Bill McGlaughlin "explores" two titans of the conducting world, Leopold Stokowski and Arturo Toscanini during the week of March 11th.
Week of March 4, 2019 - The Sweet Spot – Music of the Renaissance - As Bill explains: “I’ve spent my life as a classical musician devoted to the great body of standard repertoire, which began about 1685 with the birth of Bach and Handel and continued though Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven on to the present. I loved that music as a youngster and I still do, but there are occasions, especially when I’m least expecting it, when music composed roughly between 1550 and 1650 will take my breath away. ‘You know,’ I murmur to myself, ‘music really never got any better than this.’" Madrigalists and other Italian composers, giants like Palestrina, the Gabrielis, and Orlando di Lasso. We will be listening to Renaissance composers from France, Spain, Germany, and England.
Week of March 11, 2019 - Clash of the Titans - Titans in Greek Mythology were great divine beings that descended from the Gods, hence someone who dominates his field. This week Exploring Music examines the lives and musicmaking of two such divine beings, Leopold Stokowski and Arturo Toscanini, who captured both the minds and hearts of us at a crucial part in our country’s development.
Week of March 18, 2019 - The Symphony, Part III: Mid-19th Century Orchestral Music
Bill sets the context: “Symphonies started in the early 18th century, and this week picks up after Mendelssohn and Schumann, approximately 1850—a time when some of the most important composers were beginning to lose faith in the symphonic form.” Bill leads with Danish composer Niels Gade’s Symphony No. 1 and forward into the mid-19th century orchestral music of Rubinstein, Raff, and Dvo?ák. We’ll also hear the Brahms Serenade No. 1 for orchestra, composed in six movements and published decades before his four symphonies. Faith was restored.
Week of March 25, 2019 - Strings Plus One - “Mozart wrote for ‘strings plus’ -- just one more instrument to genius -- “probably better than anyone,” Bill says to begin a week of chamber music with great string playing and plus something else. Mozart courses through the week, but Episode Two blends Mozart into works by Barber, Hindemith, and Mahler, while Episode Three features Bartók (played by ”king of swing” clarinetist Benny Goodman) and Schumann. Bill ends the week with Brahms’s chamber music with strings and clarinet but also featuring American composer Joan Towers’s Petroushskates played by the eighth blackbird ensemble.
