A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.

List

A

Ella Adayevskaya

Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano (1880)

*Charles-Valentin Alkan

*Grand Duo Concertant (sonata) in F-sharp minor, Op. 21 (ca. 1840)

*Alexander Arutiunian

*Poem-sonata for violin and piano (1985)

*Kurt Atterberg

Sonata (for violin, cello, viola or horn, with piano) in B minor, Op. 27 (1925)

*Lera Auerbach

*Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (Skorski)

*Sonata No. 2 "September 11" for violin and piano (Skorski)

B

Grażyna Bacewicz

*five violin sonatas with piano

*two solo sonatas

*Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

*12 for violin with continuo and cello, five for violin and keyboard

*Johann Christian Bach

*nine (Opp. 10 and 20), also several flute sonatas that can be played with violin

*Johann Sebastian Bach

*3 solo sonatas (and 3 partitas)

*6 violin sonatas with keyboard (also 3 with continuo)

*Béla Bartók

*Early sonata for violin and piano

*Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano, 1921

*Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano, 1922

*Sonata for unaccompanied violin, 1943

*Arnold Bax

*Violin Sonata in G minor (1901) (recently recorded on ASV but a rarity) ()

*Sonata No. 1 in E major, first version 1920/1, revised 1945 (, )

*Sonata No. 2 in D major, 1915/1921 ()

*Sonata No. 3 in G minor, 1927 ()

* Sonata in F major (alternate version of his Nonet) 1940 ()

*Amy Beach

Violin Sonata in A minor (1896)

*Ludwig van Beethoven

*10 sonatas — see List of works by Beethoven — in particular

** Violin Sonata No. 1

** Violin Sonata No. 2

** Violin Sonata No. 3

** Violin Sonata No. 4

** Violin Sonata No. 5

** Violin Sonata No. 6

** Violin Sonata No. 7

** Violin Sonata No. 8

** Violin Sonata No. 9

** Violin Sonata No. 10

*Richard Rodney Bennett

*Sonata for violin and piano (1978)

*Heinrich Ignaz Biber

*Mystery Sonatas for violin and figured bass

*Ernest Bloch

*Violin Sonata No. 1, 1920

*Violin Sonata No. 2 Poeme Mystique, 1924

*Theodor Blumer

*Violin Sonata

*Johannes Brahms

*Sonatensatz (sonata scherzo in C minor, for the 'F-A-E' Sonata collaborative sonata undertaken by Dietrich, Schumann and Brahms - 1853)

*(early A minor sonata, lost, reported by Remenyi)

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Rain Sonata, Op. 78, 1878–79

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Thun, Op. 100, 1886

*Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108, 1886–8

*Frank Bridge

*Violin Sonata (1932)

*Ferruccio Busoni

*violin sonata (early) in C major, 1876 ()

*violin sonata Op. 29 in E minor, 1890

*violin sonata Op. 36a in E minor, 1898

C

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

*Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 28

*Aaron Copland

*Violin Sonata (1943) ()

*Arcangelo Corelli

*violin sonatas with continuo (Op. 5, Nos. 1-12)

*John Corigliano

*Violin Sonata (1963, some sources have 1964) ()

D

Claude Debussy

*Violin Sonata in G minor, 1917

*Frederick Delius

*Violin Sonata published posth., 1892 ()

*Violin Sonata No. 1, 1914

*Violin Sonata No. 2, 1923

*Violin Sonata No. 3, 1930 (, )

*Edison Denisov

*Sonata for violin solo, 1978

*Violin Sonata, 1963 ()

*Ernő Dohnányi

*Violin Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 21, 1913? ()

*Avner Dorman

* Sonata No.1 for Violin and Piano, 2004

* Sonata No.2 for Violin and Piano, 2008

*Lucien Durosoir

*Violin Sonata in A major, 1921 ()

*Antonín Dvořák

*Violin Sonata in F major, Op. 57, 1880

*Violin Sonatina in G major, Op. 100, 1893 ()

E

Edward Elgar

*Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82

*George Enescu

*Violin Sonata fragment Torso

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 2

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in F minor, Op. 6

*Violin Sonata No. 3 on Popular Romanian themes in A minor, Op. 25

*Sven Einar Englund

*Violin Sonata (1979) ()

F

Gabriel Fauré

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108

*Leonid Feigin

*Violin Sonata No. 1 (1963)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 (1981)

*Zdeněk Fibich

*Violin Sonata in D major

*Violin Sonatina in D minor, Op. 27

*Grzegorz Fitelberg

at least two violin sonatas (A minor, Op. 2, F major, Op. 12: by 1905)

*Irving Fine

*Violin Sonata

*Nicolas Flagello

*Violin Sonata

*Josef Bohuslav Foerster

Sonata No. 1, Op. 10

*Sonata No. 2, sonata quasi fantasia, Op. 177

*César Franck

*Violin Sonata in A major

*Peter Racine Fricker

*Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 12 (1950)

Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 94 (1987)

*Robert Fuchs

*six violin sonatas

G

Niels Wilhelm Gade

*three sonatas — Op. 6 in A, Op. 21 in D minor, Op. 59 in B-flat major

*Friedrich Gernsheim

*four violin sonatas

*Joseph Gibbs

*Eight solos (sonatas) for the violin and a thorough bass, 1748

*Benjamin Godard

Four violin sonatas (No. 1, Op. 1; No. 2, Op. 2; No. 3 in D minor, Op. 9; No. 4 in A-flat major, Op. 12)

*Karl Goldmark

*Violin Sonata in D major/B minor, Op. 25

*Edvard Grieg

*Three sonatas:

**Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8

**Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13

**Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45

*Hans Gál

*Violin Sonata, Op. 17 (also at least one other) ()

H

Reynaldo Hahn

Sonata in C major (1926)

*George Frideric Handel

*several violin sonatas. Some are published as his Op. 1 but possibly of varying authenticity.

*Karl Amadeus Hartmann

*sonatas for violin solo

*Hans Werner Henze

*sonata for violin solo (1977)

*Paul Hindemith

*sonatas for violin solo, and four with piano

*Vagn Holmboe

*Violin Sonata No. 1, M. 82, 1935

*Violin Sonata No. 2, M. 112, 1939

*Violin Sonata No. 3, M. 227, 1965

*Arthur Honegger

*Sonatas Nos. '0' – '2'

*Herbert Howells

*three violin sonatas

*Bertold Hummel

*Violin Sonata, Op. 6 (1952)

*Violin Sonatina, Op. 35a (1969)

*Violin Sonatina, Op. 107a (2001)

I

Vincent d'Indy

*Violin Sonata in C major, Op. 59

*John Ireland

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor (1909)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor (1917)

*Charles Ives

*four violin sonatas

J

Leoš Janáček

*Violin Sonata

*David Johnstone

*Sonata for violin solo (pub.2008)

*André Jolivet

*Violin Sonata (1932)

K

Aram Khachaturian

*Sonata for violin and piano

*Erich Wolfgang Korngold

*Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 6 (1912) ()

*Ernst Krenek

*Violin Sonata in F-sharp major, Op. 3 (1919)

*6 sonatinas for violin and piano (without Op. number 61. 1921)

*Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 99 (1945)

two sonatas for solo violin (Op. 33, 1925 and Op. 115, 1948)

L

Jean-Marie Leclair

violin sonatas (at least Opp. 1, 2, 5, and 9 are sets of sonatas, some alternately for flute)

*Benjamin Lees

*three violin sonatas

*Paul Le Flem

Violin Sonata in G minor (1905)

*Lowell Liebermann

*Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.46 (1994)

*Pietro Locatelli

*sonatas for violin with continuo from Opp. 6 and 8

M

Leevi Madetoja

*Sonatina for violin and piano, Op. 18 (1913)

*Albéric Magnard

*Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 13

*Edgar Manas

*Sonata for Violin and Piano (1923)

*Bohuslav Martinů

*Violin Sonatas 1, 2, 3

*Giuseppe Martucci

*Violin Sonata in G minor, Op. 22

*William Mathias

*at least two violin sonatas

*John Blackwood McEwen

*at least six violin sonatas (No. 6 published 1930 by Oxford University Press)

*Nikolai Medtner

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in B minor, Op. 21

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 44

*Violin Sonata No. 3 Epic in E minor, Op. 57

*Felix Mendelssohn

*Violin Sonata in F major

*Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4

*Violin Sonata in F major, 1838

*Peter Mennin

*Sonata Concertante

*Darius Milhaud

*at least two violin sonatas with piano, and one with harpsichord

*Ernest John Moeran

*Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor

*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

*some thirty-six violin sonatas

*The following have pages:

** Violin Sonatas, KV 6-9 (1762 – 1764)

** Violin Sonatas, KV 10-15 (1764 – 1765)

** Violin Sonatas, KV 26-31 (1766)

** Violin Sonata No. 35

*Nikolai Myaskovsky

*Violin Sonata in F major, Op. 70 (1946-7) ()

N

Lior Navok

*Violin Sonata

*Oskar Nedbal

*Violin Sonata in B minor, Op. 9

*Carl Nielsen

*early sonatas

*Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 9

*Violin Sonata in G minor/C major, Op. 35

*Vítězslav Novák

Violin Sonata in D minor (his 27th work, unpublished )

O

Leo Ornstein

*Violin Sonata, Op. 31 (1915)

P

Ignacy Jan Paderewski

*Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 13

*Niccolò Paganini

*Numerous sonatas for violin with piano or guitar

*Robert Paterson

*Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano

*Krzysztof Penderecki

*Violin Sonata No. 1 (1953)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 (2000) ()

*Wilhelm Peterson-Berger

*Violin Sonata in A minor (so far recorded only in cello transcription )

*Gabriel Pierné

*Sonata for violin (or flute), Op. 36

*Walter Piston

*Violin Sonata (1939) ()

*Sonatina for violin and harpsichord (1945) ()

*Quincy Porter

*two violin sonatas (and a No. 0 posthumously published)

*Francis Poulenc

*Violin Sonata

*Sergei Prokofiev

*Sonata for two violins in C major, Op. 56

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 94 (transcribed from flute sonata)

*Sonata for solo violin in D major, Op. 115 (can also be played by massed unison ensemble.)

R

Joachim Raff

*five violin sonatas (Op. 73 in E minor, Op. 78 in A major, Op. 128 in D major, Op. 129 in one movement in G minor Chromatische and Op. 145 in C minor)

*Maurice Ravel

*early violin sonata

*Violin Sonata in G major

*Alan Rawsthorne

Violin Sonata (1958)

*Max Reger

*9 violin sonatas with piano, several unaccompanied (four in op 42, seven in op 91)

**Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 1

**Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 3

**Violin Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 41

**Violin Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 72 (gave rise to a scandal at its premiere with a work by Ludwig Thuille)

**Violin Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp minor, Op. 84

**Violin Sonata No. 6 in D minor, Op. 103b/1

**Violin Sonata No. 7 in A major, Op. 103b/2

**Violin Sonata No. 8 in E minor, Op. 122

**Violin Sonata No. 9 in C minor, Op. 139

**(violin version of the clarinet sonata in B-flat major, Op. 107 sometimes included, and the sonatas Op. 103b are sometimes not.)

*Carl Reinecke

*Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 116

*Ottorino Respighi

*Violin Sonata in B minor

*Josef Rheinberger

*Violin Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 77 (1874)

*Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 105 (1877)

*George Rochberg

*Violin Sonata

*Guy Ropartz

several violin sonatas : No. 1 in D minor (1907), No. 2 in E major (1917), No. 3 in A major (1927)

*Nikolai Roslavets

*Violin Sonatas 1-6

*Albert Roussel

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 11

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 28

*Edmund Rubbra

*Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 11 (1925)

*Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 31 (1931)

*Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 133 (premiered 1968)

*Anton Rubinstein

*Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 13

*Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 19

*Violin Sonata in B minor, Op. 98

S

Camille Saint-Saëns

*Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 75 (1885)

*Violin Sonata in E flat major, Op. 102 (1896)

*Philipp Scharwenka

Violin Sonata in B minor, Op. 110 (by 1900)

*Xaver Scharwenka

*Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 2

*Alfred Schnittke

*Violin Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 3

*Othmar Schoeck

*Violin Sonata, Op. 16

*Violin Sonata, Op. 46

*Violin Sonata, WoO 22 (information from a recent Claves CD release informational listing )

*Franz Schubert

*Violin Sonatinas in D major, A minor, G minor

*Violin Sonata in A major

*Ervin Schulhoff

*Violin Sonata Op.7 (1913)

*Violin Sonata No.2 (1927)

*Robert Schumann

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 (1851)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 (1851)

*collaboration with Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich in the F-A-E Sonata for Joseph Joachim (1853)

*Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor — third and fourth movements from the F-A-E sonata (1853)

*Roger Sessions

*Sonata for Solo Violin

*Dmitri Shostakovich

*Violin Sonata, Op. 134 (1968)

*Jean Sibelius

*Violin Sonata in F major, JS 178 (1889)

*Robert Simpson

*Sonata for Violin and Piano, in two movements (1984)

*Ethel Smyth

Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 7 (published 1887) (Not mentioned in the list of works linked to in the article but recorded on Troubadisc and noted in published articles- Dale's in Oct. 1949 Music & Letters.)

