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Broadcasting as a Community Service  

91 .3FM
 


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WWUH 91.3 FM
Program Guide
March/April, 2018
In This Issue
Hosts Needed
Flashback:2000
Public Affairs on WWUH
Classical Music on WWUH
Composer Birthdays
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera
WWUH Archive Now Online
How To Listen
Join Our List
 
WWUH - Your Live, Local, Listener-Supported Station
 
 
 
     We are very proud of the fact that we have been able to limit our over the air fund drives to only twice a year at a time when many stations have multiple fund raising events.
      Our Spring fund drive kicks off Sunday, April 8th at 6pm.  
     We'll be offering a new T shirt along with the traditional WWUH tote bag, mug and jacket.
     We hope that you will consider supporting this unique experiment in FM broadcasting.  If you just can't wait to support us you can make a donation via this link:  Donate Now


John Ramsey
General Manager


      

Have An Idea for A Program?
 

If you have an idea for a radio program and are available to volunteer late at night, please let us know.

We may have some midnight and/or 3am slots available later this year.  Email station manager  John Ramsey to find out more about this unique and exciting opportunity for the right person.

Qualified candidates will have access to the full WWUH programmer orientation program so no experience is necessary. He/she will also need to attend the monthly WWUH staff meetings (held on Tuesday or Sunday evenings) and do behind the scenes volunteer work from time to time. This is a volunteer position.

After completing this process, we will review the candidate's assets and accomplishments and they will be considered for any open slots in our schedule.


 

  FLASHBACK: Year - 2000

     Mike DeRosa wrote the following for the January 2000 issue of the Program Guide, the first Guide of the new century.
     "In our time, political  speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible."  - George Orwell, 1946.
     For the last 30 years WWUH has been an alternative source of accurate news and important information. WWUH has also been a source for alternative music and cultural events. Since 1968 WWUH has been in the forefront of the alternative journalism movement in this country. The real challenge in the next twenty years is to develop the foundation for a future alternative mass media.
     Historically the "broadcast reform movement" of the late 1920's and early 1930's is the precursor for alternative radio stations like WWUH. Robert W. McChesney in a book entitled "Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy, The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935" documents this early history. The "broadcast reform movement" of the 1930's was the acknowledged enemy of the commercial broadcast networks and the big money interests that they represented. These almost forgotten pioneers of early radio had a completely different vision of what mass communications could become. Robert McChesney's book documents how these radio pioneers tried during the early 1930's to establish a public mass media that was community controlled and how their valiant efforts failed to be established into law. While their names have been largely forgotten, their deeds live on in stations like WWUH. Their struggle was an intense fight against the concept of a mass media that was advertising driven and network-dominated. These early radio pioneers built radio using the resources of universities, libraries, unions, and progressive religious groups. These early experiments in radio had a profound influence on the future of all media and while they lost their fight for a truly "public" mass media in the United States they have left us an important and inspiring legacy.
     The work of I.F. Stone and other alternative journalists, the development of the "underground press" of the 1960's, and the development of "pirate radio" also played an important role in the development of the alternative media movement of the 1980's and 1990's.
     Today the challenges facing producers, readers, listeners, and viewers of this "alternative" tradition are in some ways even greater than of the early media pioneers. Recent decisions by the FCC and changes created by the Communications Act of 1996 have strengthened the hand of the mass media corporatists. In major cities through out the United States one or two mass media corporations now have control of most of the stations in that market. In Hartford, for example, two companies now own the majority of the stations in this market. These corporate behemoths have only one thing in mind: the financial bottom line. Their definition of the financial bottom line is to extract as much capitol out of the medium while providing the minimum of public service as required under law. These corporations thrive on creating a mass media that is homogenized and sterile. Since most audiences are never given an opportunity to experience anything different they become addicted to the sameness and ignorance that is mass media and mass culture. This is then reinforced by program directors who say without flinching that they "are giving the public what they want." The public usually gets what is commercially viable for these big media outlets.
     The licenses for radio and television stations are bought and sold at an increasingly fast pace and in most cases are just another commodity in an ever inflated marketplace. Mass media audiences are bought and sold by corporations only interested in turning their clientele into demographic groups that are used and abused. The law requires that radio and T.V. stations work in the "public interest, necessity, and convenience." Clearly the new ethic and unwritten law require mass media to work for corporate interests, oligopoly control, and the capriciousness of corporate leaders.
     A famous French novelist once said that "behind every great fortune is a great crime". The crime that is perpetrated against us in this case is the destruction and degradation of our cultural, political and economic institutions via corporate control of media. The corporatists are not only for maximizing profits they are also for a new kind of social control. This social control is similar to that found in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World where mass media is a distraction that hides the potential and reality of people's lives.
     The mass media corporations that run and ruin our economy use the mass media as a gigantic home shopping corporate network. For example, they will produce a movie, which also creates CD's, toys, and accessories that are designed as part of a "concept" and create "buffo" profits. Profits are further increased in movies by accepting donations so that companies can have their products make a cameo appearance. These mass media projects then are shown on HBO, sent to video stores, and virtually work their way first into our homes, and then into our minds and consciousness. They are then exported to foreign countries to carry further the corporate messages that are considered politically correct by mass media executives. We are bombarded with hundreds of one-dimensional commercial, sexual, and political messages each day that tell us how to dress, how to speak, how to relate, and ultimately how to think and whom to vote for. We are told that only violence solves problems, that Burger King and McDonald's produce the best food in the world, and that corporate America has created the best of all possible worlds.
     This approach to mass cultural control is a new kind of censorship that filters out ideas much more effectively than those of the great dictators of the 20th century. Since the corporatists own most of the radio, television, newspaper, and other mass media outlets, they control the overall world view that most people get from these mediums. While the first amendment protects freedom of speech it does not protect us from the oligopolies that own the vast majority of the news and information outlets. These outlet's control who is interviewed and whose views are reported.
     Some people believe that "journalistic integrity" or a "sense of fairness" will save the day. Clearly we need to support those within established media outlets who are willing to give alternative voices an opportunity to be heard. But reliance on the idealism and the thoughtfulness of those in mass media is not enough. We need public and community control of such powerful mediums.
     Since most of our government officials are presently controlled by legalized bribery, also know as campaign donations, there is little hope that a truly public mass media can be established though government intervention. This makes the idea of an alternative mass media become even more important and relevant to our situation and dilemma.
     If our government cannot control these media giants then it becomes critical that we support and develop alternatives to corporate mass media. The combination of the internet and alternative radio is just beginning and it can become a powerful force for new ideas and new political, social, and economic institutions that can begin the process of change. Right now you can hear WWUH on internet live using a free program that you can also get off internet. The internet offers a great opportunity to develop new ways in which old technologies can be interfaced and improved. Clearly the various programs that you hear on WWUH are an alternative to your media diet that give you interviews and information that can make a real difference in your life. We hope that you will continue to support WWUH and alternative news and public affairs at the station.
     But we are very far from the kind of alternative radio, T.V. and internet that we need to develop the kind of society which we deserve. Clearly we need new resources to build this new alternative mass media. While volunteerism will help to develop this new mass media, full time workers will be needed.
     This means that we must develop bigger resources collectively and effectively. Most of us are willing to spend 30 or more dollars a month to be hooked up to a cable system which basically is manipulating us in one way or another. Perhaps it is time for people to make a major investment in the development of a mass media that really represents them rather than multi-international corporations.
     Perhaps we could get some relief from some level of government on this issue. Some people have suggested a 1% tax on all advertising or a $1 charge on all new radio, T.V. , or other electronic devices which would go to developing a real public alternative network. Perhaps we could get some help though collective action. Many of the institutions which host many of the alternative media outlets have to be educated on the importance of these institutions in society. All of this takes time and effort but the payoff is immense and important.


