I’ve always been a fan of Karl Goldmark’s “Rustic Wedding Symphony.” It’s always made me happy. Back when I had a live radio air shift, I used to program it every spring. Apparently, I’m in good company. It also received the imprimatur of Johannes Brahms, Goldmark’s walking companion, who thought it the best thing the composer ever wrote.
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” the work will form the centerpiece at a June wedding.
The “Rustic Wedding Symphony” has been recorded a number of times, but you don’t really seem to hear it much anymore. We’ll enjoy a performance by the Utah Symphony conducted by Maurice Abravanel.
The work falls into five movements: “Wedding March,” “Bridal Song,” “Serenade,” “In the Garden,” and “Dance.” It’s unusual for me to devote so much of a “light music” program to a symphony, but really, it’s like serving up 40-minutes of smiles.
We’ll also have a party favor in the form of Edvard Grieg’s “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,” from his delectable “Lyric Pieces” – Troldhaugen being the composer’s home outside Bergen, Norway. Peter Katin, who released all of Grieg’s “Lyric Pieces” over three discs, will be the pianist.
Nothing rustic about Charles-Marie Widor: for 63 years, Widor was organist at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. We’ll conclude with the Toccata from his Symphony No. 5, a work frequently performed at ceremonial functions, whether they be related to Christmas, graduations, or – for our purpose – weddings. It’s been especially popular at royal weddings, so it’s apt that we hear it performed by Simon Preston on the organ of Westminster Abbey.
Say “I do” to “Sweetness and Light,” a program of music calculated to charm and to cheer, this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, “Wedding Dance in a Barn” (c. 1616)
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