Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays, Everyone!!

All of us at GotRadio are wishing you and your families a restive and festive holiday season.   And looking ahead, we wish you all a happy and healthy New Year in 2012!

We’ve continued to build up the Classical and Classical Voices libraries lately, and for the holidays, we have programmed some great music to accompany your Christmas and Channukah festivities at home or the office.

 What to Listen for this Holiday Season

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

Classical

•    Nutcracker Ballet – Peter Tchaikovsky: This perennial favorite needs almost no introduction.  Based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, Tchaikovsky’s ballet was not an immediate success, but the ballet suite was.  We’ll hear Richard Bonynge conduct the National Philharmonic

Classical Voices

•    Christmas Oratorio – Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach’s 6-part oratorio lasts nearly three hours and tells the story from Jesus’ birth, to the family’s flight to Egypt and the Adoration of the Magi.  Bach incorporated some of his previously written music.  We’ll hear highlights with Geza Oberfrank conducting the Failoni Chamber Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio Chorus

•    L’enfance du Christ – Hector Berlioz: This beautiful oratorio recounts the early childhood of Christ and the story of the Flight to Egypt and the Adoration of the Magi.  Berlioz requires the chorus and narrator to sing the quietest Amen possible at the end – barely audible and quite moving.  Jean-Claude Casadesus conducts his Lille National Orchestra

•    Ceremony of Carols – Benjamin Britten: composed at sea while he was returning to England in 1943, Britten’s Ceremony is comprised of 11 numbers based on poems written in Middle English, originally conceived as individual songs which were later unified.  Ronald Corp leads the New London Children’s Choir

•    Mass for Christmas Eve – Marc-Antoine Charpentier: the title says it all.  We’ll hear Kevin Mallon conduct this baroque masterpiece with the Aradia Ensemble

•    Judas Maccabaeus – Georg Friedrich Handel: Judah Maccabee is known for leading the Israelites to defeat the Seleucid army and reclaim the Great Temple of Jerusalem, as celebrated during Channukah. Handel’s oratorio tells of the Judah’s rise as leader and his defeat of the armies of Antioch of Epiphanes. Charles Mackerras conducts.

•    Messiah – Georg Friedrich Handel: Most listeners are familiar with this perennial favorite, but it is rarely heard in its 1751 scoring. Alhough successful in its first performance in Ireland in 1743, Messiah wasn't as popular in London.  Handel continually modified the score.  For the 1751 version, instead of a large mixed chorus, Handel wrote for a smaller chorus of boys and young men.   The result?  More transparent orchestration and clearer choral textures. Performances of this version were very successful.  We’re playing a Naxos recording of that 1751 score.

•    La Boheme – Giacomo Puccini: Acts 1 and 2, of this most famous of Puccini’s operas, take place on Christmas Eve in the Latin Quarter of Paris.  Georg Solti conducts.

•    Czech Christmas Mass – Jakub Ryba: This lovely mass is comprised of Czech folk tunes and has a very distinctive, simple and affective style.  Frantisek Thuri conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Czech Madirgalists

•    Hodie – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Written in 1953, Vaughan William’s cantata, Hodie (ho-dee-ay) – “This day” – is made of 16 movements and illustrates key parts of the Christmas story.  It features Vaughan Williams’ use of modal harmonies giving the music an Old English feel at times.  David Willcocks conducts the London Philharmonic and Bach Choir

•    Fantasia on Christmas Carols – Ralph Vaughan Williams: RVW interweaves several very well-known carols in this gem.  You’ll hear Come all ye Worthy Gentlemen, The Truth Sent from Above, The First Noel, On Christmas Night, and others.  See if you can detect them all; Richard Hickox conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Choristers of St. Paul’s Cathedral

I wish you a Merry Christmas!  A Happy Chanukah!  And a very Happy and Healthy New Year to All!

Thanks for listening to GotRadio classical music!

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.

 Here's a question for you: How many Fifths in a month?

This being the fifth month of the year (already!), we’re going to start May by featuring famous Fifth Symphonies.  It seems that after Beethoven composed his mighty Fifth, it cast a shadow on all future generations of composers.  No one could write a fifth symphony without trying to make it an important statement, or at least making their fifth a singular achievement among their own works.  We hope you enjoy our theme for May.  Let us hear from you!  Tell us what you like and what you want to hear.

