This Week in Classical Music-April 18, 2010

by: Randy Kinkel

April 18, 2010

Jennifer Higdon

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Higdon wins Pulitzer
•Bach Leipzig museum expands and renovates

This Week in Classical Music 4/18/10

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

Composer Jennifer Higdon has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for music for her Violin Concerto, which received its premiere with Hilary Hahn and the Indianapolis Symphony last year in Indianapolis, Indiana. The citation describes the work as "a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity." Higdon's Violin Concerto is the first orchestral score by a self-published composer to win the 10,000 dollar prize. About winning the prize, Higdon said, “…it occurred to me that the Pulitzer isn't just about me or the Violin Concerto. It's also about … the myriads of folks who have taught me in various ways.”
A recording of the piece, recorded by Hahn with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is slated for a September 2010 release (September 21 in the United States) on the Deutsche Gramophone label.

If you’re ever in Leipzig, and you’re a Bach fan, you must visit the newly renovated and expanded Bach Museum opposite St. Thomas Church, where Bach himself once played and composed and conducted and taught. The Bach-Archiv Leipzig is considered one of the finest Bach research institutes in the world, thanks to its extensive collection of Bach manuscripts. But the museum doesn’t stop there—they’ve touched it up a bit with a giant tabletop touch screen displaying various documents from his life and work that can be explored, dragged and manipulated. In another room, Visitors can customize the orchestration of a Bach chorale simply by walking around a room and pressing various buttons. There’s also a wall-mounted genealogy that plays examples of music by Bach’s ancestors and descendants, allowing you to understand the rich musical legacy of this amazing family; museum director Kerstin Wiese says, “Bach researched a family tree and collected the music of his ancestors. Here, you can hear the 17th-century music that Bach heard as a child." And, you could actually spend days there listening to music—Bach’s entire body of work—all 175 hours of it—can be explored in a comfortable Listening Closet with performances on both period and modern instruments. What’s the price for spending the day with Johann Sebastian and Family? About 8 US dollars.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; find us on Facebook and Twitter, 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.

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