BMIC Concerts
A chance to hear the following at the British Music Information Centre
in London over the next few days: violinist Simon Smith plays music by John
Ogdon, Nicholas Maw and Bartok on 27 July; soprano Louisa Beard and pianist
Geoffrey Burford play music by Denis ApIvor on 28 July; soprano Antonia
Cviic is accompanied by piano and guitar in music by Matthew Linley, Tim
Parkinson, Alban Berg, Luke Anthony and Julian Knight on 29 July. The BMIC
concert room will then be silent during August, and their new season begins
in September. Info: www.bmic.co.uk
Poems, Pictures and Memories of Russia
Pianist Daniel Paul Horn will play the Humoreske, Op 10 No 5 by Rachmaninov,
Medtner's Sonata-Reminiscenza, Op. 38, No. 1, Prokofiev's Sonata No 2, Op
14, the Scriabin Poeme-Nocturne, Op. 61 and Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
on 4 August, 7pm at Schoolcraft College, Livonia (in the Detroit / Ann
Arbor area of USA). His recital is given in conjunction with a two-week
concerto workshop for students.
and previously published news ...
Latin American Colonial Music
Entitled 'Latin American Colonial Music: a Historical Perspective', the
third annual workshop of Coral Cantigas will be held on 23 July, 7-10pm
at the Montgomery College School of Music's Recital Hall, 51 Manakee St.,
Rockville MD, USA. Coral Cantigas perform music from different periods and
Egberto Bermúdez presents a historical overview, including the origins,
influences, significant composers and performance practice and interpretation.
Info: www.cantigas.org
or phone +1 301 816 0420.
Schleswig Holstein
The Schleswig Holstein Music Festival runs through the region from 11
July to 29 August. Details of this wide-ranging festival from bestellung@shmf.de
Buxton Festival
The Buxton Festival in Derbyshire, UK, runs 15-25 July. Operas include
Donizetti Il campanello di notte and Suppe The beautiful Galatea
as a double bill, Puccini's Il Tabarro and Britten's The Rape
of Lucretia plus an opera gala. Info +44 (0)1292 70395.
Visitors from France
Cambridge Summer Music - 16 July to 15 August - presents a wide variety
of events, opening with the Maggini Quartet playing Schubert, Tchaikovsky
and Grieg. Other groups visiting will be I Fagiolini with Concordia, Parley
of Instruments, Academy of Ancient Music, The Nash Ensemble, Red Priest,
and The Campbell Ensemble. Organists will include two new visitors from
France, Michel Bouvard and Francois Espinasse. The BBC Singers, London Baroque
Soloists and His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts present Monteverdi's Vespers
and a new work by Robin Orr under Stephen Cleobury. Cambridge Arts Box Office
+44 (0)1223 503333.
Meltdown
'Meltdown' presents its fifth annual celebration at London's Royal Festival
Hall of one of the world's biggest festivals of percussion and its music
on 17-25 July. Percussive Sticks assembles a multi-cultural display
of brilliant performers worldwide, from the Kobayakawa Suigin Taiko Drummers
of Hiroshama, the South American Airto Moreiro to the remarkable Adrian
Spillett, BBC Young Musician of the Year 1998, and many more. Nick Cave,
director of 'Meltdown', speaks of his role as 'helping facilitate mayhem,
magic and madness on a grand scale'. Box Office +44 (0)171 960 4242.
Messiaen Festival 1999 in the French Alps
Details of the imminent Messiaen Festival at la Grave in the French Alps
(21-24 July) are available at festival-messiaen.org/indexe.html . Highlights include performances
of Poèmes pour MI, Chants de Terre et de Ciel, Visions
de L'Amen and Stockhausen's Les Signes du Zodiaque. Also features
a thematic concert based on rhythm in the 20th century and Indian classical
music.
Biped
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company will present Biped, a new work
to a commissioned score by Gavin Bryars at the Lincoln Center in New York
on 21 and 24 July. A European tour by the Company in the autumn will
bring Biped to Paris for a season 9-20 November. The work explores
a new animation technology of motion capture.
Rossini and Verdi
Alberto Caprioli will direct a performance of Rossini's Petite messe
solennelle on July 23, 9.30pm at the Santuario della Beata Vergine delle
Grazie, Boccadirio di Castiglione Dei Pepoli (BO), Italy. Soloists Rosa
Picciotti, Claudia Marchi, Refat Lleshi and Francesco Medda will join the
Coro Claudio Merulo and the Orchestra Sinfonica Dell'Emilia Romagna Arturo
Toscanini.
