The holidays are already really heating up here. So much so, I’m not even getting around to posting today until just about suppertime.

The American pianist and composer Edward MacDowell was born on this date in 1860. Hopefully, you’re not as busy as I am, and you can cozy in for his “Fireside Tales.”

Of course, MacDowell’s best-known music would be the old chestnut “To a Wild Rose,” from his “Woodland Sketches.”

Here, Earl Wild performs MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The composer’s admiration for Grieg (as well as Saint-Saëns and Liszt) is evident.

Hey, look! I found some footage of Wild playing the scherzo in a 1957 television broadcast.

Happy birthday, Edward MacDowell.

Now that my radio shows are in for the next two weeks, I’d better get back to shipping boxes and writing some Christmas cards…

Ho ho ho!