Lebrecht January 2009 Newsletter

Greetings to everyone for 2009.

There are several major music anniversaries this year and Lebrecht, as in previous years, has created ready to use collages for the key composers. Our in-house designers have created some original artwork especially for this purpose. These can be used as magazine or newspaper covers or for specialist books and offer original artwork at a huge saving for clients’ in-house expenses.

The composers span the eighteenth century through to the twenty first. The main music anniversaries coming up in 2009 are:

Henry Purcell, English composer, 350th birth anniversary 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695

Georg Frideric Handel, German-English composer, 250th death anniversary 14 April 1759 (born 1685)

Franz Josef Haydn, Austrian composer, 200th death anniversary 31 May, 1809 (born 1732)

Felix Mendelssohn, German composer, 200th birth anniversary 3 February 1809 (died 1847)

Bohuslav Martinu, Czech composer, 50th death anniversary August 28 1959 (born 1890)

Isaac Albeniz, French composer, 100th death anniversary May 18 1909 (born 1860)

André Previn, American conductor and composer , 80th birthday on 6 April 1929.

Buddy Holly, American singer and songwriter, 50th death anniversary 3 February 1959 (born 1936)

Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer famous for her hats full of fruit,100th birth anniversary
5 January 1909 (died 1955)

This is a fabulous year for dance with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Ballet Russe set up by Serge Diaghilev, Russian impressario, in Paris in 1909. The ballet company rapidly became famous for it s avant garde productions using artists such as Picasso and Miro for decor and costumes, and works composed by Stravinsky and Milhaud, and including the famous Russian dancer Nijinsky.

Literary anniversaries include a number of poets.
Robert Burns, Scottish poet, (very popular in Russia) 300th birth anniversary 25 January 1759 (died 1796 ).
Stephen Spender, English poet, 100th birth anniversary 28 February 1909 (died 1995).
J M Synge, Irish playwright, 100th death anniversary 24 March 1909 (born 1871)

Philosophers, famous for their writings, are Charles Darwin, who wrote ‘On the Origin of Species…’ 200th birth anniversary 12 January 1809 (died 1882)

Simone Weil, French religious philosopher , 100th birth anniversary 3 February 1909 (died 1943)