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☆ Beethoven’s hair reveals lead poisoning
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is one of the first songs I learned to play on the violin. While his doctor’s notes were lost to time, scientists sequenced Beethoven’s genome from locks of his hair last year. Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesA new analysis of Beethoven’s hair has shown the composer experienced lead poisoning toward the end of his life. Tests revealed incredibly elevated levels of lead, as well as arsenic and mercury, in two of his locks, likely from drinking wine that was sweetened with lead. Researchers don’t believe lead poisoning would have been enough to kill him, but it could have contributed to the composer’s well-known gastrointestinal issues and deafness.

Persons: CNN — Ludwig van Beethoven’s, Joy ”, I’ll, Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven, don’t, ”, William Meredith, Umm Jirsan, Lady Elliot, Rebecca Wright, Kate Quigley, “ We’re, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Symphony, Hulton, “, Arabia, National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, Minderoo, Energy, CNN Space, Science Locations: Alabama, Saudi Arabia, Umm Jirsan, Lady, Australia

☆ Beethoven’s hair reveals evidence of lead poisoning, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Beethoven’s genome was made publicly available, inviting researchers around the world to investigate lingering questions about Beethoven’s health. Meanwhile, scientists continue to figuratively go over the authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair with a fine-tooth comb, teasing out surprising insights. But at the time the researchers did not test Beethoven’s newly authenticated hair samples for lead. Because the researchers don’t have hair samples from earlier in Beethoven’s life, it’s impossible to understand when the lead poisoning started, Meredith said. But Rifai said he saw comparable lead levels when he conducted research in two villages in Ecuador where the main trade is to glaze tiles with lead from batteries.

Persons: Ludwig van Beethoven’s, Beethoven, ”, Christian Reiter, Hiller, Thayer, Anton Halm, William Meredith, Nader Rifai, Meredith, Rifai, Paul Jannetto, he’d, Johann Adam Schmidt, Beethoven’s, “, ” Meredith, Friedrich Schiller’s, Joy, it’s Organizations: CNN —, Center of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Beethoven, Symphony, Ninth, Ninth Symphony Locations: United States, Ecuador, Vienna

☆ Daniel Barenboim: What Beethoven’s Ninth Teaches Us - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Daniel Barenboim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was first performed exactly 200 years ago Tuesday and has since become probably the work most likely to be embraced for political purposes. (These days the Ninth is being played in concert halls worldwide in commemoration of the premiere. Beethoven might have been surprised at the political allure of his masterpiece. He was interested in politics, but only because he was deeply interested in humanity. I don’t believe, however, that Beethoven was interested in everyday politics.

Persons: Ludwig van Beethoven’s, Leonard Bernstein, ”, Joy, Beethoven, Napoleon —, “ Bonaparte ” —, Napoleon Organizations: European Union Locations: Berlin

☆ Locks of Beethoven’s Hair Offer New Clues to the Mystery of His Deafness
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At 7 p.m. on May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven, then 53, strode onto the stage of the magnificent Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna to help conduct the world premiere of his Ninth Symphony, the last he would ever complete. That performance, whose 200th anniversary is on Tuesday, was unforgettable in many ways. Ted Albrecht, a professor emeritus of musicology at Kent State University in Ohio and author of a recent book on the Ninth Symphony, described the scene. The movement began with loud kettledrums, and the crowd cheered wildly. At that moment, a soloist grasped his sleeve and turned him around to see the raucous adulation he could not hear.

Persons: Ludwig van Beethoven, strode, Ted Albrecht, Beethoven Organizations: Symphony, Kent State University, Ninth Symphony Locations: Vienna, Ohio

☆ Lion Cafe: A classical music cafe in the middle of Tokyo’s busy Shibuya area
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Maggie Hiufu Wong | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Walking into the Lion Cafe, in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, the first thing one notices is the seating. “Meikyoku kissa is a place that plays classical music, where customers can listen to music, have a drink and relax,” says Naoya Yamadera, the current manager of the Lion Cafe. The cafe has more than 10,000 classical music CDs and records. Many people are not familiar with classical music, so I’d like them to get used to it in places like here,” says Yamadara. For more on the Lion Cafe, watch the video at the top of this story.

