Here’s a souvenir from my days at WPRB 103.3 FM. Dan Zhu, a superb violinist, dropped by the studio for a chat, prior to his Princeton appearance as soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with West Windsor’s Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018.
If you’re interested in rewarding, off-the-beaten path, post-Romantic music, check out Dan’s recording of the Violin Concerto by Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo, on the CPO label. Here’s the first movement:
The night after our conversation, Dan was off to Shanghai to perform music by Bright Sheng (a figure now much in the news), under the composer’s direction. Dan’s recorded several of Sheng’s works for release on the Naxos label, including this one:
I mention all this as preamble to a link Dan was kind enough to forward of his performance of the rarely-heard Violin Sonata by Ottorino Respighi, which took place only a few weeks ago. The work was composed in 1917, making it contemporaneous with the composer’s much better-known “Fountains of Rome.” Respighi was about 38 years-old.
The recital was filmed in the Palazzo Tornabuoni’s Sala delle Muse in Florence, the site of the premiere of the world’s first opera, Jacopo Peri’s “Dafne,” in 1598. The pianist is Julien Quentin, performing on an instrument once owned by Maria Tipo! You can watch it here:
I helmed that morning air shift at WPRB from 2015 to 2018. For a time, I was on three stations at once (WPRB, WRTI, and WWFM), prompting one listener to describe me as “the hardest-working DJ in classical radio.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I sure didn’t sleep very much.
