Mixed Media

Strep throat may have led to Mozart's death

The death of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 35 may have been caused by complications stemming from strep throat, according to a Dutch study published on Monday. Since the composer's death in 1791, there have been various theories about the cause of his untimely end, from intentional poisoning, to rheumatic fever, to trichinosis, a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork.

On his death certificate it was officially recorded that the cause of death was hitziges Frieselfieber, or "heated miliary fever," referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds.

But researchers from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands said studies on his death have generally been based on less-than-reliable evidence, like accounts from people who witnessed Mozart's final days, written decades after his death.

Their new study, reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on information from official death registers for Vienna in the winter of 1791 that places Mozart's death in a wider context. He died in Vienna.

"Our findings suggest that Mozart fell victim to an epidemic of strep throat infection that was contracted by many Viennese people in Mozart's month of death, and that Mozart was one of several persons in that epidemic that developed a deadly kidney complication," researcher Richard Zegers, of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, told Reuters Health.

Zegers and his colleagues said this "minor epidemic" of step throat, or streptococcal pharyngitis, may have begun in the city's military hospital.

According to witness accounts, Mozart fell ill with an "inflammatory fever," which is consistent with strep throat, Zegers and his colleagues wrote in their report.

The composer, who wrote more than 600 works during his life, eventually developed severe swelling, "malaise," back pain and a rash, consistent with a strep infection leading to kidney inflammation known as glomerulonephritis.

Zegers said it was also possible that Mozart had scarlet fever, which, like strep throat, can be caused by infection with streptococcal bacteria, but this was less likely because witnesses said Mozart developed a rash near the end of his illness and with scarlet fever, the rash appears early on.

(Reporting by Amy Norton from Reuters Health, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Vivaldi: A Man For All Seasons

   Known as the "red priest" because of his hair color and his membership in the clergy, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was the most original and influential Italian composer of his generation. He wrote more than 500 concertos, which make up the bulk of his output, and the techniques he used to keep these works interesting and lively — deftly varying the texture and figuration, and favoring angular, energetic rhythms that packed extra punch — were adopted by composers all over the continent.

The concertos of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, published in 1725, demonstrate a wealth of effect using nothing more than string instruments. Their imagery — of birds in the spring, storms in summer, huntsmen in autumn and icy landscapes in winter — remains as vivid today as on the day the notes were penned.

Vivaldi wrote an illustrative sonnet as a guide to each of the concertos. Accordingly, "Spring," in the bright key of E major, celebrates the sounds of "joyful bird song," briefly interrupted as "gentle breezes give way to a passing storm." In the slow movement, a shepherd sleeps in the "pleasant flowering meadow," while a dog (the solo viola) barks. Nymphs dance a graceful gigue through the finale as the sun emerges from behind the clouds. It's all there in the sonnet Vivaldi wrote, and it's there in the music as well.

Read the full article by Ted Libbey here.

Listen Again: Music of Monks and Drunks

by Ted Libbey

(Click here to listen to the audio story and excerpts from Carmina Burana)

Carmina Burana was the title of a collection of medieval Latin and German lyrics published in 1847,   taken from a 13th century manuscript then in the possession of a Benedictine abbey near Munich.

To this day, the original manuscript remains the richest source of secular poetry by the goliards — itinerant scholars and monks active in Europe from the late 10th century to the early 1200s. In 1935, the German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982) encountered the collection and was immediately seized by the earthy, unbridled imagery of its material. He made use of some two dozen texts (though none of the melodies in the manuscript) to fashion one of the 20th century's most popular works for chorus and orchestra. The score, completed in 1936, received its premiere in Frankfurt on June 8, 1937.

Orff's Carmina Burana invites the performer and listener alike to participate in the hedonistic enjoyment of rhythmically catchy and frequently repeated tunes, as well as equally simple forms, consonant harmony, powerful singing and colorful scoring marked by unstinting use of percussion.