*Louis Spohr

*Sonatas for violin and harp

*Charles Villiers Stanford

*Violin Sonata No. 1 in D, Op. 11, 1877? (notes for another recording give 1880)

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A, Op. 70, 1898

*Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 165, 1919

*Wilhelm Stenhammar

*Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 19 (1899/1900)

*Richard Strauss

*Violin Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 (1887) (Review of a compact disc containing the Strauss and Korngold)

*Karol Szymanowski

*Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 9 (1904)

T

Germaine Tailleferre

two violin sonatas (first from 1921; the second, from 1951 a transcription of her violin concerto )

*Sergei Taneyev

*Violin Sonata in A minor

*Giuseppe Tartini

*Devil's Trill sonata and many others

*Justin Taylor

*Violin Sonata, op. 32 (2010)

*Georg Philipp Telemann

*Canonic Sonatas for Two Violins

*Eduard Tubin

*Violin Sonata No. 1 (1936)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 in Phrygian key (1949)

*Solo violin sonata (1962) ()

V

Ralph Vaughan Williams

*Violin Sonata in A minor

*Louis Vierne

*Violin Sonata in G minor, Op. 23 (1905-6? Premiered 1908.)(Catalog of Vierne's music)

*Giovanni Battista Viotti

*Six published sonatas for violin and bass, Op. 4 (about 1788), six without Opus number. (Recorded on Dynamic S2002-4)

*Antonio Vivaldi

*Twelve sonatas (Op. 2), six sonatas (Op. 5) and other various, such as the recently (1970s) discovered 'Manchester Sonatas'. Also the Op. 1 twelve sonatas, though these are for two violins and technically are trio sonatas.

*Georg Joseph Vogler

Six Sonatas Op. 3

W

William Walton

*Violin Sonata (1949/rev 1950)

*Carl Maria von Weber

*6 violin sonatas, Op. 10 (also played as flute sonatas.)

*Mieczysław Weinberg

*a violin sonatina, five sonatas with piano, and three solo sonatas

*Herman Whitfield III

*Violin Sonata No. 1 (2003)

*Violin Sonata No. 2 (2008)

*Violin Sonata No. 3 (2010)

*Charles-Marie Widor

*Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 50 ("sonata for piano and violin", 1881)

*Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 79 (1907 rev. 1937) ()

*Stefan Wolpe

*Violin Sonata (1949)

Y

Eugène Ysaÿe

*six sonatas for solo violin

See also

Violin

Bassoon sonata

Cello sonata

Clarinet sonata

Flute sonata

Piano sonata

Viola sonata

String Instrument Repertoire

References

Category:Sonatas

Martha Argerich (born June 5, 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine concert pianist. Her aversion to the press and publicity has resulted in her remaining out of the limelight for most of her career. Nevertheless she is widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

Early life

Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three (the provenance of the name Argerich is uncertain: some say it is Catalan, while others maintain it originates from Croatia). At age five, she moved to teacher Vincenzo Scaramuzza who stressed to her the importance of lyricism and feeling. She gave her debut concert in 1949 at the age of eight, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15. In 1950, she played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 and Bach's French Suite in G major, BWV 816.

The family moved to Europe in 1955 where Argerich studied with Friedrich Gulda in Austria. Juan Perón, then the president of Argentina, made their decision possible by appointing her parents to diplomatic posts in the Argentine Embassy in Vienna. She later studied with Stefan Askenase and Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel. In 1957, at sixteen, she won both the Geneva International Music Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition, within three weeks of each other. It was at the latter that she met Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli whom she would later seek out for lessons during a personal artistic crisis at the age of twenty, though she only had four lessons with him in a year and a half. Her greatest influence was Gulda, with whom she studied for 18 months.

Professional career

Argerich rose to international prominence when she won the seventh International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1965, at age 24. One of her performances in that winning campaign was a defiantly confident reading of Chopin's Etude in C major (Op. 10, No. 1). At the time, besides being already a master pianist, she also conveyed an aura of a nouvelle vague actress, wearing conspicuous mini-skirts and continuously smoking cigarettes.

In 1966 she debuted in the United States in the Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series. In that year she made her first recording, including works by Chopin, Brahms, Ravel, Prokofiev, and Liszt. In 1965 she recorded Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 (Chopin), Polonaise, Op. 53, and other short works in the later years.

Her technique is considered amongst the most formidable of her time, inviting comparison with Vladimir Horowitz. Indeed, her debut recording, which included Prokofiev's Toccata and Liszt's Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody received critical acclaim.

Argerich has often remarked in interviews of feeling "lonely" on stage during solo performances. Since the 1980s she has staged few solo performances, instead focusing on concertos and, in particular, chamber music, and accompanying instrumentalists in sonatas. She is noted especially for her recordings of 20th century works by composers such as Rachmaninoff, Messiaen and Prokofiev. One notable compilation pairs Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 (recorded in December 1982 with the Radio Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under direction of Riccardo Chailly) with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 (February 1980, Symphonie Orchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Kirill Kondrashin).

Argerich is also famous for her artistic interpretation of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, which she has recorded and still performs today. She recalls learning the concerto subconsciously, while she slept as her roommate practised it. She has supported several artists including Gabriela Montero and Sergio Tiempo.

Argerich is president of the International Piano Academy Lake Como and performs each year at the Lugano Festival, Switzerland. She has been General Director of the Argerich Music Festival and Encounter in Beppu, Japan, since 1996.

Personal life

Argerich has been married three times. Her first marriage was to composer-conductor Robert Chen, with whom she had a daughter, Lyda Chen, who is a violist. From 1969 to 1973, Argerich was married to conductor Charles Dutoit, with whom she had a daughter, Anna. Argerich continues to record and perform with Dutoit. Her third husband was pianist Stephen Kovacevich, with whom she had a daughter, Stephanie.

In 1990, Argerich was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. After treatment, the cancer went into remission, but there was a reoccurence in 1995, eventually metastasizing to her lungs and lymph nodes. Following aggressive treatment at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, which included the removal of part of her lung and use of an experimental vaccine, Argerich's cancer went into remission again. In gratitude, Argerich performed a Carnegie Hall recital benefiting the Institute. As of 2010, Argerich remains cancer-free.

Awards

The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette 2005 Japan

Praemium Imperiale 2005 Japan

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):

*Claudio Abbado (conductor), Martha Argerich and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (2006)

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

*Martha Argerich and Mikhail Pletnev for Prokofiev (Arr. Pletnev): Cinderella Suite for Two Pianos/Ravel: Ma Mere L'Oye (2005)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)

*Charles Dutoit (conductor), Martha Argerich and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3/Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2000)

Claudio Arrau Memorial Medal (1997)

International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition: 1st prize (1965)

Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition: 1st prize (1957)

Geneva International Music Competition: 1st prize (1957)

See also

Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Martha Argerich

Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Martha Argerich II

List of Argentines

References

External links

"Argerich--Discography," (August 11, 1999)

Ross, Alex; 'Madame X', November 12, 2001, a profile of Argerich in The New Yorker

Martha Argerich, evening talks, the award-winning documentary film about Argerich by Georges Gachot - (imdb link)

Orga, Ates, River Plate Queen (1978, 2006), an interview with Argerich first published in the 1979 International Music Guide

MUSIC FESTIVAL Argerich's Meeting Point in Beppu, a music festival sponsored by the Argerich Arts Foundation of Beppu, Japan

The Martha Argerich Project

Argerich Music news, concert schedule, articles, recordings

Argerich's repertoire through the years

Martha Argerich biography, CD and concert review by cosmopolis.ch

Martha Argerich Project Brings Talent to Lugano by Euro News, June 15, 2009

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Argentine classical pianists Category:Chopin Competition winners Category:Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires Category:People from Buenos Aires Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Classical piano duos Category:Prize-winners of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Jurors of the International Chopin Competition

, 1820]]

Ludwig van Beethoven (; ; baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is considered to have been the most crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.

Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf.

Biography

Background and early life

, Bonngasse 20, now the Beethoven-Haus museum]]

Beethoven was the grandson of a musician of Flemish origin named Lodewijk van Beethoven (1712–1773). Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767; she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, who had been the head chef at the court of the Archbishopric of Trier.

Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn; he was baptized in a Roman Catholic service on 17 December 1770, and was probably born the previous day, 16 December. Children of that era were usually baptized the day after birth, and it is known that Beethoven's family and his teacher Johann Albrechtsberger celebrated his birthday on 16 December. While this evidence supports the case for 16 December 1770 as Beethoven's date of birth, it cannot be stated with certainty, as there is no documentary evidence of it (only his baptismal record survives). Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only the second-born, Ludwig, and two younger brothers survived infancy. Caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776.

Beethoven's first music teacher was his father. A traditional belief concerning Johann van Beethoven is that he was a harsh instructor, and that the child Beethoven, "made to stand at the keyboard, was often in tears".

Some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Court's Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition: a set of keyboard variations (WoO 63).

Maximilian Frederick's successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Franz, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and he brought notable changes to Bonn. Echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts. The teenage Beethoven was almost certainly influenced by these changes. He may also have been strongly influenced at this time by ideas prominent in freemasonry, as Neefe and others around Beethoven were members of the local chapter of the Order of the Illuminati.

In March 1787 Beethoven traveled to Vienna (it is unknown at whose expense) for the first time, apparently in the hope of studying with Wolfgang Mozart. The details of their relationship are uncertain, including whether or not they actually met. After just two weeks there Beethoven learned that his mother was severely ill, and he was forced to return home. His mother died shortly thereafter, and the father lapsed deeper into alcoholism. As a result, Beethoven became responsible for the care of his two younger brothers, and he spent the next five years in Bonn.

Beethoven was introduced to a number of people who became important in his life in these years. Franz Wegeler, a young medical student, introduced him to the von Breuning family (one of whose daughters Wegeler eventually married). Beethoven was often at the von Breuning household, where he was exposed to German and classical literature, and where he also gave piano instruction to some of the children. The von Breuning family environment was also less stressful than his own, which was increasingly dominated by his father's strict control and descent into alcoholism. It is also in these years that Beethoven came to the attention of Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, who became a lifelong friend and financial supporter.

In 1789 he obtained a legal order by which half of his father's salary was paid directly to him for support of the family. He also contributed further to the family's income by playing viola in the court orchestra. This familiarized Beethoven with a variety of operas, including three of Mozart's operas performed at court in this period. He also befriended Anton Reicha, a flautist and violinist of about his own age who was the conductor's nephew.

Establishing his career in Vienna

With the Elector's help, Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792. He was probably first introduced to Joseph Haydn in late 1790, when the latter was traveling to London and stopped in Bonn around Christmas time. They met in Bonn on Haydn's return trip from London to Vienna in July 1792, and it is likely that arrangements were made at that time for Beethoven to study with the old master. In the intervening years, Beethoven composed a significant number of works (none were published at the time, and most are now listed as works without opus) that demonstrated a growing range and maturity of style. Musicologists have identified a theme similar to those of his third symphony in a set of variations written in 1791. Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna in November 1792, amid rumors of war spilling out of France, and learned shortly after his arrival that his father had died. Beethoven responded to the widespread feeling that he was a successor to the recently deceased Mozart over the next few years by studying that master's work and writing works with a distinctly Mozartean flavor.

Beethoven did not immediately set out to establish himself as a composer, but rather devoted himself to study and to playing the piano. Working under Haydn's direction, he sought to master counterpoint. He also took violin lessons from Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Early in this period, he also began receiving occasional instruction from Antonio Salieri, primarily in Italian vocal composition style; this relationship persisted until at least 1802, and possibly 1809. With Haydn's departure for England in 1794, Beethoven was expected by the Elector to return home. He chose instead to remain in Vienna, continuing his instruction in counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger and other teachers. Although his stipend from the Elector expired, a number of Viennese noblemen had already recognized his ability and offered him financial support, among them Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten.

