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Endymion Ensemble
Endymion, formerly Endymion Ensemble, is an English chamber music ensemble, founded in 1979 and dedicated to contemporary classical music. History One of the founding members was John Whitfield who often conducted the group. Players have included pianist Michael Dussek, oboists Melinda Maxwell and Quentin Poole, clarinetist Mark van de Wiel, hornist Stephen Stirling and double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku. Whitfield conducted the ensemble in recordings dedicated to works by specific composers, including in 1988 ''Dumbarton Oaks'', works by Igor Stravinsky, in 1989 ''Lichtbogen'' by Kaija Saariaho and other works by Finnish composers, and in 1995 ''Phaedra/Les Illuminations'', music by Benjamin Britten. In a series at the Southbank named Composer Choice, they have performed concerts dedicated to contemporary composers such as Michael Berkeley, Harrison Birtwistle, Gavin Bryars, Peter Maxwell Davies, Oliver Knussen, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Judith Weir and John Woolric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Whitfield (conductor)
John Whitfield (21 March 1957 – 4 November 2019) was a British musician and conductor from Darlington, England. Whitfield was educated at Leighton Park School, Reading followed by Chetham's School of Music, Manchester and Keble College, Oxford. Contemporaneously he was principal bassoon of National Youth Orchestra (GB) and European Community (now Union) Youth Orchestra, EUYO. He was awarded Associate of the Royal College of Music with honours at just 17 and an MA in music from Oxford University. Conducting career Whitfield founded Endymion, which he conducted at venues around the world. The ensemble is noted for its performances of modern classical music, particularly by British composers. As a conductor he toured for Arts Council Contemporary Music Network and performed at state occasions for Queen Elizabeth II, gave numerous broadcasts and recordings for BBC Radio 3, BBC Two television, and ITV, and made recordings for EMI of Britten and Stravinsky. From 1991 to 2006 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judith Weir
Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer serving as Master of the King's Music. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office. Biography Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. She studied with John Tavener while at the North London Collegiate School and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. Her music often draws on sources from medieval history, as well as the traditional stories and music of her parents' homeland, Scotland. Although she has achieved international recognition for her orchestral and chamber works, Weir is best known for her operas and theatrical works. From 1995 to 2000, she was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival in London. She held the post of Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998. Weir was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours for se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Singers
The BBC Singers are a British chamber choir, and the professional chamber choir of the BBC. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time professional British choir, the BBC Singers feature in live concerts, radio transmissions, recordings and education workshops. The choir often performs alongside other BBC Performing Groups, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the BBC Proms. Broadcasts are given from locations around the country, including St Giles-without-Cripplegate and St Paul's Knightsbridge. The BBC Singers regularly perform alongside leading international orchestras and conductors, and makes invitational appearances at national events such as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in Westminster Abbey. Notable former members of the group include Sir Peter Pears, Sarah Connolly, Judith Bingham and Harry Christophers. History In 1924, the BBC engaged Stanfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and recorded composers of late 20th-century classical music, he is described by musicologist Ivan Moody as a "composer who was concerned in his music to depict the moral and spiritual struggles of contemporary man in ..depth and detail." Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic Symphony No. 1 (1969–1972) and his first concerto grosso (1977). In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad with the publication of his second (1980) and third (1983) string quartets and the String Trio (1985); the ballet ''Peer Gynt'' (1985–1987); the third (1981), fourth (1984), and fifth (1988) symphonies; and the viola concerto ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Trio No
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and composer of classical music, along with music for Hollywood films, and the first composer of international stature to write Hollywood scores., video, 9 min. When he was 11, his ballet ''Der Schneemann'' (The Snowman), became a sensation in Vienna, followed by his Second Piano Sonata, which he wrote at age 13, played throughout Europe by Artur Schnabel. His one-act operas '' Violanta'' and ''Der Ring des Polykrates'' were premiered in Munich in 1916, conducted by Bruno Walter. At 23, his opera ''Die tote Stadt'' (The Dead City) premiered in Hamburg and Cologne. In 1921 he conducted the Hamburg Opera. Kennedy, Michael. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford Univ. Press (2013) p. 464 During the 1920s he re-orchestrated, re-arranged and nearly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Quartet (Mahler)
