Klaus Huber was announced yesterday as the recipient of the 2009 Salzburg Music Prize/International Composition Award. It is one of the Largest prizes in the music world and is worth about 80,000 Euro or 120,000 Dollars. The Prize recipient is also asked to choose a young composer for an advancement award, and Huber selected His Protege Franck Christoph Yeznikian, 39, to be the recipient of the 30,000 Euro prize. The first time the prize was given was in 2006 and it was supposed to be given once every 3 years, but starting 2011 it will be given bi-annually and the sum will drop to about 60,000 Euro.
Huber and his music are not well known in the United States but he has been an established composer on the european scene since the 50’s and His students have included Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm and Toshio Hosokawa.
Sciarrino, who chaired this year’s jury which also included German radio and festival producer Harry Vogt and conductor Sylvain Cambreling, told me “Huber’s influence as a mentor and teacher is remarkable and remarkably varied. And unlike many composers today, he is a true personality of culture, combining so many areas of interest, knowledge, and concern.”
Huber and Yeznikians compositions, along with Arabic Music will be featured in one of the four weekends of the new Salzburg Biennale in March 2009.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky the Russian baritone who is considered by many to be one of the finest baritones of the 21st century, performed at the Edinburgh Festival with a program and wardrobe in which the fashionable Russian gloom was well represented.
The first half of the program was mainly Tchaikovsky with his vain of despair, that Hvorostovsky managed to paint in all kinds of black and was rewarded in a contradicting way with great and warm applause I am quite jelous of those who attended and the write up in Intermezzo made me even more so
The second half’s songs by Rachmaninov and his contemporary Medtner were less familiar, but in the same Russian-romantic idiom. Though even more of a test for teh piano skillz of Mr Ilja, the raw material ultimately lacked the invention and durability of the first half’s offerings.
Perhaps that was why Hvorostovsky chose to perk up Medtner’s settings of Goethe’s Gl?ckliche Fahrt and Wandrers Nachtlied with the infinitely-sustained final notes he’s famous for. What top C’s are to Juan Diego Fl?rez, big breaths are to Dmitri Hvorostovsky. It’s the length that counts, and we love him for it. Ever attentive to the mood of the audience - he’s not one of those singers who retreats into himself - he obliged with a couple more big’uns towards the end. How cheap, how vulgar, how wonderful. Only a singer as technically assured and expressively controlled as Hvorostovsky can get away with this sort of showmanship without diminishing the emotional impact of what’s preceded it.
For those of you who have not had the good fortune to hear him in concert or in fact know nothing about him - Pedja Muzijevic is a Bosnian born pianist, Who is known for his versatility and imaginative programing.
His interpretations of the standard literature have been widely praised, he has performed with orchestras and without world wide, and is now releasing a CD on Albany Records called “Sonatas & Other Interludes“
James Roe, who was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this CD is all praise. among other things this is what he says:
The ingenious conceit of this recital is its form. The title references Cage’s cycle “Sonatas and Interludes,” which groups 16 Scarlatti-sized sonatas interspersed with four interludes, all played on “prepared piano.” Pedja has chosen eight of Cage’s prepared-piano sonatas and places them between works (the “Other Interludes” of the title) by Scarlatti, Liszt, W. F. Bach, Schumann, Strauss, and a Chopin paraphrase by Michalowski. In this context, the Sonatas become the Interludes; those kind of inversions would certainly have delighted John Cage. In a surprising sense, the CD presents two recitals superimposed, which is not unlike the way Cage and Merce Cunningham worked.
As a musical programmer, I have been continually impressed by Pedja’s innate sense for contextualizing music of disparate periods in ways that compliment and enhance. Fans of his series, The Movado Hour, will have many memorable examples at the ready. In this recording, the tart, concision of Cage’s sonatas-not to mention the altered timbre of the “prepared piano”-acts as citrus palate cleansers between courses of a well-planned and well-executed meal.
To read more of what James Roe has to say go here. You can pre-order your CD From Amazon here.
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