Mendelssohn is have a good year in 2009. Last month in New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage held concerts of some “new” Mendelssohn works… newly rehearsed after some 100 years. This Saturday Feb 21, 2009, the Austin Civic Orchestra will perform “Fantasy and Variations for Two Pianos and Orchestra on the Gypsy March from Weber’s ‘Preziosa’ ” by Felix Mendelssohn. This will be the first time this piece has been heard since 1833. The manuscript piece, never published, and first performed by Ignaz Moscheles and Felix Mendelssohn was set aside and later owned by Anton Rubinstein. After he donated it, it was lost in the archive of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia for over a hundred years. Southwestern University professor J. Michael Cooper and Jonathan Bellman of the University of Northern Colorado, have painstakingly reconstructed the work. It will be performed on Saturday evening. There are still hundreds of Mendelssohn manuscript scores yet to be found and resurrected. Read the entire story from Austin 360.com at:
http://www.austin360.com/news/content/arts/stories/2009/02/0216mendelssohn.html
Concert: 8 p.m. Saturday Feb. 21
Alma Thomas Theatre, Southwestern Univ.
1001 E. University Ave., Georgetown.
$15. purchase tickets at www.austincivicorchestra.org