We’re on the Verge of Spring – well at least in the Northern Hemisphere! 

And St. Patty’s Day is around the corner – and will be celebrated Everywhere!

We have been very busy building out our Classical and Classical Voices libraries.  We are nearly double the number of tracks compared to one year ago. 

Spring means many things.  For example, each Spring for the past two years Eric Whitacre has released a video of one of his choral works, sung by thousands of people around the world and stitched together to create a Virtual Choir.  This year we are looking forward Virtual Choir 3.0, which will be based on his song Water Night.  See below for video and details.

Spring has been the inspiration for hundreds of works of classical music, orchestral and vocal, and with Spring around the corner, GotRadio again brings you a survey of these works.  I’ll tell you what to listen for on our two classical channels – Classical and Classical Voices, below.

 Classical Music in the News

Farewell Maurice Andre and Vincent LaGuardia

Maurice Andre - Trumpeter

Andre was perhaps the most famous trumpeter in the world, ever.  He had been playing since age 14, passed away in February at 74.  He set all the standards for technique AND tone.  There are many fantastic trumpet players in the world today, but none that defined classical trumpet performance as he did.  He rose to international prominence in the 60’s and 70’s and is one of the most recorded soloists.  All emerging trumpeters are invariably compared to him.  His two children are musicians (his son plays trumpet), and the three of them have performed together.  Here he is performing his amazing rendition of famous showpiece, The Carnival of Venice:

Vincent LaGuardia - Conductor

Although not as famous internationally as Maurice Andre, Vincent LaGuardia was very popular in the state of Colorado, where I live.  As the conductor of the Arapahoe Philharmonic – a community orchestra in Littleton, CO, comprised of volunteers – he brought great classical music into the suburbs of Denver.  March 11, while conducting Bach, LaGuardia collapsed and later died from heart failure at the age of 68.  His wife, a violinist, was in the orchestra at the time.  He had often said that was how he wanted to go, performing his favorite music.

Eric Whitacre and Virtual Choir 3.0

Inspired by his experiences in a Nevada college choir, Whitacre began writing choral music in his early 20s.  He went on to Julliard for his post-graduate education and studied with Pulitzer and Oscar winning composer John Corigliano.  The sonorous, resonant beauty of his music lingers in your head after the last sounds have died away.

Today he is in great demand (an understatement). His innovative Virtual Choir 1.0 and 2.0 received millions of viewings on YouTube.  Whitacre posts a video with himself conducting one of his songs, and instructions on how to submit your own video of you singing to his music.  He receives hundreds of thousands of entries from around the world and assembles them into a Virtual Choir, which is posted online in Spring. This year, the music is his song Water Night.  Here’s his Virtual Choir 3.0 announcement:

 What to Listen for this Spring

Classical Channel

•    Sonata for Violin and Piano #5 “Spring” – Ludwig van Beethoven:  the title says it all!

•    Symphony #6 “Pastoral” – Ludwig van Beethoven: although not written specifically for or about Spring, this music feels like Spring to me!  David Zinman conducts the Tonhalle Orchestra

•    Appalachian Spring – Aaron Copland: This is a cheat, because the Spring of the title refers to a small stream, not the season… oh well!  We’ll hear the Suite and Complete Ballet versions conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Leonard Slatkin, respectively

•    Daphnis and Chloe – Maurice Ravel: this ballet takes place in Spring and is saturated with lustiness, forest nymphs, Pan, and all kinds of bacchanalia

•    Trittico Botticelliano – Ottorino Respighi: a very colorful example of Respighi’s genius for orchestration and mood.   The three movements of his Trittico are based on paintings by Botticelli: Spring, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus.  From the opening splash of orchestral color, Spring evokes the jubilance of a group of mythological characters reveling in an abundantly fertile setting, with Cupid hovering, arrow poised! Just as the painting itself leaves the viewer wondering what will happen next in the scene, the music builds and leaves the listener similarly suspended with no resolution.  Performed by Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia.

•    Symphony #1 “Spring” – Robert Schumann: Inspired by a poem by Adolph Bottger “Spring Awakens in the Valley”, and performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic

•    Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) – Igor Stravinsky: everyone has heard of the riots when this was first performed in 1911.  During the performance, members of the audience audibly began to disagree over the merits of this very revolutionary music. The disagreements grew to yelling and shoving, finally spilling out into the streets! Stravinsky’s revolutionary ballet illustrates a primitive Spring fertility ritual, culminating in the sacrifice of a virgin! Grippingly performed by Pierre Boulez and the tight Cleveland Orchestra.

•    “Spring” from The Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi:  I couldn’t resist!

•    Trumpet Concerto - By Giuseppe Tartini and Georg Telemann: these two concerti provide excellent examples of the late Maurice Andre’s artistic and technical abilities.  

