tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12636054782927435452009-11-15T18:17:01.441-08:00I wake up each day with a piece in my head and wonder what motive lurks behind its selection.rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-62144263478173557022008-03-27T12:26:00.000-07:002009-06-25T07:03:51.743-07:00

As hinted at before, I'm pulling together a Rostropovich tribute for WHRB's Spring Orgy period. It will be an in-depth survey of Rostropovich as a solo performer, chamber musician, conductor, and accompanist to his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya. I hope to do the concerti and sonati recordings as near-complete as possible, while limiting often-recorded pieces to only two or three instances. The Dvorak

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-32669260410172891852008-03-03T08:28:00.000-08:002008-03-03T08:34:05.909-08:00

This evening begins my Monday night feature: Twentieth Century Britain. Tonight's concert features the works of Roger Quilter (Pictured) and Charles Villiers Stanford. If you're in the Boston area, tune your radio to 95.3, to listen online, visit WHRB's Website, and the full listing can be found here (PDF format). 6:00 EST (11:00 GMT).

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-60944959368345110172008-02-16T08:48:00.001-08:002008-02-16T23:21:14.495-08:00

World music is a current fixation of classical music, with many especially younger classical musicians signing with world music/classical fusion groups. But before there was the Silk Road, and before the Kronos Quartet was performing Near- and Far- eastern inspired music, there was a (now little-known) release by Angel: Ravi Shankar's Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra.I chose my words carefully

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-21782051430737273052008-02-07T16:18:00.000-08:002008-02-10T15:08:48.747-08:00

Kurt Magnus Atterberg, born in Göteborg on December 12, 1887, is perhaps the greatest composer you've never heard of. (Yes, that ends in a preposition, because it sounds better than "of whom you've never heard.") By the time he died, he had composed five operas, nine symphonies, eight suites, five concerti, two ballets, and numerous chamber works.Three weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-72253257192628423812008-02-07T14:04:00.001-08:002008-02-07T18:19:03.752-08:00

The Atterberg orgy went well. I didn't get as much feedback as I'd have liked, but then again people often take broadcasts like that for granted. I just hope those who listened enjoyed the music as much as I did. Truly, it got better and better as it went along, and it's a darn shame that his music, especially the ninth symphony, is never performed. I was toying with the idea of putting the

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com95tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-61305633738869151942008-01-24T18:45:00.000-08:002008-01-25T22:09:20.690-08:00

After a long hiatus, a semester of worry and remorse, and my mother sleuthing out my blog (that's a killer) I am returning, with a post about Kurt Magnus Atterberg. Just after I take a nap.Update: Still gonna post. Darn Vericon taking time :)

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-82217706777082957152007-09-09T08:40:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:01:59.429-08:00

The woman in the picture is Vera Meyer. She plays the Glass Harmonica in Harvard Square regularly. Doubtless it's a tough life, made all the tougher by mean little bastards like myself, well, when I'm feeling mean, as I was this morning.Vera was performing as I returned from Peet's with my coffee, calling to passersby with her usual refrain: "Ben Franklin's Glass Harmonica." Having recently

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-52728204474252733742007-09-06T19:00:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:01:59.541-08:00

I collect cello concerti. That's really what I would consider my "area", if I had one, of classical music, since I've played the cello basically all my life. Not so much recently, but I'm making an effort to change that. Anyway, one of the CDs I ordered a while ago from Archiv Music was a recording pretty low in the BIS catalogue, BIS CD-78: Vagn Holmboe Cello Concerto. It's a fair piece at best;

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-29236820456148844852007-09-06T10:39:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:01:59.795-08:00

Hidden on Rodney Lister's CD Somewhere To Get To, tucked between a wonderful five-part song cycle Of Mere Being based on the poems of Wallace Stevens, and Everness, a song on a poem by Borges, is a polytonal gem of a piece: A Little Cowboy Music, scored for bass, clarinet, violin, and piano.If one had to summarise Rodney Lister's output in just one word, it would almost certainly be weird, as

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-66553306592214126732007-09-02T18:21:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:02:00.064-08:00

...with Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 3 in A, Op. 69; performed by the guy above (Miklós Perényi) with András Schiff, a recording happily provided by ECM. Having listened to this piece, and only this piece, for thirteen hours with breaks only to eat, go running, and indulge myself in tea and friendly converation, I have drugged myself up with sleep-regulating melatonin.Good Night.Oh, and don't

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-25354607280536478372007-09-01T17:18:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:02:00.678-08:00

Today I want to talk about the Second Viennese School and about how serialism ruined modern music. Just kidding, I'm going to talk about something completely different ... but if iTunes decides to play any more Wuorinen this evening, I might just change my mind.In the vein of twelve-tone music, before I fully get off the subject, stands Alberto Ginastera and his diabolical piano concertos, which

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-38398756645989537972007-08-30T11:39:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:02:00.823-08:00

Vincent d'Indy is a composer one doesn't often hear from, and for once I'm not lamenting this arrangement. His music never seemed particularly exciting or moving, and so it was an unexpected occurrence yesterday night that I found myself listening intently to his string quartets. (Or more specifically, his first last night, the second right now).They're not something you can just pick up and

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-7375683311838188662007-08-29T18:19:00.001-07:002008-12-09T06:02:00.962-08:00

and Gershwin, as though George Antheil, Quincy Porter, Walter Piston, Virgil Thomson, and Randall Thompson are footnotes to the inevitable progression of 20th century American music. If it weren't for the occasional broadcast of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings we might be confused into believing Copland and Gershwin to be the only composers America produced before 1938.I bring this up because

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-74243825581845218152007-08-27T13:09:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:02:01.564-08:00

It's a fact. Glancing over the upcoming seasons of the Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic, I see only two substantial British works: Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and Bolcom's 8th Symphony [And to even better prove my point, Bolcom is American! Not what I was thinking the night I wrote this...]; the latter is begrudgingly played as a 125th-anniversary commission, and likely will not be

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-15594384039659881862007-08-26T12:18:00.000-07:002008-12-09T06:02:01.688-08:00

From February sixth through the twelfth, Charles Dutoit will lead the BSO in performances of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto (with Viviane Hagner, Violin), Martin's Petite symphonie concertante, and the Organ Symphony of Camille Saent-Saëns. Dutoit, despite his acclaimed recordings of Berlioz and Honegger, remains, really, an unknown conductor here in the States, where the names Michael Tilson

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1263605478292743545.post-73917914026031705282007-08-19T14:06:00.000-07:002007-08-19T15:25:16.619-07:00

One of the great benefits of working at a radio station - even a college radio station - is access to its library. Ours is perhaps the best of any college radio station, and likely beats out a number of commercial classical stations. As an exercise today, I thumbed through the Harvard Dictionary of Music and in a short time had found a handful of composers whose works I knew from my work here at

rhapsody407http://www.blogger.com/profile/16782680590749008969noreply@blogger.com0