Here are programming notes for highlights of what you’ll hear in the coming weeks on both our Classical and Classical Voices channels:

Classical

We will hear Fifth Symphonies by:

•    Ludwig van Beethoven: his is the gold standard Fifth Symphony, and perhaps history’s most famous and recognizable orchestral work.  Its commanding four-note opening is generally interpreted as Fate knocking at the door.  Although somewhat brief, it took Beethoven about four years to compose it, from 1804-1808.  Its economical construction, where most of the symphony develops out of those opening four notes, contributes to the symphony’s power.  It is in effect a passionately argued credo as much as music.

•    Franz Schubert: written only eight years after Beethoven’s, this lighter Fifth symphony signals the emergence of the 19-year old Schubert’s maturing style, symphonic innovation, and genius for melody.

•    Felix Mendelssohn: this Fifth, subtitled Reformation, was composed in 1830 and was intended to be part of a celebration honoring the 300^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  Illnesses prevented its completion in time for the celebration.  Although it was the second symphony Mendelssohn composed, it wasn’t published until 21 years after the composer’s death, which is why it is numbered as his fifth.  Mendelssohn makes use of the famous, reverent Dresden Amen melody in the first movement, and Martin Luther’s chorale A Mighty Fortress is our God in the last movement.

•    Antonin Dvorak: composed in 1875, but published 13 years later, this Fifth was intentionally misnumbered by Dvorak’s publisher as his Third – against Dvorak’s protests – causing great confusion in the numbering of Dvorak symphonies for decades.  This symphony shows Dvorak reaching his artistic maturity, and we can also hear his captivation with the Czech countryside in the symphony’s bucolic movements.

•    Peter Tchaikovsky: although not as famous as his sixth symphony (the Pathetique) and deemed a failure by the composer himself, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, composed in 1888, nonetheless went on to become one of his most popular symphonies.  In particular the beautiful horn melody of the second movement appears in songs by Glenn Miller and John Denver, among others.  Tchaikovsky indicated that the subject of this symphony is “Providence”, a clear reference to Beethoven’s Fifth.

•    Gustav Mahler: composed in the space of a single summer, nearly 100 years after Beethoven’s Fifth, Mahler’s opens with a trumpet fanfare of a repeated four-note statement which pays homage to Beethoven’s.  Consisting of five movements in three parts, Mahler’s narrative begins with a somber funeral march giving way to vehement outbursts, followed by a country dance (a landler), then the beautiful and famous Adagietto, and concludes with an exuberant, rousingly victorious rondo finale.

•    Charles Hubert Parry: his Fifth, and final, symphony was composed in the years preceding WWI, after a period of ill health and recovery.  He was the inspiration and legacy for Elgar and Vaughan Williams, and the subject of his symphony is human nature, with movements titled Stress, Love, Play, & Now.

•    Jean Sibelius – this Fifth Symphony, in three movements, was initially composed in 1915, during WWI, and then revised twice within three years (going from four to three movements). Sibelius was reeling from the criticism that his Fourth Symphony was “too modernist”, as well as the recent diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, and the Finnish Civil War!  Keep that in mind as you listen to this symphony’s exultant finale!

•    Carl Nielsen: composed between the two World Wars, Nielsen’s Fifth embodies nothing less than the battle between good and evil.  It consists of two parts, rather than the traditional four movements.  The symphony presents moods of tension, beauty, power, jarring conflict (listen to that snare drum!), and ultimate triumph.

•    Dmitri Shostakovich: this powerful Fifth was composed in 1937 amid the brutality of Stalinist Terror.  Shostakovich was in disfavor for his “overly complex” and satirical style and under pressure to conform to Party expectations. This was very grave, because several friends and relatives had recently been arrested, shot, or exiled.  To remain true to himself artistically and yet survive the Party atrocities required subtlety. In the event, he was thoroughly triumphant.  Listen for echoes of Mahler, too, in the second movement. 