The Piano Quartet in A minor, or more exactly the Quartet Movement for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello in A Minor, by Gustav Mahler is the first movement to an abandoned piano quartet and the composer's sole surviving piece of instrumental chamber music. Background Mahler began work on the Piano Quartet in A minor towards the end of his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, when he was around 15 or 16 years of age. The piece had its first performance on July 10, 1876, at the conservatory with Mahler at the piano, but it is unclear from surviving documentation whether the quartet was complete at this time. In several letters, Mahler mentions a quartet or quintet, but there is no clear reference to this piano quartet. Following this performance the work was performed at the home of Dr. Theodor Billroth, who was a close friend of Johannes Brahms. The final known performance of the Quartet in the 19th century was at Iglau on September 12, 1876, with Mahler again at the piano; it was pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationally, and holds the distinction of not only having the most extensive discography of any chamber orchestra, but also of being the most well-traveled orchestra in the world; no other orchestra has played concerts (as of 2013, according to its own publicity) in as many countries as the English Chamber Orchestra. The English Chamber Orchestra has its roots in the Goldsbrough Orchestra, founded in 1948 by Lawrence Leonard and Arnold Goldsbrough. The group took its current name in 1960, when it expanded its repertoire beyond the Baroque period for the first time. Its repertoire remained limited by the group's size, which has stayed fairly consistently at around the size of an orchestra of Mozart's time. Shortly afterwards, it became closely assoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouvements D'Harmonie
''Mouvements d'Harmonie'' op. 29 is a composition in one Movement (music), movement for wind ensemble, written by Graham Waterhouse in 1991, dedicated to William Waterhouse (bassoonist), William Waterhouse. It was first performed on 24 May 1991 in the Purcell Room, London. The piece was published in 2000 by Accolade, Holzhausen. It was recorded by Endymion (ensemble), Endymion in 2002 on a composer portrait CD. History Graham Waterhouse scored the work for two oboes, two clarinet, two French horn, horns, two bassoons and contra-bassoon or double bass. The title plays with the double meaning of both "mouvement" (Movement (music), movement and motion) and "harmonie" (harmony and wind ensemble). The composer dedicated the piece in one movement to his father, the bassoonist William Waterhouse. It was premiered in a concert on his 60th birthday on 24 May 1991 in the Purcell Room, London, by the Royal Northern College Wind Ensemble from the Royal Northern College where William Waterho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse (born 2 November 1962) is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, ''Three Pieces for Solo Cello'' and ''Variations for Cello Solo'' for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet '' Rhapsodie Macabre''. He has set poetry for speaking voice and cello, such as ''Der Handschuh'', and has written song cycles. His compositions reflect the individual capacity and character of players and instruments, from the piccolo to the contrabassoon. Since 1998, Waterhouse has organised a concert series at the Gasteig in Munich, often playing with members of the Munich Philharmonic. His works have been performed internationally and several have been recorded. He has been awarded prizes for several of his compositions, and has been composer in residence at institutions in European countries. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastorale (Stravinsky)
Pastorale (russian: Пастораль) is a song without words written by Igor Stravinsky in 1907. Stravinsky composed the piece at his family's estate in Ustilug, Ukraine, while under the supervision of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and dedicated it to Rimsky-Korsakov's daughter Nadia. The piece was originally scored for soprano and piano, but Stravinsky transcribed it several times over the years for various ensembles: * soprano, oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bassoon (1923) * violin and piano (1933) * violin, oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bassoon (1933) The two versions from 1933 are not strict transcriptions but lengthened versions lasting about two minutes longer than the original. _Overview_))).html" ;"title="allmusic ((( Pastorale, song without words for violin & piano (transcribed with Samuel Dushkin) > Overview )))">allmusic ((( Pastorale, song without words for violin & piano (transcribed with Samuel Dushkin) > Overview )))/ref> The 1933 version for violin and pia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