Classical Voices Channel

•    Spring from The Seasons (Die Jahrzeiten) – Joseph Haydn: written within the last 10 years of Haydn’s long career, it’s the second of his great oratorios, the other being The Creation.  The work takes each of the four seasons in their turn, and Haydn displays his genius for melody and affect.  We’ll hear the Freiberg Bach Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Hans Michael Beuerle

•    Spring Which Comes Forth (Printemps que commence) from Samson and Delilah – Camille Saint-Saens: the sensuous aria/duet from Act 1, where Delilah smooth talks her way into getting Samson alone to learn the secret of his strength.  We’ll hear mezzo Rita Gorr and tenor Jon Vickers.

•    Four Last Songs - Richard Strauss: written by Strauss when he was in his 80s! They are a beautiful, bittersweet set of songs, the first of which is titled Fruhling (Spring). These mellow and tender songs were Strauss’ farewell. Sung by Gundula Janowitz and conducted by Herbert von Karajan  

And be listening for our Summer-time classical music features, including music inspired by Summer, and an All-American Month of July, celebrating July with the music of American composers past and present!

Until then, thanks for listening to GotRadio, and thanks for reading my blog!!

-Ron

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

All of us at GotRadio are wishing you and your families a joyous holiday season.  We are thankful for many things, and we’re grateful to have such wonderful listeners from all over the world!  For those of you who are not from the United States, well, we’ve got a seat at the table for you too!  Join us!

We’ve been busy building up the Classical and Classical Voices libraries lately, have you noticed?  For the holiday, we have selected some great music to accompany the Thanksgiving Season.

 What to Listen for this Thanksgiving

Here are some highlights of what you’ll hear in the coming weeks on GotRadio’s Classical and Classical Voices channels:

Classical

•    Aaron Copland – Appalachian Spring, Our Town, and A Letter from Home: Three examples of Copland’s amazing orchestral range. 

Appalachian Spring (as in stream) is known for it’s Shaker tune “Simple Gifts”, giving thanks for simple things

Our Town was written for the 1939 film. “Our Town” in many ways symbolized Our Country, and Copland’s music evokes the spirit of grateful acknowledgement for what we have, in spite of personal loss.   We’ll hear Copland himself conduct the London Symphony

A Letter from Home: During WWII, Copland was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for a music in honor of soldiers far from home.  The title says it all, especially at this holiday time.  At that time, a letter from home was a cherished moment, today it would be an email from home...

•    Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony #6 “Pastoral”: Although Beethoven’s symphonies can’t be considered program music in the same sense as, say, Mahler’s, his 6th Symphony, titled “Pastoral”, has programmatic aspects to it.  The final movement is subtitled “Joy and Thankful feelings after a storm”.

•    Bernard Herrmann – For the Fallen: We give thanks for the sacrifice of our Veterans with this short, subdued work, written during WWII to commemorate our fallen soldiers buried in foreign soil.

•    Charles Ives – Symphony #2: Although this symphony contains many examples of Ives’ wry sense of humor in music, the third movement packs a profound sense of patriotism, fervent pride, and humble gratitude; and its musical quotes from America the Beautiful seals the package with brotherhood .  Leonard Bernstein will conduct the New York Philharmonic

Classical Voices

•    Aaron Copland – The Promise of Living, from The Tender Land: Originally conceived as a work for television, this opera tells the bittersweet story of a girl’s coming of age on a farm in the heartland during harvest time.   You’ll hear the wonderful quintet with it’s powerful climax – beginning with the words “The promise of living, with hope and thanksgiving, is born of our love for our friends and our labor…”

•    Charles Ives – Psalm 90: One of Ives’ personal favorites, this choral wonder makes use of bitonality, dissonance, and beautiful consonance, as it contrasts man’s precarious condition with the consolation Ives found in church.

•    Felix Mendelssohn - Elijah: Mendelssohn’s final, and perhaps greatest work, the oratorio Elijah is about the life and trials and ultimate ascension of the Prophet Elijah taken from the Hebrew Bible.  We’re going to hear the great, rousing, choral number Thanks be to God which concludes Part I, where the Israelites, recovering from their doubts and trials, give celebratory thanks

•    Ralph Vaughan Williams – Song of Thanksgiving:  As the end to WWII looked imminent, Vaughan Williams composed Song of Thanksgiving, using some original text as well as spoken quotes from Shakespeare and the Bible.  When the end of the war was announced over the radio in England, this music was performed, with John Gielgud as the speaker.  We’ll hear John Gielgud reprise that role.

•    Eric Whitacre – Three Songs of Faith: This group of songs contains the beautiful and heartfelt setting of e.e. cummings' “I Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day”.  I think that says it all.  Eric Whitacre himself conducts.

•    James Whitbourn – Give us the Wings of Faith: Another wonderful contemporary choral composer is the British James Whitbourn.  We’re going to hear his beautiful rendition of “Give us the Wings of Faith” with its palpable aura of heartfelt thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thank YOU for listening to GotRadio!

Ron - 

 Hello again classical music lovers!  It's almost August, but we're hangin' on to July as long as we can!

Summer is really goin’ by fast, but while it’s still July, we'll continue to highlight American composers, as you’ll see below.