Public Affairs on WWUH
Real Alternative News
 
For close to 50 years WWUH has aired a variety of community affairs programs.

Here is our current schedule:
Monday: Noon - 1pm  Alternative Radio
  8:00 - 9:00 pm  Radio Ecoshock
Tuesday:  Noon - 12:30 pm  New World Notes
   12:30 -  1:00 pm  Counterspin
    8:00 - 9:00 pm  Black Agenda Report
Wednesday:  Noon - 12:30 pm  911 Wake Up Call
                 12:30 - 1:00 pm   Building Bridges
           8:00 - 8:30 pm  911 Wake Up Call
           8:30 - 9:00 pm  New World Notes
Thursday:   Noon - 1:00 pm  Project Censored
                  7:30 - 8:00 pm  Making Contact
                  8:00 - 8:30 pm  This Way Out
                  8:30 - 9:00 pm Gay Spirit
Friday:        12:00 - 12:30 pm  New Focus
                  12:30 - 1:00 pm  TUC Radio
Sunday:      4:30 - 5:00 pm  Explorations
 
WWUH Classical Programming
January/February 2018
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera
Sundays 1:00 - 4:30 pm
Evening Classics... Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 8:00 pm
Drake's Village Brass Band... Mondays 7:00-8:00 pm

March
Thu
1
Vejvanovský: Sonata a 4, Sonata tribus quadrantibus; Gurecky: Cello Concerto in a minor D-WD 573; Ingalls: The Apple Tree; Chopin: Rondo in C Op. 73, Piano Sonata No. 2 in b-flat minor Op. 35, Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor Op. 11; John Thomas: The Minstrel's Adieu to his Native Land; Brouwer: El Decamerón Negro; Ades: Second Mazurka; Lyapunov: Zelazowa Wola, Op. 37; Cimarosa: Piano Sonatas 69-72; Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 27 in G K. 379.
Fri
2
Twice postponed, lets try it again - Episode 3 of "They Missed the Train"
Sun
4
John Metcalf: Under Milk Wood
Mon
5
Bartok: String Quartet #6; Rogerson: A Fish Will Rise; Foss: Song of Songs; Ben Haim: Sweet Psalmist of Israel; (Bernstein 100) Leshnoff: Clarinet Concerto
Drake's Village Brass Band ...U. S. Marine Band: Arioso
Tue
6
Telemann: Ouverture Suite in D major, TWV 55:D7; Nicola Porpora: Freme il mar, e col sussurro (pastoral cantata); Nicola Porpora: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major (1754); Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp; J. S. Bach: Cantata for Oculi [3rd Sunday in Lent] BWV 54: 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde' (1714); Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Violin Sonata No. 5; Florence Price: Piano Concerto in D minor; Louise Farrenc: Nonett in E-flat major, Op. 38; Beach: Symphony in E minor, Op. 32, 'Gaelic'
Wed
7
Host's Choice
Thu
8
C.P.E. Bach: Flute Concerto in G Wq. 169, Symphony in D Wq. 183/1, Hamburg Sonata in G Wq. 133; Alfano: Neapolitan Dances Op. 8; Hovhaness: Alleluia and Fugue for String Orchestra Op. 40b; Cimarosa: Piano Sonatas 73-76; Saint-Saens: Piano Quartet in Bb Op. 41; Korngold: Symphonic Serenade for String Orchestra Op. 39; Boccherini: Cello Concerto No. 10 in D G. 483; Leclair: Trio Sonata, Op. 4.
Fri
9
A triple Birthday celebration - Samuel Barber & 2 more
Sun
11
Dvorak: Stabat Mater
Mon
12
Dupré: Symphonie-Passion; Brian: Symphony #7; Leonard Bernstein New York Philharmonic-Music of Our Time Volume 1 (Bernstein 100)
Drake's Village Brass Band  ...Birth of the Third Stream - The Jazz and Classical Music Society Present Music for Brass (1957)
Tue
13
Halvorsen: Suite ancienne; Schumann: String Quartet #3 in A, Op. 41, #3; Stamitz: Concerto in D for Viola & Orchestra; Mealor: Stabat mater
Wed
14
Ippolitov-Ivanov: Symphony No. 1; Dering: Motets; Schubert: Octet; Kummer: Quintetto; Sances: Guitar pieces
Thu
15
New Releases. A Sampling of new acquisitions from the WWUH library.
Fri
16
Let's visit the Emerald Isle for St. Paddy's Day
Sun
18
Berlioz: Requiem; JoAnn Falletta interview
Mon
19
Hovhaness: Symphony #48 "Visions of Andromeda"; Copland: Appalachian Spring, El Salon Mexico, Music of the Theatre (Bernstein 100); Boulanger: Psalm 130; Gilbert: The Dance in the Place Congo; Hovhaness; Fra Angelico
Drake's Village Brass Band  ...Birth of the Third Stream - Modern Jazz Concert -Orchestra Conducted by Gunther Schuller and George Russell (1958)
Tue
20
Druschetzky: Parthia in E ; Gade: Frühlings-Phantasie; Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op. 33, #3; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
Wed
21
Le Duc: Symphonies; DeMonte: Missa 6 Voices; Brahms: Variations and Fugue; Ramsoe: Brass Quartet; Hoffmeister: String Quartet in D Minor
Thu
22
Host's Choice
Fri
23
Spring has sprung ... (3 days ago)
Sun
25
Stainer: The Crucifixion; Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610
Mon
26
Honoring Claude Debussy, 100 Years since his Death... Chansons de Bilitis, Images 1 & 2 for Piano; Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes 1 & 2, Jeux, Le Mer (Bernstein 100)
Drake's Village Brass Band  ... Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra
Tue
27
Telemann: Ouverture Suite in F major, TWV 55:F3; Debussy: Trois Chansons de Bilitis; Interview with Cherie Caluda and Gurminder Bhogal promoting  Hartt concerts, "Debussy: Après un siècle"; Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10; J. S. Bach: Cantata for Palm Sunday [6th Sunday in Lent] BWV 182: 'Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen' (1714); Frantisek Ignac Antonin Tuma: Stabat Mater in G minor; Florence Price: Symphony No. 1 in E minor
Wed
28
Clementi: Symphony in D; Obrecht: Missa Pfauenschwanz; Walton: String Quartet; Pezel: Alphabet Sonatas; Kraus: Concerto for Viola and Cello
Thu
29
New Releases. A Sampling of new acquisitions from the WWUH library.
Fri
30
R. Strauss´ first major orchestral work, the Symphony in d , had its first performance on this date
April
Sun
1
Vaughn Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress
Mon
2
Rautavaara: Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra; Symanowski: Violin Concerto #1; Shapero: Symphony for Classical Orchestra (Bernstein 100); Wild: Seven Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs; 
Drake's Village Brass Band  ... Elgar Howarth Conducts the Grimethorpe Colliery Band - Grimethorpe Special
Tue
3
Telemann: Ouverture Suite in G minor, TWV 55:g2, 'La changeante'; Debussy: Piano Trio No. 1 in G major; J. S. Bach: Cantata for Easter Tuesday,[ 3rd Day of Easter] BWV 134: 'Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum Lebend weiss' (1724); Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Violin Sonata No. 6; Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 5 (1972); Douglas Lilburn: String Quartet in E minor; Couperin: Pièces de clavecin, Book 1; 1st Ordre in G minor-major (selections)
Wed
4
Host's Choice
Thu
5
Spohr: Fantasy in c minor Op. 35, Nonet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Strings in F Op. 31; Ganne: Le Père La Victoire March; Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane Suite #1; Guastavino: Piano Sonatina in g minor; Cimarosa: Piano Sonatas 77-80; Karlowicz: Serenade for Strings Op. 2; Corelli: Concerto Grosso in D Op. 6 No. 4;
Mahler: Symphony No. 1.
Fri
6
Celebrating the life of Igor Stravinsky
Sun
8
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Mon
9
Marathon 2018 - Masterpieces in Miniature -Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony; Bernstein's Greatest Hits - New York Philharmonic (Bernstein 100) 
Drake's Village Brass Band  ... Grimethorpe Band - Selections from Brass Off!
Tue
10
WWUH Spring Fund Raiser. Thank you for your support by phone, mail, or WWUH.ORG .   Music of Auber, Haydn, Schubert, Shostakovich, Verdi, et al.
Wed
11
Grieg: Symphony in C Minor; Homilius: Hymns; Corbetta: Sarabanda; Bennett: Piano Concerto No. 5; Copland: Piano Sonata
Thu
12
WWUH Spring Fund Raiser. Thank you for your support by phone, mail, or WWUH.org.
Fri
13
Host's Choice for Marathon (final weekend of tax season)
Sun
15
Rameau: Le Temple de la Gloire
Mon
16
For Lenny - Lara Downes Piano; Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals; Prokofiev: Symphony #1 "Classical" (Bernstein 100)
Drake's Village Brass Band  ... Johannsson: The Miner's Hymn
Tue
17
Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in c, RV 83; Shostakovich: Symphony #5; Ravel: Piano Trio in a; Sibelius: Kuolema - Complete Incidental Music
Wed
18
Pleyel: Symphony in G Minor; Bencini: Missa de Oliviera; Schickhardt: Concerto; Shostakovich: Cello Sonata; Glass: Concerto for Cello
Thu
19
Duron: Chacona; Nares: Keyboard Concerto/Sonata in G Op 2; Boely: Sextet in D; Blumenfeld: Etude for Piano Left Hand in A Flat Op. 36, Allegro de Concert in A Op. 7; Schillings: Moloch Act 3 Prelude, Ingwelde Act 2 Prelude; Tailleferre: Harp Sonata; Fanshawe: Fantasy on Dover Castle; Antheil: Serenade for Strings No. 1; Hummel: Piano Concerto in b-minor, Op. 89.
Fri
20
Joan Tower's Percussion Quintet had its first performance on this date
Sun
22
Berlioz: Les Troyens (Acts 1, 2 & 3)
Mon
23
Music for Earth Day 2018  Bates: Liquid Interface: Kallman: The Vanishing Snows of Kilimanjaro; Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra"; Gann: Earth-Preserving Chant; Ho: Arctic Symphony; Copland: Second Hurricane (Bernstein 100)
Drake's Village Brass Band  ...Bryant: In This Broad Earth; Gotkovsky: Chant de Foret (Song of the Forest); Nagao: The Earth; Graham: Windows of the World
Tue
24
Telemann: Ouverture Suite in G major, TWV 55:G4, 'Les nations anciens et modernes'; Nicola Porpora: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major; Debussy: Piano music; J. S. Bach: Cantata for Jubilate [3rd Sunday after Easter] BWV 12: 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen' (1714); Louise Farrenc: Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30; Robert Simpson: Symphony No. 6 (1977); Couperin: Pièces de clavecin, Book 1 (1713): 1st Ordre in G minor-major (selections)
Wed
25
Draeseke: Symphony No. 1; Usandizaga: Mendi Mendiyan; Richter: Antiphons; Danzi: Flute Concerto; Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 2
Thu
26
New Releases. A Sampling of new acquisitions from the WWUH library.
Fri
27
Let's vacation at Niagra Falls ... No, let's do the Grand Canyon ... Heck, let's do them both!
Sun
29
Berlioz: Les Troyens (Acts 4 & 5); Rameau: Pygmalion
Mon
30
Monday Night at the Movies Johannsson: The Theory of Everything; Max Richter Portrait ( Anèla Dubeau and La Pietà); Williams: The Post
Drake's Village Brass Band  ... Northwestern University Wind Ensemble - Reflections
 
