I have to be out the door, but on Sir Simon Rattle’s 70th birthday, I thought I’d share this reminiscence from 2015 — with Rattle self-portrait sketched for me during a dog-walk in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square.
Ignore the outdated broadcast info. I no longer work at that station!
Leif Kayser was certainly a multifaceted individual. This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll listen to some of his music, of course, but we’ll also talk about his many roles.
Born in Copenhagen on 1919, Kayser began his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1936. In Stockholm, he studied composition with Hilding Rosenberg and conducting with Tor Mann. In 1941, he made his debut as a pianist, in Copenhagen, and as a conductor, in Gothenburg.
As a composer, he emerged as one of Denmark’s most promising young symphonists. However, following theological studies in Rome, Kayser was ordained in 1949. He largely abandoned concert music – but you can’t keep a good composer down.
Over time, he began to write for the organ and gradually he produced another symphony. He served as pastor and organist of St. Ansgar Roman Catholic Cathedral until 1964. Then he left the Church to marry and to teach at his alma mater, the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
Kayser died in 2001. He is still regarded as one of the leading organ composers of Denmark.
We’ll hear one of Kayser’s gorgeous symphonies, from 1939. That will be prefaced by “Caleidoscopio,” a work for flute and organ, composed between 1974 and 1976. After a brief introduction, it gradually becomes apparent that the piece is constructed as a series of reflections on the familiar chorale “Von Himmel hoch.” Interesting that a former Catholic priest would write variations on a chorale associated with Martin Luther!
But, like Whitman, Kayser contained multitudes, as composer, organist, pianist, conductor, priest, husband, and teacher. I hope you’ll join me for “Kayser Roles,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
PHOTO: Kayser pulls out all the stops
With more snow and frigid temperatures on the way – at least where I’m typing, here in the Mid-Atlantic United States – I’m thinking it might be cheering for some to reflect that it’s actually summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Who am I to deny the pleasure? This week on “Sweetness and Light,” I invite you to think warm thoughts as we take a musical journey to Latin America.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru will be represented in works by Agustín Barrios, Theodoro Valcárcel Caballero, Camargo Guarnieri, Astor Piazzolla, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
We’ll cap the hour back in New York with more cowbell and Morton Gould’s vibrant “Latin-American Symphonette.”
Join the conga line. It’s a South American getaway on “Sweetness Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
If you think the world is in rough shape now, fasten your seatbelt; it’s going to be a bumpy 1,461 days.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” gaze into the crystal ball for an hour of dystopian visions – glimpses of a bleak future rendered hopeful, in large part, through music.
“Fahrenheit 451” (1966), based on the Ray Bradbury novel, presents a society in which books are outlawed by the state and burned as a means to control the masses. The title refers to the temperature at which paper will ignite. Oskar Werner and Julie Christie star in this Francois Truffaut-directed film. Composer Bernard Herrmann finds the heart at fire’s center.
A robot is left behind to clean up a long-abandoned Planet Earth, in “WALL-E” (2008), one of Pixar’s finely-crafted entertainments. This one has a serious subtext, about rampant consumerism and its impact on an earth made uninhabitable by the sheer volume of garbage.
But there’s also a love story, as WALL-E pursues another robot into outer space, with fate-changing consequences. The inventive score is by Thomas Newman.
As dystopias go, Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” (2001) is a little more unpleasant than most. “A.I.” grew out of an incomplete project of Stanley Kubrick. Based on Brian Aldiss’s short story, “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” the film stars Haley Joel Osment as a child-like android programmed to love, only to be rejected by his adopted family. Abrasive blood sport, unpleasant visions of a debauched city, and human extinction ensue. A great time is had by all!
Also, the film doesn’t know when to end. Oh, how I hate this movie.
That said, John Williams gives it his usual best. The voice of soprano Barbara Bonney graces the admittedly gorgeous soundtrack.
One of the landmarks of silent cinema, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1927) is an eerily prescient vision of a world divided between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Once seen, the subterranean hell of the workers “hive” is not soon to be forgotten. So much of the film continues to resonate, even as its iconography is shamelessly recycled.
Gottfried Huppertz’s original score already adheres to the Straussian model of Golden Age film scores, with leitmotifs representing the characters and ideas. It’s a concept that became associated with Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and which has had an enormous influence on film composers down through the decades, all the way to John Williams and beyond.
Learn more about the challenges of writing such a complex score – which was performed live, with orchestra, at showings of the movie, even as the film was still being edited right up until its premiere – when listening to tonight’s show.
In the meantime, hang on to your humanity! Join me for these cautionary tales about totalitarian government, corporate control, and technology gone awry, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
I remember first encountering David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” (1977) at the midnight movies as a teenager in the early ‘80s and thinking WTF? And this was before WTF was even a thing. As an acronym, I mean. Being a teenager, I was delighted by the film’s surreal, anxious vibe, of course. Wouldn’t you know it, its sensibility was shaped by the young director’s experiences living in Philadelphia while he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Had I only taken it as the warning it should have been, as I myself wound up living in that hell hole for 32 years!
[Note to self: Save that paragraph for the opening of my autobiography.]
This corn-fed Boy Scout from Missoula, Montana, blossomed into one the most unique and influential voices in American cinema. Lynch came to Philadelphia as an aspiring visual artist; he left with a lifetime supply of nightmare imagery, uneasy energy, and offbeat humor. In fact, on at least one occasion, he described the city as a virtual portal to hell.
“It wasn’t a normal city…,” Lynch recalled. “The fear, insanity, corruption, filth, despair, violence in the air was so beautiful to me.”
[Well, he had me until the beautiful part.]
For the movies, Lynch went on to direct “Blue Velvet” (1986), “Wild at Heart” (1990), “Lost Highway” (1997), and “Mulholland Drive” (2001), with a special shout-out to “The Straight Story” (1999), perhaps his most peculiar project, in that it was made for Disney and there is nothing in it to frighten the horses. In fact, it’s a rather touching film. For television, he created the cult classic “Twin Peaks” (1990-91).
He never lost his “aw shucks” demeanor. Mel Brooks, who produced Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (1980), described him as Jimmy Stewart from Mars. At one point, George Lucas offered him the opportunity to direct “Return of the Jedi.” If you saw Lynch’s “Dune” (1984), I think you have a pretty good idea how that would have gone.
He was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Director and received an honorary Oscar in 2019. He had such a distinctive style, it could only be described as… Lynchian.
Lynch had an amusing cameo as crusty director John Ford in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (2022). More recently, he struggled with emphysema after years as a smoker.
At the time of his death, he was 78 years-old.
“I’ve said many, many, many unkind things about Philadelphia, and I meant every one.”
Me too, David. R.I.P.
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