Meteor Showers

A unique project has been organised by the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle UK. In advance of a new Music Centre in Gateshead, two projects - StarBirth and Meteor Showers - will create two groups, vocal and instrumental, from the local populace, to create pieces inspired by themes and images from Handel's Messiah for public performance in the Caedmon Hall, Gateshead. Info: +44 (0)191 477 3478.

and information previously published here (and there) ...

Beethoven discovery

A manuscript in Beethoven's handwriting was recently discovered at Pencarrow in Cornwall, England. Beethoven wrote the piece, in B minor, dating from 1817, for Richard Ford, a young English traveller who visited Vienna. The Eroica Quartet gave the work its first public performance in modern times on 7 October at Sotheby's in London. [Click to listen.] The manuscript will be auctioned by Sotheby's on 8 December, and is expected to sell for GBP 150,000 - 200,000.

Tansman Competition

The Aleksander Tansman 3rd International Competition of Musical Personalities will be held in Lodz, Poland. 5-11 November 2000. The competition aims to promote both promising young musicians and the music of Aleksander Tansman. The 3rd Competition is open to soloists in any of the following disciplines: voice, oboe, violin, cello, piano and guitar. Applicants can be of any nationality, but must have been born after 1 January 1970. The closing date for applications is 22 August 2000. The 1st prize is USD 12000. Regulations, an application form and further information about the music of Tansman are available at www.tansman.lodz.pl.

Georg Tintner is dead

Conductor Georg Tintner died tragically in a fall at his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on 2 October, aged 82.

Tintner, born in Vienna, sang in the Vienna Boys Choir, and also conducted the group in his own compositions. He studied conducting with Weingartner, and was appointed as Assistant Conductor of the Volksoper at the age of nineteen, but his career in Austria was cut short when he attempted to sue the Nazis for unfair dismissal from his post. He was forced to flee his country (never forgiving the Austrians for their anti-Semitism and for 'spitting him out'), working in New Zealand and Australia. Before settling in Canada to work with Symphony Nova Scotia, he worked in Cape Town, London, then again in Australia.

Honoured by the governments and institutions of at least three countries, Tintner was also widely acclaimed as a lecturer, and his lectures have been broadcast extensively throughout Canada, Australasia and the US.

Sign the petition for a Georg Tintner Memorial Edition CD.

Richard Strauss Edition

Marking the 50th anniversary of Richard Strauss' death, Peters Edition have issued volumes 19-30 of the Richard Strauss Edition. These twelve volumes contain 58 orchestral works, many of which are previously unpublished, little-known or long out of print.

A special subscription price of GBP 420 also includes a facsimile of the autograph score of Till Eulenspiegel. Order online, or contact Peters Music Shop at Boosey and Hawkes, 295 Regent Street, London W1R 8JH, UK.

Career services

American readers in particular might find the New England Conservatory's Career Services Center of benefit when seeking jobs in music performance, teaching and arts administration. Listings are worldwide and available to all for $25 per year for email subscriptions, $35 for a print version, and $49 for overseas. Info from careerservices@newenglandconservatory.edu.

MOODS - science helps music

The Music Object-Oriented Distributed System (MOODS) is a new scientific tool for performing musicians. Conventional printed scores and music stands are replaced with new electronic lecterns. Developed by Paolo Nesi and colleagues at the University of Florence, enhancements to this system could allows composers and publishers to deliver customised versions of their scores electronically.

During rehearsals, individual musicians alter their parts if necessary and conductors can make changes to the full score. Any changes appear immediately in the appropriate parts, and several musicians can work on the score at once, all altering the same bar if required. The lectern screens scroll the music automatically, in time with the performance. Players are no longer distracted by awkward page turns, and the audience experiences a performance free of paper shuffling noises. Further information about MOODS.

Chuench'i

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 have been recorded for commercial CD by Alison Wells (soprano) and Martyn Hill (tenor), with Keith Swallow (piano).

José Serebrier

Composer and conductor José Serebrier is a protégé of Antal Dorati and Leopold Stokowski, and is known for his work with music of the Russian Romantic school. Two new CDs have been released - Serebrier Conducts Serebrier is devoted to his own prize-winning compositions, including Partita (Symphony No 2), Fantasia, Winterreise (for full orchestra) and violinist Gonzalo Acosta playing the youthful Sonata for violin solo. The second CD features Serebrier conducting Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and the Russian Easter Festival Overture. Info: Reference Recordings.

Gillian Weir in Chinese

Henry Luo has translated Dame Gillian Weir's article Aspects of Vision into the Chinese language for the publication Philharmonic. Gillian's article was first published here at Music & Vision in January.

Fong plays Cage

Violinist Christina Fong (who has performed-premièred the works of composers such as Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Michael Gordon) has a new CD which features world première recordings of John Cage's complete 'number pieces' for violin. The CD is the first in a series, to feature previously unrecorded works for violin/viola by well-known composers. Info (and ordering information) from Christina Fong.

Moulin Rouge

Rumon Gamba's first CD, 'The film music of Georges Auric', is available from Chandos, and was their September 'disc of the month'. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra plays specially reconstructed scores from the Ealing Studios years, including The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico, Moulin Rouge and Dead of night. The music should appeal to both classical and film music audiences.

To listen to the music illustration on this news page, you may need to download RealNetworks' realplayer G2.