 





  
Thursday Evening Classics
 
              Library
 
Thursday Evening Classics
Composer Birthdays
for March and April 2018

March 1
1709 (bapt) Josef Antonin Gurecky
1764 Jeremiah Ingalls
1810 Frederic Chopin
1826 John Thomas
1939 Leo Brouwer
1971 Thomas Ades
Frederic Chopin
Birth: March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland
Death: October 17, 1849 in Paris, France
Chopin's father was French, his mother Polish. He spent his early life in Warsaw, where he studied piano privately and at the High School of Music. As a youth, the family mingled with intellectuals and members of the middle and upper classes, and as a teenager Chopin spent two summers in the country, where he was exposed to Polish folk music. By the age of 8 he was recognized as a child prodigy, performing in private salons. In 1826 he enrolled at the University of Warsaw. He gave his first public recital in Vienna in 1829, and over the next few years he performed in Poland and throughout much of Germany and Austria as well as in Paris. Feeling constrained by Warsaw's cultural provincialism and uncomfortable with the publicity surrounding his performances there, he settled in Paris in 1832. He made a comfortable living from teaching and from sales of his published music, and he enjoyed the friendship of some of Europe's most eminent artists and composers. In Paris he composed extensively, but limited his performances mainly to private venues. After the failure in 1837 of his plans to marry Maria Wodzińska, a Polish girl of good family, Chopin found himself increasingly involved with the French novelist George Sand. The next ten years of his life were dominated by that relationship. These were productive composition years for Chopin. But, the couple, along with Sand's children, spent a harsh winter in Majorca, where Chopin's health declined and he was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis). The affair ended in 1847 after, among other things, Sand had portrayed their relationship unflatteringly in her novel Lucrezia Floriani. Chopin then made an extended visit to Britain, but returned to Paris to die in 1849. Chopin is recognized as one of the most significant composers of the Romantic age. His output includes mainly small-scale solo piano works: waltzes, nocturnes, preludes, mazurkas, and polonaises. These works weave poetically expressive melody and restless harmony to high technical demands. Even his etudes are highly appealing concert pieces that emphasize musical as well as technical significance. The early works composed in Warsaw (polonaises, rondos, variations) reflect the influence of composer-virtuosos such as Hummel, Weber, and Kalkbrenner. With the Études op. 10, he achieved a style characterized by a refinement of detail within prevailing melody and accompaniment textures, often involving a subtle mixture or 'counterpoint' of fragmentary motifs. His affinity with Bach, especially clear in the preludes and etudes, is displayed in figurative patterns. Bach's inspiration shaped the increasingly close-knit, intricate textures of Chopin's later music and in his preference for unitary formal schemes-often a single impulse of departure and return. Early 19th-century Italian opera, too, played a part in molding Chopin's musical language. The nocturnes in particular respond to Italian bel canto, in their widely spanning melodic arcs and their stylization of vocal embellishments. Chopin's influence was
immense. His innovative harmonic language foreshadowed Brahms, Wagner, and other late Romantics, while his approach to thematic working informed several composers working outside the Austro-German mainstream, notably in Russia. Most influential of all was his development of a new sound world of highly idiomatic piano textures, essentially distinct from the pianism of Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. The differentiation within these textures, and the detail and subtlety are clearly discernible in the early years of the 20th century, in the piano music of Rachmaninov, Liadov, and Scriabin, and of Fauré and Debussy.

