Host Bill McGlaughlin continues his exploration of the symphony the week of January 14th. This time we explore symphonies written between 1900-1920.
Week of December 31, 2018 - Exploring Two Very Different Worlds: Delius and Holst
Music of two English composers, Frederick Delius (1862-1934) and Gustav Holst (1874-1934):
both born of German parentage, both dead in the same year, and with little else in common. We
start with Delius, and in all of the years that Bill played as a trombonist in orchestras around the
US, he doesn’t recall ever having performed a Delius symphony. Bill describes Delius as having
an affinity with Benjamin Britten and we will listen to On Hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring
which evokes sounds of the Yorkshire Moors.
Week of January 7, 2019 - Beethoven Quartets
Bill studies Beethoven through his magnificent 16 string quartets played by well-established
ensembles from around the world: the Guarneri, Takács, Tokyo, and Alban Berg string
quartets. He examines significant moments in this body of chamber music. The string quartets
offer well-defined early, middle, and late stages both in his life as well as the string quartet as a
form, including the Grosse Fuge, Op.133 (which Beethoven wrote while he was stone deaf), and the Cavatina from String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat.
Week of January 14, 2019 - The Symphony, Part X: Alexander Scriabin to Samuel Barber The symphony remained the pinnacle of achievement for many 20th century composers. This week, Bill McGlaughlin continues his multi-part exploration of this vibrant, exciting musical form with symphonies written between 1900 through 1920. Bill focuses on works rarely heard in concert, or on the radio for that matter: Alexander Scriabin’s Symphony No. 3, conducted by Riccardo Muti, an important interpreter of the Scriabin color wheel; George Enescu’s Symphony No. 2; and Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1, conducted by Marin Alsop.
Week of January 21, 2019 - Pacific Overtures, Part I Oo-ee baby - won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise… for a trip around the Pacific Rim! This is a two-week long adventure, and we’re starting off in a Land Down Under. In Australia we’ll hear Aboriginal music along with pieces from Percy Grainger and Peter Sculthorpe, then Maori music plus Dame Gillian Whitehead and Kiri Te Kanawa in New Zealand, and then we’ll continue sailing west to South America and hear music from Argentina and Chile. It’s a two part show, so tune in next week to see where else we’re going!
Week of January 28, 2019 - Pacific Overtures, Part II Oo-ee baby - won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise… for a trip around the Pacific Rim! We’ve borrowed the title from Stephen Sondheim’s 1976 musical, and you’ll hear a selection from that when our tour reaches Asia. But first we start where we left off last week, in Chile and Columbia, then we head up into Mexico where we’ll hear Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez, before motoring to the Pacific Northwest and Canada, where we’ll hear music written by Glenn Gould’s piano teacher! Then everybody back on the boat for a long, long sail all the way down to the Philippines, to Java, to China, Korea, and Japan, and finally, because after a trip like this we could use a break, we land in the Hawai’ian Islands.
