MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: 2008 Anniversaries
Salzburg, which hosted Mozart's 250th birthday celebrations in 2006, will deck itself out for another musical extravaganza this year -- the 100th birthday of perhaps its next most famous musical son, conductor Herbert von Karajan.Ringing in the "Herbert von Karajan Jubilee Year" today will be a concert in Salzburg's famous "Grosses Festspielhaus" concert hall.On the programme, by the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg under its chief conductor Ivor Bolton, will be Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Mozart's 23rd Piano Concerto and Richard Strauss's symphonic poem, Don Juan.That is exactly the same programme, with exactly the same orchestra, that Karajan made his professional conducting debut with on January 22, 1929.The Berlin Philharmonic, whose chief conductor he was from 1955 until his death in 1989, will play birthday concerts in Berlin, Paris and Tokyo.Vienna's legendary Musikverein concert hall is staging a three-part Karajan cycle of concerts, with both the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonics. There will be a special Karajan Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Salzburg's own Easter and Summer Festivals will also pay homage to the "maestro of all maestros".The birthday itself, April 5, will be marked by a special ceremony in Salzburg's Mozart House museum.The other orchestras Karajan worked closely with -- the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra -- all have special memorial concerts lined up in New York, London and Munich.Record labels Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony are unearthing and repackaging their countless and often legendary Karajan recordings and DVDs.There will also be a deluge of books about the conductor, including one by his widow, Eliette von Karajan, entitled "Mein Leben an seiner Seite" (My life at his side).And a new documentary by Robert Dornhelm is to be released on DVD.Born in Salzburg on April 5, 1908, Heribert Ritter von Karajan studied piano, harmony and composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg between 1916 and 1926 and then conducting at Vienna's Academy for Music and the Performing Arts between 1926 and 1929.It was his music-loving father, a doctor, who gave the 20-year-old Karajan his first break, hiring the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg for his debut concert in January 1929. 
Edo de Waart, chief conductor and artistic director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, was named Thursday as the next music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. De Waart led the Minnesota Orchestra from 1986 to 1995. He will succeed Andreas Delfs, who has announced his intention to leave after the 2008-2009 season. De Waart is to serve as music director designate during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, making his Milwaukee Symphony subscription concert debut in April. 
THE Three Tenors will never reform with a third singer, says tenor Jose Carreras, because it would be disrespectful to the memory of Luciano Pavarotti. "For Placido (Domingo) and myself to do something would betray the memory of Luciano, I don't think that would be ethical," Carreras said in Sydney yesterday. Pavarotti died from pancreatic cancer in September, and Carreras - a leukemia survivor - offered his friend moral support. He said he travelled to Pavarotti's home in Modena, Italy, and called him often. 
The German avant garde composer Hans Otte died on Christmas Day, 2007. His minimalistic work explored music through its most basic elements of sound. Following closely in Stockhausen's footsteps, the avant-garde pianist, Otte, died just a few weeks after his 81st birthday. 
Prague, Dec 21 (CTK) - Czech composer Jiri Pauer died in Prague Friday [21 DEC 2007] at the age of 88, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra general director Vaclav Riedlbauch told CTK. Pauer was chief of the Prague National Theatre's Opera and he was the theatre director in 1979-1989. He participated in the organisation of the Prague Spring music festivals, was a professor at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) and headed the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for over 20 years. Pauer composed many pieces, many of which focus on the brass orchestral instruments, symphonies, and further orchestra pieces, a horn concerto and a trumpet concerto, chamber music pieces, and piano pieces. He also composed five operas. 
Mother and son join the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a stirring rendition of Felix Mendelssohn's vision of Shakespeare's woodland fantasy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky (pronounced sitt-kuh-VETT-skee) leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and his mother, legendary pianist Bella Davidovich, who will perform Schumann's beautiful Piano Concerto while Sitkovetsky himself takes center stage as soloist on Bach's Violin Concerto No. 1. The concerts take place in Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Friday, January 4 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, January 5 at 8:30 p.m.; and Sunday, January 6 at 3 p.m. Famed Russian pianist Bella Davidovich performs Schumann's Piano Concerto. Celebrating her 80th birthday in 2008, she began studying the piano at the age of 6. At 18 she entered the Moscow Conservatory and, in 1949, became the youngest pianist to win the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. She has been touring for more than half a century since then, performing with the most well-known orchestras and conductors around the world. She has performed with her son Dmitry Sitkovetsky since 1966, and the pair has recorded sonatas together by Grieg, Brahms and Ravel. 
1907 Birth of Dutch conductor and composer Willem van OTTERLOO in Winterswijk. d-Melbourne, Australia 1978. Director of Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. 
If you are a classical music lover who is your favourite composer?