March 8
1566 Carlo Gesualdo
1714 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
1876 Franco Alfano
1911 Alan Hovhaness
Carlo Gesualdo
Birth: March 8, 1566 in Venosa, Italy
Death: September 8, 1613 in Naples, Italy
Gesualdo was the second son of the Second Prince of Venosa, and inherited the principality of Venosa on his father's death. After receiving musical training, Gesualdo's earliest known work emerged in 1585, when he was 19. Carlo's elder brother died in 1585, so with an expectation of producing an heir, he married his first cousin, Maria d'Avalos, who at age 25 was already twice-widowed. In 1587, an heir was born. But later, Gesualdo discovered d'Avalos in an affair with the Duke of Andria. On October 17, 1590, Gesualdo, assisted by three servants, killed them both. The incident provoked public outrage, but there was no trial, as authorities from both Church and State convened to dispose of the matter. Another marriage was arranged in February, 1594 to Donna Leonora, the niece of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. In Ferrara, Gesualdo came into contact with court composer Luzzascho Luzzaschi and his "secret music," and became a close friend of the poet Torquato Tasso. Upon returning to his estate late in 1596, Gesualdo resolved to travel no more. In 1597, d'Este bore Gesualdo a second son who died in 1600, an event that plunged the Prince into a deep despair. The couple separated in 1608, and in 1610 d'Este began divorce proceedings against Gesualdo, but changed her mind and returned. In 1613, Gesualdo's elder son died, and Gesualdo himself followed in September at age 47. He was known to be vehemently asthmatic his whole life. In later years, he would pursue masochistic practices which served to weaken him physically, his spirit already broken by years of mental instability. Gesualdo's six books of Madrigals constitute the main body of his work. In these anthologies he took chromatic harmony to extremes, often creating striking dissonances. Books I and II are rooted in standard practice, but when compared to contemporary settings of the same poetry, they reveal a stubbornly individual mind at work. Book III shows a decreased reliance on pre-existing settings, and by Book IV, all the texts used are original. Here, Gesualdo's mature style begins to emerge. Books V and VI did not appear until 1611, but in these editions, Gesualdo states the madrigals were written "15 years" prior to the date of publication, and were printed only to protect the works from plagiarists. While essentially diatonic in character, some contain music which modulates so frequently it results in a disoriented sense of key. Dissonance is used liberally and there are sudden changes of tempo. Passing tones cross relate, and there are passages of stepwise chromatic motion resulting in a suspended tonality. Gesualdo also wrote church music, in a style only marginally more restrained than that of his madrigals. The first two
collections, entitled Sacre Cantiones, appeared in 1603. In the second book, Gesualdo expanded his usual five-part writing into six and seven parts, though two of the partbooks are lost. The third book, Responsoria, represents Gesualdo's final musical statement. It is entirely in his late style, and the responses composed for the Good Friday service contains some of the most assured and eloquent music that he composed.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Birth: March 8, 1714 in Weimar, Germany
Death: December 14, 1788 in Hamburg, Germany
The second surviving son of J.S. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel was the most innovative and unconventional member of an extremely talented musical family. He was baptized on March 10, 1714, with Telemann as one of his godfathers. In 1717 he moved with the family to Cöthen, where his father had been appointed Kapellmeister. C.P.E. Bach could play his father's technically demanding keyboard pieces at sight by the time he was seven. His mother died in 1720, and in spring 1723 the family moved to Leipzig, where Emanuel began attending the Thomasschule. From the age of about 15 he took part in his father's musical performances in church and in the collegium musicum. His first compositions were probably written about 1730. They consisted mainly of keyboard pieces and chamber music. An exceptional student in areas other than music, he enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1731 to study law, then transferred to the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. He graduated in 1734, but remained in that backwater town giving keyboard lessons, involving himself in public concerts, and learning the composer's craft. By 1740 Bach was in Berlin as harpsichordist to Frederick the Great of Prussia. Here he was first exposed to Italian opera seria, and its dramatic style infiltrated his instrumental music. Little of this was heard at court, where Bach accompanied the flutist-king in one concerto after another by Quantz. Bach never won recognition at court as a composer and virtuoso. Frederick would allow only Hasse, the Graun brothers, Quantz and Agricola that distinction. Even the dedication to him of Bach's first published work, the Prussian Sonatas made no lasting impression on the king. As early as 1743 an attack of the gout that was to trouble Bach all his life obliged him to visit the Bohemian spa of Teplitz for treatment. Early in 1744 he married Johanna Maria Dannemann, the daughter of a Berlin wine merchant. He made several attempts to find a new musical post, but the stress of the king's disfavor was partially relieved in 1756, when Frederick became distracted by the Seven Years' War and was frequently away from the court. Bach finally got himself released from Frederick's service in 1768 in order to succeed Telemann as cantor at the Johanneum in Hamburg, also serving as music director for the city's five major churches. He held this post until his death. Besides performing his official duties as director of church music Bach assumed from the beginning a leading position in the city's concert life. Stylistically distant from his father's rigorous polyphony, C.P.E. Bach was something of a proto-Romantic. He was the master of Empfindsamkeit, or "intimate expressiveness." The dark, dramatic, improvisation-like passages that appear in some of Mozart's and Haydn's works are due in part to his influence. His impulsive works for solo keyboard, which lurch into unexpected keys, change tempo and dynamics abruptly, and fly along with wide-ranging themes, are especially compelling. One account of Bach's after-dinner improvisations described the sweaty, glazed-eyed musician as "possessed," an adjective that would be applied to equally intense and idiosyncratic musicians in the Romantic age. Many of his symphonies are as audacious as his keyboard pieces. In the area of chamber music, Bach pulled the keyboard out of its subsidiary
Baroque role and made it a full partner with, or even leader of, the other instruments. Yet here he fashioned the music to the public's conservative expectations, as he did with his church music. He composed prolifically in many genres, and much of his work awaits public rediscovery. Bach also produced an important account of performance practice in the second half of the 18th century, translated into English as Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.