•    Sergei Prokofiev:  the martial atmosphere of the opening bears witness to its being composed during WWII.  Prokofiev conceived of his fifth symphony as a paean to free people.  The ominous opening movement builds inexorably to a crashing climax on the tam-tam (the large gong), the slow movement contains some of Prokofiev’s most eloquently beautiful music, and the joyful finale is evidence of the influence of his own ballet Romeo & Juliet.

•    Ralph Vaughan Williams: composed between Shostakovich’s and Prokofiev’s fifth symphonies, and dedicated to Jean Sibelius, Vaughan Williams’ Fifth represents a very different mood.  Containing melodies from his rhapsodic opera The Pilgrim’s Progress, the music is generally pastoral and makes much use of modal harmonies, invoking the England of long, long ago. (and see below)

•    Howard Hanson: composed in the decade after WWII and subtitled Sinfonia Sacra, Hanson’s brief Fifth was inspired by the story of the first Easter.  It consists of a single movement in three sections, utilizing and developing simple Gregorian chant-like melodies.

And be listening for a lot of other great Fifths: Beethoven Piano Concerto #5, Prokofiev Piano Concerto #5, Mozart Violin Concerto #5, Brandenburg Concerto #5, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata #5, to name a few.

Classical Voices

We have a great big bouquet of vocal music flowers arranged for you this May. Magnificent blooms by Bach, Berlioz, Dvorak, Massenet, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Puccini, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, among a lot of others.

•    Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli:  we will be spotlighting this famous dramatic duo of the 60’s.  These two dramatic singers frequently performed together in several of the great Puccini and Verdi operas. Known for their uniquely powerful voices and stamina, they had a sort of ongoing “friendly” competition to see who could out-sing the other, and it went so far as to include some outrageous practical jokes, too!   We’re going to play some of their great collaborations from Puccini’s Turandot and Tosca, and Verdi’s Aida.

•    Cantatas – Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach wrote over 200 cantatas for Sunday services. It is one of the wonders of music history that he sustained the high quality of these works over such a span of time. They are beautiful, reverent, and often dramatic. 

•    Romeo et Juliette – Hector Berlioz: this amazing work defies categorization. Something of a dramatic symphony-oratorio, it illustrates Shakespeare’s tragedy with orchestra or voices depending on the scene.  Owing to his preoccupation with this play, the music is some of Berlioz’ most dramatic and moving.

•    Stabat Mater – Antonin Dvorak: The sorrowful mother of this dramatic Latin setting is Mary, standing at the Cross.  But Dvorak himself had recently lost his first three children to illness and accident.  Dvorak conceived of this piece as a cantata; its eloquent beauty and range of emotions contributed to its huge success in 1880 and to his growing reputation.

•    Le Cid – Jules Massenet: the plot of this opera is not about the historical Rodrigo de Bivar (El Cid) as much as it is a melod rama about filial devotion and the choice between love and revenge.  Placido Domingo and Grace Bumbry are amazing in a live Carnegie Hall performance from the mid-70’s, conducted by Eve Queler.

•    Elijah – Felix Mendelssohn: this last and greatest work composed by Mendelssohn was greatly influenced by his passion for the music of Bach.  Composed in English, due in part to Mendelssohn’s infatuation with British soprano Jenny Lind (the high F-sharp in “Hear Ye, Israel” was written with her in mind, for example), the work premiered at the 1846 Birmingham Festival to tremendous acclaim. The composer died the following year at 38.

•    Bastien and Bastienne – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: written when Mozart was 12 (!), the quaint plot involves two sweethearts who try to make each other jealous with the aid of the village conjurer.  Listen for the dramatic number where he casts a spell in a patter of nonsense rhymes and Latin!  For our recording, the three roles are sung by boys from the Vienna Boy’s Choir!  And if you think the overture sounds like Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, you’re right, but Beethoven couldn’t have heard the opera performed until AFTER his symphony had been written!

•    The Pilgrim’s Progress – Ralph Vaughan Williams: based on John Bunyan’s allegory, this opera contains some of Vaughan Williams’ most rhapsodic music, some of which he utilized in his Fifth Symphony (see above).

