Symphony no.
3, the Violin Concerto of Tchaikovsky, in 1892 the 8th symphony of Anton Bruckner. It was Richter who in 1881 appointed Arnold Rosé as concertmaster, to become Gustav Mahler's brother-in-law and was concertmaster until the Anschluss in 1938. In order to be eligible for a pension, Richter intended to remain in his position for 25 years, he might have done so, given that the orchestra unanimously re-elected him in May 1898, but he resigned on 22 September, citing health reasons, although biographer Christopher Fifield argues that the real reasons were that he wanted to tour, that "he was uneasy as claques in the audience formed in favour of Gustav Mahler". Richter recommended Ferdinand Löwe to the orchestra as his replacement. In 1898, on 24 September, the orchestra elected Gustav Mahler. Under Mahler's baton, the Vienna Philharmonic played abroad for the first time at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. While Mahler had strong supporters in the orchestra, he faced dissension from other orchestral members, criticism of his re-touchings of Beethoven, arguments with the orchestra and over new policies he imposed.
He resigned on 1 April 1901, citing health concerns as a
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover is an artistic-scientific university in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. It dates back to 1897. From 1962 until 2010 it was named Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, short: Musikhochschule Hannover. Since 2010, the president is Prof. Dr. Susanne Rode-Breymann; as of 2013, the university has 1,443 students, taught by 361 teachers in 33 courses for musicians, music teachers and media scholars. The university traces its history back to 1897, when a private "Conservatorium für Musik" began its operation, it was made the Konservatorium of the city in 1911. In 1943 the institution was named Landesmusikschule; the building was destroyed. In 1950, the Landesmusikschule was united with a private "Hannoversche Schauspielschule" to form the Akademie für Musik und Theater. In 1958 the school achieved the status of Hochschule and was organized as "Niedersächsische Hochschule für Musik und Theater" and "Niedersächsische Musikschule Hannover". In 1962 the two were united as the "Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater".
Between 1970 and 1973 the present main building was built at the Emmichplatz, bordering the park Eilenriede. In 1973 the state Lower Saxony is responsible for the organisation of the Hochschule. In 1978 it received the status of an artistic-scientific university; the European Centre for Jewish Music was established by Andor Izsák in the Villa Seligmann in 1988, which since 1992 has been an institute of HMTH. It deals with the reconstruction of Jewish liturgical music. Since 2001 the university runs an institute for the early training of gifted students, the'Institut zur Früh-Förderung Hochbegabter'. In 2010 the'Institute of Chamber Music' and the'Institute for Early Music' was founded; the name was extended by "Media". The main building of the university is a structure in the shape of an ear, reflected in the logo, it was one of the most modern buildings designed for the purpose of an artistic institution. In addition to the main site at the Emmichplatz, it has sites at Schiffgraben, Bismarckstraße and the Expo Plaza, the site of the Expo 2000.
The Villa Seligmann the home of director of Continental AG in the Hohenzollernstraße, was acquired in 2006 for the European Centre for Jewish Music and opened in 2012 after restoration. The HMTMH offers all of the standard classical courses of a university of music; the emphasis is on the areas of music education, artistic education, solo training, theatre training. It teaches jazz, pop as part of a popular music program, with an emphasis on jazz; the study programs in the areas of piano and chamber music are pronounced in the artistic education and music education. The drama and opera departments are in close cooperation with the Staatsoper Hannover, the Staatstheater Hannover and the NDR Radiophilharmonie; the university stages about two annual opera productions, including premieres, about three orchestral concerts. The university maintains artistic and scientific relations with several national and international music colleges and universities, including Switzerland, Eastern Europe and East Asia.
The HMTMH owns. Called the Spanish organ, it was installed on the north balcony 1998–2001 by Patrick Collon, it reflects principles of Spanish Baroque organ building without copying a specific instrument. The university has had the following presidents: 1979-1993 Richard Jakoby 1993-1997 Peter Becker 1997-2003 Klaus-Ernst Behne 2003-2005 Katja Schaefer 2006-2009 Rolf-Burkhard Klieme Since 2010 Susanne Rode-Breymann Bettina Wulff, media manager Simone Mahrenholz, Free University of Berlin, phD Official site Die Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover www.academics.de
Iona Brown
Iona Brown, OBE, was a British violinist and conductor. Elizabeth Iona Brown was educated at Cranborne Chase School, Dorset, her parents and Fiona, were both musicians. Her brother Timothy has been principal horn of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, her other brother Ian is a pianist and her sister Sally plays viola in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. From 1963 to 1966, Brown played violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 1964, she joined the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, working her way up through the ranks to become leader, solo violinist and director in 1974, she formally continued to work with them for the rest of her life. In 1981, she was appointed artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. King Olav V of Norway awarded her the accolade Knight of First Class Order of Merit for her success with the NCO, she directed the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra from 1987 to 1992. She was dismissed as conductor because of an inability to commit to more than six weeks per season with the orchestra due to her other posts, a decision she protested.