March 15
1835 Eduard Strauss
1864 Johan Halvorsen
1928 Nicolas Flagello

March 22
1868 Hamish McCunn
1930 Stephen Sondheim
1943 Joseph Schwantner
1947 Gwyneth Walker
1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber

March 29
1902 William Walton
1936 Richard Rodney Bennett
William Walton
Birth: March 29, 1902 in Oldham, England
Death: March 8, 1983 in Ischia, Italy
Walton was the son of a choirmaster and served as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford from 1912-1918. His already apparent creative gifts gained the admiration of Hubert Parry and others. But studies at the university itself proved unsatisfying, and Walton left Oxford without a degree in 1920, relying instead upon the patronage of the Sitwell family, who had befriended the young composer. Through the influence of this affluent and well-known family, Walton was able to break into the London music scene. The first fruit of his association with the Sitwells was Façade chamber music for a recitation of poems by Edith Sitwell. It gave the composer a reputation for wit and iconoclasm and placed him among those British composers who were captivated by elements of popular music and neo-classicism spearheaded by Stravinsky and Les Six. A performance of his overture Portsmouth Point in Zurich in 1926, and Paul Hindemith's championing of his Viola Concerto in 1929 helped introduce Walton music into the European scene. A blend of neo-classicism and neo-romanticism continued in the Sinfonia Concertante, though the composition of the opulent oratorio Belshazzar's Feast and the First Symphony confirmed Walton's return to the more traditional English mainstream. The 1930s brought with it commissions from well-known musical figures, including Jascha Heifetz, who asked the composer to write him a Violin Concerto. During the next two decades much of Walton's music was on a smaller scale or of an occasional nature-though his coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre have long outlived the occasions for which they were written, and his contributions to Olivier's Shakespeare trilogy, Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III, still command admiration as among the most skilful film scores ever written. This was the period too of his only important chamber works, the String Quartet and the Violin
Sonata. Walton's compositions for the theatre included his opera Troilus and Cressida and the one-act comedy, The Bear. Otherwise, he contented himself with a further sequence of superbly conceived, glitteringly virtuoso orchestral works-the Cello Concerto, the Johannesburg Festival Overture, the Partita, the Second Symphony, and the Variations on a Theme by Hindemith. In 1948, he moved to Ischia, a small island off of Naples. Walton composed prolifically until the end of his life, fulfilling commissions for such notables as George Szell, Gregor Piatigorsky and Mstislav Rostropovich. Walton was knighted in 1951 and awarded the Order of Merit in 1967. Although he was overshadowed in the latter half of his career by Benjamin Britten, Walton was never an old-fashioned reactionary. Much like his contemporaries Poulenc and Prokofiev, Walton was at heart an expressive, lyric composer who refused to subjugate this natural ability to the "modernist" tendencies that the press berated him for not embracing. His music is a sparkling synthesis of old and new.

April 5
1784 Louis Spohr
1862 Louis Ganne
1869 Albert Roussel
1912 Carlos Guastavino
Louis Spohr
Birth: April 5, 1784 in Brunswick, Germany
Death: October 22, 1859 in Kassel, Germany
Although virtually unknown to general audiences, the legacy of composer, conductor and violinist Ludwig Spohr is far-reaching. Little of his own music remains in the standard repertoire, but he is remembered as one of the preeminent conductors of the first half of the 19th century and as a seminal figure in the development of modern violin playing. In addition to having invented both the violin chin-rest and rehearsal numbers/letters for printed music, he was the first major conductor to use a baton. Spohr showed early talent for the violin, and by age 15 he was a member of the ducal orchestra in his home city. During 1802-3 he studied with Franz Eck on a journey to St Petersburg, and in 1805, after a highly successful concert tour in Germany, he gained the post of Konzertmeister in Gotha, where he married the virtuoso harpist Dorothea Scheidler. His reputation as violinist and composer was increased by many concert tours with his wife, during which he played his own violin concertos as well as duets for violin and harp. His Symphony #1 and his oratorio Das jüngste Gericht were first performed at the 1811 and 1812 Frankenhausen music festivals, which he directed, and his first publicly staged opera, Der Zweikampf mit der Geliebten, was given at Hamburg in 1811. In 1812 Spohr moved to Vienna as Konzertmeister at the Theater an der Wien. There he composed his opera Faust, his Nonet, and his Octet. He composed his celebrated Violin Concerto #8, in the form of an extended operatic scena, in 1816-17 for a concert tour to Italy, where his cantabile style of playing was greatly admired. On his return he became Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt theatre, where he produced two more operas. In 1819, he accepted an engagement for the 1820 season of the London Philharmonic Society, for which he wrote an overture and his Symphony #2. In London he used a baton to conduct at rehearsal but in public he directed in the traditional way from the violin. From 1822 Spohr was Kapellmeister in Kassel. The first five years there, marked the highpoint of his reputation in Germany, and in the eyes of contemporaries he became firmly established as a great composer. In 1830-1 he wrote his Violinschule, which remained a classic
violin method text into the 20th century. Between 1839 and 1853 he made 5 triumphant visits to England, where his oratorios were highly esteemed and where his instrumental and operatic music were regularly given in orchestral concerts. After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, Spohr was generally regarded in Germany and England as the last surviving composer of the Classical tradition. But, though he was esteemed and feted for the rest of his life, his impact and influence declined steadily. Spohr's reputation as the greatest German violinist of his generation was established at an early age not only through performances of his own works but also by his versatility in performing the music of such composers as Mozart, Haydn, Rode, and Beethoven. Over six and a half feet tall, Spohr must have been an imposing figure on the podium. His conducting repertoire was vast, including the then unfashionable works of J.S. Bach and Handel. A strong believer in new music, Spohr had a great impact on the careers of such progressive composers as Wagner and Berlioz. During the 1810s and 1820s many young composers were fascinated especially by his handling of chromatic harmony, and his style was widely imitated. However, his music failed to progress stylistically after the early 1830s and he was often charged with mannerism by less sympathetic critics. Nevertheless his finest works are among the most significant of their time. Throughout his life Spohr was famous for being as generous and warm a person as he was profound a musician. He maintained an active interest in politics and was considered a skillful painter and chess player.

April 12
1722 Pietro Nardini
1768 Carolus Antonius Fodor
1801 Joseph Lanner
1907 Imogen Holst

April 19
1660 (bapt) Sebastian Duron
1715 (bapt) James Nares
1785 Alexandre-Pierre-François Boely
1863 Felix Blumenfeld
1868 Max Von Schillings
1892 Germaine Tailleferre
1942 David Fanshawe

April 26
1910 Erland von Koch
[Biographies derived from Oxford Music Online and Allmusic.com.]

  

 
 
  

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA
your "lyric theater" program
with Keith Brown
programming selections for the months of March and April, 2018

SUNDAY MARCH 4TH Metcalf, Under Milkwood.  This is the third Sunday in Lent, that period of fasting before Easter in the traditional Christian calendar, during which I have been broadcasting a lot of religious choral music, settings of the Roman Catholic Mass, etc. March first in the traditional church calendar is Saint David's Day, and he is the patron saint of the Principality of Wales. That day is a kind of national holiday in Wales, something like Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland, so on the Sunday following the Welsh holiday I thought it appropriate to break with the broadcasts of religious music so you can listen to a quintessentially Welsh opera: Under Milkwood (2014), by Welsh composer John Metcalf (b.1946). The opera is based on the radio play by Wales' greatest poet of the twentieth century, Dylan Thomas (1914-53). The play was first broadcast from BBC studios in Swansea, Wales in 1954 after Thomas' untimely passing. The broadcast contained lots of sound effects. Similarly, Under Milkwood the opera is set up as a lyric radio play with plenty of "foley," as the Brits say, ie. pre-digital era noisemaking. Metcalf had to edit down the original play to get it to work properly in actual operatic performance. He trimmed back the number of characters. Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood is to the Welsh what Thornton Wilder's Our Town is to us New Englanders. Thomas captured in his verse the spirit of an entire Welsh seacoast town. Under Milkwood the opera was produced at the Taliesin Arts Centre in association with the Welsh National Opera, for whom Metcalf has written other operas. The recording of this opera was made in Cardiff, Wales when it went on tour. And wouldn't you know, Under Milkwood was issued on two compact discs in 2014 by a Welsh record label, Ty Cerdd Records of Cardiff Bay. 