By 1793, Beethoven established a reputation as an improviser in the salons of the nobility, often playing the preludes and fugues of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. His friend Nikolaus Simrock had also begun publishing his compositions; the first are believed to be a set of variations (WoO 66). Beethoven spent much of 1794 composing. By 1793, he had established a reputation in Vienna as a piano virtuoso, but he apparently withheld works from publication so that their publication in 1795 would have greater impact. Shortly after this performance, he arranged for the publication of the first of his compositions to which he assigned an opus number, the piano trios of Opus 1. These works were dedicated to his patron Prince Lichnowsky, and were a financial success; Beethoven's profits were nearly sufficient to cover his living expenses for a year.

Musical maturity

Between 1798 and 1802 Beethoven tackled what he considered the pinnacles of composition: the string quartet and the symphony. With the composition of his first six string quartets (Op. 18) between 1798 and 1800 (written on commission for, and dedicated to, Prince Lobkowitz), and their publication in 1801, along with premieres of the First and Second Symphonies in 1800 and 1802, Beethoven was justifiably considered one of the most important of a generation of young composers following after Haydn and Mozart. He continued to write in other forms, turning out widely known piano sonatas like the "Pathétique" sonata (Op. 13), which Cooper describes as "surpass[ing] any of his previous compositions, in strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation". He also completed his Septet (Op. 20) in 1799, which was one of his most popular works during his lifetime. ]]

For the premiere of his First Symphony, Beethoven hired the Burgtheater on 2 April 1800, and staged an extensive program of music, including works by Haydn and Mozart, as well as the Septet, the First Symphony, and one of his piano concertos (the latter three works all then unpublished). The concert, which the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described as "the most interesting concert in a long time", was not without difficulties; among other criticisms was that "the players did not bother to pay any attention to the soloist".

While Mozart and Haydn were undeniable influences (for example, Beethoven's quintet for piano and winds is said to bear a strong resemblance to Mozart's work for the same configuration, albeit with his own distinctive touches), other composers like Muzio Clementi were also stylistic influences. Beethoven's melodies, musical development, use of modulation and texture, and characterization of emotion all set him apart from his influences, and heightened the impact some of his early works made when they were first published. By the end of 1800 Beethoven and his music were already much in demand from patrons and publishers.

depicts Beethoven with a lyre-guitar]]

In May of 1799, Beethoven gave piano lessons to the daughters of Hungarian Countess Anna Brunsvik. While this round of lessons lasted less than one month, Beethoven formed a relationship with the older daughter Josephine that has been the subject of speculation ever since. Shortly after these lessons she married Count Josef Deym, and Beethoven was a regular visitor at their house, giving lessons and playing at parties. While her marriage was by all accounts unhappy, the couple had four children, and her relationship with Beethoven did not intensify until after Deym died in 1804.

Beethoven had few other students. From 1801 to 1805, he tutored Ferdinand Ries, who went on to become a composer and later wrote Beethoven remembered, a book about their encounters. The young Carl Czerny studied with Beethoven from 1801 to 1803. Czerny went on to become a renowned music teacher himself, taking on Franz Liszt as one of his students, and also gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's fifth piano concerto (the "Emperor") in 1812.

Beethoven's compositions between 1800 and 1802 were dominated by two works, although he continued to produce smaller works, including the Moonlight Sonata. In the spring of 1801 he completed The Creatures of Prometheus, a ballet. The work was such a success that it received numerous performances in 1801 and 1802, and Beethoven rushed to publish a piano arrangement to capitalize on its early popularity. In the spring of 1802 he completed the Second Symphony, intended for performance at a concert that was eventually cancelled. The symphony received its premiere at a subscription concert in April 1803 at the Theater an der Wien, where Beethoven had been appointed as composer in residence. In addition to the Second Symphony, the concert also featured the First Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. While reviews were mixed, the concert was a financial success; Beethoven was able to charge three times the cost of a typical concert ticket.

Beethoven's business dealings with publishers also began to improve in 1802 when his brother Carl, who had previously assisted him more casually, began to assume a larger role in the management of his affairs. In addition to negotiating higher prices for recently composed works, Carl also began selling some of Beethoven's earlier unpublished works, and encouraged Beethoven (against the latter's preference) to also make arrangements and transcriptions of his more popular works for other instrument combinations. Beethoven acceded to these requests, as he could not prevent publishers from hiring others to do similar arrangements of his works.

Loss of hearing

Around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to perceive and appreciate music; he also avoided conversation. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis, lead poisoning, typhus, auto-immune disorder (such as systemic lupus erythematosus), and even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. The explanation, from the autopsy of the time, is that he had a "distended inner ear" which developed lesions over time. Because of the high levels of lead found in samples of Beethoven's hair, that hypothesis has been extensively analyzed. While the likelihood of lead poisoning is very high, the deafness associated with it seldom takes the form that Beethoven exhibited.

As early as 1801, Beethoven wrote to friends describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his close friends were already aware of the problems). Beethoven, on the advice of his doctor, lived in the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament, which records his resolution to continue living for and through his art. Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he wept. Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent his composing music, but it made playing at concerts—a lucrative source of income—increasingly difficult. After a failed attempt in 1811 to perform his own Piano Concerto No. 5 (the "Emperor"), which was premiered by his student Carl Czerny, he never performed in public again.

A large collection of Beethoven's hearing aids such as a special ear horn can be viewed at the Beethoven House Museum in Bonn, Germany. Despite his obvious distress, Carl Czerny remarked that Beethoven could still hear speech and music normally until 1812. By 1814 however, Beethoven was almost totally deaf, and when a group of visitors saw him play a loud arpeggio of thundering bass notes at his piano remarking, "Ist es nicht schön?" (Is it not beautiful?), they felt deep sympathy considering his courage and sense of humor (he lost the ability to hear higher frequencies first).

As a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has been preserved: his conversation books. Used primarily in the last ten or so years of his life, his friends wrote in these books so that he could know what they were saying, and he then responded either orally or in the book. The books contain discussions about music and other issues, and give insights into his thinking; they are a source for investigation into how he felt his music should be performed, and also his perception of his relationship to art. Unfortunately, 264 out of a total of 400 conversation books were destroyed (and others were altered) after Beethoven's death by Anton Schindler, in his attempt to paint an idealized picture of the composer.

Patronage

While Beethoven earned income from publication of his works and from public performances, he also depended on the generosity of patrons for income, for whom he gave private performances and copies of works they commissioned for an exclusive period prior to their publication. Some of his early patrons, including Prince Lobkowitz and Prince Lichnowsky, gave him annual stipends in addition to commissioning works and purchasing published works.

Perhaps Beethoven's most important aristocratic patron was Archduke Rudolph, the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, who in 1803 or 1804 began to study piano and composition with Beethoven. The cleric (Cardinal-Priest) and the composer became friends, and their meetings continued until 1824. Beethoven dedicated 14 compositions to Rudolph, including the Archduke Trio (1811) and his great Missa Solemnis (1823). Rudolph, in turn, dedicated one of his own compositions to Beethoven. The letters Beethoven wrote to Rudolph are today kept at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

In the Autumn of 1808, after having been rejected for a position at the royal theatre, Beethoven received an offer from Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte, then king of Westphalia, for a well-paid position as Kapellmeister at the court in Cassel. To persuade him to stay in Vienna, the Archduke Rudolph, Prince Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz, after receiving representations from the composer's friends, pledged to pay Beethoven a pension of 4000 florins a year. Only Archduke Rudolph paid his share of the pension on the agreed date. Kinsky, immediately called to duty as an officer, did not contribute and soon died after falling from his horse. Lobkowitz stopped paying in September 1811. No successors came forward to continue the patronage, and Beethoven relied mostly on selling composition rights and a small pension after 1815. The effects of these financial arrangements were undermined to some extent by war with France, which caused significant inflation when the government printed money to fund its war efforts.

The Middle period

Beethoven's return to Vienna from Heiligenstadt was marked by a change in musical style, now recognized as the start of his "Middle" or "Heroic" period. According to Carl Czerny, Beethoven said, "I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way". This "Heroic" phase was characterised by a large number of original works being composed on a grand scale. The first major work employing this new style was the Third Symphony in E flat, known as the "Eroica". While other composers had written symphonies with implied programs, or stories, this work was longer and larger in scope than any previously written symphony. When it premiered in early 1805 it received a mixed reception, with some listeners objecting to its length or failing to understand its structure, while others viewed it as another masterpiece.

Beethoven composed highly ambitious works throughout the Middle period, often heroic in tone, that extended the scope of the classical musical language Beethoven had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The Middle period work includes the Third through Eighth Symphonies, the string quartets 7–11, the "Waldstein" and "Appassionata" piano sonatas, Christ on the Mount of Olives, the opera Fidelio, the Violin Concerto and many other compositions. During this time Beethoven earned his living from the sale and performance of his work, and from the continuing support of wealthy patrons. His position at the Theater an der Wien was terminated when the theater changed management in early 1804, and he was forced to move temporarily to the suburbs of Vienna with his friend Stephan von Breuning. This slowed work on Fidelio, his largest work to date, for a time. It was delayed again by the Austrian censor, and finally premiered in November 1805 to houses that were nearly empty because of the French occupation of the city. In addition to being a financial failure, this version of Fidelio was also a critical failure, and Beethoven began revising it.

The string quartets composed during the Middle period are Op. 59 no 1, Op 59 no 2, Op 59 no 3 (The Razumowski quartets), Op. 74 (the Harp) and Op 95. Beethoven's publisher said that the world was not ready for the middle quartets. The slow movement of Op. 59 no 2 has been described as the closest Beethoven got to heaven. Even Beethoven said that the Op. 95 quartet was not suitable for public performance.

The work of the Middle period established Beethoven's reputation as a great composer. In a review from 1810, he was enshrined by E. T. A. Hoffmann as one of the three great "Romantic" composers; Hoffman called Beethoven's Fifth Symphony "one of the most important works of the age". A particular trauma for Beethoven occurred during this period in May 1809, when the attacking forces of Napoleon bombarded Vienna. According to Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, very worried that the noise would destroy what remained of his hearing, hid in the basement of his brother's house, covering his ears with pillows. He was composing the "Emperor" Concerto at the time.

Personal and family difficulties

Beethoven was introduced to Giulietta Guicciardi in about 1800 through the Brunsvik family. His mutual love-relationship with Guicciardi is mentioned in a November 1801 letter to his boyhood friend, Franz Wegeler. Beethoven dedicated to Giulietta his Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata. Marriage plans were thwarted by Giulietta's father and perhaps Beethoven's common lineage. In 1803 she married Count Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg (1783–1839), himself an amateur composer.

Beethoven's relationship with Josephine Deym notably deepened after the death of her first husband in 1804. There is some evidence that Beethoven may have proposed to her, at least informally. While the relationship was apparently reciprocated, she, with some regret, turned him down, and their relationship effectively ended in 1807. She cited her "duty", an apparent reference to the fact that she was born of nobility and he was a commoner. It is also likely that he considered proposing (whether he actually did or not is unknown) to Therese Malfatti, the dedicatee of "Für Elise" in 1810; his common status may also have interfered with those plans.

In the spring of 1811 Beethoven became seriously ill, suffering headaches and bad fevers. On the advice of his doctor, he spent six weeks in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz. The following winter, which was dominated by work on the Seventh symphony, he was again ill, and decided to spend the summer of 1812 at Teplitz. It is likely that he was at Teplitz when he wrote three love letters to an "Immortal Beloved". While the identity of the intended recipient is an ongoing subject of debate, the most likely candidate, according to what is known about people's movements and the contents of the letters, is Antonie Brentano, a married woman with whom he had begun a friendship in 1810. Beethoven traveled to Karlsbad in late July, where he stayed in the same guesthouse as the Brentanos. After traveling with them for a time, he returned to Teplitz, where after another bout of gastric illness, he left for Linz to visit his brother Johann.

In early 1813 Beethoven apparently went through a difficult emotional period, and his compositional output dropped for a time. Historians have suggested a variety of causes, including his lack of success at romance. His personal appearance, which had generally been neat, degraded, as did his manners in public, especially when dining. Some of his (married) desired romantic partners had children (leading to assertions among historians of Beethoven's possible paternity), and his brother Carl was seriously ill. Beethoven took care of his brother and his family, an expense that he claimed left him penniless. He was unable to obtain a date for a concert in the spring of 1813, which, if successful, would have provided him with significant funds.

