Carl Wilhelm Scheele (December 9, 1742 - May 21, 1786) a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist, born in Stralsund, Western Pomerania, Germany (at the time under Swedish rule), was the discoverer of many chemical substances, most notably discovering oxygen before Joseph Priestley and chlorine before Humphry Davy.
Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey (born 8 July 1945) is a Swiss politician. She was Switzerland's foreign minister as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. She was also a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2003. She was President of the Confederation in 2007 and again in 2011. She resigned her office as member of the Federal Council on 31 December 2011.
Criss Angel Mindfreak
Criss Angel Mindfreak is an American television program. The program is hosted by illusionist Criss Angel. Angel performs many different types of stunts and illusions on the program such as street magic, levitation, and setting himself on fire. The program was first shown on July 20, 2005. It is shown and distributed by the A&E network.
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of three instruments including a piano. Usually it is a piano, a violin and a cello. This combination of instruments has been a very popular form of chamber music from the Classical music period onwards. A piano trio can also mean a piece of music written for a piano trio to play.
Other combinations of piano with two instruments are often called by the featuring wind instrument. For example: Mozart wrote a trio for piano, clarinet and viola which is usually called a “clarinet trio”. Brahms wrote a trio for piano, violin and French horn which is usually called a “horn trio”.
Music for three people to play at one piano is called music for piano six hands.
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all wrote several piano trios for the traditional combination of piano, violin and cello. Beethoven’s last piano trio has the nickname "Archduke" because it was written for the Archduke Rudolph. Franz Schubert wrote two beautiful piano trios.
In the Romantic period some of the best piano trios were written by Felix Mendelssohn, Antonín Dvořák, César Franck and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In the 20th century Maurice Ravel and Dmitri Shostakovich each wrote a famous piano trio.
Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals were world famous musicians who played and recorded piano trios in the early 20th century.
During the second half of the 20th century the Beaux Arts Trio were the best known group. Today there are many young musicians who play piano trios, including three Japanese sisters called the Fujita Piano Trio who play a lot of their music all from memory.
Franz Grillparzer
Franz Grillparzer (born Vienna, 15 January 1791 - died Vienna, 21 January 1872) was an Austrian dramatist and poet. His dramas include three plays (a “trilogy”) called "Das Goldene Vliess" ("The Golden Fleece").
Two other famous plays are "Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen" ("The Waves of the Sea and of Love") and "Der Traum, ein Leben" ("The Dream, a Life"). Although he said he was not interested in prose his short story "Der arme Spielmann" ("The poor minstrel") is probably the best known of his works and one of the best short stories of the 19th century. Grillparzer wrote the funeral speech for Beethoven's funeral in 1827.
Legacy
An Austrian pastry is named after him: the Grillparzertorte.
Pastry
Pastry is the dough from which some baked products are made. Pastry dough is rolled out thinly and used as a base for baked products. It is made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and/or eggs. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches and pasties.
Pastry is also the name given to various kinds of baked products. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet or savoury baked products are called "pastries."
Turkish food such as Gözleme are made from pastries.
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (born 3 February 1736 in Klosterneuburg near Vienna; died 7 March 1809 in Vienna) was an Austrian composer, organist, music theorist and music teacher. He is most known today because he was Beethoven’s teacher for a time.
From the age of seven, Albrechtsberger was a choirboy. He had lessons in organ and music theory. As an adult, he had several jobs in churches in small towns. He became Kapellmeister at St Stephen’s Church, Vienna in 1793. This was the best job for a church musician in the empire.
Albrechtsberger wrote hundreds of compositions. He wrote most of them before he got the job in Vienna. He wrote in a classical style. Albrechsberger enjoyed doing things with music which were not normally done. He would ask string players to tune their strings in different ways (called “scordatura”). He would also write slow movements with muted strings. As well as classical sonatas he wrote lots of fugues. Several people, including Mozart, thought of him as the greatest organist in the world.
Albrechtsberger was a very important music teacher. Joseph Haydn thought he was the best teacher in Vienna. He was very interested in contrapuntal music of the Baroque period. He copied many fugues by Bach and other composers.
When Beethoven was a young man, he had some composition lessons from Joseph Haydn. When Haydn was going to travel to England for several months, he asked Albrechtsberger to teach Beethoven while he was gone. These lessons took place from 1793 to 1795. A few years later, Albrechtsberger said about Beethoven that “he learned absolutely nothing and will never accomplish anything decent”. Beethoven said that Albrechtsberger was a “musical pedant”. However, Beethoven still studied Albrechtsberger’s books on music theory. The string quartets which Beethoven wrote near the end of his life show the influence of Albrechtsberger.
Fidelio
Fidelio is an opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner based on a French story. The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard called "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.
"Fidelio" is an example of a “rescue opera”, a type of opera which was popular at the time. The hero (or heroine) has to fight against cruel people in order to rescue a lover. It was written at the time of the French Revolution. At this time, ideas about freedom and peace were being talked about by everyone, and this led to wars all over Europe. The famous Prisoners’ Chorus is a song for freedom, just like the last movement of his Ninth Symphony.
Beethoven spent some time working on the opera before he was completely happy with it. The first time it was performed (in 1805) it was a three-act opera called "Leonore". There were a lot of French military officers in the audience and they thought they were being criticised. In 1806 it was performed again with two acts and a new overture (now known as "Overture: Leonore No. 3"). But arguments between Beethoven and the theatre management meant there were no more performances. Eight years later Beethoven revised his opera again. This time it was called "Fidelio", and it was a great success. It has remained a famous opera ever since.
The setting is a Spanish state prison, a few miles from Seville, in the late 1700s.