Hello, cello!

Today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network will be a Baroque recital for solo cello, presented by Loretta O’Sullivan.

On the program will be music by Johann Sebastian Bach – his Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 – and a Passacaglia by Heinrich Biber. These are the bricks of an edifice held together by grout in the form of four caprices by Giuseppe Maria Dall’Abaco, according to Sullivan, “…each with its own color, texture and mood.”

The program was presented on November 20, 2017 at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, where free lunchtime concerts are held every Thursday at 1:15 p.m. The 2017-2018 schedule has run its course, but concerts will resume in the fall.

Today’s broadcast is made possible in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes artists and organizations in New York City devoted to early music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. For more information and updates to GEMS’ events calendar, look online at gemsny.org.

Then stick around as we celebrate the birthdays of musicologist and composer Sir Donald Francis Tovey, composers Wojciech Kilar and Peter Schickele – with an appearance by Schickele’s alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach – and sopranos Eleanor Steber and Dawn Upshaw.

I’ll provide the music; you provide the ice cream cake, this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.