December 16, 2007

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happenning in the classical music world, I’m Randy Kinkel.

It's this week in classical music, an update on what's hgappenning in the classical music world. I'm Randy Kinkel.

German Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen died last week at age 79. According to the Stockhausen Foundation, the composer wrote over 362 individually performable works. Stockhausen's early works were in the serialist style, but he became mosat well-known for his experimental, electronic music. He became very influential in the post-WW2 musical world, influencing Miles Davids and the beatles, who put him on the cover of their "Sgt Pepper" album.

A little-known Prokofiev Film Score is getting its live debut at Covent Garden as a Ballet. The Russian Composer was originally commissioned to write the score in 1936 for a film called the Queen of Spades, that never got made. Composer Michael Berkeley was hired to help turn the music into a more rounded score; Berkeley describes his role as "arranging and elaborating" what Prokofiev wrote. The new work, as yet unnamed, will be performed by the royal Ballet next spring, featuring some of the world's finest dancers.

The February visit of the New York Philharmonic to North Korea, will be the first significant cultural visit by Americans to that country, and it comes as the US is offering the possibility of better relations with a country that President Bush once called part of the "axis of evil." Of the Philharmonic's excursion, a spokesman said, "I hope it will be looked back upon as an event that helped bring that country back into the world."

The Philharmonic, led by its music director, Lorin Maazel, has been considering the visit since an invitation arrived by fax in August. It was a typed letter from the North Korean culture ministry, in English, accompanied by a cover letter from a private individual in California who said he was acting as an intermediary. The orchestra had the invitation authenticated by the State Department, which has provided advice and help in negotiating the terms of the visit. Mr. Hill said that he did not know how the invitation had come about. But its timing was significant, after a series of breakthroughs in a decade-long effort to have North Korea halt its nuclear program.

For more information on these and other items and events go to the website, kbaq,org, be listening every week at this time for another update, and join me at noon each weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour-long journey through the world of Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for KBAQ’s This week in classical music, on 89-five all-classical KBAQ, K-B-A-Q phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.