'Burana' With A Bang

German conductor Eugen Jochum's picturesque recording has a Germanness that is exactly on the mark. The orchestral playing sounds clean, characterful and suggestive; the choral singing suitably lusty. No one has ever done the Bavarian beer hall bit any better, and the whole performance is fun from start to finish. Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau brings the nuance of a Lieder artist to his solos, while tenor Gerhard Stolze, in spite of some liberties with phrasing, proves unerringly comical.

This article is from NPR's Classical 50 series, a weekly guide to essential classics. For the full archive of NPR's Classical 50, click here.

Concert Spotlight: Duo Concertante and the Tarab Cello Ensemble perform at Ithaca College

Violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves — together known as Duo Concertante — will give a free guest recital at Ithaca College on Wednesday, March 18. The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.

The program will include a Beethoven sonata, a duo by R. Murray Schafer, and a fantasy by Schubert. The program will conclude with three lighter selections: “A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie, the traditional Irish tune “The Lark in the Clear Air,” and “Tico Tico.”

Since forming in 1997, Duo Concertante’s performances have been acclaimed throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad for brilliance, subtlety, passion, and stunning ensemble. Hailed for their “artistry, poetry, and impeccable technique” (“La Scena Musicale”), “exceptional warmth and intimacy” (“Ottawa Citizen”), Dahn and Steeves have been described as superb musicians who “work together with uncanny perfection” (“Waterloo Gazette”). Their teamwork and powerfully-charged performances set them apart from more conventional violin/piano collaborations, with a critic from “La Scene Musicale” observing, “One doesn’t listen to a program of violin music here, but to real chamber music, as it should be.”

The Ithaca College Concert Series will continue on Friday, with the Tarab Cello Ensemble, eight   cellists dedicated to the performance of new music for cello choir, performing a free concert at Ithaca College on Friday, March 20 at 8:15 pm in Ford Hall.  They will be joined by Ithaca College faculty cellist Elizabeth Simkin.  With one exception from 1996, their entire program will consist of music composed in the 21st century.

Tarab Cello Ensemble is dedicated to the commissioning and performance of twenty-first century American music for eight cellos, with the goal of establishing a vital contemporary repertoire for this instrumentation. Since its inception in 2000, the ensemble has premiered more than twenty works, from such composers as Larry Bell, Caleb Burhans, Garrett Byrnes, Dennis DeSantis, David Liptak, Brad Lubman, Gregory Mertl, Joe Michaels, Sam Pellman, Martin Scherzinger, Aaron Travers, and Dan Trueman. Its repertoire also includes such compositions as Pierre Boulez' /Messagesquisse/, Arvo Pärt's /Fratres/, Augusta Read Thomas’ /Blizzard in Paradise /and Luciano Berio's /Korot/.

More information about these performances and about Ithaca College's Concert Series can be found here.

Concert Spotlight: Verdehr Trio performs at Ithaca College

The Enduring Masters series at Ithaca College will continue on Wednesday, March 4, with a performance by the Verdehr Trio, an ensemble acknowledged for its leadership in the world of new   music. Free and open to the public, the concert will start at 8:15 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. Members of the trio will also conduct a series of master classes on March 4.

Entitled “Music of the 21st Century,” the program will consist of works by Jennifer Higdon, David Liptak, Lee Hoiby, Roberto Sierra, Gernot Wolfgang, and Augusta Read Thomas. These works were commissioned by the Trio and Michigan State University, where the ensemble is in residence.

For more than 30 years, the Verdehr Trio has concentrated on molding and defining the personality of the violin-clarinet-piano trio. With violinist Walter Verdehr, clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, and pianist Silvia Roederer, the Trio has created a large repertoire by commissioning nearly 200 new works from the worlds’ most prominent and exciting composers — known and unknown, young and old, from the United States and abroad.

The Verdehr Trio has performed throughout the world, including 17 European countries, the former Soviet Union, South and Central America, Asia, Australia, and all 50 United States. Among the major concert halls where the Trio has appeared are the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers, Vienna’s Brahmssaal, Sydney Opera House and London’s Wigmore Hall.

The Enduring Masters Series is a partnership of the Ithaca College School of Music and the Gerontology Institute’s Linden Center for Creativity and Aging, a part of the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies. The series is funded by the New York State Music Fund established by the New York Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

For more information, contact Susan Harris, coordinator of Enduring Masters, at (607) 274-7007 or sharris@ithaca.edu; or visit www.ithaca.edu/enduringmasters.