Looking around the classical music world, I found some tantalizing hors d’oeuvres, and sadly we say goodbye to two great musicians.

 Classical Music News

Farewell: Josef Suk and Cornell MacNeil

After a long illness, the great Czech violinist, Josef Suk, passed away earlier this month, just shy of his 82^nd birthday.

The great-grandson of Antonin Dvorak, and grandson of the Czech composer Josef Suk (Dvorak’s son-in-law), he showed great talent at an early age and began a distinguished career as a solo violinist and violist in 1954.  Suk received numerous awards for his recordings of Janacek, Berg, Bach, Debussy, and others.  He was also renowned for his work in chamber music, forming the Suk Chamber Orchestra in the ‘70s.  He carried the title National Artist in his home country. We will feature his performances of Bach Sonatas and Partitas in his honor.  See below.

The great American baritone, Cornell MacNeil passed away earlier this month at 88.

MacNeil sang over 600 performances with the Metropolitan opera, and was especially known for his powerful upper range and vocal stamina in such roles as Otello, Rigoletto, and Scarpia.

Classical Music is Dusty, Fusty, and Musty…NOT

I know that many people think classical music is old-fashioned and only for people who still wear Victorian bustles and top coats, preferable black.  Well they have another think coming: 

Dig...

Tania Stavreva: Total Artist

Tania Stavreva, the young Bulgarian keyboard phenom, is a complete artist.  Not only does she display dazzling skills with her performances of Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, and Scriabin, she throws her entire body into her work. 

Stavreva is having her body painted (above right) by artist Danny Setiawan and will be displaying their collaboration in a series of upcoming recitals. I hear that keyboard-side tickets are going for scalper prices!  FYI - She is on Facebook and MySpace. As they say, OMG!

Gravitation Quartet: Very Attracting

Notice anything special about this string quartet?  

That’s right!  They are all women in floral hats!  They are the Russian quartet known as Gravitation. This is the cover photo for their latest CD. I can tell how talented they are and how exceptional their interpretations are just by lookin’!   They join the growing ranks of all-female quartets such as The Colorado Quartet, Bond, Escala, The String Divas, and others.  You can visit their website at http://www.savemoment.com/music/string_quartet.htm

What to Listen for as We Close Out July

July is the U.S. Birthday Month.  In recognition of that, we’ve been featuring the music of many prominent American Composers.  You can refer to my previous blog for composers notes, and as we close out July, here are some more highlights of what you’ll hear in the coming weeks on GotRadio’s Classical and Classical Voices channels:

Classical

•    John Adams –The Chairman Dances: Perhaps Adams’ best known work, it was composed in 1985 from an “out take” (not an excerpt) of Act 3 of his opera Nixon in China. In the surreal scene, the widow Madame Mao has interrupted the Presidential banquet.  She beckons to the orchestra to play a song and Chairman Mao comes out of his large hanging portrait on the wall to dance with her!

•    Samuel Barber – Violin Concerto: Commissioned in 1939 on behalf of the young violinist Iso Briselli, this beautiful concerto was rejected due to Briselli’s dislike of the brief final movement.  Nonetheless, it quickly became one of the most performed 20^th century violin concertos.

•    Aaron Copland – Quiet City and Letter from Home: Two of the more modestly scored and intimate works by Copland, Quiet City was written to accompany a 1939 play by Irwin Shaw concerning the night thoughts of several people in a great city, and Letter from Home, commissioned by  Paul Whitman, is an obviously nostalgic piece written about the same time as Appalachian Spring.

•    David Diamond – Rounds for String Orchestra: This is the most popular work by the outspoken composer, Julliard faculty member, and one-time instructor of Eric Whitacre!

•    Irving Fine -  Serious Song, A Lament for Orchestra: A friend of Leonard Bernstein, Fine likewise attended Harvard, studied under Walter Piston, and was mentored by Serge Koussevitzky.  He died tragically young in 1962, only 47.

•    George Gershwin – An American in Paris: Composed in 1928 after Gershwin’s visit to Paris, this tone poem depicts his impressions of the sounds and energy of Paris.  Some of the music was arranged by Johnny Green for the eponymous 1951 Gene Kelly movie musical.

•    Howard Hanson – Rhythmic Variations on Two Ancient Hymns, and Mosaics: The recently rediscovered Rhythmic Variations shows Hanson’s skill in dealing with a small and unusual ensemble, and Mosaics is also a set of rhythmical variations written in 1957 for the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell.

•    Roy Harris – Symphony #3: One of the more widely performed American Symphonies, Harris composed this piece on a commission from Hans Kindler, but gave it to mentor Serge Koussevitzky instead. Harris described it as being made of five sections - Tragic, Lyrical, Pastoral, Fugue Dramatic, Dramatic Tragic.

•    Charles Ives – Symphony #4:  Although composed in the early 1900s, Ives did not live to hear this work which wasn’t premiered until 1965.  Its complexity often requires two conductors!

•    Peter Mennin – Symphony #3: This very energetic symphony, by the one-time Julliard President, was written as a doctoral dissertation, premiering in 1947.