Beethoven was finally motivated to begin significant composition again in June 1813, when news arrived of the defeat of one of Napoleon's armies at Vitoria, Spain, by a coalition of forces under the Duke of Wellington. This news stimulated him to write the battle symphony known as Wellington's Victory. It was premiered on 8 December at a charity concert for victims of the war along with his Seventh Symphony. The work was a popular hit, likely because of its programmatic style which was entertaining and easy to understand. It received repeat performances at concerts Beethoven staged in January and February 1814. Beethoven's renewed popularity led to demands for a revival of Fidelio, which, in its third revised version, was also well-received when it opened in July. That summer he also composed a piano sonata for the first time in five years (No. 27, Opus 90). This work was in a markedly more Romantic style than his earlier sonatas. He was also one of many composers who produced music in a patriotic vein to entertain the many heads of state and diplomats that came to the Congress of Vienna that began in November 1814. His output of songs included his only song cycle, "An die ferne Geliebte", and the extraordinarily expressive, but almost incoherent, "An die Hoffnung" (Opus 94).

Custody struggle and illness

Between 1815 and 1817 Beethoven's output dropped again. Part of this Beethoven attributed to a lengthy illness (he called it an "inflammatory fever") that afflicted him for more than a year, starting in October 1816. Biographers have speculated on a variety of other reasons that also contributed to the decline in creative output, including the difficulties in the personal lives of his would-be paramours and the harsh censorship policies of the Austrian government. The illness and death of his brother Carl from consumption likely also played a role.

Carl had been ill for some time, and Beethoven spent a small fortune in 1815 on his care. When he finally died on 15 November 1815, Beethoven immediately became embroiled in a protracted legal dispute with Carl's wife Johanna over custody of their son Karl, then nine years old. Beethoven, who considered Johanna an unfit parent because of her morals (she had an illegitimate child by a different father before marrying Carl, and had been convicted of theft) and financial management, had successfully applied to Carl to have himself named sole guardian of the boy; but a late codicil to Carl's will gave him and Johanna joint guardianship. While Beethoven was successful at having his nephew removed from her custody in February 1816, the case was not fully resolved until 1820, and he was frequently preoccupied by the demands of the litigation and seeing to the welfare of the boy, whom he first placed in a private school. The custody fight brought out the very worst aspects of Beethoven's character; in the lengthy court cases Beethoven stopped at nothing to ensure that he achieved this goal, and even stopped composing for long periods.

The Austrian court system had one court for the nobility, The R&I; Landrechte, and another for commoners, The Civil Court of the Magistrate. Beethoven disguised the fact that the Dutch "van" in his name did not denote nobility as does the German "von", and his case was tried in the Landrechte. Owing to his influence with the court, Beethoven felt assured of a favorable outcome. Beethoven was awarded sole guardianship. While giving evidence to the Landrechte, however, Beethoven inadvertently His musical output in 1818 was still somewhat reduced, but included song collections and the Hammerklavier Sonata, as well as sketches for two symphonies that eventually coalesced into the large-scale Ninth Symphony. In 1819 he was again preoccupied by the legal processes around Karl, and began work on the Diabelli Variations and the Missa Solemnis.

For the next few years he continued to work on the Missa, composing piano sonatas and bagatelles to satisfy the demands of publishers and the need for income, and completing the Diabelli Variations. He was ill again for an extended time in 1821, and completed the Missa in 1823, three years after its original due date. He also opened discussions with his publishers over the possibility of producing a complete edition of his works, an idea that was arguably not fully realized until 1971. Beethoven's brother Johann began to take a hand in his business affairs around this time, much in the way Carl had earlier, locating older unpublished works to offer for publication and offering the Missa to multiple publishers with the goal of getting a higher price for it.

Two commissions in 1822 improved Beethoven's financial prospects. The Philharmonic Society of London offered a commission for a symphony, and Prince Nikolay Golitsin of St. Petersburg offered to pay Beethoven's price for three string quartets. The first of these spurred Beethoven to finish the Ninth Symphony, which was premiered, along with the Missa Solemnis, on 7 May 1824, to great acclaim at the Kärntnertortheater. The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung gushed "inexhaustible genius had shown us a new world", and Carl Czerny wrote that his symphony "breathes such a fresh, lively, indeed youthful spirit [...] so much power, innovation, and beauty as ever [came] from the head of this original man, although he certainly sometimes led the old wigs to shake their heads." Unlike his earlier concerts, Beethoven made little money on this one, as the expenses of mounting it were significantly higher. It was Beethoven's last public concert.

Unlike Mozart, who was buried anonymously in a communal grave (such being the custom at the time), 20,000 Viennese citizens lined the streets for Beethoven's funeral on Thursday, 29 March 1827. Franz Schubert, who died the following year and was buried next to Beethoven, was one of the torchbearers. After a Requiem Mass at the church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), Beethoven was buried in the Währing cemetery, north-west of Vienna. His remains were exhumed for study in 1862, and moved in 1888 to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof. Friends and visitors before and after his death clipped locks of his hair, some of which have been preserved and subjected to additional analysis, as have skull fragments removed during the 1862 exhumation. Some of these analyses have led to controversial assertions that Beethoven was accidentally poisoned to death by excessive doses of lead-based treatments administered under instruction from his doctor.

Character

Beethoven's personal life was troubled by his encroaching deafness, which led him to contemplate suicide (documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament). Beethoven was often irascible and may have suffered from bipolar disorder and irritability brought on by chronic abdominal pain (beginning in his twenties) that has been attributed to possible lead poisoning. Nevertheless, he had a close and devoted circle of friends all his life, thought to have been attracted by his strength of personality. Toward the end of his life, Beethoven's friends competed in their efforts to help him cope with his incapacities.

Sources show Beethoven's disdain for authority, and for social rank. He stopped performing at the piano if the audience chatted amongst themselves, or afforded him less than their full attention. At soirées, he refused to perform if suddenly called upon to do so. Eventually, after many confrontations, the Archduke Rudolph decreed that the usual rules of court etiquette did not apply to Beethoven.

Music

Beethoven is acknowledged as one of the giants of classical music; occasionally he is referred to as one of the "three Bs" (along with Bach and Brahms) who epitomize that tradition. He was also a pivotal figure in the transition from the 18th century musical classicism to 19th century romanticism, and his influence on subsequent generations of composers was profound. The film is directed by Walter Kolm-Veltée, produced by Guido Bagier with Walter Kolm-Veltée and written by Walter Kolm-Veltée with Franz Tassié.

In 1962, Walt Disney produced a made-for-television and extremely fictionalized life of Beethoven titled The Magnificent Rebel. The film was given a two-part premiere on the Walt Disney anthology television series and released to theatres in Europe. It starred Karlheinz Böhm as Beethoven.

In 1994 a film about Beethoven (Gary Oldman) titled Immortal Beloved was written and directed by Bernard Rose. The story follows Beethoven's secretary and first biographer, Anton Schindler (portrayed by Jeroen Krabbé), as he attempts to ascertain the true identity of the Unsterbliche Geliebte (Immortal Beloved) addressed in three letters found in the late composer's private papers. Schindler journeys throughout the Austrian Empire, interviewing women who might be potential candidates, as well as through Beethoven's own tumultuous life. Filming took place in the Czech cities of Prague and Kromeriz and the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria, between 23 May and 29 July 1994.

In 2003 a BBC/Opus Arte film Eroica was released, with Ian Hart as Beethoven and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner performing the Eroica Symphony in its entirety. The subject of the film is the first performance of the Eroica Symphony in 1804 at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz (played by Jack Davenport). In a 2005 three-part BBC miniseries, Beethoven was played by Paul Rhys.

A movie titled Copying Beethoven was released in 2006, starring Ed Harris as Beethoven. This film was a fictionalized account of Beethoven's last days, and his struggle to produce his Ninth Symphony before he died.

Memorials

The Beethoven Monument, Bonn was unveiled in August 1845, in honour of his 75th anniversary. It was the first statue of a composer created in Germany, and the music festival that accompanied the unveiling was the impetus for the very hasty construction of the original Beethovenhalle in Bonn (it was designed and built within less than a month, on the urging of Franz Liszt). A statue to Mozart had been unveiled in Salzburg, Austria in 1842. Vienna did not honour Beethoven with a statue until 1880.

See also

Egmont

References

Sources

Sachs, Harvey, The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, London, Faber, 2010. ISBN 978-0-571-22145-5

Further reading

Albrecht, Theodore, and Elaine Schwensen, "More Than Just Peanuts: Evidence for December 16 as Beethoven's birthday." The Beethoven Newsletter 3 (1988): 49, 60–63.

Bohle, Bruce, and Robert Sabin. The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. London: J.M.Dent & Sons LTD, 1975. ISBN 0-460-04235-1.

Davies, Peter J. The Character of a Genius: Beethoven in Perspective. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-31913-8.

Davies, Peter J. Beethoven in Person: His Deafness, Illnesses, and Death. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. ISBN 0-313-31587-6.

DeNora, Tia. "Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792–1803." Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-21158-8.

Geck, Martin. Beethoven. Translated by Anthea Bell. London: Haus, 2003. ISBN 1-904341-03-9 (h), ISBN 1-904341-00-4 (p).

Kornyei, Alexius. Beethoven in Martonvasar. Verlag, 1960. OCLC Number: 27056305

Kropfinger, Klaus. Beethoven. Verlage Bärenreiter/Metzler, 2001. ISBN 3-7618-1621-9.

Martin, Russell. Beethoven's Hair. New York: Broadway Books, 2000. ISBN 978-0-7679-0350-9

Morris, Edmund. Beethoven: The Universal Composer. New York: Atlas Books / HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-075974-7.

Rosen, Charles. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. (Expanded ed.) New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. ISBN 0-393-04020-8 (hc); ISBN 0-393-31712-9 (pb).

Solomon, Maynard. Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 0-520-23746-3.

Thayer, A. W., rev and ed. Elliot Forbes. Thayer's Life of Beethoven. (2 vols.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09103-X

Sullivan, J. W. N., Beethoven: His Spiritual Development New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927

External links

Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Official website of Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. Links to extensive studio and digital archive, library holdings, the Beethoven-Haus Museum (including "internet exhibitions" and "virtual visits"), the Beethoven-Archiv research center, and information on Beethoven publications of interest to the specialist and general reader. Extensive collection of Beethoven's compositions and written documents, with sound samples and a digital reconstruction of his last house in Vienna.

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, The Beethoven Gateway (San José State University)

Digitized, scanned material (books, sheetmusic)

"Beethoven" Titles; Beethoven as author from archive.org

"Beethoven" Titles; Beethoven as author from books.google.com

Digital Archives from Beethoven-Haus Bonn

"Beethoven" titles from Gallica

Sheetmusic (scores)

Works by Beethoven Beethoven-Haus Bonn

"Beethoven" Titles from the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)

"Beethoven" Titles from the University of Rochester

Free sheet music from Kreusch-sheet-music.net

Beethoven scores from Mutopia Project

Historical recordings

Beethoven - recordings with audio available;   Beethoven - recordings (incl. without avail. audio);   Information on sound files (CHARM)

Beethoven cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library

Recordings at archive.org

General reference

Mad About Beethoven by British television and radio announcer John Suchet

Beethoven: The Immortal. Introduction and detailed account of the composer's life. Articles include his deafness, demeanor, daily routine, medical history, final days, and letters.

Raptus Association for Music Appreciation site on Beethoven

All About Ludwig van Beethoven

Listings of live performances at Bachtrack

Specific topics

Beethoven's last apartment in Vienna, digitally reconstructed 2004, on Multimedia CD-ROM edited by Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Category:1770 births Category:1827 deaths Category:18th-century Austrian people Category:18th-century German people Category:Austrian people of German descent Category:Burials at the Zentralfriedhof Category:Classical era composers Category:Deaf musicians Category:German classical pianists Category:German composers Category:German people of Flemish descent Category:German Roman Catholics Category:People from Bonn Category:People from the Electorate of Cologne Category:Romantic composers Category:Opera composers Category:Smallpox survivors Category:The Enlightenment Category:Viennese composers Category:Walhalla enshrinees

Name	Anne-Sophie Mutter
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	June 29, 1963 Rheinfelden, Germany
Instrument	Violin
Genre	Classical
Occupation	Violinist
Years active	1977–present
Url	www.anne-sophie-mutter.com
Notable instruments	Violin Emiliani Stradivarius 1703 Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius 1710 Mutter Regazzi 2005

Anne-Sophie Mutter (born June 29, 1963) is a German violin virtuoso.

