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The American pianist and musicologist Robert Levin has dedicated much of his life to studying and performing Mozart and Beethoven in an authentic style - seeking to establish how contemporary pianists during the classical period would embellish the composers鈥� scores and improvise their own cadenzas.听听 Petroc Trelawny met Levin when he was in London recently and discovered that although improvisation largely disappeared from performances during the twentieth century Levin believes it鈥檚 a skill today鈥檚 musicians (not only pianists) must have -听听 to keep music fresh and alive.

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The Hungarian broadcaster and music publisher Balint Andras Varga interviewed some of the greatest names in twentieth century music 鈥� Alfred Brendel, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Yehudi Menhuin, Stockhausen, Kurtag, Ligeti, Eugene Ormandy and Nadia Boulanger 鈥� to name but a few. For the first time nineteen of his interviews have been published in full in a book called From Boulanger to Stockhausen. The book also contains a personal memoir of Varga鈥檚 life growing up in a Jewish family in Hungary during World War II and the early years of Communist rule, before becoming General Promoter at the prestigious publisher Univeral Edition in Vienna.听 Petroc talks to Varga and then discusses the book with Morag Grant, Professor of Music at G枚ttingen University in Germany.听

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Thursday 5th December marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann, once described as 鈥榯he most significant twentieth century composer whose music you barely know鈥�.听 Hartmann saw culture and politics as being inseparable and in the 1920s and 30s he wrote works that raged against capitalism and the looming evil of National Socialism. He remained in Germany during the Second World War and continued to compose in private but refused to allow his works to be performed.听听 In 1946, deemed ideologically sound by the occupying US Military, he set up Musica Viva - a concert series championing new music, that continues in Munich to this day and has been copied around the world.听 Petroc examines Hartmann鈥檚 times and legacy with the composer John McCabe, the conductor Ingo Metzmacher and Andreas Herm Baumgartner, conductor and Artistic Director of the 鈥淜arl Amadeus Hartmann Year 2013鈥� in Germany.听

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