•    We will be paying homage to Josef Suk, the great Czech Violinist who passed away this month, see above.  We will be featuring his recordings of Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

Classical Voices

•    Aaron Copland – In the Beginning: this difficult choral piece makes use of Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 of Genesis.  While the soloist introduces each day, the chorus provides comment, often in a different key!

•    Howard Hanson – Lament for Beowulf: this piece depicts the grief of the Gaetan people (Swedes) and Beowulf’s wife at the loss of their hero, during a burial ceremony.

•    Charles Ives – Five Songs: These five brief, beautiful, songs display Ives’ sense of melody, Americana, and harmonic originality.

•    Randall Thompson – Feast of Praise: This Cantata, commissioned by Stanford University in the early ‘60s, makes use of biblical texts, in three sections, and includes Thompson’s rare use of antiphonal writing.

•    Eric Whitacre –Five Hebrew Love Songs and Three Songs of Faith: Perhaps the most famous American choral composer today, Whitacre wrote the music of  the Hebrew Love Songs to poems provided to him by the women he later married, and the Songs of Faith take three poems by e. e. cummings and were written as a commission for Northern Arizona University in recognition of the 100^th anniversary of their music department.

  It's almost the end of April already!  

We hope everyone had a wonderful Passover and Easter!  This month our new channel, Classical Voices, has been the featured channel on GotRadio, thank you for helping to make it a very successful launching!  To celebrate we've highlighted a great giveaway CD all month: Haydn’s The Creation. There is still time to enter for this fantastic recording, don’t delay, you just might be one of the lucky recipients!  See my blog from April 1, for details about conductor Rene Jacobs and this performance.

Meanwhile, Spring is in full bloom and Summer is not far behind! Here’s a partial list of gems to listen for in both our Classical and Classical Voices channels as April gives way to May…  

Classical

• Symphony #3 – Gustav Mahler: the opening march, announcing the arrival of Summer, is essentially a direct quote of the main melody from the fourth movement of Brahms’ Symphony #1, but in a minor key.  Mahler’s 3rd Symphony was his paean to nature, and an homage to Brahms.  He originally gave each movement a title such as “What the flowers in the meadow tell me” and “What the animals in the forest tell me”, etc.  He ultimately decided to remove those titles and let the music speak for itself.  
  • We’ll also play the final movement from Brahms’ 1st Symphony so you can hear the relationship between these two great pieces of music.
• Brandenburg Concerti – Johann Sebastian Bach: we’re continuing to featuring Trevor Pinnock’s landmark recordings of all six of Bach’s most well-known chamber works. Pinnock invited musicians to participate in his p roject which combined HIP (historically informed performance) techniques with modern techniques to give us the best of both worlds.  They are excellent!
• Violin Sonatas – Johannes Brahms: Brahms wrote much more chamber music than orchestral, in part because they were for himself or friends to concertize with. These three beautiful works, performed for us by those two giants Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy, greatly affected Clara Schumann whom, after hearing and playing one, “had to cry my heart out for joy”.
• A Hero’s Life (Ein Heldenleben) and Death and Transfiguration – Richard Strauss: the hero in the first tone-poem is none other than Strauss himself!  The music illustrates our hero’s birth,  development, courting (winning his lady love - wife Pauline), the noisy battle and defeat of his enemies (music critics), his good works, and ultimately his old age and death, to tender violin strains (subtly accompanied by the main melody from his earlier Death and Transfiguration). It is all great Strauss, performed with appropriate dash and swash by Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. 
  • I’m including Death and Transfiguration, too, so when you hear it at the end of Heldenleben you can hear the reference.  Written 10 years earlier, when Strauss was just 25, it gave the world an inkling of the talent to come, and Strauss had come into his own.
• Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste – Bela Bartok: this mercurial music was Bartok’s answer to the symphony.  Since the Detroit Symphony has been in the news lately, we’re featuring their great performance, conducted by Antal Dorati.
• Sonata for Violin and Piano #5 “Spring” – Ludwig van Beethoven:  the title says it all!
• Appalachian Spring – Aaron Copland: This one is sort of a cheat, because the Spring of the title refers to a small stream, not the season… oh well!
• Trittico Botticelliano and Church Windows - Ottorino Respighi: we’re continuing to feature Trittico Botticelliano, that colorful example of Respighi’s genius for orchestration and mood.  The three movements are based on three paintings by Botticelli: Spring, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus.  From the opening splash of orchestral color, Spring evokes the jubilance of the group of mythological characters reveling in an abundantly fertile setting, with Cupid hovering, arrow poised! Just as the painting itself leaves the viewer wondering what will happen next in the scene, the music builds and leaves the listener similarly suspended with no resolution.
  • Church Windows also fits our theme.  They are based on the images from four stained-glass windows, and the first one is called Flight into Egypt. The others are St. Michael Archangel, The Matins of St. Clare, and St. Gregory the Great.
• Symphony #1 “Spring” – Robert Schumann: Schumann was inspired enough by a poem about Spring to make it the subject of his first attempt at a symphony.
• Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) – Igor Stravinsky: you get the idea.  Stravinsky’s revolutionary ballet illustrates a primitive clan’s Spring fertility ritual, culminating in the sacrifice of a virgin!
• William Tell Overture – Gioachino Rossini: what do a 15th-century Swiss folk hero and a Texas masked hero on a white horse have in common?  Nothing!  But they are linked forever by the wonderfully evocative and justly famous music of Rossini’s overture to his 39th and final opera William Tell.  And what do the overture and the opera have in common?  Nothing!  None of the music in the overture is actually in the opera!  Not unusual for Rossini.
• Spring from The Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi: a timeless work by the Italian Bach.