Early life

Mutter was born in Rheinfelden, Germany. She began playing the piano at age five, and shortly afterwards the violin, studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch. After Honigberger's death, she continued her studies with Aida Stucki, at the Winterthur Conservatory.

Career

After winning several prizes, she was exempted from school to dedicate herself to her art. When she was 13, conductor Herbert von Karajan invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1977, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and with the English Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. At 15, Mutter made her first recording of the Mozart Third and Fifth violin concerti with von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 1980, she made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1985, at the age of 22, she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and head of its faculty of international violin studies and in 1986 an honorary member. In 1988, she made a grand tour of Canada and the United States, playing for the first time at Carnegie Hall. In 1998 she played and recorded for CD and DVD the complete set of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, accompanied by Lambert Orkis; these were broadcast on television in many countries.

Repertoire

Though her repertoire includes many classical works, Mutter is particularly known for her performances of contemporary music. A number of pieces have been especially written for or dedicated to her, including Henri Dutilleux's Sur le même accord, Krzysztof Penderecki's Second Violin Concerto and Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit ("Time Chant"). In August 2007, she premiered Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto No. 2 "In tempus präsens," and Witold Lutosławski orchestrated his Partita for her. She has received various prizes, including several Grammys. She also owns two Stradivarius violins (The Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710) and a Regazzi, dated 2005. After experimenting with a Menuhin-style shoulder rest, a little pillow, and a deer skin, Mutter has settled down to playing the violin with nothing between her and the violin. In addition, her need for the ideal traction with the violin has induced her to choose the same John Galliano sleeveless dress during her performances.

In October 2006, on French television, Mutter appeared to indicate that she would be retiring when she turned 45, in 2008. However the following month she said that her words were "misinterpreted" and that she would continue to play as long as she felt she could "bring anything new, anything important, anything different to music".

Personal life

In 1989, Mutter married her first husband, Detlef Wunderlich, with whom she had two children, Arabella and Richard. Wunderlich died of cancer in 1995. She married the pianist and conductor André Previn in 2002.

On 21 August 2006, Mutter's office announced that she and Previn had divorced, although the couple were rumoured to have separated three months previously. They continue to work together.

Awards and recognition

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

:* Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis for Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas (Nos. 1-3, Op. 12; Nos. 1-3, Op. 30; "Spring" Sonata) (2000)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):

:* Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn (conductor) for Previn: Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie"/Bernstein: Serenade (2005) :* Anne-Sophie Mutter, Krzysztof Penderecki (conductor) and the London Symphony Orchestra for Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen (1999) :* Anne-Sophie Mutter, James Levine (conductor) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Berg: Violin Concerto/Rihm: Time Chant (1994)

Sonning Award (2001; Denmark)

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class

Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (2003)

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005)

Victoires de la Musique Classique (2006)

Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2008)

Doctor Honoris Causa from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2010)

Partial discography

On Deutsche Grammophon:

* Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (1978)

Beethoven Triple Concerto (1980)

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto/Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981)

Brahms Violin Concerto (1982)

Brahms Double Concerto (1983)

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (1988)

Lutosławski Partita & Chain 2/Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1988)

Beethoven: The String Trios (1989)

Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2/Moret En Rêve (1991)

Berg Violin Concerto/Rihm Time Chant (1992)

Carmen-Fantasie (1993)

Romance (1995)

Sibelius Violin Concerto (1995)

The Berlin Recital (1996)

Brahms Violin Concerto/Schumann Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1997)

Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2/Bartok Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (1997)

Beethoven The Violin Sonatas (1998)

Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1999)

Recital 2000 (2000)

Lutosławski Partita for Violin and Orchestra/Chain 2 (2002)

Beethoven Violin Concerto (2002)

Tango Song and Dance (2003)

Previn Violin Concerto/Bernstein Serenade (2003)

Tchaikovsky & Korngold Violin Concertos (2004)

Dutilleux Sur le même accord/Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2/Stravinsky Concerto en ré (2005)

Mozart The Violin Concertos (2005)

Mozart Piano Trios K502, K542, K548 (2006)

Mozart The Violin Sonatas (August 2006)

Simply Anne-Sophie (2006)

Gubaidulina in tempus praesens (2008)

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (2009)

Brahms Violin Sonatas (2010)

On EMI Classics:

Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 (1982)

Bach Violin Concertos/Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra (1983)

Brahms Violin Sonatas (1983)

Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1984)

Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole/Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen (1985)

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, Sinfonia Concertante (1991)

On Erato:

Glazunov Violin Concerto/Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 (1989)

References

External links

Anne-Sophie Mutter Official Website

Deutsche Grammophon Artist page

Profile at Wall Street Journal, 11/25/08

Anne-Sophie Mutter: The Mozart Effect Is Not All In The Brain (It Is Also Soulfood)

Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Category:German classical violinists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Name	Sergey Khachatryan
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Instrument	Violin
Genre	Classical,

Sergey Khachatryan (; also spelled Sergei Khachatryan) is an Armenian violinist. He was born in Yerevan in 1985.

He made his New York City debut on August 4, 2006, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of Osmo Vänskä.

Prizes

2000: 1st Prize at the International Louis Spohr Competition for young violinists
2000: 1st Prize at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition (he is the youngest person who ever won)
2000: 2nd Prize at the International Fritz Kreisler Competition
2005: 1st Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition

At the Queen Elisabeth Competition, he won the 1708 "Huggins" Stradivarius violin on loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation for four years.
1. Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto/Aram Khachaturian Violin Concerto
2. Shostakovitch Violin Concerto 1,2
3. J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas, BWV 1001-1006 (2010)
He has a debut CD at EMI Classics, released October 7, 2002. Among the works on this CD are the Brahms D minor sonata and Ravel's Tzigane, both performed with pianist Lusine Khachatryan, as well as Chausson's Poeme and Waxman's Carmen Fantasy, both performed with pianist Vladimir Khachatryan. (Lusine is Sergey's sister, born in 1983 and Vladimir is Sergey's father.)

References

Category:1985 births Category:Armenian classical violinists Category:German Armenians Category:Living people Category:People from Yerevan Category:Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition Category:Immigrants to Germany Category:International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition prize-winners

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (, English see fn.), baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, of whom Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Biography

Family and early years

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, capital of the sovereign Archbishopric of Salzburg, in what is now Austria but, at the time, was part of the Bavarian Circle in the Holy Roman Empire. His only sibling to survive past birth was Maria Anna (1751–1829), called "Nannerl". Wolfgang was baptized the day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart" as an adult, but there were many variants.

His father Leopold (1719–1787) was from Augsburg. He was deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a minor composer, and an experienced teacher. In the year of Mozart's birth, his father published a violin textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, which achieved success.

; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold]]When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father; and her three-year-old brother would look on, evidently fascinated. Years later, after his death, she reminisced:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was always striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. [...] In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier. [...] He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. [...] At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.

These early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the Nannerl Notenbuch.

Biographer Maynard Solomon notes that, while Leopold was a devoted teacher to his children, there is evidence that Wolfgang was keen to make progress beyond what he was being taught. His first ink-spattered composition and his precocious efforts with the violin were on his own initiative and came as a great surprise to Leopold. Leopold eventually gave up composing when his son's outstanding musical talents became evident. He was Wolfgang's only teacher in his earliest years and taught his children languages and academic subjects as well as music.]]

1762–1773: Years of travel

During Mozart's youth, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition, in 1762, at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip, Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart visited in London in 1764 and 1765. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.

These trips were often arduous. Travel conditions were primitive; the family had to wait for invitations and reimbursement from the nobility. They endured long, near-fatal illnesses far from home: first Leopold (London, summer 1764) then both children (The Hague, autumn 1765).

After one year in Salzburg, father and son set off for Italy, leaving Wolfgang's mother and his sister at home. This travel lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. As with earlier journeys, Leopold wanted to display his son's abilities as a performer and a rapidly maturing composer. Wolfgang met G. B. Martini, in Bologna, and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica. In Rome, he heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere once in performance in the Sistine Chapel. He wrote it out in its entirety from memory, only returning to correct minor errors—thus producing the first illegal copy of this closely guarded property of the Vatican.

In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770), which was performed with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father later twice to Milan (August–December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for the composition and premieres of Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Leopold hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son in Italy, but these hopes were never fulfilled.

Toward the end of the final Italian journey, Mozart wrote the first of his works to be still widely performed today, the solo cantata Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165.

1773–1777: The Salzburg court

After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had a great number of friends and admirers in Salzburg and had the opportunity to work in many genres, composing symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades, and a few minor operas. Several of these early works are still performed today. Between April and December 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical sophistication. The last three—K. 216, K. 218, K. 219—are now staples of the repertoire. In 1776 he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E-flat concerto K. 271 of early 1777, considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.

Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontent with Salzburg and redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One reason was his low salary, 150 florins a year; Mozart also longed to compose operas, and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in 1775 when the court theater was closed, especially since the other theater in Salzburg was largely reserved for visiting troupes.

Two long expeditions in search of work (both Leopold and Wolfgang were looking) interrupted this long Salzburg stay: they visited Vienna, from 14 July to 26 September 1773, and Munich, from 6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera.

1777–1778: The Paris journey

In August 1777, Mozart resigned his Salzburg position and, on 23 September, ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich. Since Archbishop Colloredo would not give Leopold leave to travel, Mozart's mother Anna Maria accompanied him.

Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters in a musical family. There were prospects of employment in Mannheim, but they came to nothing, and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March 1778 to continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment. He fell into debt and took to pawning valuables. The nadir of the visit occurred when Mozart's mother took ill and died on 3 July 1778. There had been delays in calling a doctor—probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of funds.

While Wolfgang was in Paris, Leopold was pursuing opportunities for him back in Salzburg, and, with the support of local nobility, secured him a post as court organist and concertmaster. The yearly salary was 450 florins, but Wolfgang was reluctant to accept. After leaving Paris on 26 September 1778, he tarried in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an appointment outside Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but she made it plain that she was no longer interested in him. Mozart finally reached home on 15 January 1779 and took up the new position, but his discontent with Salzburg was undiminished.

Among the better known works that Mozart wrote on the Paris journey are the A minor piano sonata K. 310/300d and the "Paris" Symphony (no. 31); these were performed in Paris on 12 June and 18 June 1778. for his gallery; Mozart with the Order of the Golden Spur which he received in 1770 as a 14-year old from Pope Clement XIV in Rome.]]

1781: Departure to Vienna

In January 1781, Mozart's opera Idomeneo premiered with "considerable success" in Munich. The following March the composer was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. Mozart, fresh from the adulation he had earned in Munich, was offended when Colloredo treated him as a mere servant and particularly when the archbishop forbade him to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half of his yearly Salzburg salary. The resulting quarrel came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign and was refused. The following month, permission was granted but in a grossly insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the ass", administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.

Early Vienna years

Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He performed often as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781, and he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna". Aloysia, who had earlier rejected Mozart's suit, was now married to the actor Joseph Lange, and Mozart's interest shifted to the third daughter, Constanze. The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke up in April 1782. Mozart also faced a very difficult task in getting his father's permission for the marriage. The couple were finally married on 4 August 1782, in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the day before Leopold's consent arrived in the mail.

In 1783, Wolfgang and Constanze visited his family in Salzburg. Leopold and Nannerl were, at best, only polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna, and the two composers became friends (see Haydn and Mozart). When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781. Haydn in 1785 told the visiting Leopold: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition."

From 1782 to 1785 Mozart mounted concerts with himself as soloist, presenting three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theaters was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof (an apartment building), and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube (a restaurant). The concerts were very popular, and the concertos he premiered at them are still firm fixtures in the repertoire. Solomon writes that during this period Mozart created "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre". Mozart also bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300. and kept servants. Saving was therefore impossible, and the short period of financial success did nothing to soften the hardship the Mozarts were later to experience.

On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence"). Freemasonry played an important role in the remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were Masons, and on various occasions he composed Masonic music. (See Mozart and Freemasonry.)

