Czaplowski Première
Flautist Prudence Davis and Australian Pro Arte conducted by Jeffrey
Crellin will première Philip Czaplowski's Concerto for flute and
strings La Via Dolorossa on 31 August, 8pm at the Melbourne Conservatorium
of Music, Royal Parade, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia.
International Penderecki Competition
The International Krzysztof Penderecki Competition of Contemporary Chamber
Music will be held in Kraków, Poland, 14-17 September. Info: sks@friko3.onet.pl or +48 12 412 7540.
Master Singers
The following Britten-Pears School Masterclasses at Aldeburgh, UK this
autumn are open to the public: Elisabeth Söderström (Sibelius
and Richard Strauss) 18-26 September (concert on 27 September); Nelly Miricioiu
(Italian opera) 30 September-8 October (concert on 9 October); Thomas Allen
(Mozart and Britten) 13-20 October (concert on 21 October); Anthony Rolfe
Johnson and Ian Partridge (Bach) 23 October - 1 November (concert on 2 November).
Email: enquiries@aldeburghfestivals.org.
Rootham Première
The Broadheath Singers' annual concert will feature the world première
of Cyril Rootham's The Lady of Shalott, Edgar Bainton's The Blessed
Damosel, La belle dame sans merci by Armstrong Gibbs and the
Elegy In memoriam William Morris by Gustav Holst. 18 September, 8pm
at Eton College School Hall, Eton, Berkshire, UK. Info from conductor Robert
Tucker on +44 (0)171 638 0672.
Even jazz
'Jazz on the level' will be a series at St David's Hall in Cardiff, Wales
on Tuesdays at 8.30: Peter King Quartet, 21 Sept; Rickey Woodard Quartet,
12 Oct; Just East of Jazz, 30 Nov; John Etheridge's Sweet Chorus, 25 Jan;
Tony Coe Trio, 15 Feb; Marlene Verplank and her Musicians, 7 March. Box
Office: +44 (0)1222 878444.
New dance
The Baldwin Dance Company will present 'Julius Tomb' - one of three works
choreographed by Baldwin - as part of a UK national tour this autumn: Corn
Exchange, Newbury (1 Oct); University College, Swansea (7 Oct); The Gantry,
Southampton, (9 Oct); Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank (23 Oct); Wimbledon
Theatre (27 Oct); Brunton Theatre, Edinburgh.(6 Nov).
Finnissy at Ultima
Metier has produced three CDs of music by the English composer Michael
Finnissy: string quartets, the composer playing Folklore, and Voces
Sacrae singing Seven Sacred Motets. The NMC label has also produced a CD
with major chamber works, so Finnissy's music is receiving growing attention.
The composer appears as pianist at Norway's Ultima Festival in Oslo on 9
October playing part of his The History of Photography in Sound.
and previously published news ...
Judith Lang Zaimont
Forthcoming U.S. performances of the music of Judith Lang Zaimont include
the Piano Trio No. 1, Russian Summer, to be performed on August 29
at New York's Museum of Modern Art, and the world première of her
Piano Sonata on November 14, 1999 at Washington D.C.'s Phillips Gallery
by Bradford Gowen.
Internationally, the Duo Pianistico Firenze's southern European tour
will feature Zaimont's Snazzy Sonata - An Entertainment for Two for
piano, 4 hands; a presentation of her new Parallel Play for saxophone
quartet will be given at the International Festival 'Donne in Musica' in
Italy in September. Info: http://www.joblink.org/jzaimont
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
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
Full Moon Over Killaloe
From 21 August to 4 September, Canadian artists will meet in the Ottawa
area to record local sounds such as traffic noise, voices and waterfalls
and then produce new audio artworks, and a series of concerts, performances,
retreats and workshops are planned, under the guidance of audio artists
Hildegarde Westerkamp and Michael Waterman. Info: Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production.
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.
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe financially supported by CGU announce
plans that take them around Europe during the coming year. They are at the
Edinburgh Festival 30 Aug and1 Sept with Andras Schiff directing and playing
six Mozart piano concertos - and repeats of this go to Vienna, Zurich, Brussells,
Bremen and Oldenburg during the following weeks. Info: www.coeurope.org.
'Ale and 'Arty
The group Tubalaté will perform tuba quartets at the BMIC in
London on Wednesday 1st September, 7.30pm. The following works will be performed:
John Reeman's Episodes, Pieces of Eight by David W Solomons,
Almost a Fugue by Georg Pelecis, Tolsten Aagaard Nielsen's Pas
de Quatre, 'Ale and 'Arty by Colin Bayliss and Philip Clarke's
Smack.
Soile Isokoski at Symphony Hall
The opening concert of Birmingham's Symphony Hall season is a visit of
the Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta on 7 September in
an all Richard Strauss programme. Soile Isokoski will sing the Last Four
Songs between Don Juan and An Alpine Symphony. Other visiting orchestras
include the Bournemouth Symphony (25 Sept), the Russian State Philharmonic
(30 Sept), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (6 Oct), Leipzig Gewandhaus
(14 Oct), Slovenian Philharmonic (16 Oct), and Czech Philharmonic (17 Oct).
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.
Uncommon Artistry
The Plymouth Music Series in Minneapolis has announced its 1999-2000
season, called 'Uncommon Artistry'. The Gershwin (George and Ira) musical
Of Thee I Sing will be performed on 2 October in Orchestra Hall;
Handel's Solomon in Bethel College on 30 October; Witness will be
partially African American with a song cycle from John Williams and Dream
N. the Hood, a rap symphony by Gregory T.S.Walker to be programmed in
Orchestra Hall on 19 Feb; The Kings Singers will present Aha! Cappella
at Wooddale Church on 7 April; Czech composer Jan Jiraseks reworking of
Bach's St Luke's Passion will be sung on 12 May at the Ted Mann Concert
Hall. Info: +1 612 624 2345.
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
Biped
A European tour by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will bring Biped,
a new work to a commissioned score by Gavin Bryars to Paris for a season
9-20 November. The work explores a new animation technology of motion capture.
St Ceciliatide International Festival
The 5th St Ceciliatide International Festival of Music takes place at
Stationers' Hall in the City of London 20-28 November. American musicologist
Joshua Rifkin and the Bach Ensemble play Bach concertos and the Ouverture
in D (minus the oboes, trumpets and drums it later acquired) 24 Nov. Fiori
Musicale present Vivaldi's Seasons on 20 & 21 November with new music
by Geoffrey Burgon reflecting on the Vivaldi work and interweaving with
it. Chapelle du Roi sing Guerrero's Vespers for St Ceciliatide on 22 Nov,
and the Finnish Yggdrasil Quartet mark the 150th anniversary of Chopin's
death on 25 November with pianist Fumiko Shiraga playing new chamber arrangements
of Chopin's two piano concertos. The Lindsay Quartet plays Beethoven on
the 26th and Fiori Musicale reappear on 27 and 28 November with James Bowman
presenting two choral works by Zelenka and Bach Cantata 54 (Widerstehe doch
der Sunde). Info: www.st-ceciliatide.com.
Galliard Ensemble
The Galliard Ensemble Wind Quintet will play in London's Purcell Room
as part of 'Fresh Young Artists Platform' on 7 December, 7.30pm. The ensemble
will give the world première of a work written for them - Paul Patterson's
Westerley Winds, the European première of Philip Bimstein's
Casino for quintet and tape, and music by Berio, Briccialid, Pärt
and Tinoco. Info: www.sbc.org.uk.
Tickets GBP 10 (GBP 8, concessions) from boxoffice@rfh.org.uk or phone +44
(0)171 960 4242.
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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