This Week in Classical Music-August 23, 2009

August 23, 2009

Heitor Villa-Lobos

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Villa-Lobos scores found in Rio
•Berlin starts webcasts

It’s This week in Classical Music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Unpublished scores by Brazilian Composer Heitor Villa-Lobos have been discovered in the library at the Rio De Janiero School of Music. School Director Andre Cardoso said, “"I hired three interns to inventory the manuscript section of the library with our team and we found these invaluable works”, adding that the handwritten scores were dated 1921. "The Villa-Lobos scores that were found were very well preserved," said Cardoso, adding he would send a copy to a museum dedicated to the composer in southern Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, an unconfirmed source at the Villa-Lobos museum describes the scores as transcriptions of other composers’ songs that Villa Lobos wrote at the request of Brazilian Soprano Vera Janacopulos.

The Berlin Philharmonic will launch its first full season of webcasts this month, starting August 28th with Simon Rattle leading the orchestra in Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the orchestra” and “Symphonie Fantastique” by Berlioz… also included is the world premiere of Saariaho’s “Laterna Majica”. The webcast features a high-def image, and near-CD-quality sound, but it isn’t free; you can buy a season subscription, a 30-day subscription, or you can buy single tickets; Students get a 30% discount. There’s a link where you can test out the service; it will be available on the “This Week in Classical Music” page. I have to tell you, I tried it out myself, and it is pretty nifty. http://dch.berliner-philharmoniker.de/#/en/tour/

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update, and join me every weekday at noon for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for “This Week in Classical Music” on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

Berlin Philharmonic Webcasts