1786–1787: Return to opera

Despite the great success of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. However, around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard writing and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. 1786 saw the successful premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, and also met with success in Vienna in 1788. The two are among Mozart's most important works and are mainstays of the operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty for both listeners and performers. These developments were not witnessed by the composer's father, as Leopold had died on 28 May 1787.

In December 1787 Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment, paying just 800 florins per year, and only required Mozart to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal. However, even this modest income became important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph's aim was to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better prospects.

In 1787 the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart. No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two composers ever met. (See Mozart and Beethoven.)

1788–1790

, made by Dora Stock during Mozart's visit to Dresden, April 1789]] Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank. This was a difficult time for musicians in Vienna because Austria was at war, and both the general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had declined.

By mid-1788, Mozart and his family had moved from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund. Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow Mason Michael Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives. Maynard Solomon and others have suggested that Mozart was suffering from depression, and it seems that his output slowed. Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in 1790.

Around this time Mozart made long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes: to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789 (see Mozart's Berlin journey), and to Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in 1790. The trips produced only isolated success and did not relieve the family's financial distress.

1791

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of great productivity—and by some accounts a time of personal recovery. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E-flat), the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.

Mozart's financial situation, a source of extreme anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve. Although the evidence is inconclusive, it appears that wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart in return for the occasional composition. He probably also benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as Imperial chamber composer. and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered on 15 November 1791.

Final illness and death

in 1819]] Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere on 6 September of his opera La clemenza di Tito, written in 1791 on commission for the Emperor's coronation festivities. He was able to continue his professional functions for some time, and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on 30 September. The illness intensified on 20 November, at which point Mozart became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.

Mozart was nursed in his final illness by Constanze and her youngest sister Sophie, and attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. It is clear that he was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem. However, the evidence that he actually dictated passages to his student Süssmayr is very slim.

Mozart died at 1 a.m. on 5 December 1791 at the age of 35. The New Grove gives a matter-of-fact description of his funeral:

The cause of Mozart's death cannot be known with certainty. The official record has it as "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever.

Mozart's sparse funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer: memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, in the period immediately after his death, Mozart's reputation rose substantially: Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm" for his work; biographies were written (first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen; see Biographies of Mozart); and publishers vied to produce complete editions of his works.

Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's these are mostly not preserved, as Constanze sought to destroy them after his death. (See: Mozart's compositional method.) He was raised a Roman Catholic and remained a member of the Church throughout his life. (See Mozart and Roman Catholicism.)

Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a great number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II. Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his older colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes.

He enjoyed billiards and dancing (see Mozart and dance), and kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, and also a horse for recreational riding. He had a fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, but also in his correspondence with his sister and parents. Mozart even wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends. See: Mozart and scatology.

Works, musical style, and innovations

Style

" (K. 626) in Mozart's own handwriting. It is located at the Mozarthaus in Vienna.]] Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the style galant, a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, but also dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.

The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and the opera Don Giovanni. Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:

It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.

Especially during his last decade, Mozart exploited chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time, with remarkable assurance and to great artistic effect.

Mozart always had a gift for absorbing and adapting valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language. In London as a child, he met J.C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his own practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers.

As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A Major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.

Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo; and Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone color, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.

Influence

Mozart's most famous pupil, whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna home for two years as a child, was probably Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a transitional figure between Classical and Romantic eras. More important is the influence Mozart had on composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death, studying his scores has been a standard part of the training of classical musicians.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager. He is thought to have performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn, and he traveled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study the older composer. Some of Beethoven's works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.

A number of composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes. Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46). Others include Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni (1827) and Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, "Mozartiana" (1887), as a tribute to Mozart.

Köchel catalogue

For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a Köchel catalogue number is used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves our knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.

See also

The Complete Mozart Edition, 180 compact discs arranged into 45 themed volumes released by Philips Classics Records in 2000.

Mozart effect

Mozart family

Mozart in fiction

Mozartkugel

Mozarteum

Mozarthaus Vienna

Notes

References

Fradkin, Robert A. (1996) The well-tempered announcer: a pronunciation guide to classical music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 025321064X.

Further reading

External links

Mozarthaus Salzburg

Salzburg Tourist Office – Salzburg City Tourist Board website.

Digitized, scanned Material (Books, Sheet music)

"Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from archive.org

"Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from books.google.com

Digital Mozart Edition (Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)

"Mozart" titles from Gallica

From the British Library

*Mozart's Thematic Catalogue (view with "Turning the Pages")

*Mozart's Musical Diary

*Background information on Mozart and the Thematic Catalogue

Letters of Leopold Mozart und Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Badische Landesbibliothek)

Sheet music (Scores)

Complete sheetmusic (scores) from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)

"Mozart" Titles from the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)

"Mozart" Titles from the University of Rochester

Free typeset sheet music of Mozart's works from Cantorion.org

Mozart as author from archive.org

Mozart as author from books.google.com

* Category:Classical era composers Category:German composers Category:Opera composers Category:Organ improvisers Category:Viennese composers Category:Austrian classical pianists Category:Child classical musicians Category:People from Salzburg Category:Austrian Roman Catholics Category:Knights of the Golden Spur Category:1756 births Category:1791 deaths

Mayuko Kamio (神尾真由子, born June 12, 1986 in Toyonaka, Osaka) is a Japanese violinist.

Kamio currently studies with Zakhar Bron at the Hochschule Musik und Theater (HMT) in Zurich, Switzerland. She plays a Stradivarius from 1727, previously owned by Joseph Joachim, on loan from Suntory. She has appeared with renowned orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Russian National Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Zürcher Kammerorchester. She won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2000 and first prize for violin in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2007.

Kamio was born in Osaka, Japan in 1986, and began to play the violin at the age of four. Her early teachers were Chikako Satoya, Machie Oguri and Chihiro Kudo, and she worked with Koichiro Harada at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. Ms. Kamio studied in the U.S. with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Aspen Music Festival and the pre-college division of The Juilliard School. She currently attends the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich, where she works with Zakhar Bron.

Kamio was one of three persons (along with pianist Adam Neiman and Young Concert Artists manager Susan Wadsworth) who were the subjects of the 2003 documentary film Playing for Real, directed by Josh Aronson. The film documents the difficulties in establishing a career in classical music.

In 2010, Kamio toured Japan with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. On 2 October 2010, She played Fantasía sobre Carmen de Sarasate in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

References

External links

Artist's website, accessed 23 June 2010

Young Concert Artists, Inc biography and contact, accessed 23 June 2010

Aspen artist's page, accessed 23 June 2010

Category:1986 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese classical violinists Category:People from Toyonaka Category:Toho Gakuen School of Music alumni Category:Prize-winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition

Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Instrument	Classical Guitar, Lute, baroque guitar
Name	Julian Bream
Born	1933, London
Genre	Classical music
Label	RCA, EMI, BMG

Julian Bream C.B.E. (born 15 July 1933) is an English classical guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute.

Early years

Bream was born in London and brought up in a musical environment. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by hearing the playing of Django Reinhardt.

Bream began his life-long association with the guitar by strumming along on a small gut-string Spanish guitar at a very young age to dance music on the radio. The president of the Philharmonic Society of Guitars, Dr Boris Perott, gave Bream lessons, while Bream's father became the society librarian, giving Bream access to a large collection of rare music.

On his 11th birthday, Bream was given a guitar by his father. He became something of a child prodigy, at 12 winning a junior exhibition award for his piano playing, enabling him to study piano and cello at the Royal College of Music. He made his debut guitar recital at Cheltenham in 1947, aged 13.

He left the Royal College of Music in 1952 and was called up into the army for national service. He was originally drafted into the Pay Corps, but managed to sign up for the Royal Artillery Band after six months. This required him to be stationed in Woolwich, which allowed him to moonlight regularly with the guitar in London.

After three and a half years in the army, he took any musical jobs that came his way, including background music for radio plays and films. Commercial film, recording session and work for the BBC were important to Bream throughout the 50s and the early 60s.

In the years after national service, Bream pursued a busy career playing around the world, including annual tours in the U.S. and Europe for several years. He played part of a recital at the Wigmore Hall on the lute in 1952 and since has done much to bring music written for the instrument to light.

1960 saw the formation of the Julian Bream Consort, a period-instrument ensemble with Bream as lutenist. The consort led a great revival of interest in the music of the Elizabethan era.

His first European tours took place in 1954 and 1955, and were followed by extensive touring in North America (beginning in 1958), the Far East, India, Australia, the Pacific Islands and other parts of the world. Bream performed for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston, first solo in 1959, and later with the US debut of the Julian Bream Consort.

In addition to master-classes given in Canada and the USA, Bream has also conducted an international summer school in Wiltshire, England.

Recordings

Bream has recorded extensively for RCA and EMI Classics. These recordings have won him several awards, including four Grammy Awards, two for Best Chamber Music Performance and two for Best Classical Performance. RCA also released The Ultimate Guitar Collection, a multi-CD set commemorating his birthday in 1993.

From the beginning of the 1990s Julian Bream continued his recording career with EMI Classics, featuring music by J.S. Bach, a Concerto album (with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle), and discs devoted to contemporary works and guitar sonatas.

Despite his importance as a classical guitarist, however, many of his RCA recordings (including the series of 20th century guitar music) are currently out of print.

Later career

A highly successful biographical film, "A Life in the Country", was first shown on BBC TV in 1976. Bream also presented a series of four master-classes guitarists on BBC TV. BBC TV has presented a programme about Julian Bream's life as a concert guitarist. In 1984 he made eight films on location in Spain for Channel 4 exploring historical perspectives of Spanish guitar music.

In 1991, BBC Radio and TV broadcast Bream's BBC Prom performance of Malcolm Arnold's Guitar Concerto. He also participated in a recital and concerto performances of works by Tōru Takemitsu at the Japan Festival in London with the London Symphony Orchestra.

During the 1992-1993 season he performed on two separate occasions at the Wigmore Hall - at their Gala Re-opening Festival, and at a special concert celebrating his 60th birthday. In the same period, he toured the Far East, visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, and performed the premiere of Leo Brouwer's arrangement for guitar and orchestra of Albéniz's Iberia at the Proms. In 1994 he made debuts in both Turkey and Israel to great acclaim, and the following year played for the soundtrack to the Hollywood film Don Juan de Marcos.

In 1997, in celebration if the 50th anniversary of his debut, he performed a recital at Cheltenham Town Hall. A few weeks later the BBC dedicated a special television tribute "This Is Your Life" programme to Julian Bream, filmed after a commemorative concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

In recent years, his engagements have included a Gala solo performance at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, a Kosovo Aid concert at St. John's Smith Square, London, with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recitals at the Snape Proms, Aldeburgh, and at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and a tour of UK National Trust properties in summer and autumn 2000.

In November 2001 he gave an anniversary recital at Wigmore Hall, celebrating 50 years since his debut there in 1951.

The 2003 DVD video profile Julian Bream: My Life In Music contains three hours of interview and performance. It has been declared by Graham Wade "the finest film contribution ever to the classic guitar." His series Guitarra! was made for British television and charts a journey across Spain.

Style and influences

Bream's recitals are wide-ranging, including transcriptions from the 17th century, many pieces by Bach arranged for guitar, popular Spanish pieces, and contemporary music, much for which he was the inspiration. He has stated that he has been influenced by the styles of Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tárrega.

Bream's playing can be characterised as virtuosic and highly expressive, with an eye for details, and with strong use of contrasting timbres.

Dedications and collaborations

Many composers have worked with Bream, and among those who dedicated pieces to him are Malcolm Arnold, Richard Rodney Bennett, Benjamin Britten, Leo Brouwer, Peter Racine Fricker, Hans Werner Henze, Humphrey Searle, Tōru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett and William Walton. Britten's Nocturnal is one of the most famous pieces in the classical guitar repertoire and was written with Bream specifically in mind. It is an unusual set of variations on John Dowland's Come Heavy Sleep (which is played in its original form at the close of the piece).

Bream has also taken part in many collaborations, including work with Peter Pears on Elizabethan music for lute and voice, and three records of guitar duets with John Williams.

Honours and awards

Bream was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964 for services to music, and in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 1985 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Surrey (1968), and Leeds (1984). In 1976 he was personally presented with the Villa-Lobos Gold Medal by the composer's widow. He was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (1966), and has been honoured with Fellowships of the Royal College of Music (1981) and the Royal Northern College of Music (1983). In 1988 he became an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and was also presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist's Award in 1996.

Other details

In 1984 Bream’s arm was seriously injured in a car accident. It cost him great effort to regain his previous technical ability.