Persons: ”, Naoya Yamadera, Yanosuke, John S Lander, Yamadera, they’ve, “ Organizations: CNN, Lion Locations: Tokyo’s Shibuya, Tokyo, America, Europe, Japan

☆ Composer, Uninterrupted: Christian Wolff at 90
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Steve Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If artistic stature worked by osmosis, Christian Wolff could claim greatness based on that alone. “My father met Brahms,” he said, easing into conversation at a sturdy wooden table in the dining room of his Hanover, N.H., home. Wolff’s father was 6 or 7. Wolff’s grandfather, a violinist, conductor and professor, knew Brahms personally and professionally, he said. Wolff, who turns 90 on Friday, is associated with a different pantheon.

Persons: Christian Wolff, “, Brahms, ”, Clara Schumann’s, Wolff’s, Robert Schumann, Wolff, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, David Tudor, Merce Cunningham, John Ashbery, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg Organizations: New York School Locations: Hanover, N.H, Bonn, Germany, New York

☆ Review: A Case for Understated Majesty at the Philharmonic
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Take Anders Hillborg’s second piano concerto, “The MAX Concerto,” which had its local premiere with the New York Philharmonic on Thursday. Programmed somewhat arbitrarily between works by Sibelius and Rachmaninoff, it was more entertaining than either of them, and just as well crafted. Likable without being eager to please, thrilling without shameless dazzle, it is, like Ax, enjoyable simply because it’s excellent. And, crucially, Hillborg’s concerto works regardless of how familiar a listener is with his music, or any classical music for that matter. Or you could just sit back and sense, intuitively, the genial majesty and pleasure coursing through it all.

Persons: Anders Hillborg’s, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Emanuel Ax, Ax, Manny Ax, Beethoven’s, ”, Bach Organizations: New York Philharmonic Locations: San Francisco

☆ Jaap van Zweden Bids Farewell, and Other Classical Highlights
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The New York Philharmonic’s spring gala is not usually of much musical interest. The gala, on April 24, features the only appearance this season by Gustavo Dudamel, the Philharmonic’s next music director. He will take part in the celebration of the orchestra’s education programs, including its signature Young People’s Concerts, which are turning 100. The Philharmonic has been careful not to have its Dudamel-led future step too much on its less starry present. This season also brings the final months of Jaap van Zweden’s brief tenure as music director, which will begin on his favored ground: the classics.

Persons: Gustavo Dudamel, Jaap van Zweden’s, Conrad Tao, Beethoven’s Locations: York

NEW YORK (AP) — Carnegie Hall’s 2024-25 season will feature a festival celebrating Latin music titled “Nuestros Sonidos (Our Sounds).”Gustavo Dudamel opens the season and the festival on Oct. 8, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. A dozen festival concerts were announced Wednesday and more will be added, with events throughout New York City. The London Symphony Orchestra, in its first season with chief conductor Antonio Pappano, plays at Carnegie Hall for the first time since 2005 when it performs on March 5, 2025. Pianist Igor Levit gives a Jan. 12 recital in which he performs Liszt’s transcription of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Soprano Asmik Grigorian has a recital on Dec. 17, then returns March 18 for Strauss’ “Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs)” with the Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Möst.