•    Siegfried – Richard Wagner: continuing with highlights from the third opera of Wagner’s Ring tetralogy, we’re playing Siegfried’s Act 1 Forging Scene (complete with hammer and anvil effects!) and Brunnhilde’s Act 3 awakening duet.  Powerful. Featuring the great Wagnerian duo of Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen.

I hope you enjoy our classical music programming.  Thanks for listening to GotRadio, and for reading my blog!

-Ron

  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 Classical Music Lovers! 

As you know from my previous blog, we're spotlighting our new channel Classical Voices. Be sure to enter to win our CD giveaway - Haydn's The Creation, conducted by the great Rene Jacobs.  Read my previous blog for details on this historically informed performance of Haydn't masterpiece.

We know tax season is rough, so we have programmed some engaging music in both Classical and Classical Voices channels to distract you just enough to get through the season! Read on...

What we'll be Playing to get you through taxes!

We have a metric ton of great music to help you for the next couple weeks as you decompress from your tax stress.   Some friendly and familiar works and some things that may not be as familiar with.   Check it out.

Classical

• Symphony #6 – Ralph Vaughan Williams: completed a few years after WWII, this piece begins in anguish and anger, and ends uneasily.  Although the composer claimed no program for this work, there is some reason to believe he had thoughts of his late close friend, Gustav Holst, in mind.  The second movement contains a violent rhythmic section that clearly alludes to Mars from Holst’s The Planets, and, likewise, the final movement evokes the atmosphere of Neptune from the same work.
• Brandenburg Concerti – Johann Sebastian Bach: we’re featuring Trevor Pinnock’s landmark recordings of Bach’s most well-known chamber works.  Pinnock invited musicians to participate in his project which combined HIP (historically informed performance) techniques with modern techniques to give us the best of both worlds.  They are excellent!
• String Quartet – Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel: both composers wrote one quartet.  These works have some similarities (their second movements both feature a display of driving rhythmic pizzicato), but they have just as many divergences reflecting their individuality.  Performed by the truly amazing (and young) Belcea Quartet.
• Piano Concerto – Howard Hanson: I don’t know why this sleeper of a concerto is not performed more often.  See if you don’t find it wonderfully rhythmic, melodic, and fresh, performed by Carol Rosenberger at the keyboard.
• Violin Sonatas – Johannes Brahms: Brahms wrote way more chamber music than orchestral, in part because they were for himself or friends to concertize with. These beautiful works, performed for us by those two giants Pearlman and 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 vanquish 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 inclu ding Death and Transfiguration too, so when you hear it in 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.
• Prelude and Quadruple Fugue – Alan Hovhaness: “More Hovhaness!?” you cry?  Yes!  He was a master of the fugue (Bach is the undisputed monster genius of the fugue). You may have heard two double fugues in his Mysterious Mountain. In this piece, Hovhaness weaves four simultaneous fugal ideas at once!  Amazing!
• 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.

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 seasonal spirit, we present highlights of Handel’s English oratorio relating the biblical story of Exodus.  This oratorio represents a dramatic work by Handel that is not in the Italian style of his 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.
• Psalm 90 – Charles Ives: reportedly one of Ives’ personal favorites, this choral wonder begins with bitonal dissonance, symbolizing humanity’s waywardness, but resolves into a beautiful hymn accompanied by gently pealing bells, symbolizing the reassuring influence of the church.
• Dona Nobis Pacem and Song of Thanksgiving – Ralph Vaughan Williams: two bookends to WWII.  Vaughan Williams composed the first work, Grant Us Peace, when England began to fear war was a possibility. The piece ends optimistically with rousing chorus, but the composer showed his cynicism by having a single soprano sing the final words “Dona Nobis Pacem” more as a question.  
  • Song of Thanksgiving was composed in the final days of the war, as victory seemed certain. When the enemy surrendered, this piece was performed and broadcast live across England via radio, with John Gielgud as the Speaker.  We will be presenting a recording with John Gielgud reprising his role.
• Billy Budd – Benjamin Britten, and Moby Dick – Bernard Herrmann: two adaptations of Melville works. I referred to the Herrmann work in my previous blog.  Britten’s treatment of E. M. Forrester’s libretto is exciting and poignant.  He thoroughly captures life on a man-o-war (changed from American to British for the opera), from battle to haunting conviction and execution of the loyal seaman.