Bream has stated that even though he had some 'sessions' with Segovia, he never really studied with him — Bream also does not exclusively hold his right-hand fingers at right angles to the strings, but has stated that he uses a less rigid hand position for reasons of tonal variety.

Bream has for over 40 years lived in a Georgian farmhouse at Semley in Wiltshire.

Pieces written for Julian Bream (in chronological order)

Reginald Smith Brindle Nocturne for Guitar Solo (1946)

Reginald Smith Brindle El Polifemo de Oro (1956)

Lennox Berkeley Sonatina, op. 52, no. 1 (1957)

Tristram Cary Sonata (1959)

Malcolm Arnold Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra, op. 67 (1959)

Benjamin Britten Nocturnal after John Dowland, op. 70 (1963)

Richard Rodney Bennett Impromptus (1968)

Tom Eastwood Ballade-Phantasy (1968)

Peter Racine Fricker Paseo (1969)

Reginald Smith Brindle Variants on two themes of J. S. Bach (1970)

Richard Rodney Bennett Guitar Concerto (1970)

Malcolm Arnold Fantasy, op. 107 (1971)

Alan Rawsthorne Elegy (1971)

William Walton Five Bagatelles (1972)

Humphrey Searle Five (1974)

Lennox Berkeley Guitar Concerto, Op. 88 (1974)

Hans Werner Henze Royal Winter Music (first sonata, 1976)

Giles Swayne Suite (1976)

Peter Maxwell Davies Hill Runes (1981)

Michael Berkeley Sonata in One Movement (1982)

Richard Rodney Bennett Sonata (1983)

Michael Tippett The Blue Guitar (1984)

Leo Brouwer Concerto elegiaco (Guitar Concerto No. 3) (1986)

Tōru Takemitsu All in Twilight (1987)

Leo Brouwer Sonata (1990)

Awards and recognitions (incomplete)

1964: Officer of the Order of the British Empire

1964: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1964 for Evening of Elizabethan Music performed by the Julian Bream Consort

1966: Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music

1967: Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (with or without orchestra) at the Grammy Awards of 1967 for Baroque Guitar (Works of Bach, Sanz, Weiss, etc.)

1968: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Surrey

1972: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) at the Grammy Awards of 1972 for André Previn (conductor), Julian Bream & the London Symphony Orchestra for Villa-Lobos: Concerto for Guitar

1973: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1973 for Julian Bream & John Williams for Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Albéniz, Granados)

1981: Fellowship of the Royal College of Music

1983: Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music

1984: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leeds

1985: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

1988: Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society

1996: Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist's Award

Partial discography

LP

20th Century Guitar, RCA LSC-2964

70's, RCA ARL 0049

Dedication, RCA ARL 5034

A Bach Recital for the Guitar, Westminster CLP 1929

Baroque Guitar (1966), RCA

''Collection of the Greatest Performances of Julian Bream, Vol. II, Westminster

Concertos for Lute and Orchestra, RCA ARL1-1180

Dances of Dowland, RCA LSC-2987

Elizabethan Lute Songs, RCA LSC-3131

Elizabethan Music by The Julian Bream Consort, RCA LSC-3195

The Golden Age of English Lute Music, RCA LSC-3196

Julian & John, RCA

Julian Breams Greatest Hits, Westminster

Julian Breams Greatest Hits Volume Two, Westminster 9008-8185

Lute Music of John Dowland, RCA ARL1-1491

John Dowland: 14 Lute Pieces, Westminster W-9079

Music for Voice and Guitar with Peter Pears, RCA LSC-2718

Popular Classics for Spanish Guitar, RCA

''Rodrigo: Concerto De Aranjuez, Berkeley Guitar Concerto (1975), RCA

Sonatas for Lute and Harpsichord—Bach, Vivaldi with George Malcolm, RCA LSC-3100

Villa-Lobos, Twelve Etudes for Guitar, Suite populaire bresillienne (1978), RCA

The Woods So Wild, RCA LSC-3331

CD

Fret Works (1990), MCA Guitarra: The Guitar in Spain (1990), RCA Joaquin Rodrigo: Concerto Elegiaco/Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre (1990), RCA Julian Bream plays Bach (1990), RCA Julian Bream Plays Granados & Albéniz (Music of Spain, Volume Five) (1990), RCA Music of Spain, Vol. 7 (1990), RCA Two Loves with Peggy Ashcroft (1990), RCA Baroque Guitar (1991), RCA La Guitarra Romantica (1991), RCA Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Villa-Lobos: Preludes (1991), RCA Romantic Guitar (1991), RCA Baroque Guitar (1993), RCA A Celebration Of Andrés Segovia—Bream (1993), RCA Highlights from the Julian Bream Edition (1993), RCA Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Fantasía para un gentilhombre No1-5 (1993), RCA Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Takemitsu: To the Edge of Dream with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1993), Capitol Together/Julian Bream & John Williams (1993), RCA Together Again/ Julian Bream & John Williams (1993), RCA Villa-Lobos: Guitar Concerto; Preludes; Etudes with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra (1993), BMG International Bach Guitar Recital (1994), EMI Classics Bach: Lute Suites, Trio Sonatas (1994), RCA Guitar Concertos (1994), RCA Julian Bream Consort, Vol. 6 (1994), RCA Music of Spain (1994), RCA Popular Classics for Spanish Guitar (1994), RCA Romantic Guitar (1994), RCA Sonata (1995), Angel 20th Century Guitar I (1996), RCA The Golden Age of English Lute Music (1996), RCA Music for Voice & Guitar (1996), RCA Music of Spain: Milán, Narváez (1996), RCA Popular Classics for the Spanish Guitar (1997), RCA Julian Bream Edition, Volume 1: The Golden Age of English Lute Music (28 CDs) (1998), RCA The Romantic Hours (1998), RCA Spain—Sor, Vol. 24 (1998), BMG Classics Guitar Concertos (1999), RCA Guitar Music by Albeniz, Vivaldi, Rodrigo & Grandos (2 CDs) (1999), RCA Classics/BMG Woods So Wild (1999), RCA Nocturnal: Martin, Britten, Brouwer, Lutoslavski (2000), EMI The Ultimate Guitar Collection (2 CDs) (2000), RCA Duos de Guitares with John Williams (2001), RCA Spanish Guitar Music (remastered) (2001), Deutsche Grammophon Spanish Guitar Recital (2001), RCA Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Fantasía para un gentilhombre; Tres piezas espanolas; invocacion y danza (remastered) (2004), RCA Spanish Guitar Recital (2004), Guitar Recital: Bach, Sor, Turina, Tippet, Schubert (2005), Testament Music of Spain (2005), RCA Elizabethan Lute Songs, Decca Julian Bream & Friends, Musical Heritage Society Lute Music from the Royal Courts of Europe, BMG Classics Music of Spain: The Classical Heritage, RCA

Books about Bream

Julian Bream: A Life on the Road. London: Macdonald, 1982. ISBN 0356078809. Text by Tony Palmer, photographs by Daniel Meadows.

References

External links

Julian Bream's myspace page

Biography (Hazard Chase)

Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks

Some photos of LP covers (Oviatt Library Digital Collections)

Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from London Category:English classical guitarists Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Performers of early music Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Category:British lutenists

Name	Hilary Hahn
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	November 27, 1979 Lexington, Virginia, USA
Instrument	Violin
Genre	Classical
Occupation	Violinist

Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist.

Hahn was born in Lexington, Virginia. Beginning her studies when she was three years old at Baltimore's Peabody Institute, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age ten, and in 1991, made her major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Hahn signed her first musical recording contract at age sixteen in 1996 with Sony Music. She graduated from the Curtis Institute in May 1999 with a Bachelor of Music degree.

Hahn plays on an 1864 copy of Paganini's 'Cannone' made by Vuillaume. Her main interest is in solo performance; she also performs chamber music.

Early life and education

Hahn began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore's Peabody Institute. She participated in a Suzuki class for a year. Between 1984 and 1989 Hahn studied in Baltimore under Klara Berkovich. In 1990, at ten, Hahn was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she became a student of Jascha Brodsky. Hahn studied with Brodsky for seven years and learned the études of Kreutzer, Ševčík, Gaviniès, Rode, and the Paganini Caprices. She learned twenty-eight violin concertos, recital programs, and several other short pieces.

In 1991, Hahn made her major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Soon thereafter, Hahn debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In 1995 Hahn made her international debut in Germany with a performance of the Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The concert was broadcast on radio and television in Europe. A year later, Hahn debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

By sixteen, Hahn had completed the Curtis Institute's university requirements, but elected to remain for several years to pursue elective courses, until her graduation in May 1999 with a Bachelor of Music degree. During this time she coached violin with Jaime Laredo, and studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. In an interview with PBS in December 2001, Hahn stated that of all musical disciplines, she is most interested in performance.

Musical career

In 1996 when she was sixteen years old, Sony Music signed Hahn to an exclusive recording contract. After Hahn completed her part of the contract with Sony, which was for five recordings over six years, she decided against renewing the contract as she and Sony did not agree on her future projects.

Hahn has played with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in March 2007, and played in Vatican City as part of the celebrations for Pope Benedict XVI together with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, also in 2007.

She began performing and touring in a crossover duo with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter in 2007 and with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau in 2005. According to Hahn, "Other musicians cross genres all the time. For me it's not crossover—I just enter their world. It frees you up to think in a different way from what you've been trained to do."

Hahn sometimes feels that classical-music admirers "make it hard for people who are just coming in. I think that if people show up in jeans and chains, it's great that all parts of culture are interested in music. People forget sometimes that it's about the music, not how you act and dress."

During concerts she does hope for absolute quiet from the audience during the music. "Not out of snobbishness or holy respect for the music, but just so everyone (including the performers) can hear it. Great music can be quite comfortable and relaxing, and you can sleep—as long as you don't snore." Because her appearance coincided with the Tonight Show controversy, the album sold 1,000 copies, reaching #1 on a Billboard classical chart, officially peaking at #6 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart.

Hahn's latest album, featuring works by Tchaikovsky and the Pullitzer Prize-winning piece by Hahn's former teacher Jennifer Higdon was released on September 21, 2010.

On playing Bach

In 1999, Hahn stated that she played Bach more than any composer and that she had played solo Bach pieces every day since she was eight.}}

In a segment on NPR entitled "Musicians in Their Own Words", Hahn speaks about the surreal experience of playing the Bach Chaconne (from the Partita for Violin No. 2) alone on the concert stage. In the same segment, she discusses her experiences emulating a lark while playing The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Instrument

, piano, Kuss Auditorium, Clark State Performing Arts Center, Springfield, Ohio, March 3, 2009]] Her violin is an 1864 copy of Paganini's 'Cannone' made by Vuillaume formerly owned by the Russian violinist Samuel Lande, who was a friend and colleague of Klara Berkovich, Hahn’s first teacher. Lande’s heirs emigrated to the United States and, after hearing one of Hahn’s early recitals, decided that she should be the instrument’s next owner. Hahn uses bows by French bow makers Paul Jombar and Emil Miquel. Because the teacher of the original third-grade class was retiring, Hahn wanted to expand the project's scale. She worked with Sony to establish "Hilary's Journal", a collection of electronic postcards that she periodically posts to her official website informing readers of her travels. Journal entries usually include photographs that Hahn takes while touring the city and during rehearsals. The first entry in "Hilary's Journal" dates back to January 6, 2002, when she was visiting Copenhagen, Denmark.

Since September 2008 Hahn also has had a Twitter account, where she posts messages from the point of view of her violin case.

Discography

Hilary Hahn Plays Bach (1997)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

Beethoven Violin Concerto/Bernstein Serenade (1999)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

: David Zinman, conductor

: Grammy Nominee – Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra

Barber & Meyer Violin Concertos (2000)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

: Hugh Wolff, conductor

Brahms & Stravinsky Violin Concertos (2001)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

: Sir Neville Marriner, conductor

: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)

Mendelssohn & Shostakovich Concertos (2002)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

: Marek Janowski and Hugh Wolff, conductors

Bach Concertos (2003)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Margaret Batjer, violin; Allan Vogel, oboe

: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

: Jeffrey Kahane, conductor

The Village Motion Picture Soundtrack (2004)

: Hilary Hahn, featured violinist

: Music composed by James Newton Howard

Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending (2004)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: London Symphony Orchestra

: Colin Davis, conductor

(2005)

: Hilary Hahn, violin; Natalie Zhu, piano

"To Russia My Homeland" from the album Worlds Apart by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (2005)

– Gesangsszene (2006)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

: Eiji Oue, conductor

"Witch's Web" from the album So Divided by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (2006)

"Der Kleine Hörsaal – Die Geige mit Hilary Hahn" (2007)

: Hilary Hahn, narrator

"Fork in the Road" and "Blue Part of the Windshield" from the album Grand Forks by Tom Brosseau (2007)

(2008)

:Hilary Hahn, Violin

:Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

:Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor

: Debuted at #1 on Classical Billboard chart for three straight weeks (the first Schoenberg recording to debut at #1).

