Conductor Lorin Maazel, a child prodigy who later directed the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic, died on Sunday at the age of 84, according to the music festival he founded.
Maazel died in Virginia from complications following pneumonia, the Castleton Festival said in a statement on its Web site.
Maazel was born in Paris in 1930 to American parents and spent his life in music as a composer, conductor and even a diplomat, when he took the New York Philharmonic for an unprecedented concert in North Korea in 2008 aimed at opening a door to one of the world’s most isolated countries.
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
An audience of North Korea’s communist elite gave America’s oldest orchestra a standing ovation after a rousing set in a Pyongyang concert hall that took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean folk song. Some of the musicians were so overcome they left the stage in tears.
“Little did we know that we would be thrown into orbit by this stunning, stunning reaction,” Maazel said after the performance.
Between the ages of nine and 15, Maazel conducted most of the major American orchestras, including the NBC Symphony at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini, his official Web site said.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透社
Maazel conducted more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, it said.
He made more than 300 recordings, including symphonic cycles of complete orchestral works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss, winning 10 Grands Prix du Disque.
In 2009, Maazel founded the Castleton Festival, an annual summer event on his Virginia farm, where he held performances and training seminars.
During the opening night of the 2014 festival, Maazel said working with the young musicians and singers was “more than a labor of love — a labor of joy.”
(Reuters)
指揮家羅林‧馬捷爾所創辦的音樂節表示,馬捷爾於週日病逝,享年八十四歲。以神童之姿出道的馬捷爾,領導過紐約愛樂、匹茲堡交響樂團與慕尼黑愛樂等樂團。
凱薩頓音樂節網站公布一則聲明表示,馬捷爾因肺炎併發症,於維吉尼亞州病逝。
父母皆為美國人的馬捷爾,一九三零年出生於巴黎,並終其一生以作曲家、指揮家等身分為音樂奉獻。他甚至還是位外交家,有鑑於北韓是世界上最封閉國家之一,他希望藉由音樂開啟該國一扇通往世界之門,因此於二00八年率領紐約愛樂前往北韓,獻出一場史無前例的音樂會。
在平壤音樂廳奏出一連串包含德弗札克、蓋西文與韓國歌謠等振奮人心的曲目後,在座觀眾席的北韓共產主義精英給與這支美國歷史最悠久的樂團起立鼓掌。有些團員也在退場時情不自禁地眼眶泛淚。
馬捷爾在該場演出後表示:「我們完全不知道我們會得到如此叫好的迴響,團員們簡直是受寵若驚。」
其官網上寫道,馬捷爾於九歲到十五歲間,指揮過大多數美國重要樂團,包含受到阿圖羅‧托斯卡尼尼邀請而指揮的NBC交響樂團。
官網上寫道,馬捷爾指揮過超過一百五十個樂團,超過五千場歌劇與音樂會演出。
他生平錄製超過三百張唱片,其中包括貝多芬、布拉姆斯、德布西、馬勒、舒伯特、柴科夫斯基、拉赫瑪尼諾夫與理查‧史特勞斯全套交響曲錄音。其錄音榮獲十次Grands Prix du Disque法國唱片大獎。
馬捷爾於二00九年在其維吉尼亞州的莊園,創辦凱薩頓音樂節,每年暑期舉辦音樂會與大師班專題討論會。
二0一四年音樂節的開幕晚會上,馬捷爾表示,能與年輕音樂家與歌唱家一起工作,「與其說是『為喜歡』而工作,更貼接為『為享受』而做的工作」。
(路透/翻譯:林亞蒂)
South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 degrees Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. “We
It’s widely recognized that there are far more right-handed people than left-handed people in the world. Being right-handed simply means preferring to use one’s right hand for tasks that involve only one hand, such as writing and eating. But have you ever wondered about the possible reasons behind the global dominance of the right hand over the left? As with many complex biological questions, multiple factors appear to be at play. First, one reason seems to be genetics. __1__ Therefore, the global dominance of right-handedness is something that has been passed down through many generations of humans. Next,
On blazing hot summer days, fresh ingredients and cool refreshments straight from a refrigerator feel like nothing short of a miracle. However, chilled foods didn’t begin with modern refrigerators. In fact, the origin of refrigeration precedes the invention of this now-indispensable appliance by centuries. Initially, the quest for refrigeration was motivated more by the desire to cool beverages than to preserve food. The ancient Greeks and Romans, for instance, used snow stored in insulated pits to chill wine. Around the fourth century BC, the Persians made a significant stride in refrigeration techniques when they devised the yakhchal. Fashioned from
Continued from yesterday(延續自昨日) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Finally, cultural influence also plays a role in which hand people prefer. Historically, items that require physical manipulation have been designed for right-handed use. For example, tools like scissors and musical instruments are often constructed with right-handers in mind, making it difficult for left-handers to use them. __4__ While these factors offer some explanation, they remain speculative. The precise reasons for the global prevalence of right-handed people continue to be debated. Nevertheless, left-handedness will remain a phenomenon of great curiosity among scientists and researchers for many years to come. 最後,文化影響也在人們偏好哪一隻手上扮演一角。歷史上,需要用到肢體操作的物品都被設計來供右手使用。舉例來說,像是剪刀、樂器等工具常常就是考慮到右撇子而打造的,造成左撇子難以使用這些工具。因此,許多天生就是左撇子的人可能就必須透過學習使用右手來適應。 雖然這些因素都提供了一些解釋,但它們仍是推測而已。全球右撇子如此普及,確切的原因仍持續被爭論著。不過,在未來的許多年裡,左撇子依然會是科學家和研究人員相當好奇的一個現象。 What Did You Learn? (A) Specifically, different areas of