Persons: —, ” Gustavo Dudamel, Lang Lang, Gustavo Castillo, Dudamel's, Gabriela Ortiz, Alisa Weilerstein, Mendelssohn’s, María Valverde, Natalia Lafourcade, ”, ” “ We've, Clive Gillinson, Carnegie, ” Gillinson, Kirill Petrenko, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Igor Levit, Asmik Grigorian, Strauss, Franz Welser Organizations: — Carnegie, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music, Arts of South, ” Carnegie, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jan, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Cleveland Orchestra Locations: Spanish, New York City, Arts of South Africa, America

☆ Review: The Great Emerson String Quartet Takes Its Final Bow
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( David Allen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Was the Emerson the Emerson to the end? “We were afraid of going on too long,” Setzer said recently, and Sunday suggested that he, Drucker and Dutton have stopped at the timeliest of moments, without cause for regret. Nobody could pretend that Sunday saw the Emerson reclaim the heights from which it conquered chamber music, though it was hardly far-off. If its most celebrated predecessors, the Juilliard after World War II and the Guarneri later on, were responsible for a boom in American quartet playing, then it was the Emerson’s part to demonstrate how accomplished a quartet could become. It did not take the Emerson long to set the formidable technical standards that we take for granted among chamber musicians today.

Persons: Emerson, ” Setzer, Drucker, Dutton, Watkins, Schubert, ”, Guarneri, Setzer, George Szell’s, Bernard Holland, Bartok, “ Organizations: Juilliard, New York Times, George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon

This is a season of transition for two of New York’s most important arts institutions. And Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic’s music director since 2018, starts his final year in the position with help from Yo-Yo Ma, Steve Reich and Schubert. Grand orchestras like the Chicago Symphony and Staatskapelle Berlin at Carnegie Hall; the Emerson String Quartet’s farewell; and premieres by Kate Soper and Ted Hearne are among the other highlights coming this fall. And Matthew Ozawa’s staging for Detroit Opera aims to be a corrective to stereotypes about Japanese women and culture (Oct. 7-15). DEATH OF CLASSICAL The impresario Andrew Ousley’s bleakly winking concert series, performed in crypts and catacombs, includes the Calidore Quartet, which will present Beethoven’s Op.

Persons: Jake Heggie’s, Malcolm X ”, Florencia, Jaap van Zweden, Ma, Steve Reich, Schubert, Kate Soper, Ted Hearne, Phil Chan, Matthew Ozawa’s, PERELMAN, ”, Mahani Teave, Andrew Ousley’s bleakly, Lowell Liebermann’s, Maxim Lando, Bach’s “ Goldberg, Hanzhi Wang, David Lang’s Pulitzer, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, York, Chicago Symphony, Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Emerson Colonial Theater, Detroit Opera, Trinity Church Wall, Easter Locations: el Amazonas, Boston, American

☆ An Orchestra’s ‘Ode to Joy’ Calls for Ukrainian Freedom
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Ben Miller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not long after the Berlin Wall fell, in 1989, Leonard Bernstein traveled to the once-divided German city and led a performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” replacing the word “Freude,” or joy, with “Freiheit” — freedom. In an echo of that historic concert, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, a touring ensemble formed in the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, presented Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the suburbs of Berlin on Thursday. And, for the famous “Ode to Joy” choral finale, the text was translated to Ukrainian, with the key word being “slava,” or glory, as in “Slava Ukrainii”: Glory to Ukraine. “I’m driven by my passion for Ukraine,” the orchestra’s conductor, Keri-Lynn Wilson, said on Thursday afternoon before the concert, at the garden of Schönhausen Palace. The orchestra, made up of 74 Ukrainian musicians — some of whom live in that country still, some of whom have fled — was about to perform as part of its second summer tour of Europe.

Persons: Leonard Bernstein, Beethoven’s, Joy, ”, slava, Slava Ukrainii ”, “, Lynn Wilson, Putin, — Organizations: Orchestra Locations: Ukrainian, Ukraine, Berlin, Schönhausen, Europe

CNN —Fragments of a skull believed to have been that of composer Ludwig van Beethoven have been donated to a university in Austria after spending decades in the United States. Seligmann, who died in 1892, had been a physician, medical historian and anthropologist in Vienna. The skull pieces, now referred to as the Seligmann fragments, came into his possession in 1863 during a reburial of Beethoven’s bones for study purposes. Rischgitz/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesIn 1802, 25 years before his death, Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers, asking that his doctor, Johann Adam Schmidt, determine and share the nature of his “illness” after his death. Christian Reiter, a Vienna-based forensic pathologist, has previously examined the skull fragments and deemed them to be credible.

