EIGHT DAYS OF SIBELIUS – DAY 3
As a classical music lover, I watch a lot of videos on YouTube. Frequently they’ll be in foreign languages, so I have to rely on closed captioning. Anyone with any experience with the program knows the system often comes up with some real howlers. The other week, I was watching something about Sibelius, and when someone referred to his incidental music for “Pelleas and Melisande,” closed captioning transliterated it as “Paleo Smelly Zone.” Sure, it sounds disgusting, perhaps even a little unsavory. But that’s what makes it funny. Here’s a link to a performance of the complete piece.
I used the “Entr’acte” from Sibelius’ incidental music as a signature tune for one of my radio shows, back in the day.
I’m pretty sure I ripped it off from WFLN, Philadelphia’s classical music station for nearly 50 years, which used it as fill, to “take it up to the top of the hour,” at the conclusion of one of its day parts. As I recall, some of the other works they used as signatures included the third movement of a Concerto for 7 trumpets by Johann Ernst Altenburg, the last movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 “Le matin,” the Gavotte from Fauré’s “Masques et bergamasques,” one of the “Cypresses” for string quartet by Dvořák, and of course, Fauré’s “Pavane,” for the overnight program, “Sleepers Awake.”
That station taught me everything I know about the standard repertoire. And they did it by playing complete pieces of music, with local hosts pronouncing all the names correctly. It was a commercial outlet (with no ads between midnight and 6), not at all stuffy, but the standards were impeccable. How I miss that level of professionalism in American classical radio!
PHOTO: Sibelius enjoying a rare laugh, with cigar, perhaps to cover up the scent of the “Paleo Smelly Zone”
Leave a Reply