Annual American Composers Update
Ruth Schonthal
In 1999, Ruth Schonthal's 75th birthday was honored at
Berlin's Akademie der Künste, which purchased Ruth
Schonthal's manuscripts and documents, with the opening
of these archives, concerts, and sponsorship of a CD of
her piano works (June); and at New York University, with
a faculty concert of her music (Nov.). Her
Reverberations
CD was declared the best CD of Sept./Oct. 1999 in
Piano
News in Germany and got good reviews in
Neue Zeitschrift
für Musik. In Nov. 2000 in Berlin, an all-Schonthal
concert was part of the 150th-year celebration at the
Hochschule für Musik, where, at age five, Schonthal
was their youngest student ever. Recent broadcasts include
Reverberations, for prepared piano, in Amsterdam;
and a radio and TV show featuring her music and interviews,
aired all over Germany. University of Connecticut vocal
department head Margaret Astrup, soprano, received a grant
and sabbatical from the school, to record Schonthal's
vocal music. Her exclusive publisher since 1998,
Furore
Verlag, has released a brochure about her.
Premieres
Heard first in Oct. 1999 in Germany were
Tristana,
commissioned by the Heidelberger Festival Ensemble, with
Marianne Boettcher, violin, and the composer at the piano,
at the Kurpfälzisches Museum, in Heidelberg; and
Wildunger Liederzyklus, with soprano Mechthild Rieh and
pianist Werner Barho, at the Stadthalle, in Bremen. In
July 2000, harpsichordist Alexander Kipnis soloed in the
premiere of Schonthal's
Concerto Piccolo for Harpsichord,
Flute, and Bassoon, commissioned by the Manchester
(VT) Music Festival, with flutist Jayn Rosenfeld and bassoonist
Dimitri Rudiakov, at the Southern Vermont Arts Center,
in Manchester.
Performances
An all-Schonthal concert at Berlin's Akademie der Künste
featured
Reverberations; The Canticles of Hieronymus,
for piano; and
Four Epiphanies, for viola; with
pianist Adina Mornell and violist Lukas Aisenberg, Oct.
1999.
The Canticles of Hieronymus also was played
by Margaret Mills, at Weill Hall, in New York, NY, Dec.
1999; and with Werner Barho on his tour of Odessa, St.
Petersburg, and Kiev, in Russia and the Ukraine, Mar.
2000. In May 2000, Dorothy Lawson and Chris Oldfather
performed
Sonata in Two Movements, for cello and
piano. The all-Schonthal concert at the Berlin Hochschule
fYr Musik included
Tristana, Reverberations, Little
Suite for Two Violins, and
Toccatina, with
Mornell and Schonthal, pianists, and Boettcher, violin.
Publications
Three Elegies; Sonatina in A; both for piano;
Collagen
(texts from
Des Knaben Wunderhorn); soprano and
instruments;
Toccatina and Air; Abendruhe und Süsser
Traum; flute, cello, piano, vibraphone, and timpani;
Improvisation in Three Inter-connected Sections;
solo violin;
A Birds Song, About . . . ; flute
and prepared piano; all by
Furore
Verlag.
Recordings
Sonatina in A; Canticles of Hieronymus; Variations
in Search of a Theme; Portrait of the Artist as an Older
Woman; all for piano;
Reverberations, for prepared
piano; all by Mornell; Academy
Reverberations CD.
String Quartet No. 3 Holocaust in Memoriam; Bingham
Quartet;
A Bird Over Jerusalem, for flute, prepared
piano, tape, and optional electronics; Eastman Contemporary
Players; all by Milken Archive.
Sonata Breve, Sonatensatz,
Variations in Search of a Theme, Reverberations, Fragments
From a Woman's Diary; all for piano; Gary Steigerwalt;
Cambria Master Recordings
Keyboard Explorations CD.
Early Songs (text
by R. M. Rilke);
By the Roadside (text by W. Whitman);
Susan Gonzales and Marcia Eckert, piano;
Leonarda
Collection of Songs by American Women CD.
Further Information