The Guarneri Quartet marks a farewell in Ithaca

The Guarneri Quartet will open the yearlong Ithaca College Concerts season, “Ensembles Great and Small,” with a stop on its Farewell Tour Friday, Oct. 3. The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. The program will include string quartets by Bartok and Mozart, as well as Dvorak’s “American” quartet.

The Guarneri String Quartet "is among the most revered and enduring ensembles of its kind in the world" (National Public Radio) and has circled the globe countless times since it was formed in 1964, playing in the most prestigious halls in North and South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia. They have been featured on many television and radio specials, documentaries and educational presentations in both North America and abroad.

Members of the Guarneri String Quartet will retire upon completion of the 2008–9 season. In its final season, the quartet will celebrate by doing what it does best—touring extensively throughout the United States as its members have for nearly 45 years. Performances include the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art concert series, instituted in 1965, as well as a collaboration with the Johannes String Quartet. The ensemble will also make its annual European tour this winter.

Visit the Ithaca College Concerts website for more information or call (607) 274-3717.

Classical road warriors

Filmmaker Tal Skloot first heard the phrase "Freeway Philharmonic" 20 years ago, when he was sharing a house with a bunch of freelance musicians in Santa Cruz, California. With paying gigs in locations that were often separated by hundreds of miles, the players had unofficially dubbed themselves the Freeway Philharmonic. The term is used to describe classical players who, not having a permanent full-time position, spend more time in their cars driving to or from a performance than they spend playing music.

  "That name, Freeway Philharmonic, it stuck with me," says Skloot, who trained as a classical guitarist, but traded the freelance-musician life for the somewhat more stable existence of a freelance documentary maker. "I thought it might make a great name for a movie, and several years ago, when I decided to make a documentary about these freeway musicians, it was the obvious title for the film."

Freeway Philharmonic - now out on DVD after snagging some major airplay on public television stations, and earning screen spots in a number of film festivals - was filmed for just over $70,000. A labor of love for Skloot and producer Steven Baigel, the film tells the stories of seven San Francisco Bay Area musicians who crisscross Northern California on a daily basis, logging thousands of miles in their struggle to make a living as professional players.

"Since this film came out," says Skloot, who shot more than 100 hours of footage over three years, "I've been getting calls from all over the country from other members of the Freeway Philharmonic, or whatever they call them in the area they hail from. 'Driving for Dollars' is one other term I've heard. Sometimes it's just 'The Freeway Circuit.' I've heard from lots of players who've wanted to see the film and share it with their friends-and tell me their own road stories. It's not just a Bay Area thing. There are plenty of musicians who spend huge parts of their lives in their cars."

Read the full article here.

Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival kicks off 10th anniversary season

The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival will kick-off its tenth anniversary season with two evening concerts, a Family Music Fest concert, and the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar. The Festival continues through August 19 with a mix of classical and jazz offerings performed by an engaging roster of artists.

On July 11, the concert Nature Calls, features Schubert’s popular Trout Quintet, a new arrangement of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and Heinrich von Biber’s Sonata Representiva, and George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale for three masked players.

“The program shows how composers from three different centuries portrayed animals in music,” says    Festival artistic director Linda Chesis, who will be performing in the concert. “The Farmers’ Museum is the ideal venue for this thematic concert. You’ll hear all sorts of animals, from cats, cuckoos, and swans to frogs, elephants and beluga whales,” says Ms. Chesis.

This concert, which will be held at The Farmers’ Museum Louis C. Jones Center at 7:30 pm, includes a pre-concert chat with the artists at 7 pm, and a post-concert reception with the artists, hosted by Brewery Ommegang. Artists include: Linda Chesis, flute; Gil Morgenstern, violin; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Wilhelmina Smith, cello; Shirley Irek, piano; and Jeremy McCoy, double bass.