Brown returned as the orchestra's principal conductor from 1995 to 1997 following a change in the orchestra's leadership. From 1985 to 1989, she was guest director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; as her health declined and her arthritis progressed, she shifted her focus from the violin to conducting, ending her violin career in 1998. In her last years, she was chief conductor of the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra of Denmark. From 1968 to 2004, Brown's principal residence was in the Wiltshire village of Bowerchalke; when she took part in the BBC Radio 4 programme Kaleidoscope, explaining how hard it was to play her signature piece The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, she said that the singing of larks she heard during long walks on nearby Marleycombe Down influenced the way she played it. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1986, in June 2003 was made an honorary Doctor of the University by the Open University, she died of cancer in 2004 at age 63 in Salisbury.
She was married twice, was survived by her second husband, Bjorn Arnils. Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. La Cetra, Op. 9, Antonio Vivaldi. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; the Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. 12 Concerti Grossi Op. 6, George Frideric Handel. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Cello Concerto In C Major. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Organ Concerto / Concert Champêtre, Francis Poulenc. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Los Angeles Times coverage
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is a state in southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the border with France. It is Germany's third-largest state, with an area of 11 million inhabitants. Baden-Württemberg is a parliamentary republic and sovereign, federated state, formed in 1952 by a merger of the states of Württemberg-Baden, Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern; the largest city in Baden-Württemberg is the state capital of Stuttgart, followed by Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Other cities are Freiburg im Breisgau, Heilbronn, Pforzheim and Ulm; the sobriquet Ländle is sometimes used as a synonym for Baden-Württemberg. Baden-Württemberg is formed from the historical territories of Baden, Prussian Hohenzollern, Württemberg, parts of Swabia. In 100 AD, the Roman Empire invaded and occupied Württemberg, constructing a limes along its northern borders. Over the course of the third century AD, the Alemanni forced the Romans to retreat west beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers. In 496 AD the Alemanni were defeated by a Frankish invasion led by Clovis I.
The Holy Roman Empire was established. The majority of people in this region continued to be Roman Catholics after the Protestant Reformation influenced populations in northern Germany. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, numerous people emigrated from this rural area to the United States for economic reasons. After World War II, the Allies established three federal states in the territory of modern-day Baden-Württemberg: Württemberg-Hohenzollern, Württemberg-Baden. Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were occupied by France, while Württemberg-Baden was occupied by the United States. In 1949, each state became a founding member of the Federal Republic of Germany, with Article 118 of the German constitution providing an accession procedure. On 16 December 1951, Württemberg-Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Baden voted via referendum in favor of a joint merger. Baden-Württemberg became a state in West Germany on 25 April 1952. Baden-Württemberg shares borders with the German states of Rhineland Palatinate and Bavaria, Switzerland.
Most of the major cities of Baden-Württemberg straddle the banks of the Neckar River, which runs downstream through the state past Tübingen, Heilbronn and Mannheim. The Rhine forms the western border as well as large portions of the southern border; the Black Forest, the main mountain range of the state, rises east of the Upper Rhine valley. The high plateau of the Swabian Alb, between the Neckar, the Black Forest, the Danube, is an important European watershed. Baden-Württemberg shares Lake Constance with Switzerland and Bavaria, the international borders within its waters not being defined, it shares the foothills of the Alps with Bavaria and the Austrian Vorarlberg, but Baden-Württemberg does not border Austria over land. The Danube River has its source in Baden-Württemberg near the town of Donaueschingen, in a place called Furtwangen in the Black Forest. Baden-Württemberg is divided into thirty-five districts and nine independent cities, both grouped into the four Administrative Districts of Freiburg, Stuttgart, Tübingen.
Map Baden-Württemberg contains nine additional independent cities not belonging to any district: The state parliament of Baden-Württemberg is the Landtag. The politics of Baden-Württemberg have traditionally been dominated by the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany, who until 2011 had led all but one government since the establishment of the state in 1952. In the Landtag elections held on 27 March 2011 voters replaced the Christian Democrats and centre-right Free Democrats coalition by a Greens-led alliance with the Social Democrats which secured a four-seat majority in the state parliament. From 1992 to 2001, the Republicans party held seats in the Landtag; the Baden-Württemberg General Auditing Office acts as an independent body to monitor the correct use of public funds by public offices. Although Baden-Württemberg has few natural resources compared to other regions of Germany, the state is among the most prosperous and wealthiest regions in Europe with a low unemployment rate historically.
A number of well-known enterprises are headquartered in the state, for example Daimler AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Carl Zeiss AG, SAP SE and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen. In spite of this, Baden-Württemberg's economy is dominated by medium-sized enterprises. Although poor in workable natural resources and still rural in many areas, the region is industrialised. In 2003, there were 8,800 manufacturing enterprises with more than 20 employees, but only 384 with more than 500; the latter category accounts for 43% of the 1.2 million persons employed in industry. The Mittelstand or mid-sized company is the backbone of the Baden-Württemberg economy. Medium-sized businesses and a tradition of branching out into different industrial sectors have ensured specialization over a wide range. A fifth of the "old" Federal Republic's industrial gross value added is generated by Baden-Württemberg. Turnover for manufacturing in 2003 e
