For those of you creepy Chopin stalkers looking to add to your Chopin shrines (we’re looking at you, George Sand), here’s a newly discovered photographic portrait of the great Polish pianist and composer.
Until now, there were only two Chopin photos known to be in existence. The second was rediscovered in 1936.
http://jackgibbons.blogspot.com/2010/03/chopins-photograph.html
Now pardon me while I do my Buffalo Bill dance.
Martin Luther King Day.
Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwantner’s “New Morning for the World (Daybreak of Freedom),” on a text drawn from King’s speeches, still not available on CD? In this fine recording? Why?
Hear it today, on glorious vinyl, alongside music rendered by pioneering African-American composers and performers, including Marian Anderson, Harry T. Burleigh, Natalie Hinderas, Florence Price, William Grant Still and George Walker, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
Spinning a neglected contemporary classic from vinyl on WWFM – The Classical Network for Martin Luther King Day. Just to avoid any confusion over ownership, I snagged this from the WWFM library probably close to 20 years ago, back when the station was liquidating its LPs. I think Bill Zagorski must have gotten the rest…
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”
So said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this, the anniversary of King’s birth, we’ll turn our attention to American composer of African descent Adolphus Hailstork. Hailstork, a late pupil of Nadia Boulanger, is currently professor of music and composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University at Norfolk, Virginia.
We’ll present an hour of his music tonight on “The Lost Chord,” including his oratorio, “Done Made My Vow.” The work, for speaker, vocal soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra, was composed in 1985, inspired in part by King’s speeches.
I’ve been an admirer of Hailstork’s music since the 1980s – I very much enjoy his Symphony No. 1, composed in 1988, with its gorgeous slow movement – but he has been a force in American music since at least the 1970s.
His overture “Celebration” was included in Columbia Records’ landmark “Black Composers Series.” The conductor of that performance, Paul Freeman, would later champion Hailstork’s music in recordings on the Albany label.
Tune in tonight to also enjoy his “Variations for Trumpet” with Rodney Mack.
I hope you’ll join me for “All Hail Hailstork,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
The recording of “Done Made My Vow” is available only through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gift shop, at http://www.bsomusic.org/online-store/bso-recordings/adolphus-hailstork-i-will-lift-up-mine-eyes.aspx
Whoever coined the phrase “silence is golden” clearly didn’t know how to make full use of a piano.
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