   
SUNDAY MARCH 11TH Dvorak, Stabat Mater We return to the Lenten-type programming of choral music on this the fourth Sunday of Lent, 2018. Antonin Dvorak's setting of the Latin devotional poem Stabat Mater (1877) established his international reputation. In terms of length of performance, it is the longest musical treatment of the medieval text. In the history of Western art music many composers have been drawn to it. The text describes the emotional suffering of Jesus' mother Mary as she beholds her Son hanging upon the Cross. Affecting in its simplicity, sincerity and heartfelt compassion, the Stabat Mater is one of Dvorak's most endearing creations. I have presented various recordings of it in Eastertide seasons past. The one I have selected for this season I have previously broadcast on Sunday, April 13 ,2003. This is an American recorded interpretation. Robert Schafer leads the Washington Orchestra and Chorus. They were recorded at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC in 2000. Naxos released the Stabat Mater on two CD's in 2002. The second CD is filled out by Dvorak's joyous choral setting of Psalm 149 in Czech language, which you will also get to hear.
 
SUNDAY MARCH 18TH Berlioz, Requiem, JoAnn Falletta interviewAlthough it takes its text from the Latin language Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, Hector Berlioz' Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 (1837) is really a secular composition better suited for the concert hall not the church. Berlioz had been commissioned to write a Requiem Mass in remembrance of a French army general who had been assassinated in 1835, but the premiere performance was put off for two years due to political squabbling. In the end it was played at a memorial service for a different French general who had more recently fallen in battle. The Berlioz Requiem was received with great enthusiasm. It now stands alongside Verdi's Requiem of 1874 as one of the monumental sacred works of nineteenth century Romanticism. I have broadcast the Berlioz Requiem once before on Sunday, May 30, 1993. America's greatest musician of the twentieth century, Leonard Bernstein gave it a superb interpretation. He conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Radio France. Originally recorded in Paris in 1975, it was reissued in compact disc format by Sony Classical as part of a multi-volume rerelease of Bernstein's recorded output. JoAnn Falletta remembers Bernstein from master classes he gave at Juilliard back when she was a student there. Now a well-established conductor, she recorded the Berlioz Requiem with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with the additional voices of the Choral Society of Washington, DC. Tenor Robert McPherson was the vocal soloist. The recording was made live-in-performance at the Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA as part of the Virginia Arts Festival held in May, 2017. Ms. Falletta celebrates twenty five years as conductor of the VSO and has also been the conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic since 1999. She has recorded with the Buffalo Philharmonic for the Naxos label. On Sunday, January 17, 2010, I broadcast the Naxos recording of Shining Brow, Daron Hagen's opera about the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, with Falletta conducting. Falletta's Berlioz Requiem was released late last year on CD through Hampton Roads Classics. Her recording benefits from superb twenty first century sonics. Keep listening after my broadcast of the Requiem for my exclusive prerecorded interview with JoAnn Falletta about her career in music and her recording of the Berlioz Grande Messe.
 
SUNDAY MARCH 25TH Stainer, The Crucifixion, Monteverdi, Vespers of 1610 My special programming for this Palm Sunday comes in two parts. First, a Victorian chestnut: John Stainer's The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer (1887). Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) was the very model of an English church musician. He crafted a little oratorio especially for good amateur singers who make up a well-trained parish church choir. Does The Crucifixion display true pathos in an accessible vocal style, or is it simply Victorian bathos? Even critics in Stainer's day described it as crude and sentimental, yet it has secured for itself a permanent niche in the Anglican choral repertoire. More than a century after its premiere at St. Marylebone parish church in London it was still being performed there on Good Friday. And it has been recorded from time to time. I have broadcast Stainer's Crucifixion twice before, first on Palm Sunday, April 5,1998, when I aired the 1997 Chandos release of a recording made at All Saints Church, Tooting, London. This was certainly a professional account of the oratorio, since it involved the BBC Singers. Then on Palm Sunday, April 9, 2006 came the Naxos CD presenting The Crucifixion as recorded at Guildford Cathedral in Surrey with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. This Passiontide I offer you an older recording of this work, taped in 1961 in the chapel of St. John's College, Cambridge. George Guest directed the Choir of St. John's College, second only to the Choir of King's College, Cambridge as an Anglican choral institution of renown. Heard in solo capacity are tenor Richard Lewis and bass Owen Brannigan, both of whom are fine professional singers indeed. Decca originally issued the St. John's Crucifixion on a stereo LP in 1962. The recording has been digitally remastered for reissue on compact disc as part of a 42 CD Decca package of the complete Argo recordings the choir made with Guest over the period 1958-81.
     During Lent or Eastertide I have often aired recordings of Claudio Monteverdi's "Vespers of 1610," also known as the "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary." This is one of the most important compositions from the dawn of the baroque to have come down to us in printed form. The full score of Monteverdi's liturgical masterwork doesn't quite exist. The partbooks of the music are endlessly problematic for modern editors and musicologists. No one knows exactly how the Vespers were intended to be performed. The musical numbers in grand concertato style suggest the use of a large choir and instrumental group suiting the monumental scale of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, where Monteverdi was appointed Maestro di Cappella after the publication of his Vespers. But the vocal score could also be realized one-to-a-part as liturgical chamber music for the private chapel of the Gonzaga family of Mantua who were his previous employers. In fact, all of this music could originally have been composed for a service not in honor of the Virgin Mary but for St. Barbara, the patron saint of Mantua Cathedral. Monteverdi may have later adapted the various numbers for broader use, as well as to show off his many- faceted abilities. One of these abilities was as a composer of opera. In the introductory Deus in adiutorium section of the Vespers he parodies the opening fanfare of his opera L'Orfeo. The latest of so many speculative recorded interpretations of the Vespers came out last year on two compact discs through the Linn record label of Glasgow, Scotland. John Butt directs the singers and period instrumentalists of the Dunedin Consort of Edinburg, augmented by His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts.
 