And a lot lot more…

We hope you enjoy the programming.  Let us hear from you!  Thank you for reading my blog and listening to GotRadio

-Ron

   Happy Spring to everyone!  

With Spring comes new things.  In this blog entry, I’ll tell you about our BRAND NEW channel, Classical Voices, our CD Giveaway, and Who’s Hot in classical vocal music today, and of course I’ll let you in on some highlights of the Spring-influenced classical music we’re playing in April (both channels!). 

  GotRadio Update

April Featured Channel: Classical Voices – Are you ready to sing?

By popular demand, GotRadio is launching our Classical Voices channel in April!  Classical Voices will bring you a rousing blend of opera, choral, and vocal music.  We have been building up the library for you and we can’t wait to share our endless stream of classical vocal music.  

We’re going to bring you some of the great operatic works that you love by Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Mozart, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, etc., but we wouldn’t be GotRadio if we didn’t also mix it up with some selections you may be less familiar with by Respighi, Vaughan Williams, Gluck, Britten, Prokofiev, Janacek, Hanson, and others.

For you choral music lovers, we will be bringing you a variety of symphonic, oratorio, and liturgical music by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Mahler, Berlioz, Faure, and others; and we think you be pleasantly surprised by some of the ear-opening choral music by Pizzetti, Vaughan Williams, Burgon, Hanson, Herrmann, Part, Martin, Thompson, Lloyd Webber, Whitacre, and others.

We’re going to use the same type of format as our existing Classical channel, where every fifth selection will be an extended piece of music:  an act or scene from an opera, a complete choral piece, etc. See below for highlights of our Classical Voices April playlist. We’re very interested in feedback, so please let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear!

April CD Giveaway

This month, as part of our Classical Voices Featured Channel, we’re delighted to have Haydn’s oratorio The Creation (Die Schöpfung), conducted by Rene Jacobs, as our Giveaway.

I selected this masterpiece in honor of our newly created Classical Voices channel.  I selected this particular recording because it is one of the most exhilarating performan ces of Haydn’s oratorio I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard several.

Over the years, Jacobs has earned a reputation for taking imaginative approaches to many choral and operatic masterpieces that have been somewhat taken for granted. Jacobs is totally inside this music and conducts with obvious joy and understanding.  His passion is infectious and you can tell that musicians and singers are caught up in the mood of an important occasion.

From "Creating the Creation" DVD, by Nayo Titzin

Jacobs and his team take an “authentic”, HIP (historically informed performance) approach. Both the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the RIAS Chamber Choir are modest, truly chamber, ensembles. Tempos are brisk and textures are transparent letting us hear all the details in the orchestral and choral writing. Jacobs allows for a fair amount of ornamentation, which always seems tasteful and appropriate.  But he also intelligently allows some flexibility.  The soloists, who are excellent and fresh sounding, use vibrato (as does the chorus) and are warmly expressive, which works wonderfully, even if this is a classical period oratorio – not an opera.  String playing, while using the reduced vibrato of HIP preferences, caresses the music very affectionately.  

The sound quality on this recording is state of the art.  It has great presence and provides a sound stage with amazing realism and depth.

Adding to the fun, the CD set comes with a DVD so we get a behind-the-scenes “making of” look at the rehearsal and recording sessions.  I don’t know why more recordings don’t come with that now, like movies do.  It really adds to the enjoyment.

You’ll get to hear all this, since we’ll be playing it as part of our April programming, and be sure to click on the “Enter to Win” button, you just might be selected to receive one of these giveaway sets! 

Who’s Hot in Vocal Music Today?   Eric Whitacre

Talk to any choral director today about their programming of the last 12 months and chances are very good they performed music by Eric Whitacre.  

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 latest album Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold) became number one in both the US and UK within a week of release.  He recently signed with the Storm modeling agency! His innovative Virtual Choir 1.0 received over 1 million viewings on YouTube in just two months.  Last year, Whitacre was shown a video of a girl singing one of the a cappella parts to his piece Sleep.  It occurred to him then that if they received many videos from individuals, they could be assembled into a virtual choir.  He put the request “out there”, and the combined “choir” was shown on YouTube.  You can check it out here.