And a lot more, too….

Classical voices

• In honor of the recent passing of Robert Tear:
  • Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings – Benjamin Britten: we have already been playing this for a couple weeks now, so I mentioned it in my previous blog, but we’re gonna let it ride under the circumstances of Tear’s passing.
  • Beatrice & Benedict – Hector Berlioz: Berlioz was a Shakespeare nut!  Tear characterfully sings the role of Benedict in this great recording of the delightfully melodic opera, based on Much Ado about Nothing.
  • Songs Op. 59 – Edward Elgar: based on the sentimental poetry of Canadian writer Gilbert Parker, these songs reflect Parker’s frame of mind.  Elgar intended to compose a larger cycle of songs (similar to his Sea Pictures), but did not complete it for unknown reasons.
  • The Bells – Sergei Rachmaninov: An admirer recommend Rachmaninov compose music to Poe’s four-part poem, which touches on four experiences of life in terms of the sound of bells (silver - youth, gold - marriage, brass - war, and iron - mourning).   He composed them as a four-movement choral work.  Tear sings in the first movement, the silver bells of a joyous sleigh ride.
  • On Wenlock Edge – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Vaughan Williams was very impressed with Ravel’s music and decided to study with him in 1908 (which greatly surprised Ravel!).  One of the first works he composed after his three months in France was this atmospheric song cycle, based on poetry of A. E. Houseman, A Shropshire Lad.
  • Love Blows as the Wind Blows – George Butterworth: inspired by his friend Vaughan Williams’ song cycle, Butterworth composed this setting of W. E. Henley poetry in 1912.  Tragically, he died in action in 1916.
• Israel in Egypt – Georg Friedrich Handel: in keeping with the Easter/Passover seasonal spirit, we present highlights of Handel’s English oratorio relating the biblical story of Exodus.  This oratorio represents a dramatic work by Handel in his English style, quite different from that of his Italian style operas.
• Parsifal – Richard Wagner: in further keeping with the season, we present highlights of Wagner’s final opera, with its references to Good Friday.  Wagner makes generous use of the melody known as the “Dresden Amen”, and the opera ends in orchestral and choral waves of redemption.
• Four Last Songs – Richard Strauss:  these four gorgeous songs were the last music composed by the 83 year-old Strauss, who died a year later.  Their subject is bittersweet leave-taking.  The songs, dreamily sung by Gundula Janowitz, are Spring, September, Time for Sleep, and At Twilight.
• Psalm 90 – Charles Ives: reportedly one of Ives’ personal favorites, this choral wonder begins with bitonal dissonance, symbolizing  wayward humanity, but resolves into a beautiful hymn accompanied by gently pealing bells, symbolizing the reassuring influence of the church.
• St. Matthew’s Passion – Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach’s dramatic telling the passions according to St. Matthew is conducted by that HIP maestro, John Eliot Gardiner.
• Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) – Gustav Mahler: Mahler’s greatest symphonic song cycle features the song The Drunken Man in Spring
• Viaggio Italiano – Andrea Bocelli:  the popular tenor sings some well-known Neapolitan art songs and famous opera arias

And a lot more…

Enjoy the rest of April!  Thanks for reading my blog and for listening to GotRadio!

-Ron

Hello to all our great GotRadio listeners!  I hope you’ve been enjoying the GotRadio Classical music channel focus on some of the less well-known composers in the repertoire the past couple weeks (see my previous blog entry).  Feel free to comment here or send me email with your thoughts and reactions, to rnadel@gotradio.com

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at some classical music headlines, and some of the music to listen for in the next week or two on the GotRadio Classical channel.

In the NEWS:

Riccardo Muti falls down, picks up Grammy

Riccardo Muti, Music Director of the Chicago Symphony, is recovering from a fall which occurred during a rehearsal earlier this month.  Doctors determined that the fall was the result of a “common heart rhythm disturbance” and this week he was fitted with a pacemaker.  When I read this, I initially thought it was a headline right out of the Onion.  A conductor with a pacemaker.  Get it?  I can hear the jokes now…

But Muti has cultivated a reputation for faithfulness to the intentions of the composer, so audiences shouldn’t notice any difference in his conducting with the aid of a pacemaker  ;^D .  Now, there have been conductors in history who were noted for their agogic liberties (that is to say, their unique approaches to tempo rubato, rallentando and accelerando, etc), such as the great Wilhelm Furtwangler and Rudolf Kempe, to name two famous examples.  You probably have your favorite examples, too.  Tell us about ‘em! .

