Muti to Lead Chicago Symphony

Movement reconstructed using composer's sketches

(NEWSER) - After Beethoven scrapped a movement from a string quartet, it was lost to the world’s ears for two centuries. No longer: A music professor in Britain has recreated the piece using the composer’s sketches for every measure. The movement of String Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2 was performed for the first time in 200 years—perhaps the first time ever—at Manchester University, the Telegraph reports. More»

Composer saw creatures emerging from piano

(NEWSER) - The 19th-century composer Frédéric Chopin suffered frightening hallucinations, ranging from ghosts to creatures coming out of his piano. Now, researchers believe the visions may have been prompted by temporal lobe epilepsy, the Daily Telegraph reports. The disease can cause short, detailed hallucinations, and “could easily have been overlooked by Chopin’s doctors,” researchers note in Medical Humanities . More»

(NEWSER) - Two pieces by a 7- or 8-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went undiscovered for more than a century because they were written in his father Leopold’s hand, the New York Times reports. Austrian researchers have disclosed new details about the works after announcing the finding in July: The music consists of parts of a piano prelude and a concerto, and was hastily scrawled in the back of Mozart’s sister’s practice book. More»

Tech assist enhances classical experience

(NEWSER) - In a bid to win over multitaskers and technophobes, the National Symphony Orchestra will tweet along with tonight's performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, the Washington Post reports. Audience members with appropriate gadgets can sit in a special section on the lawn at Wolf Trap, in suburban Virginia, and follow posts from the conductor. More»

Two piano pieces surface in Austria

(NEWSER) - Two pieces of music found in the vaults of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, have been confirmed as the work of Mozart himself, the BBC reports. The compositions are for solo piano, but other details are being kept under wraps until a formal announcement next month, said a foundation spokeswoman. They will eventually be performed on Mozart's original fortepiano. More»