Virtual Choir 2.0 is scheduled for THIS MONTH, April 7, 2011.  It will feature more than 2000 combined videos from almost 60 countries.  GotRadio will be programming Whitacre’s music from his album Lux Aurumque this month (see below).

  What to Listen for in April:

Classical Voices Highlights

We  hope you’ll agree that we have a stimulating combination of vocal music to begin our inaugural Classical Voices month, we’d love your feedback.  You’ll be treated to opera highlights by Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Mozart, and others; the choral writing of Haydn, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, Herrmann (of Psycho fame), Lloyd-Webber (yes of Cats and Phantom fame!), Poulenc, Prokofiev, Thompson, Whitacre, and others; and the vocal music of Mahler, Berlioz, and others, including songs for voice and guitar!  To name just some of what we have programmed for you this month:

• The Creation (Die Schöpfung) – Joseph Haydn:  starting with nothing less than the story of Genesis as his text, Haydn’s 3-part masterpiece (this month’s New Music Giveaway) is a world unto itself, running the spectrum from joyous to touching, sweet to exhilarating; inspirationally performed by Rene Jacobs, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and RIAS Chamber Choir.
• Light and Gold (Lux Aurumque) – Eric Whitacre: the subject of our April Who’s Hot feature conducts his own lush a cappella music featuring the very beautiful A Boy and a Girl, Lux Aurumque, Sleep, and Seal Lullaby.
• Frostiana – Randall Thompson: the texts of several Robert Frost poems are the inspirations for these lovely songs for small chorus.
• Requiem – Andrew Lloyd Webber: composed in memory of his father, this atypical requiem incorporates a variety of styles, traditional to popular, and features the singing of Placido Domingo and Sarah Brightman, conducted by Lorin Maazel.
• Gloria – Francis Poulenc: a wonderful example of the simple, stark beauty of Poulenc’s choral writing, featuring soprano Kathleen Battle and conductor Seiji Ozawa.
• Moby Dick – Bernard Herrmann: you know him best for his scores to Hitchcock films (such as Psycho and Vertigo), but this dramatic oratorio, based on Melville’s novel, was a labor of love for Herrmann.  This recording was funded and conducted by the composer himself.
• Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings – Benjamin Britten: this evocative song cycle was originally written for Britten’s partner, the tenor Peter Pears, but this performance is sung by Robert Tear, the much loved Welsh tenor who sadly passed away just this week.
• Symphony #8 – Gustav Mahler: you’ll hear why this music was nicknamed the “Symphony of a Thousand” (a moniker Mahler never approved of), requiring as it does a huge orchestra, multiple choruses, eight soloists, and an offstage brass choir!  It gives us some idea of what a Mahler opera would have been like.
• A Sea Symphony – Ralph Vaughan Williams and Howard Hanson: these composers created very different choral symphonies with the same title and both were based on poetry by Walt Whitman. For Vaughan Williams it was his first symphony (1909), for Hanson it was his seventh and final symphony (1974)!
• Samson et Dalila – Camille Saint-Saens: from the first act we’ll hear the lovely chorus of Philistine women, accompanied by the conniving Dalila, singing their paean to Spring (do you sense a “Spring” theme here?).
• Nunc Dimittus - Geoffrey Burgon: this solemn piece for boys choir was made famous as the credits music for the 80's BBC mini-series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  Burgon, who passed away only last fall, was made famous by this short example of his music.
• Der Ring Des Nibelungen (The Nibelung’s Ring) – Richard Wagner: We will be playing scenes from the famous Decca recordings of Wagner’s epic 4-opera cycle (Wagner called them “music-dramas”). The recordings are famous for several reasons: it was the first recording of the complete Ring Cycle, it features an all-star cast anchored by Birgit Nilsson, it's fueled by Georg Solti’s dramatic conducting of the wonderful Vienna Philharmonic, and was the result of his collaboration with producer John Culshaw whose vision was to create an aural experience faithful to Wagner’s demanding operatic special effects!