: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)

: Grammy Nominee – Best Classical Album

"Bach: Violin & Voice" (2010)

: Hilary Hahn, violin; Christine Schäfer, soprano; Matthias Goerne, baritone; Munich Chamber Orchestra

Higdon & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (2010)

: Hilary Hahn, violin

: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

: Vasily Petrenko, conductor

References

External links

violincase – Hilary Hahn's twitter

Hilary Hahn on a Danish television show

Hilary Hahn plays Bach's Sonata for Violin Solo No.2 in A minor, BWV1003.

Category:American classical violinists Category:Child classical musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni Category:American musicians of German descent Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Peabody Institute alumni

Name	Gidon Kremer
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born	February 27, 1947 Riga, Latvia
Genre	Classical
Notable instruments	Violin Nicolo Amati 1641 Guarneri del Gesù 1730 Baron Feilitsch Stradivarius 1734

Gidon Kremer () (born February 27, 1947) is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.

Biography

Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish (his father being a Holocaust survivor) and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels; then, in 1969, second prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition (shared with Oleh Krysa) followed by first prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa; and finally first prize again in 1970 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in 1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming; since 1992 the festival has been known as "Kremerata Musica" and in 1996 Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, composed of young players from the Baltic region. He was also among the artistic directors of the festival "Art Projekt 92" in Munich and is director of the Musiksommer Gstaad festival in Switzerland. In 2008, he and Kremerata Baltica toured with the classical musical comedy duo Igudesman & Joo.

Kremer is known for his wide-ranging repertoire, extending from Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach to contemporary composers. He has championed the work of composers such as Ástor Piazzolla, George Enescu, Alban Berg, Philip Glass, Alfred Schnittke, Leonid Desyatnikov, Alexander Raskatov, Alexander Voustin, Lera Auerbach, Pēteris Vasks, Arvo Pärt, Roberto Carnevale and John Adams. Among the many composers who have dedicated works to him are Sofia Gubaidulina (Offertorium) and Luigi Nono (La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura). His partners in performance include Valery Afanassiev, Martha Argerich, Oleg Maisenberg, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet and Vadim Sakharov. He has a large discography on the Deutsche Grammophon label, for which he has recorded since 1978; he has also recorded for Philips Records, as well as Decca Records, ECM and Nonesuch Records.

Kremer played the role of Paganini in Peter Schamoni's 1983 movie, Frühlingssinfonie [Spring Symphony].

Kremer has numbered in his collection of antique violins a Guarneri del Gesù violin made in 1730; and the Antonio Stradivari violin of 1734 often referred to by its sobriquet, Baron Feititsch-Heermann. His current violin is a Nicolo Amati violin dating from 1641.

Honours and awards

Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (third prize) (1967; Brussels)

Paganini Competition (first prize) (1969; Genoa)

International Tchaikovsky Competition (first prize) (1970; Moscow)

Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1989; Denmark)

Latvian Great Music Award (1995, 2004; Latvia)

Lithuanian Great Duke Gediminas Medal (2000; Lithuania)

Rolf Schock Prize (2008; Sweden)

References

External links

Kremerata Baltica official website

Igudesman and Joo

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Latvian classical violinists Category:Latvian conductors (music) Category:People from Riga Category:Prize-winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition Category:Moscow Conservatory alumni Category:Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Paganini Competition prize-winners Category:Rolf Schock Prize laureates

Sir Edward William Elgar, Bt, OM, GCVO (2 June 185723 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.

Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory. The first of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901) is well-known in the U.S. and in the UK.

In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death and did not begin to revive significantly until the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music remains more played in Britain than elsewhere.

Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of recordings of his works. The introduction of the microphone in 1925 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius. These recordings were reissued on LP record in the 1970s and on CD in the 1990s.

Biography

Early years

Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St. George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, for thirty-seven years. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures. His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that "permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality." He began composing at an early age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled The Wand of Youth. He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools."

After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). He often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money – not a cent."

Marriage

When Elgar was twenty-nine, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and a published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited." She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his career. In her diary she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin and piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names Caroline and Alice.

, dedicated by Elgar to his future wife]] Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Wagner. Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."

]] In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.|group= n}} Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.

National and international fame

, author of the text of The Dream of Gerontius]] Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as first musician of the land." For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Elgar was deeply depressed, but the critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." and The Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.

, first singer of Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory"]] Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms, where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em – will knock 'em flat". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry J. Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore." To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House in June 1901. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the new vocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem.

In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to be out of his mind." The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius, The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South (Alassio), inspired by a holiday in Italy.

Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until 1911. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908. His new life as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly-strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with George Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing.

Elgar's principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford, professor at Yale University. Elgar visited America in that year to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale. As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St. Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.

, dedicatee of Elgar's Violin Concerto]] The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from the violinist W. H. Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion". So great was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London. Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." an exclusive honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," while the musical scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."

When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.

Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented 'Brinkwells', a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful new music". All three works were well received. The Times wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be." The quartet and quintet were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry, and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."

By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played for him again later. In contrast with the First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.

Last years

Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music played in public. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.

Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal", and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races. In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic bicyclist, buying Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus)" As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur.

After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to 1927. He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.

From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Elgar, described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously", had already recorded much of his music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium for reproducing orchestral and choral music.

In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A late piece of Elgar's, The Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere; its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar once again drew on his youthful sketch-books. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness, however, prevented their completion. He fretted about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in cooperation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady, which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1998. Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St. Wulstan's Church in Little Malvern.

Music

Influences, antecedents and early works

Elgar was contemptuous of folk music and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded Henry Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878–81, and music of many types for the Powick Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but few of them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches.

Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade. The Enigma Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia." Nevertheless, at less than a quarter of an hour, it was not by contemporary standards a lengthy composition. Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony, composed at the same time, runs for well over an hour.

During the next four years, however, Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour. McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence. Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several dozen music examples to chart its progress." They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent." Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.

The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as a pièce d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben. The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory."

Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood (1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy". Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra." Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006. Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913 were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.

Reputation

Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern". Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models – Beethoven and Brahms." and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms". Elgar's immense popularity was not long-lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years.

In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression". This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy. In the later years of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:

By the 1960s, a less severe view was being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical nations." As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it,

Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them. The Dream of Gerontius has also been given high praise by Elgarians, and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated. and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry." Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite, and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it. In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's view that Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.

The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony." The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief", whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."

Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently-available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius. Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.

Honours, awards and commemorations

Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in 1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale (USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and American Academy of Arts. In 1931 he was made a baronet. In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in vain. The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works was formed in 1951. The University of Birmingham's Special Collections contain an archive of letters written by Elgar.

Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer is at the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadow of the Hills that he so often regarded. In September 2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with that city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle. From 1999 until early 2007, new Bank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010.

There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Among these are eleven Elgar Avenues, including one in Malvern, Worcestershire, and another close to the house where Elgar lived, Plâs Gwyn in Hereford. A street in North Springfield, Virginia and a major road in Box Hill, Melbourne, are also named after him. Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour. The first "Sir Edward Elgar" was a Bulldog class locomotive, number 3414; it was built in 1906 and withdrawn from service in 1938. The second was a Great Western Railway Castle Class locomotive in the post WWII 7000 series. Built in 1946 and withdrawn from service in 1964, its original name was replaced by "Sir Edward Elgar" in 1957. The third was a Brush type 47 diesel locomotive, for which nameplates were specially cast in the former Great Western Railway style.

Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994); another Elgar-themed radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003). David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974) deals with themes including sex and adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.

Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar, is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film contradicted the view of Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.

Selected works

The following have been selected as representative of Elgar's works, based on quality, significance and popularity.

Orchestral

Froissart, concert-overture, Op. 19 (1890)

Serenade, for string orchestra, Op. 20 (1888–1892)

Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma), Op. 36 (1899)

* includes Variation 9 Nimrod

Cockaigne (In London Town), concert-overture, Op. 40 (1900–1901)

Pomp and Circumstance, five marches, all Op. 39 (1901–1930)

*March No. 1 in D (1901) (The trio contains the tune known as Land of Hope and Glory)

In the South (Alassio), concert-overture, Op. 50 (1903–1904)

Introduction and Allegro for strings (quartet and orchestra), Op. 47 (1904–05)

The Wand of Youth, suites nos. 1 and 2, ops. 1a/b (1867–71, rev. 1907/8)

Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, Op. 55 (1907–1908)

Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 (1909–1910)

Romance for bassoon and orchestra, Op. 62 (1910)

Symphony No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 63 (1909–1911)

Falstaff, symphonic study, Op. 68 (1913)

Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1918–1919)

The Severn Suite, Op. 87 (1930) (for brass band, tr. for orchestra 1932)

Cantatas and Oratorios

The Black Knight, symphony/cantata for chorus and orchestra, Op. 25 (1889–1892)

The Light of Life (Lux Christi), oratorio for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 29 (1896)

Scenes From The Saga Of King Olaf, cantata for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 30 (1896)

Caractacus, cantata for soprano, tenor, baritone and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 35 (1897–1898)

Sea Pictures, song cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, Op. 37 (1897–1899)

The Dream of Gerontius, for mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 38 (1899–1900)

The Apostles, oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor and three bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 49 (1902–1903)

The Kingdom, oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 51 (1901–1906)

The Music Makers, ode for contralto or mezzo-soprano soloist, chorus and orchestra, Op. 69 (1912)

Songs

"The Wind at Dawn", poem by C. Alice Roberts (1888)

"Land of Hope and Glory", words by Arthur Christopher Benson (1902)

Seven Lieder of Edward Elgar (1907)

Partsongs

"O Happy Eyes", SATB unacc., words by C. Alice Elgar, Op. 18 No.1 (1890)

"My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land", SATB unacc., words by Andrew Lang, dedicated to Rev. J. Hampton (1890)

"The Snow", SSA acc. 2 violins and piano, words by C. Alice Elgar, dedicated to Mrs. E. B. Fitton, Op. 26 No.1 (1894) (also with orchestral accompaniment, 1903, and various other combinations of voices SATB etc.)

"Go, Song of Mine", SSAATB unacc., words by Cavalcanti, tr. D. G. Rossetti, dedicated to Alfred H. Littleton, Op. 57 (1909)

"The Shower" and "The Fountain", SATB unacc., words by Henry Vaughan, Op. 71 Nos.1 and 2 (1914)

Church music

Three motets: "Ave verum corpus", "Ave Maria" and "Ave Maris Stella", Op. 2 (1887)

Te Deum and Benedictus, Op. 34 (1897)

Chamber music

Romance, violin and piano, Op. 1 (1878) Dedicated to Oswin Grainger

Salut d'Amour (Liebesgruss), violin and piano, Op. 12 (1888) Dedication "à Carice"

Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin, violin and piano, Op. 15 Nos. 1 and 2 (1897/1899).

Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 (1918) Dedicated to Marie Joshua

String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 (1918). Dedicated to the Brodsky Quartet

Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84 (1918–1919). Dedicated to Ernest Newman

Keyboard

Organ Sonata in G, Op. 28

Concert Allegro, piano, Op. 46 (1901; unpublished)

Arrangements

J. S. Bach, Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, tr. for orchestra, Op. 86 (1921–1922)

Handel, Overture in D minor (Overture to Chandos Anthem "In the Lord put I my Trust", HWV247), tr. for orchestra (1923)

See also

Dorabella Cipher

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

Sources

Further reading

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External links

The Elgar Society and The Elgar Foundation

The Elgar Birthplace Museum

"Elgar, Sir Edward William", The National Archive

"Sir Edward Elgar, Bt.," National Portrait Gallery

"The Growing Significance of Elgar", lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007

Edward Elgar – A Creative Life, extracts from 1986 book by Jerrold Northrop Moore.

"Elgar, Edward, Sir", Open Directory Project

Elgar in Hereford

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