For whatever reason (i.e. I sent in the wrong show), my New Year’s program aired on “Sweetness and Light” a few weeks ago. Aside from having eggnog on my face, no harm done, I suppose, although I’m sure listeners were wondering why I was going all Guy Lombardo three weeks before Christmas.

Since it’s already recorded, and because it’s the holidays, and because I’m lazy, I’m putting the kettle on to boil some more water for a festive tea party. The playlist will include Dmitri Shostakovich’s charming arrangement of “Tea for Two,” Samuel Barber’s “Souvenirs,” his musical evocation of the elegant Palm Court of the Plaza Hotel in days of yore, and Richard Strauss’ hallucinatory dancing tea leaves from the high-calorie ballet “Schlagobers,” or “Whipped Cream.”

The show will achieve its nutty apotheosis when sugar and caffeine intersect with the hypnotic patter of the 1953 novelty song “The Little Red Monkey,” which tells of a simmering simian’s reactions to violin, euphonium, and tea.

Your eyes will pinwheel, your brain will hum, and your heart will go pitter-pat when you join me for a bottomless cuppa on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/