Plus lots, lots more beautiful opera, choral, and vocal music. 

Classical Highlights

For starters this April, we’re bringing you some very interesting Hovhaness, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Nielsen, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Vivaldi, and a ton more.  Be sure to give us your feedback and requests!

• Symphony #2 “Mysterious Mountain” and Symphony #50 “Mount St. Helens” – Alan Hovhaness: the composer had a thing about mountains.  For him they symbolized spiritual challenges, requiring perhaps a lifetime of effort in pursuit of one’s inspiration, possibly unattainable.  It’s interesting to compare these symphonies, separated by almost 30 years!  Of course, Mount St. Helens is a real mountain with an explosive history, and this symphony musically illustrates before, during, and after the Spring 1980 eruption violently changed its surroundings.
• String Symphony #8 – Felix Mendelssohn: played for us by the amazing Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which performs and records without a conductor!
• Symphony #2 “Resurrection” – Gustav Mahler: Mahler’s massive symphony translates the emotional journey from devastating loss to consolation.
• Symphony #4 “The Inextinguishable” – Carl Nielsen: The Danish composer was moved by the horrible effects of World War I.  His style became darker and his harmonies became sparer, but this symphony, from 1916, is his musical statement affirming an “inextinguishable” force of life.
• Piano Concerto #2 – Sergei Prokofiev: this concerto requires tremendous virtuosity and is definitely the composition of an energetic young man.  It was composed in 1913 when the composer was 22, and audiences deemed it too demanding!  Ten years later the score was destroyed in a fire.  No problem; Prokofiev recreated it from memory (with some enhancements)!  Performed by the great Prokofiev-interpreting pianist/conductor team of Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andre Previn.
• Symphony #1 “Spring” – Robert Schumann: Inspired by a poem by Adolph Bottger “Spring Awakens in the Valley”, and performed by Ricardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra.
• Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) – Igor Stravinsky: (there’s that “Spring” theme again) 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 the revolutionary music. The disagreements grew to yelling and shoving, finally spilling out into the streets!  Grippingly performed for us by Pierre Boulez and the tight Cleveland Orchestra.
• Trittico Botticelliano - Ottorino Respighi: this is a truly colorful example of Respighi's genius for orchestration. His tone poem is based on three Botticelli paintings: Spring (wink), The Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus.  The third one is particularly evocative.
• “Spring” from The Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi:  I couldn’t resist!

This, and a whole lot more, is yours on GotRadio.  Thanks for listening to GotRadio and for reading my blog.  Have a great Spring everyone!

-Ron

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!          Especially to our wonderful listeners!

Usually, I would begin my blog by talking about classical music and programming on GotRadio, but this has been a sad couple of weeks - for the people of Japan and for classical music - so I will go right to those topics first before other news, highlights, and music.

Kreizberg was born in Russia to a Russian father and Austrian mother, but he emigrated to the US while in his teens.  He studied conducting at the University of Michigan and received its Eugene Ormandy Prize.  He continued his studies with Bernstein, Ozawa, and Leinsdorf, and was assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas.  He went on to become one of the most important conductors of his generation, performing and recording with major orchestras the world over.  He conducted his last concert on February 14.

  GotRadio Highlights

Sound adjustments and upgrades

Have you *heard* the latest?  We had been getting reports of music cutting in and out, so GotRadio made some server changes this past month that greatly improved reliability.  In addition to that, we have implemented volume-leveling to address music being too loud or quiet, which should relieve some listeners from frequently having to adjust their volume levels.  Let us know what you think of the improvements!

Classical Voices Channel will Launch in April

By popular demand, GotRadio will be launching our Classical Voices channel in April!  Classical Voices will feature the best in classical vocal, choral, and opera recordings.  We’ve been building the new library, and we can hardly wait to play it for you.  You’ll hear some of the greatest opera arias, scenes, and acts, as well as other vocal and choral music by Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Beethoven, Haydn, Mahler, Strauss, Britten, Brahms, Berlioz, Thompson, Vaughan Williams, and Whitacre, to name just a very few.  I’ll be highlighting and discussing all this great music in my blog as well. STAY TUNED!

If a Classical Programmer falls in the woods, but no one is there to hear, does he make a sound?

