Week of September 2, 2024 - The Big Five: The New York Philharmonic, Part 1 As our country’s orchestras open their new concert seasons, Bill begins a two-week series on our oldest orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. Their doors opened in December 1842, and Bill plays several pieces the Philharmonic included in its opening season - the overture to Weber’s Oberon and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. This orchestra was conducted and cultivated by Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler, and their influence along with many other musicians is still heard in every note the orchestra plays. Many of the works they premiered have become standard orchestral literature. Bill interviews musicians, explores the
Week of September 9, 2024 - The Big Five: The New York Philharmonic, Part 2 We continue to look at the unique history of the New York Philharmonic. Just think about the audiences who were there before you: from Walt Whitman's “silent sea of faces and the unbarred heads”, listening to the funeral march from Beethoven’s Third Symphony as Abraham Lincoln lay in state at City Hall, to the orchestra’s televised tribute to JKF led by Leonard Bernstein, and later still, the premiere of the John Adams On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the Philharmonic to remember the victims of September 11, 2001. In celebration and in mourning, the New York Philharmonic has been there.
Week of September 16, 2024 - Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) A five-part biography to celebrate the life of Chopin, whose invention and innovation had an indelible effect on the world of Romantic music and the piano. Chopin embraces the most serene of nocturnes to a breakneck waltz lasting but a minute. “As a seven-year-old,” Bill says, “Chopin could not only play the piano beautifully, but he also composed very well,” and offers a polonaise performed by Garrick Ohlsson. Bill drops in a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff playing a waltz Chopin wrote at just 19. Bill takes to the piano to illustrate not only the beauty but also the ingenious techniques that, he says, “make the entire piano sing.”
Week of September 23, 2024 - How Strange the Change from Major to Minor, Part I “There's no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to minor.” ‑ Cole Porter This two-week series comes from a listener who wrote asking about the different scales in Western music. You may know of major and minor scales and hear the change of mood that composers can achieve by transitioning between them, but there are five other scales, or modes, we hear all the time. You can hear modal shifts in works by Monteverdi and in the late symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert. Come with us to explore the vibrant palette of colors that composers can use to set and change moods. These next two weeks will be peppered with unique performances of Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye.”
Week of September 30, 2024 - How Strange the Change from Major to Minor, Part Il When our listener wrote asking Bill to describe the different scales and modes in music, he said a week ought to do it. Bill quickly realized that a week ought NOT to do it, and two weeks were better! So, this week we continue listening to music change from major to minor, plus harmonic surprises that composers add to their music. This same listener goes on to say “What classical music buff wouldn't find that interesting and entertaining, and what classical music neophyte wouldn't find that enlightening?” He’s right, come listen with fresh new ears to Franz Schubert, and Gustav Mahler, plus your favorite folk songs and jazz standards. We will sample Stravinsky’s “Four Norwegian Moods for Orchestra” to the Beatle’s “Norwegian Wood.”