On July 24, 27 and 30, again at 9.30pm, you can hear the same orchestra
with the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma and soloists from the Accademia
di canto Giuseppe Verdi in Verdi's La Traviata at the Villa
Pallavicino in Busseto (PR).
New music for solo cello
Gabriel Prynn performs contemporary works for cello solo by Richard Barrett,
Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Elliott Carter, Jonathan Harvey, Michel Gonneville
and André Ristic. Saturday, 24 July, 7:30 pm at St.John's Church
Waterloo, London (Waterloo Station/Tube) United Kingdom. Tickets: £5
/ £4 Info: www.bcity.com/gabrielprynn
Let's do it!
Voces Sacrae, one of Britain's finest young vocal ensembles, will sing
sacred and secular music, part songs, close harmony and cabaret songs at
Constantine Parish Church, near Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom, on 27
July, 7.30pm. Info: www.acprom.demon.co.uk/vocessacrae/
Alun Hoddinott at 70
The Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott's 70th birthday this summer is to be
marked at the BBC Proms in London. His The sun, the great luminary of the
universe will be played on July 28 by the BBC National Symphony Orchestra
of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. Four Welsh Festivals also honour Hoddinott
this year: St David's Cathedral Festival; Swansea Gower Festival, Presteigne
Festival and St Asaph Festival.
Reflect, My Child
A lecture/concert Gilbert and Sullivan Rarities: Music From The Cutting
Room Floor on 29 July in the Paxton Theatre at Buxton Pavilion features
the world première of the ballad Reflect, My Child, sung by
former D'Oyly Carte stars Michael Rayner and Jean Hindmarsh (with orchestra).
Info: Helga Perry.
British Invasion!
Jeffrey Tate is to conduct all British music at the Minnesota Orchestra
Viennese Sommerfest on 30 July, 8pm. Matthew Trusler (violin), Anthony Dean
Griffey (tenor), Michael Gast (horn) and the Minnesota Orchestra will perform
Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, the Britten Serenade for Tenor,
Horn and Strings, These Premises are Alarmed by Thomas Adès,
The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams and Elgar's overture Cockaigne.
Info: www.mnorch.org
or +1 800 292 4141 (phone), +1 612 371 7191 (fax). (Tickets are $15 and
$25.)
Festival Internazionale Massimo Amfiteatrof
The International Chamber Ensemble has just commenced its season of summer
concerts and opera in the courtyard of S. Ivo in Rome. Similarly, there
will be a summer music series of six concerts - Festival Internazionale
Massimo Amfiteatrof at the Piazzi of S. Andrea in Levanto from 3 to
13 August. Admission to this festival is free. Info: www.webeco.it/interensemble
Venus and Adonis
The development of BAC Opera continues with a London-based showcase Festival
1999 opening on August 13. The repertory is drawn from small-scale works,
opening with Scarlatti's Venus and Adonis but concentrating on new
material. Info from Katie Price on +44 (0)181 894 3058 or Ben Chamberlain
on +44 (0)171 924 5255.
Jane Eaglen's benefit concert
Seattle Symphony's new Benaroya Hall is the venue for Jane Eaglen's benefit
concert on 14 August. Her all-Wagner programme repeats Flagstad's 1955 farewell
programme. Seats are selling very quickly, so book soon if interested. Info
+1 800 426 1619. www.seattleopera.org
Edinburgh Festival
The 53rd Edinburgh Festival runs 15 August to 4 September. Highlights
include the return of the Vienna Philharmonic after 23 years, the Pittsburgh
Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, and the NDR Symphony Orchestra
Hamburg, the new Ensemble Modern Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In the realm of opera, a new production of Puccini's Turandot
is to be seen with an Asian cast, and a new production of Verdi's Macbeth.
Britten's The Rape of Lucretia will be heard in a concert version.
A galaxy of international performers will be heard in recitals and chamber
music. Music of the Pipes is a series planned to show its expanding
repertory and the diversity of music.
Perhaps the most innovative step for the Festival this year is a new
Centre, The Hub, which is described as a 'stunning building'. It opens in
July.
Scotland's Youth
Scotland shortly hosts two youth orchestra festivals: the Edinburgh Festival
of British Youth Orchestras and the Glasgow Festival of British Youth Orchestras,
running concurrently 16 August to 5 September. Thirty orchestras are involved
embracing a highly diverse range of music from Mahler Symphony 5 (Hertfordshire
County Youth Orchestra) to a commissioned The Duegar's Revelry from
our contributor Patric Standford (Yorkshire Youth Orchestra).
