Join me at 10:00 this morning on WPRB to hear composer and conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Lyndon-Gee will lead the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 4 p.m. Philippe Graffin will be the soloist in Sir Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto. The second half of the program will be devoted to Carl Nielsen’s volcanic Symphony No. 4, “The Inextinguishable.”
Lyndon-Gee will offer insights into the concert and then share some surprises from his extensive catalog of recorded music. Until then, we’ve got wall-to-wall works on Irish themes, as we look ahead to St. Patrick’s Day, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.
Join me today on The Classical Network, as we listen to music inspired by Julius Caesar, with works by Sir Arthur Bliss, George Frideric Handel, Robert Schumann, Rudolf Tobias, and/or Miklós Rózsa. We’ll also do our best to touch on the birthdays of Nicholas Flagello, Johan Halvorsen, Ben Johnston, Colin McPhee, and Eduard Strauss.
March 15th lives in infamy as the anniversary of Caesar’s murder in 44 B.C. Shortly after declaring himself Dictator Perpetuus (Dictator for Life), Caesar was set upon by members of the Roman Senate and stabbed 23 times. His alleged last words, as he was struck the final blow by his friend and confidant Marcus Brutus, were “Et tu, Brute?” (“You too, Brutus?”). The phrase, “Beware the Ides of March,” was coined by William Shakespeare for his historical play.
By the way, the Ides don’t necessarily fall on the 15th of every month, so you can’t just drop an “Ides of January” or an “Ides of June” on any old whim. It had to do with the date of the full moon, which in Ancient Rome was believed to fall on the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, the months with 31 days. In the other months, the Ides fell on the 13th – which sounds even more unlucky!
We’re lucky to be able enjoy such a variety of music, today from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT – or anytime for that matter – on WWFM – The Classical Network. Please support us at wwfm.org.
NOTE: As a special bonus, Ryan James Brandau, artistic director of Princeton Pro Musica, will drop by around 5:00 to talk a little bit about the choir’s next concert, which will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Princeton University Chapel. Among the featured works will be Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.” You can also learn more at princetonpromusica.org.
It’s never too early to begin celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, so I hope you’ll join me early tomorrow morning on WPRB. Just as St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, we’ll drive all the cobwebs out of our brains with cleansing reels, tin whistles, and sentimental airs.
We’ll have music from Ireland and on Irish themes, with works by native composers John Larchet, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, and Joan Trimble; composers of Irish descent Edward Joseph Collins, Henry Cowell, and Augusta Holmès; and Irishmen-for-a-day Ludwig van Beethoven, Frank Martin, and Romeo Cascarino, for starters.
We’ll cram in all the weeping and drinking and step dancing and fighting that we can before 10:00, at which time we’ll shift gears, and I will be joined by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Lyndon-Gee will be guest conducting the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Richardson Auditorium this Sunday afternoon at 4, in a program featuring music by Sir Edward Elgar and Carl Nielsen.
Lyndon-Gee, a prolific recording artist who has garnered five Grammy nominations, will talk a bit about the weekend’s program, and then surprise us with a selection of his recorded performances. His catalog skews heavily toward unusual and neglected repertoire, which very much makes him a man after my own heart.
It will be all the green beer you can drink, tomorrow morning from 6 to 10 EDT. Then we’ll hide all the bottles for a visit from Christopher Lyndon-Gee from 10 to 11, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I hope you’ll assist me in setting a Guinness world-record (if you know what I mean), on Classic Ross Amico.
Snowbound? Already suffering the terrors of cabin fever?
Tune in to The Classical Network for today’s Noontime Concert and be transported, as I am joined by Mimi Stillman, flutist and artistic director of the Dolce Suono Ensemble. Mimi will be our tour guide for a conflation of two concerts in DSE’s ongoing “The Americas Project/Música en tus Manos,” explorations of chamber music of Latin America and the United States.
The program will feature music from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S., with a work by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. We’ll also take a musical journey to Hawaii with the world premiere of Michael-Thomas Fumai’s “Manookian Murals,” a DSE commission. Each movement was inspired by a mural of artist Arman Tateos Manookian (1904-1931) Painter of Hawaii. We’ll hear “Red Sails,” “The Arrival of Captain Cook,” “Hawaiian Boy and Girl,” and “Flight of the Flamingos.”
“Música en tus Manos” (literally, “Music in Your Hands”) brings DSE together with partner organizations for engagement initiatives with Philadelphia’s Latino community. You can learn more about the project, as well as DSE’s upcoming concerts in Bryn Mawr (on March 17) and Philadelphia (on March 21, with Philadelphia Orchestra principal clarinetist Ricardo Morales) at dolcesuono.com.
Put away your snow blower and mix up the margaritas and Mai Tais. We’re headed to warmer climes on today’s Noontime Concert, with Mimi Stillman and the Dolce Suono Ensemble, beginning at 12:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
Poor Telemann. You were a casualty of having done your job too well.
A composer of genius, you were virtually self-taught, against the opposition of your family. In addition, you taught yourself flute, oboe, violin, recorder, double bass, etc. You spun out music by the yard. In fact, you wrote more music than Bach and Handel combined, over 3000 works, making you one of the most prolific composers of all time. Yet nothing in your oeuvre has captured the public imagination quite like the “Brandenburg Concertos” or the “Water Music.”
Of course, you wrote Water Music, too.
On the other hand, you were recognized in your lifetime. You were an innovator, taking what you needed from the Italians and the French to bolster your own style, and your contemporaries bought and studied your scores. You were offered the cantorate of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig ahead of Bach. You counted Bach among your friends, as well as Handel. Bach even requested that you become the godfather of his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel.
You lived an unusually long life (86 years), though it was not without its miseries. Your first wife died young. Your second ran up gambling debts in amounts larger than your annual income, and ultimately your friends had to bail you out. As you grew older, you suffered further indignities, including failing eyesight.
Celebrated in your own day, by the 19th century you were dismissed as a “polygraph,” someone you had simply composed too much. In a sense, you were a victim of your own success.
Still, you continue to give employment to thousands of early music specialists, who have done much to restore your reputation. I think at least you deserve a little recognition on your birthday:
Happy Birthday, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767).
One of my favorite Telemann moments, the “Air à l’Italien” from the Suite in A Minor for Flute and Orchestra:
