Piano Pieces

VIENNA - The International Mozarteum Foundation said yesterday that it has discovered two more works composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The previously unknown works are piano pieces composed by a young Mozart, the Salzburg-based foundation said in a brief e-mail. The website of the organization said its department of research had identified the works, long in the foundation’s possession, as Mozart compositions. Mozart, who was born in Salzburg, lived from 1756 to 1791.

The three dances in Boston Ballet's "Simply Sublime" may leapfrog decades (1909 to 1972 to 2001) but they are contemporaries under the skin. They are bound by the tenets of classicism - "truth and beauty and proportion," as choreographer Mark Morris once defined the term to me - torqued by the abstraction of modernism. That artistic director Mikko Nissinen brought them together on one bill was a stroke of curatorial genius. The oldest piece, Michel Fokine's "Les Sylphides," set to music by Chopin, has been cited as the first plotless "ballet blanc," or white ballet, one of those...

The three dances in Boston Ballet's "Simply Sublime" may leapfrog decades (1909 to 1972 to 2001) but they are contemporaries under the skin. They are bound by the tenets of classicism - "truth and beauty and proportion," as choreographer Mark Morris once defined the term to me - torqued by the abstraction of modernism. That artistic director Mikko Nissinen brought them together on one bill was a stroke of curatorial genius. The oldest piece, Michel Fokine's "Les Sylphides," set to music by Chopin, has been cited as the first plotless "ballet blanc," or white ballet, one of those...

VIENNA - The International Mozarteum Foundation said yesterday that it has discovered two more works composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The previously unknown works are piano pieces composed by a young Mozart, the Salzburg-based foundation said in a brief e-mail. The website of the organization said its department of research had identified the works, long in the foundation’s possession, as Mozart compositions. Mozart, who was born in Salzburg, lived from 1756 to 1791.

CAMBRIDGE -- The Auros Group for New Music specializes in adding extra-musical elements to their concerts. Saturday night, with dancers from the Boston Tango Society, Auros showcased the Argentine tango, tracking its journey, akin to that of jazz, from the social underbelly to the concert hall. The concert began with three piano pieces from the early 20th century, when tango had only just left behind its disreputable beginnings. These multi-strain numbers, alternately melancholy and jaunty, were reminiscent of ragtime without the syncopation.

Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen scored big when he hired Jorma Elo as resident choreographer. The Finnish-born Elo is one of the hottest choreographers going, with recent premieres dancing off the stages at New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. His works for Boston Ballet include last year's "Carmen" and the explosive "Plan to B" from 2004 . This year's world premiere is yet another major work, inexplicably called "Brake the Eyes," performed Thursday night at the Citi Wang Theatre.

SALZBURG, Austria - The huge musical puzzle that is Mozart is about to be expanded by two potentially important pieces. More than two centuries after his death, two additional works have recently been identified as being composed by the Austrian master. While the pieces might have been played before, tomorrow will be the first time they will be performed as compositions of the popular prodigy. The venue is Salzburg, Amadeus’ birthplace and the city that nurtured his early musical career.

The first program of James Levine's ambitious, two-season Beethoven/Schoenberg project to present works by both composers in significant juxtaposition fell to the Boston Symphony Chamber Players yesterday. There was also a memorable guest, legendary diva Anja Silja. Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte" and Schoenberg's "Pierrot lunaire" found both composers pushing the envelope for vocal music; in Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds and Schoenberg's "Six Little Piano Pieces," Op. 19, each composer conquered self-imposed technical problems of the...

SERGEY SCHEPKIN At: Tsai Performance Center, Boston University, Thursday Any performance of the "Goldberg Variations" by Johann Sebastian Bach is a special occasion. Viewed by many as the Mount Everest of the solo keyboard repertoire, this mathematically ingenious set of 30 variations on an aria theme, composed originally in 1741-42 for harpsichord, demands remarkable stamina, intensity, and concentration. To sustain interest and variety throughout a work that runs for around 70 minutes presents a daunting challenge for an orchestra - let alone for a soloist.

It's not quite breaking news, but in case you're a new-music fan who has spent the last year distracted by the election or trapped beneath a Grove dictionary, the composer Elliott Carter turns 100 this December, and ensembles - especially those based in Boston - have been celebrating with abandon. Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music this summer became a five-day, 47-work, all-Carter bash; the Boston Symphony Orchestra has another Carter world premiere scheduled for December; and other institutions around town are pulling out the stops.

Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen scored big when he hired Jorma Elo as resident choreographer. The Finnish-born Elo is one of the hottest choreographers going, with recent premieres dancing off the stages at New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. His works for Boston Ballet include last year's "Carmen" and the explosive "Plan to B" from 2004 . This year's world premiere is yet another major work, inexplicably called "Brake the Eyes," performed Thursday night at the Citi Wang Theatre.

CAMBRIDGE -- The Auros Group for New Music specializes in adding extra-musical elements to their concerts. Saturday night, with dancers from the Boston Tango Society, Auros showcased the Argentine tango, tracking its journey, akin to that of jazz, from the social underbelly to the concert hall. The concert began with three piano pieces from the early 20th century, when tango had only just left behind its disreputable beginnings. These multi-strain numbers, alternately melancholy and jaunty, were reminiscent of ragtime without the syncopation.

Friday night, at Symphony Hall, the BeanTown Jazz Festival opened with an all-star offering that came within at least shouting distance of its advance billing as "concert of the century. " Titled "A Celebration of Jazz and Joyce," the concert's personnel was lovingly assembled by jazz impresario George Wein, the proceeds benefiting the Berklee scholarship fund named in honor of his late wife, Joyce Alexander Wein. The show opened with rousing quintet versions of Thelonious Monk's "I Mean You" and Tadd Dameron's "Hot House.