MESSIAEN RECONSIDERED:

The University of Sheffield music department has been hosting a conference on Olivier Messiaen from 20-23 June 2002 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the great composer’s death. It was intended to be a celebration of the maitre and an opportunity for scholars interested in his music to share their knowledge and deepen their understanding of all aspects of Messiaen, his work and his influence.

In addition to papers, round table events and presentations, the conference featured two concerts of music by Messiaen, not least the UK premières of ‘Prélude for piano’ (1964) and ‘Feuillets inedits’ for piano and onde Martenot. There was the first concert performance of a short piano piece written for the École Normale in the 1930s. As well as these, and other rarely heard works, the concerts included ‘Visions de l’Amen’, ‘La fauvette des jardins’ and extracts from ‘Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus’. Performers included Madeleine Forte, Peter Hill, Matthew Schellhorn and Jacques Tchamkerten.

For further information about papers etc., write to: Messiaen@sheffield.ac.uk

ONLINE INFO:

‘La Folia’ is an excellent free online music review featuring a selection of articles and abstracts on classical and contemporary music, recording and related issues. It has a fine index and is brought to us by Madrigal. The eight offerings for June 2002 include pieces on ‘recordings alone’ and ‘Modern, Nasty Recordings: or Why Did Everyone Go So Terribly Wrong?’ by W A Greive-Smith. That ought to get you going! This news was brought to me by the ever-useful newsgroup rec.music.classical contemporary. If you follow the link (or the one at the side) you’ll get to it via GoogleGroups.