In the meantime, his recording of Verdi’s Requiem won the Grammy as Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance this week (see below).

We wish Maestro Muti a speedy and full recovery from his surgery and injuries suffered in the fall.  He will likely miss the rest of the Chicago Symphony season.

The Dude Abides: Gustavo Dudamel Extends LA Philharmonic Contract

Early this month, the Venezuelan phenom extended his contract in Los Angeles to the 2018/2019 season (he was GotRadio’s “Who’s Hot?” for January, btw).  His original 5-year agreement as Music Director began in 2009/2010.  This means that he will be on hand for the LA Phil’s centennial year, which should include much fanfare and celebration.  His agreement in Los Angeles still allows him to maintain some of his other commitments to Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony and Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestras.  In addition, he will continue the LA Phil’s movie theater HD broadcasts.  I am keenly interested to see how well these HD series are received.

Just into his second LA year, and only just turning 30, Dudamel has been a tremendous hit in LA, and some suspect that the timing of this extension is a preemptive move on the part of the LA Phil board, because his international activities and renown make him a target for other cities, especially in these times when it seems every city is looking for new Music Directors.

Denver gets New Head Coach & QB, but Colorado Symphony Still Looking for Music Director

While we’re talking about new Music Directors… I live in the Denver/Boulder area, and the Colorado Symphony has yet to anoint a replacement for the great Jeffrey Kahane (who left to pursue his keyboard career).  I’d like to see David Alan Miller come to Denver.  He is currently the Albany Symphony’s Music Director.

Not as young as Dudamel, he nonetheless would be a welcome blast of fresh air in Denver, I think.  I heard him conduct Also Sprach Zarathustra in Los Angeles when he was in his mid-20’s, and he was amazing!  He’s been in Albany for many years now and they have had very creative programs and recordings under his leadership.  We’ve been playing his recording of Lloyd’s Cello Concerto on GotRadio for the past week or so.  Anyone on the CSO board listening??  Miller seems to have made a home in Albany, and probably does not want to uproot his family.  Still, someone should call him.  I just got a bunch of free minutes from AT&T, I can call him…

Met Taking Heat for Airing the “M-F” Word!

The New York Metropolitan Opera’s February broadcast of John Adams’ opera Nixon in China took some listeners by surprise with the airing of the line “We’ll teach these mother-f*****s how to dance!”  This is not the first NC-17 performance the Met has aired.  A couple years ago, the Met offered up a topless Karita Mattila at the end of Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils. Last year, the Met offered up a very spicy Tosca, complete with nude prostitutes lounging in Scarpia’s headquarters, and doing a very suggestive thing between his legs.  The visuals were part of the Met’s movie theater HD broadcasts, and so was this recent Nixon performance.  But the Met Saturday performances are also broadcast over the radio – and if you can’t see nudity on the radio, you can hear the words.  I’m not sure if that violates some FCC rule or not.  I applaud the Met’s efforts to make opera relevant and up-date some of their productions.  But I bet people are talking about this for a while… what do YOU think?

Turnage’s New Opera “Anna Nicole” Bounces onto the Stage at Covent Garden

The trend in contemporary opera, it seems, is stories lifted from the headlines. This week, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, premiered Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera “Anna Nicole”. It makes a kind of sense, actually. The world of opera is filled with tales of greed, lust, and power, and so are our headlines.  Reviews have been mixed, ranging from bright to trite, although the six sche duled performances are reportedly sold out.

The title role is sung by Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, who is augmented with a built-up chest plate as part of her costume.  Move over Brunnhilde!  Several of the clips I’ve seen on the web have her singing the titillating lyric “I want to blow you all….. a kiss”!  See what I mean about NC-17?  I love it!  The thing about tabloid subject matter is, it can serve to let some people feel superior to the poor schnook in the story, or it can be truly tragic.  I recall the media handling Anna Nicole’s death by overdose both ways.  We’ll have to wait for the CD to come out, or if it comes to New York, for the Met broadcast, to find out just how the music comments on its subject.  If any GotRadio listeners were lucky enough to attend the Covent Garden performances, we’d love to hear from you!  Post a comment or send me email at rnadel@gotradio.com!

Classical Music Grammy ‘Winners’

I don’t know who takes the classical music Grammy winners very seriously these days (in fact, I sense that the Grammys in general are seen as less relevant in this Internet age, with so many categories and boutique performers and labels releasing tons of music outside the studio system), but I thought, as informed listeners, we’d want to know.  Here they are:

The only music in that list that I am at all familiar with are the Mozart, Verdi, and the Messiaen.  If any listeners are familiar with any of the music in the winners list, let us know!

What’s Playin’ for the Next Week or so?

We hope you’ve been enjoying some of the gems we’ve been playing this month; lesser known works and composers that are great finds (see my previous blog for a listing).  Send us your feedback and any requests are also welcomed!