 
SUNDAY APRIL 1ST Vaughn-Williams, The Pilgrim's ProgressThis was Ralph Vaughan Williams' last operatic essay, professionally produced at Covent garden in April of 1951. VW had always wanted to write an opera based on John Bunyan's Christian allegory. Three times before I have aired the opera in its 1971 world premiere recording for EMI, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting and starring baritone John Noble as the Pilgrim. On all three past occasions I linked broadcast on a Sunday in late November to the American Thanksgiving holiday, with reference, of course, to the Pilgrims of the old Plymouth Colony. Bunyan's book was intended to guide believers in leading the Christian life, so the allegory certainly lends itself well to the most important holiday in the Christian calendar. Sections of the score of the opera were written separately over a span of decades. Before Pilgrim's Progress the opera, there was VW's incidental music for a radio play version, broadcast by BBC on September 5, 1943. Boult led the BBC Symphony and BBC Chorus. Actor John Gielgud's voice was employed in the central speaking role of Christian. The complete radioplay and its music was issued through the British Albion record label on CD. That audio document I broadcast last Easter Sunday. This Easter, however, I return to another recording of the full length opera released through the Chandos label of the UK in 1998. I last broadcast this two CD release on Sunday, November 29 of that same year. Richard Hickox conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) and the Royal Opera Chorus. Our Pilgrim is British baritone Gerald Finley.
SUNDAY APRIL 8TH Puccini, La Fanciulla del West "The Girl of the Golden West," (1910) may be Giacomo Puccini's "American" opera, but in style its music is pure Italian verismo. The composer looked to a stage play by American playwright David Belasco for the story of this opera, set in California in the days of the Gold Rush of the 1850's. From a compositional standpoint La Fanciulla has perhaps Puccini's most perfect score. Other twentieth century composers greatly admired it. Richard Strauss declared that he himself would have loved to have composed its second act. "The Girl of the Golden West" premiered in New York City at the old Met and was a total triumph for Puccini. The diva Emmy Destinn starred as Minnie opposite the immortal Enrico Caruso as the outlaw Dick Johnson. I have broadcast Puccini's golden masterpiece twice before, drawing upon recordings that employed the golden voices of opera luminaries of the later twentieth century. On Sunday, September 20, 1992 I aired a then brand new Sony Classical CD release of the 1991 La Scala production starring soprano Mara Zampieri opposite tenor Placido Domingo. Following that live-on-stage recording, on Sunday, November 26, 2000 came an historic recording taped in Rome in very early stereophonic sound in 1958. Renata Tebaldi sang Minnie and Mario del Monaco portrayed Dick. Decca/London reissued that classic Fanciulla on digitally remastered CD's. Today we turn to yet another historic recording, made for EMI at La Scala in 1959. Lovro von Matacic was conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the La Scala Opera House, Milan. Minnie here is the well-remembered Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, supported by a cast of all-Italian singers except for the Brazilian tenor Joao Gibin, who sang Dick. In this broadcast I make use of the old original Angel stereo LP's.
 
SUNDAY APRIL 15TH Rameau, Le Temple de la Gloire Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) is the greatest composer of the French baroque. Certainly the greatest musical theorist of his day, and an opera composer to be reckoned with. He should rank alongside Bach and Handel in the pantheon of eighteenth century composers. Only in the past few decades of the later twentieth century and early twenty first century have Rameau's numerous lyric theaterworks received definitive recordings in historically-informed performance practice. I have broadcast as many of those recordings as I have come across. Le Temple de la Gloire (1745) was the first one I ever broadcast way back on Sunday, December 11,1983. Rameau collaborated with the greatest literary figure of the age: Voltaire, who was the librettist for "The temple of Glory," which commemorates the French victory in the War of the Austrian Succession. In its purpose it parallels Handel's Occasional Oratorio of 1746, a similar celebratory piece for an English military victory. Rameau's "Glory" opera must have been a grand and glorious spectacle when it was privately performed for king Louis XV at Versailles, but at the public theater in Paris it was a flop because Voltaire's libretto, while it was full of highminded allegory and praise for the monarch, had virtually no love interest. In my first broadcast of Le Temple de la Gloire I drew upon a CBS Masterworks release of this opera-ballet as interpreted by one of the pioneering figures in period instrument performance, Jean-Claude Malgoire, who led his own ensemble La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy. That recording has many cuts in Rameau's score, perhaps to accommodate it on two stereo LP's. This Sunday you get to hear this work in a much more complete form on two generously timed Ricercar compact discs. Guy van Waas directs the Chanber Chorus of Namur in Belgium and the period instrument ensemble Les Agremens. The recording was made at Liege in Belgium in 2014 in collaboration with the Center for Baroque music of Versailles.

     This is the Sunday when this program participates in Marathon 2018, our station's annual week of intensive on-air fundraising. In the course of the afternoon's broadcast I will be going on mike to urge you opera lovers to phone in your pledges of financial support for lyric theater programming on WWUH. Keep in mind the continuity of opera broadcasting here at 91.3 FM extending all the way back to 1970 with the broadcasts of my predecessor Joseph S. Terzo. Think also of the incredible variety of vocal arts recordings you have heard during my three decades-plus tenure in this timeslot. What more reason do you need to donate your dollars to WWUH's full spectrum concept of alternative radio, and that includes plenty of classical music throughout the week, and opera, too, on Sundays. You faithful listeners have never failed to help us meet or even exceed our fundraising goals in Marathons past, so I thank you in advance for your generosity.
 
SUNDAY APRIL 22ND Berlioz, Les Troyens,Acts One, Two & Three From the days of his childhood Hector Berlioz was fascinated with the stories contained in the Roman poet Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. As a mature man and composer he resolved to turn the epic into a French grand opera along the lines of, and on the monumental scale of those of Meyerbeer, or the music dramas of Wagner. He slaved away on what he would later decide to call Les Troyens through the years 1856-58. He conceived the opera in five acts. Book II of The Aeneid would comprise the first two acts. Books I and IV make up the third, fourth and fifth acts. The opera's action takes in Cassandra's prophecy about the fall of Troy to the Greeks with their wooden horse, the arrival of Aeneas and the Trojans in Carthage, leading to the love affair of Aeneas with Dido, the queen of Carthage, and Aeneas' desertion of the queen when he leaves for Italy to found the city-state of Rome. Berlioz had a lot of trouble trying to get Les Troyens staged. In total frustration he was forced to settle for a mutilated version of his masterwork to be given as two separate operas at the Theatre-Lyrique in Paris in 1868.Unfortunately, I am forced to follow a similar pattern in presenting the complete Les Troyens as Berlioz intended it to be performed. The first three acts will come this Sunday. There's a new recording of Les Troyens out on four compact discs through Parlophone/Warner Classics. It was made live in concert performance in April, 2017 at the Erasmus Hall in Strasbourg, France. John Nelson conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Strasbourg, the Choir of the National Opera of the Rhine and the Baden State Opera Chorus. In the singing cast is one of the best mezzo sopranos of our time, Joyce DiDonato, portraying the Queen of Carthage.

SUNDAY APRIL 29TH Berlioz, Les Troyens, Acts Four & Five, Rameau, Pygmalion Yes, Berlioz' grand opera is impressive to listen to, but when that's all done, Rameau gets the last word (or last note of music). Berlioz knew Rameau's music and revered his eighteenth century predecessor. Pygmalion (1748) is styled an Acte de Ballet certainly because ballet sequences played an important part in the staged presentation, as was the case in all of French opera in the baroque period. Rameau always provided sprightly and tuneful dance numbers. He outdid himself with both dance pieces and lovely vocal airs in this short one act lyric theaterwork. The story of the opera is ultimately derived from the Latin author Ovid's Metamorphoses. The sculptor Pygmalion creates the statue of a woman, then falls in love with his creation. Cupid, the god of love, brings the statue to life. The Graces teach the beautiful young lady various dance steps. Pygmalion was a huge success when it was first staged at the Royal Academy of Music in 1748. It received more than two hundred performances thereafter. It was still being performed in the 1780's. Pygmalion was recorded in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien in 2017. Christophe Rousset conducts the period instrument players of Les Talens Lyriques and the Arnold Schoenberg choir, with vocal soloists. The French Aparte record label released Rameau's little gem of an opera on a single silver disc.