On Saturday, July 12 at 11 am, the Festival offers a kid-friendly introduction to the string quartet. Family Music Fest: What’s That Four? features the highly acclaimed Parker String Quartet. This event, which includes a post-concert instrument petting zoo, where kids can try out musical instruments, costs $15 per family.

The Parkers perform works by Haydn, Janáček, and Beethoven on Sunday, July 13 at 7:30 pm at The Farmers’ Museum. The Boston-based string quartet won both the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005.

“The Parker String Quartet is one of the very best young quartets performing today,” says Ms. Chesis. “The concert features a great Haydn quartet, one of Beethoven’s blockbuster quartets that marked the arrival of his heroic period, and the dramatic Janáček quartet inspired by Tolstoy’s novel, The Kreutzer Sonata.

Continuing its tradition of offering free community concerts, the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar pairs accomplished amateurs with three professional musicians. “We see this as an opportunity to celebrate chamber music as a lifelong pursuit that can be enjoyed and shared,” says Ms. Chesis, who will be leading the Pro-Am Seminar with David Geber, cello, and Shirley Irek, piano. These concerts will be held in venues throughout the Cooperstown area, July 14-16.

“The individuals joining us for the seminar are truly amazing people, who have excelled in their professional life while dedicating time and talent to their love of music,” explains Ms. Chesis. Mark Ptashne, who holds the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is a violinist who has performed at many festivals. Bruce Harris is an attending neurosurgeon at Cooperstown’s Bassett Healthcare who is an accomplished pianist. Matt Rosen, a managed healthcare consultant with a Ph.D. in sociology, plays cello and has participated in chamber music workshops in the US and abroad along with his wife, Geraldine Van Dusen. Ms. Van Dusen, a violinist, is a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City.

Also participating in the Pro-Am Seminar are three students from the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Geber is Dean of the Faculty for Instrumental Performance and Ms. Chesis is a member of the flute faculty and chair of the Woodwind Department. The students are Monica Davis, violin/viola; Leat Sabbah, cello; and Emily DiAngelo, oboe, who is also serving as the Festival’s intern and production manager.

After coaching sessions and rehearsals, the artists will perform at Pathfinder Village on July 14 at 7 pm, the Fenimore Art Museum auditorium on July 15 at 12 noon and July 16 at 12 noon. These concerts are free and open to all. The group also will perform for the residents of the Thanksgiving Home in Cooperstown.

Season continues through August 19

The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival tenth anniversary season also features a Baroque concert on July 23, the Daedalus Quartet and clarinetist David Shifrin on August 3, Flute Fest at the Otesaga (another free community concert) on August 7, Chords and Strings with The Brasil Guitar Duo on August 9, Trio Solisti and Linda Chesis on August 13, Family Music Fest: Go for Baroque on August 16, Gala 10th Anniversary Concert: The Brandenburg Concertos on August 17, and jazz with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet on August 19. Evening concerts begin at 7:30 pm. Audiences are invited to attend 7 pm pre-concert chats with the artists on the following dates: July 11, 13, 23, and August 3, 9, 13.

Tickets and Information
Evening concerts are $30 for adults. Students (6-18) tickets for evening concerts are $15. Daytime Family Music Fest events are $15 per family. Pro-Am Seminar concerts and the Flute Fest at the Otesaga concert are free and do not require a ticket or reservation. Program subject to change.

For more information, call toll-free 877- MOOSIC1 (877-666-7421), or visit the Festival’s web site.

Listen Again: YouTube Monks Storm European Pop Charts

The monks of Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria sing ancient Gregorian chants in their 12th-century church — and then post them to YouTube. Their technological savvy landed them a record deal, and now their album is storming the European charts and arriving in America. Father Karl Wallner talks to host Andrea Seabrook about balancing pop stardom with the religious life.

Listen to the piece.

And here's one of the many YouTube videos of the monks performing.

Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival performance featured on Performance Today

Performance Today will broadcast Hopkinson Smith's performance of "The Right Honourable Robert, Earle of Essex, his Galliard" and "Fantasie" by Dowland. The concert was recorded on August 1, 2007 at the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival.

This performance will air on Thursday's edition of Performance Today, which broadcasts from 2 to 4 p.m. on WSKG Public Radio.