160th anniversary year

In the Summer 2004
Musical Times, now available

‘We are commemorating this year the tenth anniversary of the death of our founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, and we wish to mark this occasion by commissioning a musical work in his memory, not of a funereal character, but above all celebrating the generosity of M. Calouste Gulbenkian. We would like a symphonic work, preferably with chorus, which would last either 45 minutes to fill half of a concert, or one hour and a quarter for an entire concert. The governing body of the Foundation has allocated to us a sum equivalent to two million old francs. Would it be possible for you to do us the great honour of composing this work? We would like to give the world premiere in our next festival, in May–June 1966. It would therefore be necessary for us to receive the manuscript by the end of February 1966. But it this is too soon, we might be able to put back the date of the performance of this work.’ [Letter of 9 June 1965 from Maria Madalena de Azeredo Perdigo to Olivier Messiaen]

Using unpublished correspondence and diary entries, Nigel Simeone traces the genesis of Messiaen's La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.

‘Twentieth-century music for solo organ from the British Isles is not so plentiful in examples by prominent composers that one can afford to overlook anything. So it is exciting to discover that Britten, known until now only to have written the Prelude and fugue on a theme of Vittoria of 1946 for organ, in fact wrote three other mature pieces, slightly earlier in his career.’

Timothy Bond introduces some recently discovered organ music by Benjamin Britten

‘On 12 June 1939 Ildebrando Pizzetti received the highest honour bestowed by the Italian Government to its intellectual and artistic citizenry: elevation to the rank of Accademico d'Italia. Upon his election, Pizzetti wrote immediately to Mussolini expressing his overwhelming feelings of patriotism and devotion as an Italian and as an artist. On 7 November 1941 Il Duce received Pizzetti in private audience congratulating him for his outstanding activities especially as President of the recently founded Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica.’

Franco Sciannameo surveys the controversial career of the neglected Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti.

Also in the Summer MT probing reviews of...

Stephen Peles, ed.: The collected essays of Milton Babbitt
Clive Brown: A portrait of Mendelssohn
Geoffrey Block: Richard Rodgers
R. Larry Todd: Mendelssohn: a life in music
John Michael Cooper: Mendelssohn's 'Italian' Symphony
Matthew Brown: Debussy's 'Ibéria'
A. Everett & Paul R. Laird, edd.: The Cambridge companion to the musical
Jonathan Cross, ed.: The Cambridge companion to Stravinsky
Michael Kennedy: The life of Elgar
Mark Eden Horowitz: Sondheim on Music: minor details and major decisions
Joseph P. Swain: The Broadway musical: a critical and musical survey, second edition
William G Hyland: George Gershwin: a new biography
David Walsh & Len Platt: Musical theater and American culture
Michael Foster: Plotting gigantic worx: the story of Elgar's Apostles trilogy
Peter Walls: History, imagination and the performance of music
Philip Olleson: Samuel Wesley: the man and his music
Dorottya Fabian: Bach performance practice, 1945—1975: a comprehensive review of sound recordings and literature
Richard Troeger: Playing Bach on the keyboard: a practical guide

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