Persons: Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul Kaufmann, ”, Franz Romeo Seligmann, Seligmann, Beethoven, Johann Adam Schmidt, Kaufmann, “, ’, Max Planck, Markus Müller, Christian Reiter, piecing Organizations: CNN, Medical University of Vienna, Seligmann, Max, Max Planck Institute, Beethoven Locations: Austria, United States, American, Vienna, Carmichael , California, France, Vienna’s, Germany, Leipzig

Here are the meanings of the least-found words that were used in (mostly) recent Times articles. Because the pull of gravity varies everywhere, this model, called the geoid, resembles a lumpy potato. — A Side-Effect of China’s Strict Virus Policy: Abandoned Fruit (Feb. 5, 2022)5. boogaloo — a genre of Latin music and dance popular in the 1960s:Afro-Cuban jazz was pioneered in the 1940s by Mario Bauza in Harlem. — A Vegetable Soup That Delicately Balances Sweet and Sour (Feb. 17, 2023)8. vivace — musical direction to play in a brisk manner:In her Op. — 36 Hours in Oslo (Jan. 26, 2023)And the list of the week’s easiest words:

Persons: geoid, finitude, infinitude, Richard Powers’s, Hope, longan, Worakanya, boogaloo, Mario Bauza, —, deadeye, Diego State’s, Scholl, galangal, vivace, Mitsuko Uchida, tacet, Marina Abramovic, Igor Levit’s, ‘ Goldberg Organizations: New, Diego, Huskies, Aztecs, pla Locations: U.S, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cuban, Harlem, South Bronx, New York, saunas, Oslo

☆ Opinion | Is Musicology Racist?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Regarding the piano, for example, Ewell thinks it “enforces a commitment to whiteness and maleness,” and thus playing it should not be expected of those who teach music theory. Ewell also believes musicology should entail no foreign language requirements, because Greek, Latin, Italian, French and German are “white” languages. If we are to be maximally un-white about the matter, I am hoping he is referring to music theory work in Swahili, Hausa, Amharic or Twi, but it’d be good to have some specifics. Music theory has traditionally been taught with a major focus on the work of the Austrian music theorist Heinrich Schenker, whom Ewell specifically attacked in his 2019 article. The issue was widely condemned as racist in musicology circles, and Jackson was barred from the journal amid calls for his firing as a professor at the university that supports it.

☆ Trombone Champ is the internet's new favorite video game. The developer never expected the toots to go viral.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Kahlan-Rosenblatt.Jpg | Kalhan Rosenblatt | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Trombone Champ is the newest video game players can't put down — even if those around them wished they would. Developed by Holy Wow Studios, the rhythm-based video game is similar to Guitar Hero — but swaps the guitar for trombone. The game, which was released Sept. 15, went viral this week after people online — ranging from video game reviewers to actual trombone players — began posting recordings of themselves playing it. He came up with the idea for Trombone Champ four years ago, inspired by traditional arcade cabinets. Dan Vecchitto, trombone Champ developerDeveloping the game was a relatively smooth process, according to Vecchitto, who worked on it on nights and weekends.

☆ The internet’s new favorite video game is like ‘Guitar Hero’ but with trombones
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —If you liked “Guitar Hero” but wished it had more brass instruments, you’re in luck. “Trombone Champ,” from developer Holy Wow Studios, lets players “honk, blow, & toot” their virtual trombones to more than 20 songs, including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the US national anthem. “I made a quick prototype, which people online thought was funny, and thus began work on a full game,” Dan Vecchitto, game designer and developer behind Holy Wow, told CNN Business. In the words of one reviewer on Steam: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t toot.”Before launching the game, Vecchitto had some concerns about how people would respond. “[A]t the moment, Holy Wow is mostly a one person operation.

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