   The recording of Metcalf's Under Milkwood heard at the beginning of this two-month period of programming was loaned for broadcast by Rob Meehan, former classics deejay at WWUH and now a specialist record collector in the alternative musical stylings of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Two of the other featured recordings come from my own collection of opera on silver disc: Le Temple de la Gloire and Pygmalion by Rameau. The rest of the featured recordings are derived from our station's ever-growing library of classical music/opera on LP and CD. Thanks must go as always to our station's operations director Kevin O'Toole for mentoring me in the preparation of these notes for cyber-publication.

 

Never Miss Your Favorite WWUH Programs Again!
WWUH Round Logo Introducing... the WWUH Archive!

We are very excited to announce
that all WWUH programs are now available on-demand 
using 
the "Program Archive" link 
on our home page,   
 
  This means that if you missed one of your favorite shows, or if you want to listen to parts of it again, you can do so easily using the Archive link.  Programs are available for listening for 
two weeks after their air date.
  
 
Enjoy the music, even when you can't listen "live"!
West Hartford Symphony Orchestra
 
In Collaboration with the WWUH Classical Programming we are pleased to partner with the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra to present their announcements and schedule to enhance our commitment to being part of the Greater Hartford Community
 
West Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Richard Chiarappa, Music Director
whso.org
(860) 521-4362
 
2017 - 2018 Season Schedule

March 4th, 2018: Winter Family Concert

May 19th, 2018: Annual Armed Forces Day Pops Concert

For information, 860-521-4362 or
  http://whso.org/ .
 The Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra


Great music and great musicians!  Food for the soul!  Affordable prices!  The Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra offers these benefits to all of you in the greater Hartford Community. 
 
Become a subscriber to the CVSO and you'll get it all-and four great concerts for the price of three!  Our orchestra is supported by musicians' dues, grants, contributions, and subscriptions.  In light of  the economic challenges we face, your support is crucial.

The CVSO has been operating for 87 years.  Our musicians, serious amateurs and music educators, range from teenagers to seniors, and have a fabulous 2017-2018 season of classical, romantic and modern music lined up for your listening pleasure.  Here are our scheduled performances:
 
April 8, 2018: Celebrating Jewish Heritage June 10, 2018:
 Pops - "Looney Tunes"
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture Mouret: Suite of Symphonies: Rondo
Klezmer ensemble Rossini: William Tell Overture
Featuring Walter Mamlock and others Smetana: Dance of the Comedians
A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, 1st Movement
Tyberg: Symphony No. 3 Rossini: Barber of Seville Overture
Von Suppe: Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna
Offenbach: Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld
Gounod: Dance of the Marionettes
All programs are subject to change
Concerts are Sunday afternoons at 3:00 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 Sigourney Street, Hartford.

For further information: 
The Musical Club of Hartford
 
  
The Musical Club of Hartford, Inc., which celebrated its 125 year history in 2015-2016, is an organization whose primary goal is to nurture the Musical Arts and promote excellence in music, both among seasoned music lovers as well as the younger generations. The Musical Club makes music more readily available to people of all ages and social backgrounds in our community.

Upcoming Events
Thurs, March 8 - 10:00am
Music by Members Music by Members - Mar 8, 2018 Member Program featuring Linda MacGougan, Karen Benjamin, David Garrido-Cid, Alice Matteson,... Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT

Thurs.,  March 22 - 10:00am 
Storrs Scholars Recital Storrs Scholars Piano Recital - Mar 22, 2018 Evelyn Bonar Storrs established a fund through the Musical Club to support "talented and... Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT

Sun,  March 25- 3:00pm 
Piano Ensemble Day Piano Ensemble Program Mar 25, 2018 This program features teams of pianists playing two grand pianos, with repertory ranging over... Lincoln Theater, University of Hartford

Thurs, April 12  -  10:00am 
Jolidon Concert Series Göran Marcusson, flute and Tim Carey, piano, Apr 12, 2018 Jolidon Concert featuring Göran Marcusson, flute and Tim Carey, piano. Göran, who is from... Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT

Thurs, April 26 - 10:00am
 Music by Members Music by Members - Apr 26, 2018 Member Program featuring Anne Mayo, Mark Child, Deborah Robin, Houry... Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT
 

For further information: http://musicalclubhartford.org/
 The Hartford Chorale
  
 
2018 Season
EVENTS

The Hartford Chorale is pleased to announce our 2018 season!

In March, the Chorale performs major works of John Rutter with chamber orchestra and organ.

Music of John Rutter Saturday, March 10, 2018, 4:00 p.m. Immanuel Congregational Church, Hartford Richard Coffey, Conductor

We conclude our season with a dramatic interpretation of Orff's Carmina Burana with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
Carmina Burana, Festival of Fate Friday, June 8, 2018 - Sunday, June 10, 2018 Belding Theater, The Bushnell Carolyn Kuan, Conductor

For further information: Hartford Chorale 860-547-1982 or www.hartfordchorale.org .

Manchester Symphony Orchestra
Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale
Bringing Music to our Community for 58 Years!
 
The Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale is a nonprofit volunteer organization that brings quality orchestral and choral music to the community, provides performance opportunities for its members, and provides education and performance opportunities for young musicians in partnership with Manchester schools and other Connecticut schools and colleges.
 
Joseph Hodge, Orchestra Artistic Director
Dr. Carolina Flores, Chorale Artistic Director

Concert 3 - Chorale/Orchestra "Fauré Requiem"
Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 7:30 pm
Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine
Mozart: Symphony No. 31 in D, K. 297 "Paris" mvmts. 1 & 3
Wagner: Good Friday Spell from Parsifal
Fauré: Requiem

Concert 4 - Orchestra "Exploring Sound"
Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 7:30 pm
Bailey Auditorium, Manchester High School
134 Middle Turnpike E, Manchester, CT
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Dvorak: Wind Serenade
Bach: Concert for Two Violins
Berlioz: March to the Scaffold from

Program details are subject to change.
Beth El Temple in West Hartford
Music at Beth El Temple in West Hartford is under the aegis of The Beth El Music & Arts Committee (BEMA). With the leadership of Cantor Joseph Ness, it educates and entertains the community through music.
 
BETH EL TEMPLE (BEMA) 2018 Season
with Cantor Joseph Ness, conductor

Music University (topic: baroque music) - Mar 14, 2018 7:30pm
HAYDN & BACH CONCERT:
Mar 18th, 2018, 7pm
Join Beth El Music & Arts for a magical concert highlighting the music of Haydn and Bach. The evening features Haydn Cello Concerto in D and plenty of Bach!
Music University (topic: music of Israel) May 16 & 23, 2018 - 7:30pm

ISRAEL 70th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT:
June 3rd, 2018, 7pm
Featuring Israeli pop star Micha Biton and the music of Israel.
Open to the Public. Plenty of FREE Parking.
Beth El Temple
2626 Albany Ave, West Hartford, CT 06117
Phone: (860) 233-9696
http://betheltemplemusic.com/
E-mail: bema@betheltemplemusic.com
 
 
Open to the Public. Plenty of FREE Parking.
Beth El Temple
2626 Albany Ave, West Hartford, CT 06117
Phone: (860) 233-9696
E-mail: bema@betheltemplemusic.com


How To Listen To WWUH
Come as You Are... Tune in However Works Best for You
  
In Central CT and Western MA, WWUH can be heard at 91.3 on the FM dial.  Our programs are also carried at various times through out the day on this station:

WDJW, 89.7, Somers, CT

You can also listen on line using your PC, tablet or smart device.  Our MP3 stream is  here.

We also recommend that you download the free app "tunein" 
here to your mobile device.   


  
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