Here are some highlights of music for the coming weeks:

And God Created Great Whales – Alan Hovhaness: A gripping piece of music that combines electronic media (recorded humpback whale songs) with orchestral music.  Haunting.  We’ll hear that well-known promoter of American music, Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony.

Images I and II for Piano – Claude Debussy: performed by the renowned Debussy interpreter, and recluse, Arturo Michaelangeli Benedetti.

The Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ (for string quartet) – Joseph Haydn: Haydn composed three different versions of this music: choral, orchestral, and chamber.  We’re featuring the string quartet version, containing some of Haydn’s greatest chamber writing, and performed by the terrific Kodaly Quartet.

Cello Concerto – Georg Matthias Monn: Austrian Pre-Classical composer, a contemporary of Mozart’s father, Leopold, Monn is mostly known for his contributions to symphonic form.  He wrote this wonderful piece for cello which is performed for us by the incomparable Jacqueline Du Pre.

Divertimento from the ballet Fairy’s Kiss – Igor Stravinsky: Everyone knows about Firebird, Petrushka, and Rite of Spring.  But Stravinsky composed many other ballets, including a foray into twelve-tone music – Agon.  His ballet The Fairy’s Kiss is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Maiden, and Stravinsky had Tchaikovsky in mind.  It also ended the friendship between the famed ballet impresario Diaghilev and Stravinsky, because he had accepted the commission from Ida Rubinstein.  It is performed for us by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony

Three Cornered Hat Ballet – Manuel de Falla: Falla had written a pantomime based on a story of jealousy and intrigue by Pedro de Alarcon.  Diaghilev heard it and convinced Falla to work it into a full ballet, which is performed for us by Charles Dutoit and his Montreal orchestra.

Symphony #3 – Felix Mendelssohn: You’ll be able to tell why this symphony is nicknamed “Scottish”, performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Symphony #3 – Charles Hubert Parry: Parry was the inspiration for Elgar and Vaughan Williams. His music is suffused with Edwardian pomp and circumstance, and his “English” Symphony #3 is a typical example. Performed for us by Matthias Bamert and the London Philharmonic.

Clarinet Quintet – Wolfgang Mozart: written with the same mood, and similar melodies, as his Clarinet Concerto.  Jack Brymer and the Allegri Quartet strike just the right balance.

Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, and Simple Symphony – Benjamin Britten: Two great examples of Britten’s innovative developmental and compositional style.  Both conducted for us by the composer himself.

The Flight of the Bumblebee – Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov: This famous short piece was extracted by Rimsky-Korsakov from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. Almost everyone has heard this zippy, wonderful, buzzing example of pictorial and evocative music writing.  It occurs in the 3^rd act of the opera, when the Tsar’s son is magically turned into an insect so he can fly away to visit his father! I thought it would be fun to program three different versions for us: the usual orchestral version, by the Boston Pops, conducted by Arthur Fiedler, a solo trumpet version by Wynton Marsalis, and a solo piano version, performed by no less than Sergei Rachmaninov himself!

Piano Concerto #4 “For Left Hand” and “Classical Symphony” – Sergei Prokofiev: Paul Wittgenstein, pianist and friend of the composer’s, lost his right arm during WWI, and Prokofiev composed this concerto specifically for him (Ravel composed one for him as well). Wittgenstein never performed it, claiming he couldn’t understand it!  Vladimir Ashkenazy does, and Andre Previn accompanies him, conducting the London Symphony.  You cannot tell that the pianist is using just one hand.  What do you think?

Prokofiev composed his 1^st symphony in the style of Mozart & Haydn.  Thus the nickname “Classical”.  You can hear the influence of those great Classical Period composers, but it is definitely Prokofiev! Herbert von Karajan conducts his Berlin Philharmonic.

Plus lots more!  Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, Nielsen’s symphony "The Four Temperaments”, Rachmaninov’s Preludes Op. 23 and 32,  Sibelius’ stirringly patriotic 2^nd symphony, Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and many others.

They’re all yours on GotRadio.  I hope you enjoy the last couple weeks of February!  Let me hear from you, and thank you for reading my blog, and for listening to GotRadio!

-Ron

Wow!  January was a terrific month for the Classical channel!  Thank You to all our listeners!

As the featured gotradio.com channel for the month, I received some great feedback and requests.  Many thanks for all your input.  The Zinman performances of the Beethoven symphonies were also a very popular highlight of the month with our CD giveaway.  See my previous blog.  I’d love to hear what you thought about those performances.  Add a comment, or email me at rnadel@gotradio.com.

Speaking of Beethoven:

To give everyone a chance to hear the Zinman recordings we made sure they’d repeat often through the month; so we hit the Beethoven pretty hard.  We’ll ease up on the Beethoven throttle for the next week or two, but never fear, we will be playing some exciting new recordings of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano all month for your listening pleasure.

