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16th April: Parisians sing ‘Ave Maria’ outside Notre-Dame Cathedral, further line-up announced for Sound Unbound and Munich celebrates 100 years of Weinberg

Tuesday 16th April 2019

Crowd sings ‘Ave Maria’ outside burning Notre-Dame Cathedral to honour its legacy

Last night (Monday 15 April), a fire broke out at the Notre-Dame de Paris, devastating the 12th-century structure.

Firefighters rushed to try to contain the blaze, which is thought to be linked to its ongoing $6.8 million renovation project. The fire reportedly started on a piece of the building which was covered in scaffolding.

A number of videos have been posted on Twitter, showing people singing ‘Ave María’ as they watched the Notre-Dame burn.

 

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Barbican and Culture Mile announce further line-up for Sound Unbound festival

Further line-up details have been announced for this year’s Sound Unbound, a weekend-long classical music festival that takes place from 18 – 19 May and for the first time will be completely free.

Highlights include:

  • UK premiere of pianist Bruce Brubaker and producer Max Cooper’s project Glassforms at the Barbican Hall
  • Winchester-based choir SANSARA perform in St Bartholomew the Great presenting music for choir and electronics exploring mysticism, death and loss, including chants by Hildegard von Bingen, the world premiere of a new work by Joe Bates, and Arvo Pärt’s Virgencita
  • Two special projects from singer Nora FischerHUSH, in which she, together with guitarist Marnix Dorrestein, redefines beautiful 17th-century songs in the spirit of a modern pop-song, and The Secret Diary of Nora Plain, where she moves between pop, jazz and classical
  • Saxophonist Jess Gillam, one of the most exciting emerging artists in classical music, performs at Milton Court Concert Hall

Read more here…


Festival zum Jubiläum 100 Jahre Mieczysław Weinberg

Im Festival zu entdecken gibt es mit Mieczysław Weinberg, der im kommenden Dezember seinen 100. Geburtstag gefeiert hätte, einen der produktivsten und vielseitigsten Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts. 154 seiner Werke sind bis heute erhalten, darunter 22 Sinfonien, vier Kammersinfonien, sechs Opern sowie Ballette, Film- und Zirkusmusik. Aufgrund seiner jüdischen Herkunft floh Weinberg 1939 vor den Nazis aus seiner Heimat Polen in die Sowjetunion. Doch auch dort wurde er während der Stalin-Herrschaft verfolgt. Stets stand er im Schatten seines Freundes Dmitri Schostakowitsch, obwohl dieser ihn förderte.

Inzwischen sind die lang in Vergessenheit geratenen Kompositionen des 1996 gestorbenen Künstlers zwar gelegentlich auf den Spielplänen einiger Konzert- und Opernhäusern zu finden, doch dem Musikpublikum sind viele seiner Kompositionen bis heute kaum bekannt. Vom 20. bis 26. Mai präsentiert das JCOM Werke für Kammerorchester, Kammermusik und die erst vor wenigen Jahren uraufgeführte Oper „Lady Magnesia“. Gesprächskonzerte und die Vorführung des sowjetischen Antikriegsfilms „Die Kraniche ziehen“, der 1958 bei den Filmfestspielen in Cannes die Goldene Palme gewann und zu dem Weinberg die Musik schrieb, bringen dem Publikum weitere Facetten seines Werkes nahe.

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This year sees the 100th birthday of Mieczysław Weinberg, who is one of the most prolific and eclectic composers of the 20th century. A festival in Munich will celebrate his life, work and legacy. 154 of his works have survived to this day, including 22 symphonies, four chamber symphonies, six operas as well as ballets, film and circus music. Due to his Jewish origin, Weinberg fled the Nazis from his native Poland to the Soviet Union in 1939. Even there he was persecuted under Stalin’s rule, and was always in the shadow of his friend Dmitri Shostakovich.

Meanwhile, the long-forgotten compositions of the artist, can occasionally be found on the repertoire of some concert and opera houses, but many of his compositions are hardly known to the music audience until today. From 20 to 26 May, JCOM will be presenting works for chamber orchestra, chamber music and the opera “Lady Magnesia”, which premiered just a few years ago. Conversation concerts and the screening of the Soviet anti-war movie “The Cranes Draw”, which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958 and wrote the music to the vineyard, bring to the public other facets of his work.

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