That’s not just a philosophical question.  For a while now, you’ve been listening to my programming and reading my comments.  Soon, you’ll be able to actually hear my mellifluous voice as well.  In the coming months, we’re going to be adding my audio commentary to some of the programming.  I’ll prov ide the names of musical pieces and the performing artists, as well as giving you background information on some of the music we play.  It’s just one more way that GotRadio makes it interesting!

  Other Classical Music News

James Levine Stepping Down as Boston Symphony Music Director

James Levine announced earlier this month that he will be stepping down as Music Director of the Boston Symphony, September of this year.  Levine has been plagued by a variety of nagging health issues and had to cancel several concerts.

From what I’ve read, his departure was expected, perhaps even anticipated by some people.  Reviews of his performances in Boston have been mixed – with some excellent reviews mingled with some disappointments.  These developments are not expected to affect his duties as the Music Director of the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he has reigned since 1976, longer than any other music director there.   The Board of Directors of the Boston Symphony will select a team to begin the search for a replacement.

Riccardo Muti Bounces Back From Fall with $1M Check

In my previous blog, I mentioned that Ricardo Muti, 69, was recuperating from a spill he took during a rehearsal with his Chicago Symphony.  He required some surgery and a pacemaker too, and at that time it looked as though he would miss the rest of the season.  

Well, just to prove me wrong, he is already back on the job, conducting Verdi’s Nabucco in Rome!  And, as if to aid in Good Muti’s revival, it was announced this week that he was selected by the Birgit Nilsson Foundation to be the recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for his contributions to the world of music.  See that smile?  Did I mention that the prize is $1M?  The previous recipient, selected by the late Ms. Nilsson herself, in 2005, was Placido Domingo.  I guess in these tough economic times, these older musicians need the money for retirement, eh?  ;^)   I think the next recipient should be Gustavo Dudamel, for all the work he does with youth the world over.  He might be too young, though.

EMI for Sale

The British record label, and original home of the Beatles, is up for sale.  Earlier in the month, EMI was taken over by Citigroup, their largest creditor, and put up for bid. Like many record companies lately, EMI had been having debt problems and has been the subject of buyout/takeover news for several years.  SONY has been eyeing them for a while now, and perhaps so is the Warner Group.  EMI has a long history in classical music, with familiar labels such as Angel and Seraphim in the US, and important relationships with renowned classical composers and artists, often British ones: conductors such as Adrian Boult, John Barbirolli, Leonard Slatkin, Andre Previn, and Simon Rattle, composers such as Ralph Vaughan Willams and Benjamin Britten, cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, sopranos Janet Baker and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, producer Walter Legge, and orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, New Philharmonia, London Symphony, and hundreds more; all comprising one the greatest libraries of excellent classical music.  It is possible that different "bidders" will want different parts of EMI, too.  At this point, Citigroup is soliciting offers from several parties.  

  What to Listen for in March

We hope you’ve been enjoying some of the gems we’ve been playing the past month, let us know what you think and what you like.  We’ll take your requests!  Meanwhile, since we made server and audio improvements, I’m repeating some of the music from the past couple weeks.

Here are some highlights you can expect to hear:

Violin Concerto – Igor Stravinsky: Stravinsky’s publisher suggested he compose a violin concerto, but he felt his knowledge of the instrument was insufficient. He worked with a young violinist friend, for whom it was composed, and the result is this charming work. Listen carefully, the soloist begins with the same chord in each movement!

Preludes for Piano – Sergei Rachmaninov: These wonderful jewels run the gamut from tender and poignant, to exuberant and extrovert.  Included in our playlist is the famous Op.3 #2, composed when Rachmaninov was 19!  In later life, he came to rue this prelude, since it was more popular than his later, mature ones.

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.

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

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.

Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, and Simple Symphony – Benjamin Britten: Two great examples of Britten’s innovative symphonic 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, humming example of pictorial and evocative music writing.  It occurs in the 3rd 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!

Plus lots more!  They’re all yours on GotRadio.  Let me hear from you, and thank you for reading my blog, and for listening to GotRadio!  Slainte! (to your health!)

 - 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