This new set features violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov, on the Harmonia Mundi label.  These performances are technically masterful, there is a wonderful ensemble, and the sound is amazing.  The playing style tends towards the authentic with reduced vibrato, for example.  I rank these recordings right up there with my vinyl Philips recordings by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin performed in the early 1960’s.  Be listening for these new ones throughout the month of February, and let me know what you think of them!

Do you notice anything different?

We’ve got a new format that intersperses excerpts or short pieces with full symphonies and orchestral works.   Every fifth selection is a complete symphony or long orchestral piece.  I did the math and it works out that we’re playing a full work about 50% of the time.  Let me hear from you on this, we’re striving to give you the best classical music experience.

In the next weeks you’ll be treated to the complete Also Sprach Zarathustra of Richard Strauss (for you Space Odyssey fans); complete symphonies of Brahms, Dvorak, Honegger, and Schumann by Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic; the Violin Sonatas I mentioned above; complete piano concertos of Beethoven, Chopin, Dvorak, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov; tone poems of Respighi and Rimsky-Korsakov; Copland’s Appalachian Spring (the complete Ballet, not the suite) and his powerful Third Symphony; guitar concertos of Giuliani, Rodrigo, and Vivaldi; several Handel Concerti Grosso; violin concertos of Brahms, Haydn, Nielsen, and Prokofiev; Saint-Saens’ humorous Carnival of the Animals; full symphonies of Mahler and Schubert by Solti with Chicago and Vienna orchestras; Bartok orchestral pieces; and a very fascinating Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, by John Eliot Gardner using a revised score and period instruments!  And that’s not all folks.

Be listening for these and other full works throughout each day.

As the saying goes, variety is the spice of GotRadio!

One of our goals is to provide you with a variety of music that accompanies your day: at home, the office, or in between (with our mobile app!).  But another goal is to be your source for new discovery.  So, we’re presenting some refreshing works and composers that we think you’ll enjoy in and amongst all your tried-and-true favorites.  I hope some will surprise you and make you stop and look at the GotRadio player to find out “what is that?!”

We’ve added some wonderful music by (in no particular order) Feruccio Busoni, Alfredo Casella, Peter Mennin, Charles Alkan, Einojuhani (you heard right) Rautavaara, Howard Hanson, Alan Hovhaness, Hans Rott, Roy Harris, Leos Janacek, William Schuman (one ‘n’), Franz Schreker, Albert Roussel, George Lloyd, and others I can’t recall at the moment.

• Busoni was a stupendous pianist and composed one wild piano concerto: five movements and a male chorus!  The tarantella movement will leave you reeling!
• Casella was greatly influenced by Mahler and Strauss.  His 1^st Symphony was composed at age 23, his 2^ndreflects his admiration for Mahler’s 2^nd.  Both are very impassioned.
• Mennin was President at Julliard for a time. His music is quite literate, be listening for his symphonies and the orchestral work Moby Dick.
• Alkan wrote piano music so technically difficult, almost no one could play it but him!  Luckily we have Jack Gibbons’ great recordings.
• The Finnish Rautavaara is musical heir to Sibelius and acknowledges the influence of Shostakovich.  His music can at times have a haunting sense of impassive nature.  Listen for his 3^rd Symphony and Manhattan Trilogy (written just a few years ago).
• Hanson was a conductor and President of the Eastman School of Music, and he was as important to American music as Leonard Bernstein.  Listen for his symphonies, particularly #2 “Romantic”, used at the end of the movie “Alien”!
• Hovhaness wrote some 60 symphonies and is known for an evocative mysterious style, such as that heard in his Symphony #2 “Mysterious Mountain”.
• Rott was a Bruckner pupil, but died very young.  Hear Bruckner’s influence on Rott and Rott’s influence on Mahler in his Symphony in E, composed 8 years before Mahler’s 1^st!
• Schuman studied privately with Harris, a friend of Copland.  Both gained recognition through their 3^rdSymphonies, and Harris’ 6^th pays homage to the Gettysburg Address.
• Janacek’s style was at once sweeping like Strauss and angular like the Czech folk music in his veins.  His “Cunning Little Vixen” suite and String Quartet #2 are typical examples.
• Schreker’s career was derailed by the Nazis.  Hugely popular until his early death in 1934, his operas dealt with racy subjects.  The overture to his opera Die Gezeichneten (the stigmatized, or “branded”) displays his romantic expressionistic style.
• Roussel was influenced by the Impressionists, but he was more a Neoclassicist with a driving rhythmic style, typified by his 3^rd Symphony and his ballet The Spider’s Feast.
• The British Lloyd showed early talent composing symphonies in his 20s.  Shellshock, acquired in WWII, appeared to end his career, but he resumed after a long recovery.  His wonderful Cello Concerto is from this later period of his career.

In addition to those gems, you gotta check out the innovative cross-over music we’re playing, like John McLaughlin’s Thieves and Poets, Rene Gruss’ Bellatrix, and Frank Zappa’s Yellow Shark.  They are beautiful, surprising, and haunting.

These are all yours at GotRadio!  Thanks for reading my blog and listening to GotRadio!

-Ron