Info from admin@nayo.org.uk
Organ Recital
Friedemann Herz will play the organ of Brixen Cathedral in Italy on 24
and 26 August. Music by Ligeti (Volumina), Schnittke (Two little
pieces), Corneliu Dan Georgescu (Orbis III, first performance),
Adriana Hölszky, Viktor Suslin, Paul Hindemith, Arvo Pärt, Giacinto
Scelsi and Bojidar Spassov, Info: fherz@online-club.de
Presteigne Festival
John
McCabe is composer in residence at this year's Presteigne Festival (August 26 - 31) in the Border Marches
region between Wales and England. Also featured are the Vanbrugh Quartet
and prize-winning New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge. Contemporary works
by McCabe, Alun Hoddinott (as part of his 70th birthday celebrations), Gerald
Barry, Celia Harper, Rodney Sephen Newton, Graham Fitkin, Malcolm Arnold
and the Festival's founder Adrian Williams can be heard, as well as music
by Brahms and the romantics.
Mardi Gras Manchester
Music for a While present songs by Sterndale Bennett, Elgar
and Sullivan, solos and duets of the period and a reading of Oscar Wilde's
the Nightingale and the Rose on 28 August, 7.30pm at Cross
St Chapel, Cross St, Manchester M2 1NL, United Kingdom, as part of the Gay
and Lesbian Manchester Mardi Gras Festival.
Berliner Mahler-Fest
The complete works of Mahler will be performed at the Berliner Mahler-Fest,
throughout September. Info: www.berlinerfestspiele.de .
What Next?
The Berlin premiere of Elliot Carter's one act comic opera What Next?
is at the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden, 16 September 1999. With
text by Paul Griffiths (after Jacques Tati's film Traffic), What
Next? is conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Nicolas Brieger,
with decor by Gisbert Jaekel. There are further performances on 18, 22 and
25 September, and on 25 and 31 March 2000.
RFH Classics International
Looking forward to London's Royal Festival Hall's Classic International Series starting
in September, a procession of great orchestras of Europe and one American
will dazzle the musical scene on the South Bank. Leading off with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam on 22 September under Riccardo Chailly,
there follows in date order the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, Milan directed
by Riccardo Muti (4 October), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio
Abbado (11 October), Pierre Boulez directing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
(22 October), the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia, Rome conducted by Myung Whun Chung (21 and 22 November), the Vienna
Philharmonic again with Seiji Ozawa (15 March), and the Philadelphia Orchestra
conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch (19 May).
La Guitarra California
Tickets are now on sale for La Guitarra California (24-26 September 1999
on the campus of Cuesta College, scenic Highway 1, north west of San Luis
Obispo, California) from +1 805 546 3131. Info: La Guitarra California website.
Moonbird
Gerard Schurmann's song-cycles, Chuench'i (translations of Chinese
poems by Arthur Waley), and Six Songs of William Blake, together
with Nine Slovak Folk Songs are due to be performed in Manchester
on September 25, to be followed by recordings for commercial CD on September
27 and 28 by Alison Wells (soprano) and Martyn Hill (tenor), with Keith
Swallow (piano). In addition, Moonbird for solo recorder will be
given its first performance at the concert on September 25 by John Turner.
Info: www.gerard-schurmann.com
Music to move you
'Music to move you' is an eight-concert season announced for the St David's
Hall as the National Concert Hall of Wales from September through to May
2000. Apart from top ranking British orchestras and conductors there will
be visits by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Moscow Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Beethoven cycle
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will give a Beethoven symphony
cycle at the Royal Festival Hall in London commencing October 14 with conductor
Sir Roger Norrington. Info: +44 (0)171 960 4242.
A Tale of Three Cities
An international conference is to be held at London University's Senate
House, 22-24 October 1999. Entitled, A Tale of Three Cities: Janácek's
Brno Between Vienna and Prague, the aim of the conference is to re-assess
the self-image of Brno and Moravia between (roughly) 1850 and 1930, using
Janácek as a focus. Info from Royal Holloway College.
Steel and Gold
'Steel and Gold' is the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's title for a
forthcoming Rachmaninov retrospective. Over October and November, five concerts
will contain the three symphonies, Symphonic Dances, and a concert version
of his opera The Miserly Knight, as well as works by contemporaries.
A series booking will also include a free celebrity concert with Artur Pizarro.
Info: bbcso@bbc.co.uk
Millennium Pilgrimage
From 25 December 1999 to 1 January 2001, The Monteverdi Choir, English
Baroque Soloists and John Eliot Gardiner will perform all 200 of Bach's
surviving church cantatas, each on the precise liturgical date for which
it was written, in abbeys, cathedrals and churches throughout Europe. The
project will cost more than 5 million UK pounds (approx. 7.5 million US
dollars), and will involve Gardiner in 150 air flights. Deutsche Grammophon
will record the concerts, and many will be televised.
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