Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 456

Emperor Yūryaku (456–479)

Year 456 (CDLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avitus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1209 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 456 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events[link]

By place[link]

Roman Empire[link]

• March – Emperor Marcian sends an embassy to Carthage to end the Vandal raids in the Mediterranean from their strongholds in North Africa and quells disturbances on the Armenian frontier.
• Emperor Avitus sends a Germanic naval expedition under command of Ricimer to defend Sicily. They defeat the Vandals twice; one land near Agrigento and in a sea battle off Corsica.
• Summer – Capua is destroyed by the Vandals. Ricimer is unable to end piracy in the western Mediterranean. Backed by his popularity, he gains the consent of the Senate for an expedition against Avitus.
• September 17 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged with a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.
• October 5 – The Visigoths under king Theodoric II, acting on orders of Avitus, invade Spain with an army of Burgundians, Franks and Goths, led by their kings Chilperic I and Gondioc. They defeat the Suebi under king Rechiar on the river Urbicus near Astorga (Gallaecia); this shatters the power of the Suebi. During the battle Rechiar is captured and later executed.
• October 17 – Battle of Placentia: Ricimer, supported by Majorian (comes domesticorum), defeats near Piacenza (Northern Italy) the usurper Avitus. They compel him to renounce the purple and Avitus is oblige to become bishop of Piacenza.
• October 28 – The Visigoths brutally sack the Suebi's capital of Braga (modern Portugal), churches are burnt to the ground.

Britannia[link]

• Saint Patrick leaves Britain once more to evangelise Ireland as a missionary bishop. The Anglo-Saxons call the British nobles to a peace conference at Stonehenge but turn on them and massacre almost everyone (approximate date).

Asia[link]

• Ankō is after a 3-year reign assassinated by the 10-year-old Mayowa no Ōkimi (prince Mayowa) in retaliation for the execution of his father. He is succeeded by his brother Yūryaku and becomes the 21st emperor of Japan.

Births[link]

• Liu Zixun, prince and pretender of Liu Song (d. 466)

Deaths[link]

• Ankō, emperor of Japan (approximate date)
• Eutyches, presbyter and archimandrite (approximate date)
• Rechiar, king of the Suebi (captured and executed)
• September 17 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum)

References[link]

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (May 2011)

Dame Mitsuko Uchida, DBE (内田光子^?), born 20 December 1948, is a Japanese naturalized British classical pianist, who has appeared with most of the world's foremost orchestras, recorded a wide repertory with major labels, won numerous awards and honors (including Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009), and serves as co-director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival. In recent years, she has also conducted orchestras.

Career[link]

Born in Atami, a seaside town close to Tokyo, Japan, Uchida moved to Vienna, Austria, with her diplomat parents when she was twelve years old, after her father was named the Japanese ambassador to Austria. She enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music to study with Richard Hauser, and later Wilhelm Kempff and Stefan Askenase,^[1] and remained in Vienna to study when her father was transferred back to Japan after five years. She gave her first Viennese recital at the age of 14 at the Vienna Musikverein. She also studied with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel.^[2][3]

In 1969 she won the first prize in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna and in 1970 the second prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition. Then, in 1975, she won second prize in the Leeds Piano Competition.^[1]

She is an acclaimed interpreter of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Schoenberg. She has recorded all of Mozart's piano sonatas (a project that won the Gramophone Award), and concerti, the latter with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate. She is further noted for her recordings of Beethoven's complete piano concerti with Kurt Sanderling conducting, Beethoven's late piano sonatas, and a Schubert piano cycle. Her recording of the Debussy Études won another Gramophone Award, and so did her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto. She is distinguished as an interpreter of the works of the Second Viennese School.^[4] Her 2009 recording of the Mozart Piano Concertos nos. 23 and 24, in which she conducted the Cleveland Orchestra as well as playing the solo part, won the Grammy Award.

From 2002 to 2007 she served as artist-in-residence for the Cleveland Orchestra, where she led performances of all of Mozart's solo piano concertos. She has also conducted the English Chamber Orchestra, among others, from the keyboard. In 2010, she was artist-in-residence for the Berlin Philharmonic. She is one two Artistic Directors of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, along with fellow pianist Richard Goode. She is also a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, an organization established to help young artists develop and sustain international careers.^[5] In May of 2012, the Royal Philharmonic Society announced that she would be honored with their Gold Medal (she received the society's annual Music Award in 2003); previous recipients have included Johannes Brahms (1877), Frederick Delius and Sir Edward Elgar (1925), Richard Strauss (1936), Igor Stravinsky (1954), Benjamin Britten and Leonard Bernstein (1987).

Uchida currently resides in London. Her long-standing partner, Robert Cooper, currently works for the European Union in Brussels.^[6]

Honours and awards[link]

Uchida is a recipient of the 1986 Suntory Music Award.

Mitsuko Uchida was appointed Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours. At the time, the award was honorary because she was not yet a citizen of the United Kingdom.^[7]

In April 2008, BBC Music Magazine presented her its Instrumentalist of the Year and Disc of the Year awards.

She was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.^[8] On this occasion, the award was substantive^[9] as she is now a British citizen.

In June 2009 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music (DMus) degree by the University of Oxford during Encaenia 2009.^[10]

In 2011, her recording of Mozart's Piano Concerti No. 23 K. 488 and No. 24 K. 491 with the Cleveland Orchestra, which she conducted from the piano, won a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra).

In May 2012, Uchida was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, one of the highest honors in classical music.^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Erica Jeal, 'Musical moments' (profile of Mitsuko Uchida), The Guardian, February 25, 2006. Accessed 1 February 2008.
• Allan Kozinn, 'A Keyboard Alchemist Exploring the Haze', New York Times, April 29, 2005. Accessed 1 February 2008.
• Transcript: 'Mitsuko Uchida', The Music Show, ABC (Australia), July 1, 2006. Accessed 1 February 2008.
• Andrew Lindemann Malone, 'From Pianist Uchida, Daring, Intense Mozart', The Washington Post, November 17, 2005, Page C02. Accessed 1 February 2008.
• Mitsuko Uchida
• Borletti-Buitoni Trust